Singer songwriter is bringing his album to Stereo

The singer-songwriter, son of the legendary Ian Dury, has recently released his best album yet, Prince of Tears, and he’ll be bringing the album to Stereo on February 20.

“I love it in Glasgow,” he says.

“It’s always a bit of a carve-up there, where something happens or someone turns up. I always feel like I meet a gangster or something when I’m there but I like it a lot. I feel I can relate to it as a city, because there’s a romantic bleakness there that I like.

“I can’t explain it really, there’s a bit of that in me too, and there’s still a toughness there, at the core of it. It’s not about how many coffee shops you build there, it’s about something else and I feel Glasgow always has that when I’m there.”

Prince of Tears is Baxter’s fifth album, combining foul mouthed character creations in the lyrics with a host of musical styles, from funky, melodic pop to short, sharp punk. It is all delivered by Baxter’s distinctive voice, a voice that sounds more like his father than ever before.

It is also an album that initially was kick-started by a break-up, when his girlfriend moved back to France and Baxter headed home to London, having been living in a village near Hertfordshire. However this, thankfully, isn’t an album of a singer-songwriter having an angst-ridden crisis.

Instead Baxter used the record to create characters, from the loud-mouthed bravado of Miami to wondering about an old school friend on Oi, or having songstress Rose Elinor Dougall (formerly of the Pipettes and a regular Mark Ronson collaborator) drop by to provide vocals on Porcelain.

“I was just naturally informed by my state of mind, which is quite good because it means you have a starting position,” he says.

“If you’re neutral and start writing songs, and you’re talking about, I dunno, dolphins or some other miscellaneous subject, then you end up making an album about nothing. This time I was a bit miserable, and I don’t have a sentimental bone in my body, so this was never going to be an album claimed by cheesiness.

“It was my version of my emotions and I don’t think I can be cheesy about things like that.”

That runs into how he sees his songs, too. Baxter is more inspired by film and television than anything when he’s writing and trying to create characters.

“I always see a song as like a dream sequence in a film, like an episode of the Sopranos or a Coen brothers film,” he adds.

“It should be like one of those slightly hallucinogenic dreams, tied together around a loose, spasmodic narrative, and they do so well at them. There’s a Sopranos dream sequence where a fish starts talking, or the bowling bit in the Big Lebowski – those are totally what I’d like to do with the songs.”

His first taste of musical fame came when he was snapped on his dad’s classic New Boots and Panties record, aged five-years-old. It was only after his father passed away that he started to release music, although it was a subject the 46-year-old always had a passion for.

After various directions and attempts, he feels he’s finally making music he’s completely confident with.

“The music I make is quite complex in how you build it up, and it takes time to get good at that,” he adds.

“It’s about selling the unobvious while making it accessible, and that’s quite difficult. I’ve just got better at it over the years. I’ve always done it really, with everything, it just took me a long time to get here.”

Baxter Dury, Stereo, Tuesday February 20, sold out, 7pm