2023 By Its Artists #1: Lou Terry.

lloydbolton52

Dec 1

A roundup of the year for Lou Terry, including the release of his EP 'Yellow Top' and dates on tour with Black Country, New Road.

London-based songwriter Lou Terry creates humbly beautiful records, blending harsh guitar tones and experimental forms with delicately human lyrics. This year, he won more fans over with the release of the EP 'Yellow Top' (which we spoke to him about in depth in February) via state51. Initiating our '2023 by its Artists' series, he talks us through some of his favourite releases from the year, reflects on his own personal highlights, and hints at what's coming next.

Album of the Year: Garden Centre, 'Searching For A Stream'

I have loved Garden Centre from the first gig I saw years ago. Every record they've put out is stunning, and they've done it again with this one. 'Chicken,' 'Talking on the Phone,' 'Tannoy,' 'Pool Ball,' each song is a banger and beautifully unique. Max's songwriting is probably some of the most influential – I've never talked about Garden Centre to someone in a band who doesn't know and love them, no matter where they're from. They should be household name, yet they somehow remain under most people's radar, I just don't get it. It was a privilege to support them for the release of this album at Brixton Windmill earlier this year.

Song of the Year: Hard to Break, 'Cannonball Statman'

I came across Jessie (Cannonball Statman) when he emailed on a tip from Jeffrey Lewis asking for help booking some UK shows for his tour. We booked a couple together in Colchester and Sheffield, and I've been to see him about 4 times now. He gave me his latest album, 'Hard to Break', which is another under the radar work of genius, and the title track is a great one to start with.

This could also have been my pick for favourite album of the year alongside Garden Centre's. He's an amazing performer, the hardest gigger I know (he's just off the back of a 3-year, self-booked world tour and every time we've met he's continually been between gigs – I wish you safe travels wherever you're currently gigging Jessie!) and most importantly he's a lovely lovely person.

What was your personal career highlight for the year?

Releasing our EP 'Warmly, Alexandria' this year with State 51. I like the 4 songs, I think they've each got something different about them, and they act as a great primer for the upcoming album. I also found out the other day it reached 22 in the physical charts this year. Never would have expected that – people can't be buying many records…

Favourite show of 2023?

Supporting Black Country, New Road at The Crossing, Birmingham. I was very nervous for this one, but we did one of our best gigs ever. We all felt amazing afterwards, I think it was a highlight for all of us. The sound was huge, the crowd were really receptive and were all there from the very start, and BCNR did a phenomenal show. The Crossing is this great big hall in the middle of a music college, so our greenroom was this music classroom, which helped us all revise before the gig… and the enormous statue of Elvis in the corridor probably gave me the confidence to pull it all off, cheers buddy.

We also met a lot of folk and had a lot of good conversations at the merch stand – it was the first time we'd met people who had our records and had come to see us in another city, which is a good feeling. I remember waking up at 6am and not being able to get back to sleep because I felt so good - that's literally never happened to me before.

Favourite thing someone's said about your music:

John Cooper Clarke's, "Sensational, where do you gig?" has always stuck with me.

…and the strangest thing someone's said about your music:

"I couldn't sleep after hearing your album" was something someone said about our upcoming album. 2024 is the year of insomnia.

So what's all this about a new album in 2024…

We're releasing our debut album on State 51! It's been a long time coming and it's great to have it finally finished. I'm proud of the songs and everyone's contributions on them, I think it's a good debut! I'm looking forward to the shows that will surround that next year. Also excited to be working on new songs now, which is when I feel happiest, and that should continue into next year.