In this interview spotlight, we chat with Crawford Mack about his newest project, influences, the digital music landscape and more.
Full Q&A, links and streams can be found below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, though I grew up in Glasgow and now live in London. I’ve just completed a four-year music degree at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, specializing in Jazz. I guess there are some elements of that within my music from a harmonic and interactive point of view but you’d be hard-pressed to categorize it as anything other than broadly indie or indie-pop, possibly contemporary singer/songwriter. There are some folk influences in some of my tracks too, perhaps not surprisingly given my heritage. I understand that classification is a necessary evil but it can be far from straightforward and can be rather subjective: in my ideal world I’d rail against having to do it at all but would instead simply listen to someone’s music and decide if I liked it or not.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
I’m pretty sure I was always headed down this route: I was that wee kid who cottoned on to every new tune going and hummed it in class. I can’t remember a time when I’ve not made up my own lyrics and tunes, and I sang even before I could play an instrument properly. I’ve been lucky to benefit from a really rounded music education through some great initiatives in Scotland – classical, contemporary, folk and jazz – and I’ve been able to learn from some incredibly talented musicians.
As to this style of music, I absorb all manner of stuff, live and recorded, and I guess that somewhere along the line this is what has come out in the mix. I massively enjoy our shows as a live band as I like to create space in songs so that my fellow band members can demonstrate their strengths, which means that even when we keep things simple, there’s a good deal of texture, harmony and improvisation within what we do.
In terms of motivation, playing with these guys – primarily my co-writer and drummer Richard Rayner, pianist Neil Birse, bassist Jack Tustin and guitarist Mike Redfern – is a joy. We’re like fingers on the same hand, working intuitively together. My favourite bandleaders are the ones that allow the space for others to sound amazing doing their thing while it becomes part of the overall sound within the record or the show. It’s what I really respect about Sting and Miles Davis in particular. They change things up depending on who they’re playing with – they change style all the time but it always unmistakably sounds like them.
Who or what are your biggest influences when it comes to your creativity?
I’m a magpie by nature, picking up bits and pieces from here, there and everywhere. The four tracks that make up this EP are influenced by the film Fight Club, a Stefan Zweig novella, a slightly more private matter and an old Scottish saying meshed with a bit of Salvador Dali imagery. I’m a big fan of waking up and trying to observe an object from lots of different perspectives in order to shake up my brain, and I’m really into translated literature as I find that I’m drawn towards things that are culturally different, peculiar in the way they come across in English, yet very familiar in sentiment.
In terms of musical influences, there’s a pretty wide spectrum. I keep coming back to Nick Drake, Sting, Paolo Nutini, Franz Ferdinand, Wayne Shorter, Paul Simon, Biffy Clyro, Steely Dan, Miles Davis and Elbow. I’m greatly influenced by my co-writer Richard too. We have a kind of alchemy going where we don’t know where one starts and the other one stops. It’s just better when we’re working together somehow.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
I’ve not formally released anything as Crawford Mack before now, though I have a lot waiting in the wings and as a band we perform a full-length set of my music with more to spare depending on the audience. Some of my music is quite political and it’s not always appropriate to play it in busy, noisy venues because some it doesn’t make sense unless you clearly hear the words.
The idea is that we put together a couple of EPs and then work towards an album release. The jury still seems to be out as to whether this is the optimal strategy in this age of streaming or whether we’d be better just to release one track after another, so we’re open to other possibilities. The idea is that we give our potential audience a flavor of what we’re about, build up a following and take it from there.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
I think every musician faces challenges in this digital age, largely because concentration and focus can be measured in gnat bites. Music can be very disposable these days because it’s so accessible. It’s normal just to stream a track that you already know because by some happy bit of placement, PR or through the good services of blogs and taste-makers, you’ve stumbled upon it. That can result in a lot of people no longer buying an album and getting to know more of an artist’s sound/set. The business has changed so rapidly, and continues to change all the time so that old business models have pretty much gone out the window. Obviously this process of change is almost entirely driven by the need to cope with the possibilities brought about by various digital technologies and, frankly, you have to evolve with the new realities.
On the flip side, the increased accessibility to music is a fantastic thing for listeners and artists alike. We can all discover stuff we’d never previously have found, always assuming you’ve got a good source to help you get through all that there is out there or have access to a great music station. We’re really lucky to have a brilliant nationwide radio station in the UK called BBC Radio 6 Music that plays music from loads of genres, with knowledgeable hosts curating the shows, which is great.
Other enabling technologies are also enormously helpful. Nobody could fail to be amazed by what is now available in the recording studio, or indeed in your home if you’ve got a home recording set-up. And we can now send even massive files to one another in minutes. The ability of fans to create content by taking videos on phones or tweeting thoughts and feedback is fantastic, and we obviously now have a very direct bridge straight to fans, which is wonderful. However you have to learn a whole new and ever-changing skillset to be able to make full use of these technologies and balance that with making the time to create and perform music.
And then there’s also the benefit that emerging artists can choose just to release stuff on one digital platform without ever going to the expense of a physical recording, which brings down the entry level funding requirements.
How do you feel about streaming services? Any romantic attachments to the physical formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, CDs?
I still really treasure certain CDs – I know every word, every chord, every credit on the sleeve notes, but I’m not especially attached to any format, and streaming services are getting music out there, which is great. I just wish it was easier for musicians to benefit financially from their endeavors in any format but especially streaming and downloads, as I’d hate for sustainable music creation to become restricted only to those who have substantial funding behind them.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
- I have my website at crawfordmack.com
- I can also be followed here on Spotify
and I post regularly to my
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/crawfordmackmusic/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/crawfordmack_
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crawfordmack_/
