Student Of Sound

With a plain name like John Newman, you'd be forgiven for not immediately associating the 23-year-old wunderkind with two hugely successful Rudimental singles, but you'd probably have an 'Aha' moment on hearing the titles Feel The Love and Not Giving In. Newman is that guy, and on the release of his 2013 debut record, Tribute, he captured hearts and radio waves once more with Love Me Again. As he prepares for his first tour of Australia, he reveals how a fellow so young got to have the soul of man triple his age.

“People do question it,” Newman starts. “'Why is he doing soul music when he's from the north of England, not Detroit or whatever?' But the thing was, during the hype of the '60s there was three main things goin' on – there was the whole soul thing goin' on in America… However in England they had the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones coming through and we had this rock period. But the next big thing of music was the B-sides of Motown comin' out of creatin' a scene in the north of England called Northern Soul and that's the area where I've kind of taken everything from in terms of my influence of soul music and why I've got that... I also came through being a house DJ and think there's quite a lot of relevance between soul and house in terms of piano lines and groove, and especially the '90s – a lot of the beats taken from the likes of The Prodigy… were taken from James Brown and other soul tunes that were sampled… When you start addin' these things up – and then I would produce bits of hip hop as well – it's like I've kept everything inside my mind that I've been brought up on; I'm just constantly buildin' up a repertoire of influences...”

With such a variety of interests to draw from, it took Newman a while to discover his unique take.

“It was really hard, like really hard, because as a young kid there's a tendency – and there is still a tendency – to do what everyone else is doing, or do what album you're listening to at the time and skip in between sounds. I quickly realised I didn't want to do that, even though I was doin' it – I was like, 'I don't want do this – I want to be free to make music that has no genre, that has no barriers or anything like that.' I had to learn how to produce songs that had soul beats but maybe with house piano but perhaps different touches and make it all lock together because nobody had done that before; there was nobody you could listen to on how they did that. I was kind of like walking into a tunnel of darkness by myself, then saw the light at the end of the tunnel and worked it out… Now I'm really comfortable in my sound and my area that I don't have to plan anything and it just happens.”

Newman says he spends a great deal of time studying the workings of the music business so as to make informed career decisions in collaboration with his label Island Records. He has a hand in every creative element right down to film clip scripts and clothing designs, and his live show, which hits Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in a matter of weeks, is no exception.

“I take so much pride in my live shows… and concentrate on the set design, and I concentrate on the lighting design – I concentrate on making sure the sound's right and the band's right and I put 99.9 per cent preparation in and then on the actual show I really do give it my all. People wait for so long to watch shows; they buy tickets three months before, six months before, and then they wait for the gig and people deserve to get a good show. I really disagree with people that don't do that, people that kind of tour to make their money but I do really love my live performances...”

With a performance at the 56th TV Week Logie Awards also confirmed, Newman laughs heartily when told that last year's international guests included Bruno Mars, Michael Bublé and Birdy.

“And you've got me this year? You've messed up somewhere!” he jokes before adding seriously: “…I don't really care what show it is – you can't think about that; you've got to do the show, have the best time of your life and get the best performance across just like it is any gig and then afterwards turn around and go: 'Holy shit, I just performed at The Logies!'”