Introducing: Sara Lowes

It has taken ten years for Manchester’s Sara Lowes to craft her gorgeous debut album, Back To Creation. After spending the last decade as an accomplished session musician, touring and recording with the likes of Micah P Hinson, King Creosote, Jim Noir, Windmill and her good friends, The Earlies, Lowes has birthed an album of glistening pop gems. Be it the Beatles-esque psychedelia of ‘Vapour Trails’ or the icy-pop of ‘Single Girl’, her latent talent oozes through every note. She can even write classic Northern Soul (‘Something I Don’t Know’) without realising. Apparently.

When TLOBF met up with Sara in a quiet student pub in Manchester, we were immediately struck by her mischievous warmth (she demanded to ask us the questions at one point) and also her commitment to music as a vocation rather than an easy path to fame. Sara sees her session work and her solo career as a balancing act – but one that is fuelled by her love of composing, recording and playing music. She seems to almost shy away from the idea of being in the spotlight, although early rave reviews for Back To Creation suggest she may have to invent some coping strategies for the imminent glare.

A few days after the interview we get the opportunity to see Sara play live, in the ornately chiselled back room of a Manchester pub. Although a seasoned performer, she admits to nerves ahead of the solo show, but is surrounded by friends and the fug of bonhomie. Along with a drummer-cum-trumpet player, Sara plays a delightful set, deftly bringing choice cuts from Back To Creation to life. She is a fabulous keyboard player – even if using three on one song is just plain showing off – but also possesses that magical skill of being endlessly likeable.

I believe you started off as a solo singer when you were younger, before becoming a session musician. How did you get to the point of wanting to release your own material again?

I started a solo attempt when I was about 19 and it didn’t quite go to plan, which I am grateful for in hindsight. Then, by about 21, The Earlies were starting – who were basically all my best friends – so I became part of the live band for that on keyboards and backing vocals. As a result of that the boys got quite a lot of production jobs with Micah P Hinson and King Creosote, so I got all these opportunities to be a keyboard player with other acts. Then I ended up playing for Jim Noir for a bit and then I hatched my little EP [2008’s Tomorrow’s Laughter] that I had decided to do, which was nothing like the solo stuff I had done prior.

Ooh – I love Micah P Hinson’s stuff.

I haven’t seen him for such a long time. We did his first album [2004’s Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress] and the boys produced it and I did a duet and some backing vocals. It was Christian that did most of the arrangements. For my album I had Christian and his brother Nicky sit in with me on the production. I’m very lucky to have that bunch of musicians.

What were your original solo songs like?

They were good songs – but they were singer-songwriter kind of stuff. One of the oldest songs is on Back To Creation – it is called ‘Vapour Trails’.

So, playing with The Earlies distracted you from developing your own songs.

Well, if The Earlies hadn’t happened, I’d probably still have been plugging away in some kind of form with my solo stuff. But I really wanted to be involved in The Earlies and had done a bit of singing for their album. When you get involved in that and you are on tour with your best friends – well, that is why you are a musician in the first place. So, for me, it is not about being a solo artist, because I love music and I am a musician. I was quite nervous when I was younger, so things like The Earlies happening was a fantastic distraction for me being a musician without having the responsibility of focussing and being solo.

I am struggling to place your accent. Where are you from?

I’m originally from the North East, but I grew up in a little town in Lancashire called Barnoldswick. It is the longest town name with no recurring letters! It was mentioned on QI – it was a fact Stephen Fry announced.

How exciting, you beat Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Yeah, that had two ‘L’s’ straight off.

And do you come from a musical family?

My mum is a piano player and my grandma was a church organist. My mum and dad had a lot of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Dylan records and I grew up with all of that and it was constantly on.

Sounds great. The only problem with parents having great record collections, is that there is nothing to rebel against. Did you not go through a death metal phase just to annoy them?

Ha. I’ve never rebelled. I’m not interested in rebelling. There was no major teenage act of rebellion – I was quite happy. I never experienced that teenage phase. It could still be to come. I hope not.

When did you get interested in songwriting?

Well, the piano was always in the house and I maybe took it for granted. I had to write songs myself to get a better overall feel for the piano, which is a very important thing. When I started writing, I became a better piano player in my late teens. By that time I was one of the core live members of The Earlies. So, by the time I was 19 we had made an album and recorded lots of other songs.

Back To Creation is great. My two favourite tracks are ‘Single Girl’ and ‘Something I Don’t Know’. How did those songs come about?

Well, ‘Single Girl’ isn’t mine to claim really. It was from a band I did some session work for and toured with The Earlies called Half Cousin, fronted by a guy called Kevin Cormack. I’m just bowled over by their songs as I think they are what pop should be. I took the line ‘When I was a single girl’ from him and added the rest and the brass arrangement. So the co-write is quite simply that I had nicked a bit of his song.

‘Something I Don’t Know’ sounds like a long-lost Northern Soul classic with its huge brass riff.

Northern Soul? I had no idea that the song was in that style.

What – you mean you have written a Northern Soul classic by accident?

Well, I genuinely didn’t know – but if that is how it has come out… I see what you mean, now that you’ve said it. I don’t know that type of music really. Is Northern Soul where everyone takes their 45s and puts talc on the floor?

Kind of.

Well, for that song, I hadn’t written in ages and I was hitting the piano a little bit harder than I normally would, and came up with that riff.

I’m getting an impression of someone who loves being a musician – and relishes the balance between pushing herself as a solo artist and being inspired by session work. If you had to choose one path, which would it be?

Ideally, I would continue to do both – solo stuff and session. If it was just Sara Lowes, I’m sure it would become too involved and I would over think it. As it stands, I get these wonderful opportunities to play with other people and that then inspires me and might change the way that I write.

But what if Back To Creation became hugely successful – you don’t seem someone who is gagging to be ‘in the limelight’? Would you be comfortable with ‘fame’, whatever that is?

I personally don’t see why they come hand-in-hand. I completely appreciate why it is important for some people to be that person ‘on the stage’ but certainly the way it has changed over the years is that the fame comes first, and that is bad in my eyes. I want to be careful what I say and not whinge, but it doesn’t interest me. How can anyone be interested in projecting that part of their character, when they are supposed to express the rest of themselves through their music? You have said everything you need to say in your record. I don’t want people to know about my personality too much – if there are any dark corners in there, they are mine. If that is not good enough, because everybody else is prancing around on stage, then I certainly won’t rise to that bar.

I agree entirely. It seems odd that people expect more even when certain albums are so personally revealing.

Exactly. If you want to know what my deepest feelings are then listen to my records. If you want me to be some kind of performer then get to know me better and see me when I’m pissed. I’ll tell you one thing – I don’t want to be one of these bloody solo artists who makes an album, does a tour and then does fuck all for the rest of the year and then gets told they have to write another album. I like it as a job, if you know what I mean. I like it being fluent and consistent and the less thinking time the better.

If you don’t mind, seeing as we are nearing the end of the interview, can I ask you a couple of questions?

Well, it is not quite how the interview process usually is conducted, but why not. Fire away.

Can you remember your first favourite pair of trainers? The ones that you still miss today.

Easy – a pair of Adidas Kick. But it was so long ago that I believe they have are now sold in the retro collection.

Could you make some art for me now, if I provided you with the tools?

Not in a million years. I would have to ply you with alcohol, get you to make some art and then pass it off as my own.

Sounds like a plan.

Back To Creation is released on May 23rd via Through The Railings