British alt-pop project SICKY shares background stories, early gigs, and the making of Troubled Delight

Transmission 179: Interview with SICKY

SICKY is the moniker of British alt-pop artist Mick Butler, a Black Country native now based in Shropshire. His third album, Troubled Delight, builds on lo-fi arrangements with acoustic guitar, minimal percussion, and double bass contributions from Jen Bone. Read our full review of Troubled Delight.

Title: Troubled Delight
Genres: Indie Rock, Pop, Psych-folk
Label: self-released
Description: Interview with SICKY about Troubled Delight, ELO, songwriting habits, and his DIY acoustic approach with Jen Bone.

What are your earliest memories tied to music—records, sounds, moments—that stayed with you before you ever thought about writing your own songs?

My earliest musical connection was as a kid my folks used to take me and my brother to a smoky old working men’s club called the Morlock.It was Saturday night and I reckon every grown up in there must have smoked a packet of cigarettes each.

Through the haze there would be a cover band playing.I was totally mesmerised by the guitars, just seemed like the coolest thing in the world and instantly wanted one.

Another early memory is listening to my cousin’s record collection. She had a lot of old northern soul mixed in with stuff like T-Rex/Marc Bolan. This would explain why people pick up on the glam flavours in my music.

Was there a particular artist, album, or even a single track that first made you feel that making music was a possibility?

One of the first tracks that made me think I would love to go down the musical path was ELO’s Mr Blue Sky.

I used to sit with massive headphones on listening to the song over and over again.It was my uncle’s posh expensive stereo system so it sounded incredible. What a production! The vocal layers and building textures really inspired my little mind.

Growing up in the Black Country, what was the local atmosphere like when it came to music scenes or finding like-minded collaborators?

As a young noise maker in the Black Country there was only one place to head for … JB’s Dudley. The hairy little band I was in (Scream Jeezus) used to play the free Tuesday night spot. Those nights were always packed with fellow musicians and gig goers.

Some big names played there over the years and when we were offered a payed Friday night we really thought we’d arrived.

JB’s is sadly no more but is still fondly talked about in the Black Country and beyond.

Do you remember the first time you wrote a full song and felt it was something worth keeping? What was it about?

I think the first song I wrote that felt like I’d stumbled on something original and unique to me was a poppy little thing called Why Do You Look So Mad?

A true breakthrough moment for me.I think it was my first ironic love song that was basically saying,what have I done to piss you off this time?

I’m still writing songs along those lines today.

Do you have any recurring themes or images that tend to resurface in your lyrics, consciously or not?

I guess the only themes that pop up in my lyrics a lot are the real life stuff.

I never sit down and consciously write or play anything,it just kind of blurts out.I then have to try and make sense of the lyrical shapes and a kind of story evolves.

The themes are normally things that are happening to me personally at the time or stuff that the crazy world is up to.(No shortage of material on that one at the moment!)

So the recurring theme is life I guess.

Your tracks often run under three minutes, but they still feel complete. Is that brevity a conscious decision?

I do like to get to the point with song arrangements. It’s not planned that way but certainly the songs on Troubled Delight all lend themselves to a quick break in and getaway.

It’s not always the case though,I have a song called Get Me a Gun that goes on for days.Another called Irish Snow you could time the cooking of your Sunday roast too.

So it depends on the vibe of the track I think.Darker songs seem to need a little more room to breathe.

What equipment or setup do you find yourself returning to most often when recording?

Equipment wise I like to keep it simple,probably because I don’t have much equipment.

For this album I used a lot of simple percussion (borrowed from the kids’s music box.)

I tend to start the recording process with an acoustic and build from there.The acoustic sometimes gets ditched and replaced with something more interesting.

A wonderful new spin on this album was the killer double bass of Jen Bone.

What’s your relationship with live performance like now—do you enjoy translating these tightly structured tracks to a live setting, or do you let them mutate?

Live I’ve been doing a stripped down version of the album.The songs seem to work nicely with just vocals, acoustic and Jen Bone on double bass. The girls (Lily and Scarlet) join in on a couple of tracks, whacking the hell out of percussion and singing backing vocals. It’s turning out to be a load of fun.

Maybe down the line a band might form to reproduce more of the album’s instrumentation.

We’ll see.

What kind of material is currently in progress—are you writing again already, or giving the album time to sit?

I’m definitely not in writing mode at the moment.

The album is so new I think it’s best to see how far it can take us.However I am looking to buy a piano.I can’t really play the piano but I think that might lead to some new ideas.

It could be cool to do something completely different.

I apologise in advance to all pianists out there.

I hope you enjoy Troubled Delight and thanks for listening.

Photos courtesy of SICKY

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others