Sivu is no ordinary singer-songwriter. He changed his name ‘James Page’ to work on material under the name ‘Sivu’. His surname in Finnish, and now already has a selection of EPs and a newly released album to his name. From shooting one of his videos using a MRI scanner to collaborating with producers and photographers, Sivu’s work is proving unique and is capturing the full attention of those who discovers it.
‘Something On High’, a collection of Sivu’s past releases and some newer tracks was released on Monday 13th October. Sivu describes the album as a “progression”, allowing you to follow his journey as an artist over the last two years. The album varies between personal subjects, such as ‘Better Man Than He’ – a song written to help a friend suffering with depression, to areas where he is more detached from himself. “Originally I didn’t want to write about me at all and I wanted to take the focus away from me completely, but unintentionally as I kept going through the record and writing it, it did become more about things that were happening in my life”. Although his is favourite track from the album keeps changing, at the moment this is ‘Feel Something’ which begins the album, due to it being the most recently written.
Sivu worked on ‘Something On High’ with Charlie Andrew, a producer who has most famously collaborated with the likes of Alt-J and Nick Mulvey. “I met him a couple of years ago. I used to be a session musician so I used to play bass for other bands, I met him in the studio one day and we got on really well.” Rather than working to a short time limit, the album was put together gradually by the pair over the last two years. “We never had six weeks to make an album, every couple of months we would go in and do a couple of tracks together and that’s kind of how the album came out, we just stumbled our way through it rather than having a set amount of time.” Sivu has also been working with Vita Hewison over this time, who created the album artwork using film. He explains how Vita’s method of developing two images together creates the effect of the images being merged together as one, and how this has been a continuous theme throughout the singles’ artwork as well as the album.
“I didn’t want to write about me at all, I wanted to take the focus away from me completely”
Despite being in bands while growing up, Sivu never planned on being a musician – “it was never really a conscious thing, it just happened” he admits. “My whole circle of friends was through bands and playing music so I don’t think I had much of a choice really. I just went with it and luckily I found my feet.”
Although Sivu has not played many headline shows, he has secured support slots with Rae Morris and Benjamin Francis Leftwich in the past, and is now embarking on a large UK tour with Nick Mulvey. Rather than playing with his full band, Sivu has been playing these support shows solo, which he describes as “daunting”, despite it being a rewarding experience: “It’s quite enjoyable, when you can win a crowd over in a support slot it’s always a bit more special, it almost feels like you’ve achieved a lot more”. However he adds that headline shows bring their own rewards. “Nothing beats coming to a gig where people know your songs and have come to see you play”.
As well as touring, festival season is an important part of the year for artists. It has proved eventful for Sivu, who played dates of varying sizes around the country, including Reading & Leeds and Bestival. Despite finding it difficult playing as a smaller artist at bigger festivals and not expecting big crowds, he seemed surprised by the turn out. “I guess it’s kind of swings and roundabouts at the moment. Leeds was quite quiet but then Reading was really busy”, showing how varied shows can be for an up-and-coming musician.
His plans for 2015 are simple: growth. “The plan is this year to get the album out then, next year focus on building my own headline stuff, I think that would be really good. And have another record out by the end of next year, I’d be very happy if we could do that.” After the response to his debut album and live performances, there’s no doubt that Sivu will be one to watch over the coming years.
Catherine Dowie