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Richard Walters - The Animal

Oxford / Paris-based Richard Walters has been performing music for a very long time indeed, considering he's only 26 years old, playing in bands with all sorts of interesting people including members of Supergrass and The Cranberries. Here, he tells us about the tracks on his debut album 'The Animal'.

Oxford / Paris-based Richard Walters has been performing music for a very long time indeed, considering he's only 26 years old, playing in bands with all sorts of interesting people including members of Supergrass and The Cranberries. Here, he tells us about the tracks on his debut album 'The Animal', which is released a little later this month.

1. Brittle Bones
I'd recorded the demo in a very different manner, almost impossibly quiet and low. So, the album version came as a bit of a surprise, it just built and built to something else, something uplifting. There was an old Hammond in the studio which was stuck on one note, so we used that note. David Kosten played packets of sugar for the shaker. Lots of people think the track has female backing vocals - it doesn't, I just layered very high, breathy vocals over and over.

2. Weather Song
It’s my favourite track on the album. I used to DJ at a shitty student indie night in Oxford, we played the same songs every week without fail, and 'Just Like Heaven' by The Cure was one of them...drunk people respond well to The Cure. The song is a 4am love song...an end of the night, pissed conversation basically - the what ifs and cautiousness of meeting someone, along with the self confidence of the drink. We recorded the guitar and vocal live on one mic, and built on that. It’s the first time I've whistled on a song. Whistling is good.

3. All At Sea
It’s the oldest song on the album, written about 4 years ago. I was visiting my parents during the spring floods, nursing and trying to escape a broken heart. They have this very old, very out of tune upright piano in their living room. The thought of everything going under water seemed very possible, my head was swimming and so was the town. I wrote the song on a very wet afternoon at their piano. We wanted to get a Lennon Instant Karma sound to the recording - very tight, delayed drums, basic bass - and then mess with the other instruments, sounds and voices around that. We recorded people talking and laughing, and put those sounds in the mix...they sounds like flashes, reflections.

4. Crawl Up To My Room
It’s a teenage love song, about the awkwardness of staying in the parental home. The lyric came from that Dylan song 'Can you please crawl out your window'. Again, the demo was one guitar and voices, so the album version filled out unexpectedly. The choir tracks were amazing to do, layering up and up. It’s the first time I've used a mellotron, which is an incredible instrument.

5. We Have Your Head
This was the first song I recorded with David Kosten, the first time we met up. We made the song using dictaphones and old studio mics. We recorded and mixed it in about 4 hours. It’s a happy accident basically, it could have turned out very differently. I kind of lost myself a few years ago, and the idea that my head had been taken, was being held out of my control, almost felt like the perfect excuse for my actions at the time.

6. The Animal
It’s not written about a personal experience, it’s just me trying to work out the mindset of someone who uses violence as a means of control. I tried to make the lyrics as graphic and nasty as I could, to make myself feel uneasy firstly. The cello on the record was played by Izzi Dunn (who also plays for Kanye West), she just came into the studio, heard the track through and improvised this huge, soaring cello part. It was jaw dropping to watch somebody do that.

7. Red Brick
I found out I have epilepsy a few years back. It was actually a huge relief at the time, because up until that point there was no explanation for these black outs I'd been having. The song is about trying to get away from it, it’s a pretty frustrating and inescapable thing, more an inconvenience than anything else. We recorded the song live, guitar and voice, and then played around with all the vocal harmonies for a day or two.

8. True Love Will Find You In The End
I recorded the song with my friend Ian Davenport at Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire. He actually suggested it as a song to work on, his two young sons love the original. We both have a great deal of respect for Daniel and this song, so it was a pleasure to record it and experiment with the structure and sounds. Jon from Stornoway came in and played some cello, which we then put through a tremolo and distortion, trying to make it sound like John Cale drones. I don't know if Jon was too happy about that.

9. American Stitches
It’s a very simple love song for my girlfriend, like a year zero announcement to make things right. We recorded it with piano and vocals, and tried so many different things to build it up, but in the end it didn't need anything other than some Hammond.

10. Spirit of the Stairway
I love harmoniums, they just sound like sea shanty instruments to me, so this is my harmonium song. If 'Weather song' is about the 4am confidence peak, then this is about the dive the next day. I wrote it on New Year’s Day last year. The saying 'Spirit of the stairway' refers to coming up with the perfect thing to say, just as you're walking out the door. It’s about hindsight, I suppose. I recorded the song in Paris with Ben's Symphonic Orchestra at Christmas time. The studio was freezing and we had to keep pausing recording to wait for the prostitute next door to finish 'work'. Ben kept on saying, 'she works very hard today'.

'The Animal' is released on 21st September. Pre-order it here.