Name: Liam Cromby
Nationality: British
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Liam Cromby's What Can I Trust, If I Can't Trust True Love is out December 1st 2023 via Time is Tonic.

If you enjoyed this Liam Cromby interview and would like to keep up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, tiktok, and twitter.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

When I listen to music I’m usually on the move, walking, running or more likely in the car heading to my next gig. You’ll be happy to hear my eyes are open at this point..

While I’m taking in the scenery I’m also taking in the feeling of whatever I’m listening too. My mind distracted with what I see my heart is open ready to receive what I hear.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

My first steps with music were personal, for no one but myself. I would try to learn other songs but would lose patience as I couldn’t read the notes and I was still training my ear so found it more exciting to create.

One of the first songs I wrote was about a failed relationship when I was 14. It helped me take control of what I was feeling. I still remember it to this day.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Music was everything to me at that time in my life.

The feeling that music gives me when I’m playing, listening or creating still draws me in in the same way. But I suppose I over time I have learnt to respect it more.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

The impulse, I believe comes from something deep within. A need to understand myself and to connect with the world around me.

Sometimes I don’t understand what I’m writing about till half way through or even after the song is finished but it’s usually an experience, feeling I’m exploring or personal relationship.

Issues like politics are so complex I wouldn’t know how to put all my thought’s and feelings into one song.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment – is it an extension of your self/body, a partner and companion, a creative catalyst, a challenge to be overcome, something else entirely?

I’ve looked at my guitar in the all the way’s that you have mentioned. I would add that it often act’s as a voice to how I’m feeling.

Are you acting out certain roles or parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? If not, what, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

My key ideas to my approach to music are to always try to keep it honest and write about the things that are difficult to say. If It feels like I shouldn’t write it then I’m probably onto something.

And to just respect the craft, spend time learning and understanding.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

I deal with being misunderstood by talking about it and trying to gain perspective and to learn from it.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness as things become more professionalised and how do you still draw surprises from equipment, instruments, approaches and formats you may be very familiar with?  

I try not to take every song too seriously.

Writing funny songs to myself can open up space for something with a little more substance.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Everything that makes a sound gives off a frequency as with every tuned pitch on an instrument. And so everything around has an opportunity to be musical.

The sound of water and waves specifically tend to lead to moving experiences. The sound of the shore line, waves crashing on the beach, resemble the sound of my own breathe to me. The world and I breathing as one.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in numbers, from waveforms via recommendation algorithms up to deciphering the code of hit songs. What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I believe that most aspects of music can be captured through numbers. A.I. can prove that.

However, there are things that can not be explained. Why a song or piece of music connects on such magnificent levels across the world. Being in tune with the current frequency of the masses to then create something that could connect and relate to people around the world I feel numbers can not do.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

My life is more organised in comparison to how I create music. The latter reminds me to let go and let whatever happens, happen.

And yes we can.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold? What role do headphones play for you in this regard?

Silence and space hold as much importance in daily life as they do in music.

Headphones are a way to dive deeper into the production of music and sometimes serves as tools to escape the world.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Both can be art forms but express different facets of the human experience.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values which don't appear to have any emotional connotation. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a seemingly counterintuitive way – and what, do you think, is happening here?

Recently I heard Sid Sririam’s “Dear Sahana,” just listening to the melody as I usually do and found myself overcome in emotion.



I don’t know what was happening in that moment. I suppose I just felt connected.
    
If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like to see musicians and people that work in the  industry take their wellbeing to a greater level so that we can live longer, happier lives.