Lettie & David Baron have been working together for over a decade now, releasing another album last year, titled Endless Climb. It’s a great record and one I’ve really enjoyed checking out. We also reviewed their song Escape, which you can find at the end of this interview with Lettie.
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a song titled Escape. What can you tell us about the track?
The song Escape was inspired by Voltaire’s Candide and is about life’s journey! I was also inspired by the idea of a fourth dimension which I have always felt before – particularly after I read about Mark E Everett’s (from the Eels) father Hugh Everett III, who was a quantum physicist and exponent of this idea: The sense of something that you can’t quite see in the chorus.
How has the reception to Escape been so far, and where can the song be purchased?
The reception has been really good, although it’s hard to know except through what your friends tell you! You can purchase Escape and the entire album on Bandcamp: https://davidbaronmusic.bandcamp.com/album/endless-climb
It is also on iTunes https://music.apple.com/gb/album/endless-climb/1647597935 and can be streamed on Spotify etc.
What prompted the collaboration? Do you think you’ll work together again?
David Baron and I have worked since 2008.I have released three albums with David but under my own name Lettie or Lettie Music (not my surname which is entirely for confidential work reasons!), even though they were a collaboration in exactly the same way. At the time I think David did not consider putting his name to the work for various reasons. This album uses both our names because David Baron is now happy to be in the spotlight and he is truly an artist in his own right.I am honoured to not only have David as a writing partner and collaborator, but also as a friend!
Do you plan to release any more singles in the near future?
I hope so but it took five years to complete this album.I have been writing and doing music since 2008 and releasing music is such hard work these days! I want to release good material but I have a day job and my windows of time that I had for composing have diminished considerably, mainly because I’m chasing the buck to keep a roof over my head! Also David has his own music – collaborations both as a composer and producer and other important projects, which is a full time job. I would only release something if I had something to say and I guess I find it harder these days. But I’m always searching for a great song! I would love to have just one song that hit the zeitgeist!
Are there any plans to release a full-length album or an EP anytime soon?
The album was released after doing a sold out gig in London on Friday 11 November 2022. I am so happy that the album is finally out on Here & Now Recordings.
Did the pandemic hinder your work much?
I found the pandemic an impossibly difficult time to write. I did do a song for a frontline nurse Hannah Grace Deller who was a friend of Ray Roughler Jones (whom I got to know through his music nights). He wrote the lyrics and hummed a tune. He sent it to me and I put it into song form, then I sent it back for him to finish in a studio. I also wrote a few instrumentals in the kitchen (because I don’t have a studio) which were named after colours and the month they were written in, but they were a bit downbeat. I did buy an Italian Mandolin which I got restored during those long months.
During the lockdown my boss was very ill and so my mind was on work and not music. One of the songs called The Kite from Endless Climb is about my boss and features this beautiful mandolin.
Escape contains element of alt rock and dream pop. What/who influences you most as artists? What have you been listening to recently?
I love Laurie Anderson and I suppose that’s why I embraced Richard Moore and his electric violin, which he uses with pedals to create layers and layers of sound. He can also play it like a cello and can span the octaves. Most recently I’ve been listening a lot to Jacques Brel which was a constant over Christmas with J’Arrive being played over and over again in my car really loud, especially when I was pulling into the supermarket! Not the most exciting thing in the world but this cinematic song with that truly exceptional orchestration made the whole experience feel like you were making a grand entrance at the beginning of some fabulous epic French film from the 1960s (even though he’s Belgian).
In January I feel we all need cheering up so in the kitchen it’s Machito & His Afro-Cuban Orchestra. I have very eclectic taste and I still buy CDs which I get in my second hand shops at the end of my street, so whatever I can find I’ll listen to, but I’ll always go back to Bob Dylan and Lou Reed in the end. I am really looking forward to seeing the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha in April and Bob Dylan before Christmas (whom I have been to see many times before) was the best gig I had seen in ages. The electric violinist Richard Moore (who I had worked on an album with called If?) is hugely important on this song, Escape.The punky element and the instrumental was greatly aided by his unhinged and powerful violin playing.
He let rip, which is what I wanted. He has played with Nigel Kennedy in Poland and many other great acts, and I owe him a lot – particularly because my live performance is made up of only me and him. On stage, I think we really have something unusual.
Where are you based? What is the music scene like in your part of the world?
I am based in London.The music scene is very difficult for lesser-known artists. I don’t know about East London (apart from Cafe Oto which does a great job in putting on very experimental music and supports its artist very well), but I am based in west London and have seen fairly well known acts playing to barely 20 people in the audience. It is such a vast city with so much going on and in a time when people are concerned about the cost of living compounded by the rail strikes, it has made it very difficult for artists.
My gig clashed with a rail strike but I chose a local venue. In recent years I have brought the gig to the people rather than the other way round, especially since I am unknown and I know way more people in west and south London than I do in the east. I love seeing music but the acts that I see or have seen in the past year are all fairly well established. I really enjoy going to gigs when I am abroad. In London I am a demographic that perhaps is less informed about the scene as a whole, and its a huge city that is really spread out into localities. I felt that with the lockdown. We started to create villages and we stayed in them.
Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?
No unfortunately there is not the demand!
Any last words for the fans?
THANK YOU! I am so grateful for your support.