"Krone" interview

Richard Dawson: A man full of contradictions

No danger of falling over: "End Of The Middle" shows the quirky folker Richard Dawson in splendid form.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Domino Records, Sally Pilkington)

If you are looking for folkloristic sounds of a quirky kind with particularly special lyrical concepts, then Richard Dawson is the right man for you. On his new album "End Of The Middle", the Brit sings about various generational issues from the perspective of a fictional family. In an interview with "Krone", he explains how he himself emerged from a dark phase and why he is looking for access to pop structures.

The easy way has never been his. Throughout his musical career, Richard Dawson has been known for taking a particularly quirky approach to his music. He divided up a trilogy of albums as a loose concept on social grievances in the past, present and future, with the experimental band Hen Ogledd he likes to venture into absurd sonic territories and his latest coup "End Of The Middle" is a musical showcase that deals with the changes and conditions of different generations and perspectives within a family. What sounds crazy and difficult to grasp in theory actually sounds more accessible in practice than some of the things the 43-year-old North Brit has produced in his career to date. Take his last work "The Ruby Cord" (2022), for example, which started with a 41-minute song.

Pop as a contradiction
"I wanted to get away from my previous path a bit and challenge myself," says Dawson in a calm voice in the Zoom interview with the Krone, "I knew that the sound of the album would have nothing to do with pop music, but I wanted to write as pop as I could. Simply another contradiction in my life, which is full of contradictions." Conventional pop like that of Daft Punk or the up-and-coming Brit Hannah Diamond appeals to Dawson from the outside, contrary to expectations, but it is more the recordings and soundscapes than the songs themselves. "End Of The Middle" centers on his voice like no album before it, which is partly because that's how he was able to navigate the generational conflicts and differences mentioned. "There are no rich arrangements or instruments to carry the story. I like the idea of the limited color palette that you have to create art from. It gives the lyrics more empathy."

For Dawson, storytelling and music are not separate worlds, but can be ideally combined. The story on the album is not a personal one, but it cannot be separated thematically from the reality of his own life. "I'm at an age where you have to deal with the mortality of your own parents. Many things in life change, you get different responsibilities. I firmly believe that you go through several rebirths in the course of your life. Hopefully not too many, but certainly a few. When drastic things happen in your life, your soul feels lost and reborn at some point. In the end, every song is a puzzle of my own experiences, experiences from my environment or observations from outside."

Conversation as an endangered species
Dawson's own ageing has led him to pay attention to the various generational spirals with his usual dry British humor. "We go through an incredible number of cycles. Sometimes they're healthier, sometimes less so, but we all find it hard to break out of certain patterns and traditions that are passed down through the family. So I chose a family as a template that revolves around these themes. About breaking out and the desire to experience things for yourself and do things differently." You are born into families, you choose your friends. According to this principle, it is not always easy to feel peace and unity within the family unit. "In our society, we increasingly stop discussing and tolerating each other. I don't want to say that conversation is dying out, but it's an endangered species and a lot of these things start in a family."

The middle mentioned in the album title stands for different things. As with all Dawson albums, it sometimes veers into the nebulous and elusive. "I've never thought in terms of genres, this limitation has always been alien to me. With novelists, you always hope as a reader that they come up with something new and don't keep rehashing and repeating their stories. With musicians, on the other hand, many people always want to hear the same album. When writing songs, I try to block out other musical influences as much as possible and focus on novels, art and movies. I always want a song to really be my idea of a song." Dawson is an introverted character who lives three miles from the River Tyne near Newcastle and writes down almost all his ideas in his garden shed. "Just talking about my music doesn't feel so good for me. I'd rather devote my attention to the guitar sounds or lines of lyrics than the fact of talking about it at length."

No end to the middle
With "Nothing Important", the album that brought him wider attention for the first time in 2014, Dawson also fell into a mental hole. "I stuck a toe in the dark depths," he recalls, "I wasn't sure what the point of my life was for a long time and had to pull myself out of it. I locked myself up at home for two years and had to actively make the decision to call people, talk to them and be part of society again. It was as if I suddenly recognized colors again. I wouldn't wish that time on anyone, but it also taught me a lot." In his mid-40s, Dawson has also found something of a center in his life again. So "end of the middle" my ass. Another contradiction that makes the quirky Richard Dawson so worth listening to.