Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace will move you ‘’ OUT NOW
I’ve just finished a 9-month period of writing an album. It’s a love letter to the album, something I see fading with the increase of individual releases being the go-to way of making money, about artists and thir relationship with AI, my complex relationship with addiction and my autism, sometimes leading me to have more empathy with machines than people, and how I feel my neurodivergence has affected my ability to be the sort of father I wish to be. I love my daughter, and she knows she’s loved, but I do feel that if you’ve been affected by childhood trauma yourself, you have a tendency to dwell on these matters.
1. For someone that is yet to discover David Gates, how would you describe your music?
Varied and passionate. I love and do love all kinds of music, from Joy Division to The Idles, from Luk Hash’s chiptune work and Aphex Twin to Woodie Guthrie. If something speaks to me, or is trying to say something it inspires me.
2. What inspired you as an artist?
First of all the Beatles, I adored them as a child. I was asking for a record player when everyone was asking for tapes and CD’s. But most of all my Nan, I had a troubled childhood, she used her pension money to buy my first guitar, I played it until my fingers bled to make it up to her. When she past I cut a piece from the guitars fret board and put it on her coffin.
3. What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands?
I’m autistic, so can’t perform live. It’s just too much. I was an alcoholic, I’m 11 years in recovery, so back in the day it would have been booze. As for diva demands in general I’d never asked for anything really. A coke zero as my metabolism has long since failed me.
4. Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape?
Somewhere genuine. I don’t want to make any music that isn’t purposeful. There’s a very easy way to make money if you just throw samples together and keep tracks under two minutes for social media. I suppose I belong to an age, which I think is coming back, of people trying to say something of purpose. Not offering answers, but at least asking questions. I fit with the misfits, I suppose.
5: What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you Dislike ?
I like anything, I recently picked up an LP with music from the court of Henry the 8th, though I doubt it was a live recording. I take issue with certain elements of Hip-hop that gravitate toward materialism, all types of music that do that really. I’m not a fan of “big rock star” type behaviour. I prefer Hip-hop when it’s NWA, Jurrasic 5 or Public Enemy. Music with a purpose and drive beyond a cheque.
6. Is there a story behind the new album?
Yes, quite a long one so I’m sorry. The record is held together by the thread of AI and the Artist. This is something that has frightened me for some time. Mostly due to the fact that I can foresee if costing so many people their jobs. I decided to write something confronting that, but as well as confronting it also accepting it is an element of life now. This also tied into my diagnosis of Autism a year ago, I had always felt more empathy and comfort around machines and this seemed deeply ironic. I decided that, as I felt at the time, the age of the album was over, that I was going to at least get down my truth as I saw it on a record. As such the style swings from Indie rock, to electronica, to folk as it’s a representation of myself as much as the subject matter I’m looking at. It also took the best part of a year as I had recorded it all myself and it included sections of orchestra’s that I had to play myself. It’s the story of me I suppose, and the thing I fear will surpass the thing I value about me most. I made the record free, although people could pay if they wished, because I felt talking to people, letting them know their thoughts might be shared, shouldn’t be something that is locked away behind a paywall. Art should be for everyone, not just those who can afford it.
7 What would you say is your greatest strength as an Artist?
Open mindedness, I love anything. One of the tracks on my album is based on Song of Seikilos, which is the oldest surviving complete musical composition. You can hear it here and I think it’s beautiful https://bsmrocks.bandcamp.com/track/song-of-seikilos
8. What would you say is your greatest weakness as an Artist?
A lack of self-belief, worth and confidence.
9. What can fans expect from your new album ‘’Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace will move you ‘’
I can guarantee that, you’ll feel seen and heard. We’re all frightened, we’re all confused, we’re also all able to be together… ‘’
10. What music artist would you say have influenced your work?
It’s genuinely impossible to say. If I had a gun to my head, David Bowie, but The Manic Street Preachers opened my mind to so much art, music, literature and thinking that it would be unfair not to include them.
11. Who would you most like to collaborate with artistically?
David Firth, the guy who made Salad Fingers et al. He seems nuts, but in the best possible way. He’s also a very talented electronica artist. Plus I’d imagine he’d chuck in a free weird video!
12. What was your worst performance?
I was about 20, it was insanely hot for England, I was smashed out of my head, played terribly and then got mildly electrocuted by a mic stand. We did get paid though, so there is that.
13: What was the most difficult obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it?
My alcoholism. It helped me perform, so live music without it was very hard. But my daughter was born and I decided that she was more important than anything else. I nearly died prior to that, ironically at 27, having nearly bitten off my tongue in an alcoholic seizure. I reasoned that even if I had no value in myself, that I had value in her and what I could be to her, so I went to rehab, stayed there for 3 months and have been clean for 11 years. I’ve not been able to play live since, but that’s a fair exchange.
14: What is your creative process when making music. Do you work with others or is there just you?
I always work on my own, I have strong imposter syndrome when with other musicians. My process is just listening to as much varied music as I can, as soon as something really talks to me I try and emulate it in a way. It never works, but then you get an interesting combination of both worlds.
15: Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?
I don’t have one now, so I’ve no idea. In an ideal, beautiful world, I’d like to see myself making enough to support me and my family and to make my music and other art for people in a continued truthful way. I’d love to think that I’d be able to sustain the model I’ve started where I can create and people can pay if they can afford, but those who can’t can still be part of it. I want to help lighten loads, I used to work in care, but I think that music can do so much. I want to offer that, I’m not interested in being rich or any of that nonsense.
