Billy Lockett on the role his dad played in his music, his home town of Northampton and is finally happy with his career
London, Berlin, L.A, Seoul. These are all places known for producing some of the world’s best musicians. A place not likely to be included in that list: Northampton. However, it seems that this town in the Midlands is having some sort of Renaissance, and in recent years has produced quite a few household names, including the likes of VV Brown and Slowthai. It also produced another musician currently dominating the radio: Billy Lockett.
“Northampton isn’t amazing, and everyone knows it. But that’s kind of why we like it so much, because it’s our little bin,” Billy laughs in response to me asking what he makes of his hometown. However, his tone doesn’t remain purely deprecating. “The community here is very strong”, he says. “It’s not a very rich town, that’s no secret, and in places it’s quite run down. But it’s home and most importantly, the music scene here is insane!”
Northampton also provides the setting for our Zoom call, with Billy speaking to me from what almost looks like a basement in a university house, with a red wall hanging drooping from the ceiling (a relic picked up from Camden Market for a tenner apparently) and bits of insulation stuck haphazardly to seemingly random surfaces.
However, this look is anything but random. Billy explains that the space is actually modelled on the room in his dad’s house where he’s made the majority of his music. The street name Abington Grove – is actually the title of his most recent album – a beautiful blend of pop and soul tracks which are simultaneously emotive and energising. It’s evident from this homage that his dad had a massive influence on his musical journey.
I ask Billy about his dad’s own relationship to music. “He was more of an artist, but still loved music”, he replies, describing nights spent swapping favourite bands from The Beatles to Sonic Youth. “He was also a massive supporter of my music”, Billy continues. “We ended up writing a lot of songs together, just getting hammered and writing. The songs were terrible though, with a lot of obvious rhyme schemes like ‘moon’ and ‘june’” he laughs.
However, it seems Billy did inherit some of his musical talent from his dad. “His joke was that he could play anything you could blow,” he says smiling.
“Not like that,” he laughs in response to my raised eyebrow. “Like clarinet or recorder, but specifically not flute. He didn’t have the right embouchure.”
I raise my eyebrows a second time and ask for a demonstration of this word that is completely new to me. Billy complies, I try to copy him but my tongue piercing gets in the way.
Despite my failure, this demonstration remains useful as it hints at Billy’s knowledge of classical music. This is just one of the many genres he’s experimented with, simultaneously releasing a classical piano-only album which was played on Classical FM, as well as singing on a D&B track which was played on Radio One.
I ask Billy if there’s a genre left that he’d still like to investigate. After a brief pause in which you can tell he’s ticking off genres in his mind, he tells me he’s working on a tune that has an afro-beat inspired bassline. This willingness to experiment seems to be the marker of Billy’s career and is distinctly evident not only in the sound at his gigs, but actually where he plays – the most random being at a baby shower on the reality TV show Made in Chelsea.
This ingenuity was taken one step further when, due to lockdown, Billy embarked on the UK’s first homes and gardens tour, playing intimate gigs to lucky fans in the comfort of their own residences. I asked Billy how he chose, out of the resulting 40 gigs on the tour, where to play.
“We went to the plays where people said there’d be the largest audience,” he says simply. “I didn’t want to turn up to two guys in a living room and essentially be their version of telly.”
While Billy really enjoyed the shows and the chance they offered him to really get to know his fans, he describes the overall experience as stressful. “It was a point in my career where everything was going a bit wrong. I’d just been dropped and I was fighting to make my career work amongst COVID-19. Psychologically I was like I’m nearly 30, and I’m playing people ‘s gardens. It doesn’t feel like you’re doing very well. Everything was cold and the van got stuck in the mud. I also crashed it on the first day.”
Luckily the next tour that Billy embarks on is set to be a lot less stressful. From April 26th he’s moving around the UK’s record shops – the relatively alternative choice of venue still displaying his playful approach to gigging. I ask him how he feels about the upcoming tour. “This is the first time in my life where my career is flying”, he replies. “I’ve been close a couple of times, but right now there’s something different. And my fans know it too. So this tour is going to be a ‘we did it’ tour – we can all enjoy the success together.”
This general elated feeling is one that Billy attributes to finally finding himself when it comes to his music. “I’m so happy now, but it takes a long time to get there,” he explains. “It’s hard work to figure out what music you want to be making. It takes ages, because it’s different to the music you like, or even the music that you’re good at making. So, I’ve finally figured that out and I think that’s what’s changed. Happiness is feeling what you’re doing is right, and this is the first time I’ve felt that.”
Long may it continue.
