Five Tracks From: Rodney Cromwell

Our good friend Rodney Cromwell just released his new single The Winter Palace, and it’s yet another gem from the keen-eyed observer of human nature. The track’s release seemed like a good opportunity to catch up with him as part of our new Five Tracks From feature. Got to say, he has good taste in music!

My new single

It’s called The Winter Palace. It’s about trying to forget someone but you can’t (thanks subconscious). It took me absolutely ages to record, because it was made on a load of crummy analogue synths that won’t stay in tune and it has harmonies all over it (and I’m hardly Aled Jones) so for that reason alone I’m glad people like it.

The Winter Palace by Rodney Cromwell

A favourite track of your own

Probably Waiting Room. I’ve written loads of songs about unrequited love, but this is the first one about requited love in that it’s about how I fell in love with my wife. Verse two is about us getting disgustingly drunk in a hotel in Brighton. I left out the bit about me getting food poisoning from a bowl of mussels (too graphic).

The first song I ever released

On vinyl it was Futurismo by my first band Saloon. It was a new-wave flamenco thing in Spanish. We recorded it in a day, and it was layered up with guitars, moogs, violas and sounded great! We never recorded anything so effortlessly again; in our next session I remembered suggesting lets add the sound of a powerdrill to this one! Obviously that song took months to mix and cost a fortune.

The song I wish I’d written

Yesterday or something else that would have made me enough money in my early 20’s to have retired. (Something many musicians and label owners can probably agree with! – Mark)

A song that brings me to my happy place

Metronomy’s Everything Goes My Way; a brilliant breezy song that sounds both lo-fi and super studio-fresh. I listened to it when my eldest was born; my wife was in hospital for a week with complications, but all was OK thanks to the brilliant hospital staff.

That song was my happy soundtrack as I walked through the corridors of Lewisham Hospital, thinking I am proper grown up now with responsibilities! Two years later I released the debut Rodney Cromwell album though, and I became an irresponsible big kid again.

The English Riviera (10th Anniversary) by MetronomyThe Winter Palace is out now via Happy Robots and can also be found on the Memory Box album. You can pick up the single and album in digital format on Bandcamp, sadly (for me) the vinyl edition has already sold out!

Photo by Martin J Langthorne