We caught up with Seth Lakeman ahead of his Oct Tour

You’ve played a lot of festivals this year and you have a tour coming up. It's been a busy year for you have you enjoyed it? 

Yeah I’ve had a great time! It’s been one of those summers that felt very successful and playing songs from the new record Tales From The Barrel House and just keeping people on their feet and smiling and hopefully in good spirits so it’s been a fun summer. 

Tales From The Barrel House was initially going to be a limited edition but you had to release it? 

Yes, it’s an alternative sort of record I didn’t expect the reaction that it got but people seem to get the concept behind it. So yeah it got a normal proper release in the end. It’s great, very good for that record and giving it the opportunity that I guess it deserves.

You played a gig at St. Pancras Station what was that like? 

Yeah that was good fun they just pick out random artists to play at this venue right next to the statue of Sir John Betjeman and away you go really. It was the evening trawl and rush hour and you play to them. Yeah there was a good 300/400 people in a horseshoe of an audience it was great! 

How do you choose which songs you’re going to perform live now as you have so much material to chose from? 

Absolutely you have to sift through, I mean there’s probably a hardcore set for festivals but when it comes to theatres it’s more of a journey. I can bring more ballads within the set, draw people in a bit more, greater dynamics but yeah it’s kind of wham bam at a festival but you pick upbeat stuff obviously. 

With TFTBH you kind of ended up going to various locations to record that, how different was it to record them and what was the process like? 

Well yes it’s a record written about professions of the past and I just sort of picked the barrel house itself. Then the old coopers workshop to record pretty much 90% of everything there. So it was recorded in one workshop and then the coffin room was the studio room, then we went down into one of the mines to record one of the songs about miner's. The whole thing just developed and eveolved naturally from there using percussion from some of the tools to represent the subject matters of the song. It was a really interesting project, I enjoyed it immensely, good fun. 

What was the processs of working out the sounds… 

Just experimenting as I went along. 

Are you going to take some time out in 2013? 

I’m always pretty busy, the thing is I’m going release an EP with the BBC concert orchestra which is great. It's happening in conjunction with the tour which is fabulous, so a 62 piece orchestra playing, I guess the greatest hits of my catalogue. Anne Dudley re-scored it so it was all part of the live concert I did with them and then I guess going into next year sort of writing lots of songs. We’ve got a big tour in Australia in March so lots of stuff! 

Did you have to slow down a bit for Kitty Jay with the orchestra? 

Oh yeah, hugely, hugely it’s interesting working with them because they delay everything because there’s so many of them. So everything is behind the beat, we locked in as much as we could but I had to slow down definitely. 

You played at Minack Theatre a couple of years back what was that like it looked a lovely setting but cold? 

Yeah a fabulous amphitheatre on the southern coast that was stunning it became a dvd. It was quite powerful and poignant for the songs and stories that we’ve got. It was really cold. 

How do you feel about the current folk scene? 

I think it’s good at the moment it’s really exciting, folk and acoustic music is really on the rise there’s a real bubble going on so it’s great. Ben Howard, I really like what he’s doing, I’ve always been a big fan of people like John Butler, Ruarri Joseph is really good, Lisa Knapp is a really strong as a singer. Sam Lee's just won a mercury prize he’s really good, I was on a panel judging for the bursary prize for an arts grant and we chose him so I listened to that record a long time ago.

Festivals or gigs?

I think festivals, it’s a huge part of what we do and the way we feel. A reaction from people obviously our own gigs are great as we get to present a show that’s a bit more cohesive, whereas a festival is quite focused in getting people moving and trying to. The immediacy of it is quite important, they’re quite different but I do like a festival. It’s a discovery point.

Any festivals you have not played at that you’d like to play?

There’s loads abroad, I’d love to play all sorts around the world. I’d like to do Isle of Wight as I’ve never played there. I’d like to go back to WOMAD, I’d like to do the New Zealand New Plymouth one.

Any surprises on your Oct/November tour?

Yes there’s a girl singer who’s coming to help out with ballads and be part of the band called Lizbee Stainton. She's gonna be singing and playing banjo on this tour so that’s quite exciting it’s another colour, another flavour to the sound so hopefully a few more dynamics and yeah we’re looking forward to that.

Seth Lakeman Tour dates are..........

Derby 7th Oct 2012 Assembly Rooms

Basingstoke 10th oct 2012 The Anvil

Warwick 11th Oct 2012   Warwick Arts centre

Salisbury 12th Oct 2012 City Hall

London  13th Oct 2012  Cadogan Hall

Canterbury Festival 14th Oct 2012

Shrewsbury 16th Oct 2012 Severn Theatre

Guildford Live 17th Oct 2012

Gateshead the Sage 18th Oct 2012

Manchester 19th Oct 2012 Royal Northern College of Music

Scunthorpe 20th Oct 2012 The Baths Hall

Buxton 23rd Oct 2012 Buxton Opera House

Barnstaple 24th Oct 2012 The Queens Theatre

Birmingham 25th Oct 2012 Town Hall

Truro 26th Oct 2012 Hall Of cornwall

Plymouth 27th Oct 2012 Theatre Royal

Frome 24th Nov 2012 Rook Lane Chapel  

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