We were lucky enough to talk to Euan Blackman, the Merseyside songwriter all about his music and his career within the industry so far! In 2011 he remembers seeing some form of 'The Beach Boys' at a venue in Cape Cod, Massachusetts called the 'Melody Tent' which had a revolving stage. Hearing all the jangly guitar made him “desperately want to pick up a Stratocaster”. Since then, throughout high school, he has played in various bands and began writing songs. Over the last couple of years, he claims to “becoming obsessive about producing and arranging music”. He tells us that “the idea that a simple tune on an acoustic guitar can become a dense, multi-tracked composition with hundreds of layers” still blows his mind now. He released his debut single in July 2021 called ’24 Hours 7 Days’ and has plans to continue releasing and performing music for the foreseeable future.
Euan tells us since he was a kid “I’ve always been surrounded by music”, so he has always had a passion and love for music. Also adding to this, both his dad and his brother are musicians, there’s always a record playing in the house. He admits that this musical childhood inspired him to start performing and eventually to write his own compositions. “Music just seems natural, and songs just seem to flow easily. I can’t see myself doing anything else.” He tells us, which is so lovely!
The songwriter tells us that his writing always comes from an initial idea: whether that's a riff on the guitar, a random melody on a voice memo, or a word or phrase. From there he can then slowly build a verse, or a chorus until he has something that he doesn't cringe at! He describes this as one of his biggest challenges for some years to write songs he was completely “proud of or willing to show others” yet he has improved as a writer! Lyrically he has mainly inspirations from everyday experience and what I see around me, as well as from books he is reading. “I read mainly classics, Kerouac, Orwell, Capote, etc.” Which we love! He exposes that he likes how random words sound or feel and try to make them work in a completely unrelated context. Following on from that one of his music idols he takes lyrical inspiration from is Bruce Springsteen, he admires his ability to take every day experiences and turn them in to songs that have the power to move people! Production wise he takes inspiration from George Daniel who has worked on albums from The 1975. As well as Jack Antonoff who worked on recent albums by Taylor Swift, him starring in the iconic video of him and Taylor in the studio writing the bridge for ‘Getaway Car’!
He tells us he is “heavily inspired by American culture, fashion and music”, as he has been fortunate enough as a kid to travel a lot of the States, and it made a big impact on me!”. Musically he loves all things chilled out, personal, and with lush arrangements.
He states that he is pretty proud of the response to his music so far! He has received some nice blog and playlist coverage on his debut single ’24 Hours 7 Days’ as well as loads of BBC Radio plays too! “My favourite feedback is when random people message me out of the blue and tell me how the music makes them feel. That’s who I make music for, not for the critics, but for real human beings with normal lives.” he tells us which is very admirable and truthful.
In 5 years, Euan hopes to be working as a musician full-time, whether still pursuing his own artist route, or working in some other way. The dream for him “is obviously to build as big an audience as possible, play the big festivals, put together some tours or big support gigs, and continue writing and releasing music to the highest possible standard” which the determination is very applaudable. If Euan could go back 5 years he would tell his younger self to “Keep going, but don’t be so damn hard on yourself, you’re just a kid!”
If you hadn't heard of Euan Blackman before now, we hope you love his now as much as we do! We would highly encourage you to go listen to his music that he describes as “Introspective, Warm, Acoustic, Intimate, Reflective” so if that interests you go, go listen to his music! But wait there is new music on the way as his ‘Grateful For The Moments Spent Alone’ EP is coming! Singles ‘Sinking’ and ’24 Hours 7 Days’ will be dropped before the full EP, and “I’m super excited to finally share this work with the world” he tells us.
By CAITLIN
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