Reference Points: Magic Arm

Reference Points is our weekly column where we get the chance to ask our favourite artists to reveal what inspires them from outside the world of music. This week, we catch up with Manchester’s Magic Arm also known as Marc Rigelsford, to find out about the setting that inspired his new EP, Put Your Collar Up.

In 2008, I moved into a flat on the top floor of a big victorian house. It was basic; no heating, missing floorboards and squirrels in the roof (and one time on the kitchen table). Slowly over the next couple of years the tenants from the four other flats started leaving until in the winter of 2010 it was just me and Dolly the cat (RIP).

I was surrounded by so many amazing spaces and importantly no neighbours to aggravate that I began thinking if I went down the studio route of the first album it would be a wasted opportunity. I realised that making a record at home would be possible, with guidance from a friend on what equipment to buy and some maverick piano movers (up the fire escape in a snowstorm) I was ready to start.

The landlord (who subsequently became a good friend and source of inspiration) lived on the ground floor, he was in his late 80′s, lucid and a brilliant painter. During the making of the album we spoke a lot about finding inspiration in areas outside of music. He offered to give me lessons in life drawing and asked me in to watch the latest of his opera DVD’s to draw my attentions elsewhere, and mostly it worked. In the evenings I would go down to his flat, draw a little and then back upstairs to continue making songs into the night.

I was very fortunate, I had a flat to record the piano, another for drums, one in the roof for guitars and violins (with perfectly shaped ceilings to give a lovely natural sound), a bathroom for recording vocals, a gutted kitchenette for keyboards, the stairwell for distant trumpets and percussion, and finally, the birds in the roof (which appear on several tracks).

Obviously, having too much space, time and being quite chilly isn’t always conducive to ‘getting on with it’. It took at least double the amount of time that I and the label had anticipated but ultimately the experience shaped the majority of the themes and allowed me to drift gently into a different sound. For that, for now, I’m grateful. The house has since been sold, which is sad, but I might just get in touch with the new owner and see if he’ll let me back in for the next album.

Put Your Collar Up EP is out now on Switchflicker.