September 2007

GROUNDSWELL:
DAVID FORD

Words by Jim Briggs

Bruce Springsteen asked to rehearse with him, Neil Young’s manager requested a copy of his debut album “for Neil” and Bobby DeNiro invited him to play his film festival launch party. So why haven’t you heard of David Ford yet? Perhaps because after the release of his debut, I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I Have Caused (titles are one of Ford’s strengths), he took up semipermanent residence in the States, storming through SXSW, appearing three times on Carson Daly’s show and touring with Gomez (not all his admirers are cool).

Or maybe it’s just because he’s from Eastbourne, a South Coast town so crushingly dull they stuck Britain’s most popular suicide spot, (Beachy Head) next door. Having made his debut album in his flat, the singer-songwriter has brought his expanded expectations to bear on Songs For The Road, recording with James Brown (Nine Inch Nails, The Killers, Ash) and the production team of Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby (Plan B, Get Cape, Ian Brown). “My first album was basically bedroom demos with ideas way above their station,” he says. “This one sounds more like a record.”With a filledout and more varied sound (Decimate sounds like The Cure’s Close To Me rerecorded for Motown), Ford isn’t afraid to reach for the big bang, a song like St Peter being every bit as epic as its subject matter (standing at them pearly gates) demands. He still has that sound “like a hurricane in a nursery” – but on Songs For The Road he knows exactly which way he’s blowing.

But maybe not so strange. He says, “I was brought up in Bristol and was dragged round local folk clubs by my parents. It was Morris dancing, hey-nonny-no and all that. Real folk, man. And I was into electro and hip hop and hated it.” He’s zipping up his boots, going back to his roots, after all.

Songs For The Road is on Independiente.

Click here to read album synopsis