Sivu (aka James Page) has gained notoriety for his hauntingly surreal pop music laced with biblical imagery. With a unique sound that is set to propel the singer-songwriter into further recognition, LSi caught up with the Sinatra inspired musician to talk origins, dreams and animal bands…
How does it feel to be supporting one of the most talked about bands [London Grammar] of 2013?
Sivu: It’s pretty mad, we’ve only done two dates with them, but it’s they’ve been absolutely rammed and they’re super nice dudes as well. It’s just a great opportunity to be playing with a band that’s so hot right now.
And you’re also supporting Marika Hackman – these are some big names. Do you feel overwhelmed by all of this or does it feel like it’s your time?
Sivu: I’ve been really lucky, we’ve had some really great opportunities, which is so good. I’ve just been really f**king lucky. It’s great, I really like Marika Hackman and obviously London Grammar too.
How has it been working with the producer Charlie Andrew? What have you learnt from him?
Sivu: It’s been amazing, I love him. We’ve been working together for nearly three years. I met him when I was doing session work and I always thought he was great. We did a few tracks together just when he started working with Alt J and then that kicked off, and that was really great for him. We’re just such good mates and it’s been so nice to work on the album together; we’ve spoken about it for so long, but to now actually get to do it, it’s just been a dream. His [Charlie Andrew] wife plays violin with us in the band as well. She wrote and plays all the strings. I’m just super lucky to have worked with him. Everyone wanted to work with him, so to be friends was just really great.
Take us through how Sivu came to be?
Sivu: I grew up in this town called St. Ives, just outside Cambridge. I was always playing in bands and we always used to play in Cambridge. We did a bit of touring, but that kind of fizzled out because the singer Adam makes music videos. He moved to London and did that, so it felt like quite a natural thing for me to go too. I was already making solo music, but I knew if I wanted to do anything with music I had to move to London. I moved there about three years ago and started doing session work. I was quite lucky in that I played with a few people who were signed and I was always writing on the side. Then I did a session with Charlie Andrew and we got on really well. I sent him some of acoustic tracks and he really liked it. We did one track called ‘God Speaks in Tongues’ and it went from there.
What was growing up in a small town like in terms of musical output?
Sivu: There were loads of bands and you all played to each other. I thought of London as one of those golden places. I remember going up there and playing to no one, whereas at home you’d play to a packed room of people, but it really meant nothing because no one really cared – I just knew I had to get to London. I think moving there is important because you see so many artists and you realise how good they are and you have to up your game. There are so many amazing people all doing the same thing, so really you just have to work harder. As a songwriter, an artist… anything, it just focuses you.
A lot of comparisons have been drawn from your music to the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club and Wild Beasts. Are these people who you take influence from? And of course, who are your influences?
Sivu: I absolutely love Wild Beasts, they’re one of my favourite bands. When I started writing the Sivu stuff, I was listening to Frank Sinatra, Bjork, Beck and things like that. With Frank Sinatra, it was just the melodies. I just wanted to put a classic side on the melodies. They’re just some timeless some of those songs. In terms of songwriting, I knew I didn’t want it to be just me and the guitar. With Beck, Bjork and Feist, they’re singer-songwriters, but they’re not the stereotypical ones, which of course there’s nothing wrong with being that, but in terms of the production I wanted to do something different.
There have been mentions of your debut album coming out next year. How is it all going?
Sivu: As soon as this tour is over I’m going back into the studio to hopefully have it finished by the end of this month. We’re talking about bringing it out in May/June time if things go well. We’ve got about twenty tracks so it will be a case of filtering them down. I just want the album to flow really nicely. I think that’s really important, just that the album fits and feels like a journey.
Without focusing too much on the fact that people often think there’s a lot of religious connotations in your songs, what inspires the lyrical content?
Sivu: Well the religious thing was never really intentional. I was writing about living in a small town and wanting to get out – you know all those typical things. So when I did the new stuff, I knew I had to do something different. I’m not religious at all, but my friend Simon was telling me about his St. Christopher’s cross and story with that. I just got interested in all those all stories, like the Noah’s Ark story and using those references and visuals as a way of writing songs, almost like creating a mental image for my audience.
Silly question – If you could have one animal in your band, what would it be and what instrument would they play?
Sivu: That’s amazing! Erm… Initially I thought a bear because you could snuggle it up, but it would have to play like slap bass or something. Yeah a bear playing slap bass really high up and just make it become a bit more like Level 42. Yeah that’s what I’d go for.
Finally, what dreams and aspirations do you have for 2014 for Sivu?
Sivu: I’d really like to tour as much as possible next year and just playing to new people, especially with the new songs. Fingers crossed the album will be out and I’d really like to play some festivals. I’d really like to do Glastonbury – that would be amazing. And Latitude again, maybe get on some of the other stages – that would be a dream.
Adam Nealon
photo: Pzazz Photography. You can check out their work here