In the spotlight – Denny Lloyd
Denny Lloyd is a singer/songwriter, musician and producer from Windsor (UK). Denny is also one half of the duo Intrinsik featuring Denny Lloyd & John Hardman.
Let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How did your musical adventure take off?
“I grew up mainly in Windsor. My parents were musicians, wrote songs and played the pub and club circuits. They were always playing music mainly The Beatles, Supertramp and Neil Young.”
“My parents had a musician friend, John Hardman, who had a studio set up in his front room. I remember going into his place and seeing all the buttons and lights it looked like the inside of a spaceship. I must’ve only been about 5 but remember thinking this is what I want my front room to look like and now it does. John later became my guitar teacher and friend. In 2015 we recorded an album together mainly of acoustic covers under the name Intrinsk.”
What can you remember about your earliest compositions and what influenced them?
“I was always making up tunes. My mum tells me I could sing before I could talk. I guess when I started to take it to the next level was when I bought a 4-track cassette recorder when I was about 14. I used to love writing tunes and recording fascinated me. One of my earliest songs was a song called ‘Breathe’ which is on my first album ‘Running On the Spot’.”
“My feelings of not wanting to conform or integrate into society influenced my songs and the music I was listening to at the time which was the Indie/Britpop stuff like Blur, Weller, Reef and Oasis. Also Grunge, Triphop and Punk. Portishead’s ‘Dummy’, Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Alice in Chains ‘Jar Of Flies’ and Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ were important albums when I was growing up. Although most of my music doesn’t really sound like any of the above and more like The Beatles and Supertramp from my earlier years.”
What song represents who you are best?
“I guess my own song ‘What am I doing?’ as I don’t really know what I’m doing? Does anyone?”
You recently released ‘Everybody Knows‘? What’s the backstory and influence behind this track?
“I started writing the song probably a good 10 years ago. Originally I think it was influenced by a girl I was seeing at the time but when I revisited it I decided to turn it into a song about today’s self obsessed “look at me” society. We’ve had the stone age, the bronze age and now we live in the Im-age. People are obsessed with letting you know their every move and constantly seeking attention and validation with pics of themselves and their surroundings. But ‘Everybody Knows’ that most people only show you what they want you to see and not really the true image of what and who they are.”
How would you describe your songwriting process?
“Generally the music comes first. I’ll be doodling on the guitar, uke or piano and I’ll start playing some chords and then I’ll start humming a melody. Then I usually try and let the melody tell me the story of the song from the feelings and images it evokes.”
Your last full length album was released in 2013. Do you have any plans to release another album? What’s next?
“I would love to do another album. I definitely have enough songs for another 2 or 3. It’s just getting the time to record them all in between running my studio and teaching etc. My albums I did with a producer but now I record and produce the music by myself so it takes a lot longer. So I guess for now I’ll just keep finishing them off one at a time and releasing them as singles.”
As I understood you are a guitar teacher, you sometimes work as a guitar tech for other musicians and you run a recording studio in Windsor. What kind of work do you enjoy doing the most?
“I love all of it but particularly the recording and production side. I like how someone comes in and says I want to record this whether it be a song, a podcast, a book or a show and by the end of the day what was in their head is coming out of the speakers.”
What’s a typical day for you?
“I don’t really have a typical day as it depends on what work I have booked in. If it’s a teaching day I usually start teaching around 2pm and finish around 7pm. If it’s a recording client it’s what time they want to come in and how long for. Then If I have no clients I work on my own music but I work better late afternoon/evening. So I might start around 4pm and carry on until the early hours if the planets are aligned and it’s going well creatively.”
If you could work with any other artist from the past (dead or alive) who would it be?
“Zero 7.”
What’s the ultimate goal you want your music to achieve, or for you to achieve in your career as a musician?
“To one day be earning enough from my songwriting royalties to be able to spend all my time writing and recording my own original songs. Then perhaps I’d get round to finishing another album.”
What’s your opinion on the overall music industry today?
“It seems to get harder and harder to make a living from and the mainstream radio/media tend to only play a handful of the same old artists. Which is a shame because the Indie music scene at the moment is incredible. Thankfully though there are people like you guys helping to spread the word about us Indie’s so that gives some hope.”
What was the best bit of advice, whether it be to do with music or otherwise, that you still follow today? And who gave it to you?
“I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. I’m not good at taking advice I just kinda follow my own instinct “
If the house is on fire what guitar do you save and why?
“Probably my cheap Epiphone acoustic because I bought it when I was 16 and wrote most of my songs on it. Plus we’ve been partied hard together and been through lots of emotional times together.”
What’s your pick for album of the year?
“‘A Light For Attracting Attention’ By The Smile.”
What’s your favourite song from the Cool Top 20 and why?
“‘Nothing New Under the Sun’ by Robi Mitch. I like it because it’s very different and I love the palette of sounds he uses…..retro synths etc.”
What song would you like to add as a bonus track and why?
“That’s a tricky question there are so many great Indies out there at the moment who I love and I feel cruel to the ones I miss out. However you can check them out on my relatively unknown playlist, but for now I’m gonna go with Adam Barrett ‘Waiting’ as it’s the most recent track I played from that playlist. Great song, great vocal and it has a sitar solo too.”
https://www.dennylloyd.com/
