Call Upon The Author

Here at Call Upon the Author we have no shame in crowing about the artists that we love, thats why we want to introduce them to you. One of our absolute favourite songwriters is a young man named Loz. He’s been one of the biggest influences on this site getting started in the first place (though he probably doesn’t realise it) and with the Box Social by his side, he’s an artist we think you should all be checking out. So, without further ado, lets have a chat with him.

I started picking out tunes on a little Casio keyboard when I was about 8. The first tune I learned was Axel F, you know from Beverly Hills Cop, I played it with one finger. That, and the Terminator theme tune. I pretty much did that for the next ten years, then I spent some time living over in Amsterdam and a guy over there who was very influential in my life persuaded me to start using my voice and writing my own tunes.

Suburbian was the band I moved to Porstmouth to form in 2003. I had a bunch of song ideas and a couple of willing participants and we mangled together a band. It grew and distorted over the years and eventually turned into a huge epic rock band with four full-time members. And we did ok – I have really good memories of being in that band, particularly a real positive sentiment of doing something new and right, something completely for ourselves which was a first for me. Unfortunately our guitarist had to leave town and pursue a Uni course in Manchester so that was the end of that, and by that time I was starting to realise anyway that the full-blown rock thing was not for me. I had other ideas…

I think it really must be given how many people seem to have responded to that song! Maybe it’s true of all professions, but I think when you’re employed in a menial office position as pretty much the lowest cog in the works there comes a point in the day – usually about 5 hrs into an 8 hr shift – where you could just put down your data entry and gouge out your own eyes. That’s the place where this song was written from. The funny thing is that it started out as a joke, just a little poem I wrote to keep me sane and make us laugh, and then I thought why not try and put it to music? The idea behind the big stomping Bavarian beat was to try and make the track sound like a work song, like the rhythm of the big drums they used to bang inside warships to make the galley-slaves row harder.

What I’ve drawn from supporting these guys is to remember that if I ever make it to that level to be a nice guy and not turn into a wanker. It’s so pleasant to meet someone like Karima Francis who’s being propelled to the dizzying heights of a national stardom who has such modesty and humility about who she is, and is so sincere about what she does.

Also, just because you’re a touring artist that doesn’t give you the right to take up the entire 2 hours sound-check yourself and leave no time for your supports to sound-check. All you’re doing is ensuring the opening two bands are pissed off and sound rubbish, which makes for a shit evening for the audience so they’re in a bad mood by the time you come on. Sorry, I don’t mean to rant, had some bad experiences with headline acts who think they’re God’s gift…

I feel like that’s the viewpoint I have anyway. I don’t mean to sound like ‘love me love me I’ve got no home‘, but I’ve been moving towns and countries for the last ten years never really settling – that’s bound to have an effect on the music. Funnily enough though I don’t seem to write songs about places, more about situations, that’s what I find fascinating.

Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes their work can give me other ideas about how I should approach my songs, ideas I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. But to be honest, I’m not really thinking like that when I play for other people. I embrace the chance not to have to think about songwriting, or singing or being a frontman or any of that stuff, it’s just nice on those occasions to be just a keyboard player again and loose myself in that.

Ha ha! Brilliant question! Firstly if I had access to a time machine I’d visit myself aged 10 and say: look mate, those huge tinted glasses are a big mistake, chicks will never dig boys who look like Mike Reed…, then I’d nip over to San Francisco and steal Rufus Wainwright’s idea for ‘Fourteenth Street’.

I’d like to have seized control over Indo-China.

No, not really, that’s not gonna happen until at least 2011. At the end of this year I’d like to have built up a decent fanbase. We’ve got some great fans at the moment but there’s only about 4 of them, so by Christmas I’d like to have at least 6. Also I’m keen to start playing more in Brighton, I love that town but it’s proving difficult to infiltrate….

Check out Loz’s music at: www.myspace.com/lozbridge