Singer-songwriter Steve Jones, known in the music world as Stylusboy, offers a down-to-earth brand of DIY driven folk music. He recently chatted with Indie is Not a Genre about his craft and his new album, Routes, out September 27th.
How do you keep Folk music fresh?
For me folk music is about sharing stories through songs. I love writing songs and my default instrument is an acoustic guitar to write songs on so this kind of makes me a folk musician and it is certainly not a label I shy away from. I am hugely influenced by people like Nick Drake or John Smith. I guess I try to keep my music fresh but striving to write the best songs I can and explore new chords or guitar tunings.
You have a very unique, personal blog. Do you have a favourite platform for engaging with your audience?
I am glad you enjoyed my blog. I have been blogging for a long while now, not as often as I use to. Primarily for me I love looking back at my blog myself as it helps me remember some of the wonderful adventures I have had. At the moment I love Instagram as I am a very visual person and love the style of the platform. I also really like Twitter for developing conversations with people.
Do you have any unexpected forms of inspiration?
I find inspiration for my songs in all sorts of places. Sometimes in a book or a film but often in personal life. One of my songs, Hospitality for Hope, was inspired by the story of the first Olympic Games for people with disabilities which I learnt all about when I watch the film The Best of Men. For the Souls of My Brothers is all about my Great Grandad who was a fireman in the Coventry Blitz during WWII.
Do you have any favourite songs to play live?
I find my songs take on their own life as I play them live. Songs change and small parts of the melodies tweak and change. I often start my sets with my song Keep You which is really quiet and I love engaging my audiences with a quiet song as it can force them to listen closely, rather than starting with a bigger song! I also really like playing covers to really change them up so people don’t recognise them until maybe the chorus! I am currently playing Don’t Stop Believing by Journey on my semi hollow electric guitar.
What do we have to look forward to from you?
My new album Routes! I am releasing it on my own Label ‘Tortoise Recordings’ and 27th September. It has been a long time in the making so I am very excited to finally have it coming out. I am very proud of the collection of songs which I feel are a real progression for me since my first album. I am making all the CDs by hand as I always do.
Stylusboy will play a sold out album launch show at Backhaus & Co in Coventry on Friday 13th September.
