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Quirks Behind the Music - George Boomsma



For those readers not familiar with you and your music, tell us a little about yourself and your sound. What inspired you to start performing?
I grew up in Northallerton, North Yorkshire and I guess my first inspiration in music was joining a local church choir my grandpa was in when I was about 7. It's there I learned to sing, read music and generally get a feel for music. I started writing songs at university with my sound being pretty chilled and folky, on the melancholy side of the spectrum. I've been likened as a mix between Nick Drake and Thom Yorke.

Who are your musical influences for both your music and personal taste?
Some of my influences are Nick Drake, John Martyn, Jeff Buckley, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Mark Kozelek, Punch Brothers, Tom Waits, The Band to name but a few. I tend to lean towards music which I find musically interesting, stuff which raises the eyebrows a bit.

If you could only listen to three albums for the rest of your life, which would you choose and why?Nick Drake – Pink Moon. One of my favourites, I can listen to it over and over. I love the simple, raw and spontaneous production and the songs are beautiful.
Jeff Buckley – Grace. I admit I wasn't so keen on this album when I first heard it but it was that thing of every time I listened, it grew and grew on me. Now I absolutely love it, it's just genius. I have it on repeat in the car.
Tenacious D – Tenacious D. First album I ever got, still know all the words. I just thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard in my life when I was younger.                                                                                                                                                                                                         



If you could learn to play any instrument (that you don't already play), which one would you pick?
I'd like to learn a melody based instrument, maybe fiddle. I have a mate from university called Kieran Towers who just shreds old-time fiddle, he is so so good and when ever we jam I feel super insignificant just clunking out a G chord while he flies off on one. He has an album coming out soon.

What's your greatest musical achievement to date?
When I was 16 I performed at The Royal Albert Hall, London with a 6-piece dixie band, that was pretty cool. There's a video of it on youtube if you want to see me do some class act split trumpet notes.



If you could support anyone live, who would it be and why?
I'd like to support Mark Kozelek, I'm a huge fan of his music and I think we'd fit well together. I reckon I'd learn a lot from him.


So you've just released your debut album, which was recorded in a slightly unorthodox manner. Tell us about it and the inspiration behind it.
It was recorded in a local church, the same one I sang in the choir for. We went in at 2pm to set up, pushed record at 7pm and locked the doors about 4am with the album finished. We recorded all the tracks live, straight to a 4 track reel to reel recorder onto 1/4” tape, just myself on vocals and guitar, Adam Ridley on piano and Richard Miles engineering. I'm a big believer to 'relish the blemish' so no editing was done, just some slight vocal compression and EQ added. I only had enough tape for an hours recording time so If you listen to the last track of the album (Through The Winter) you can hear my final take of the night when the tape suddenly ran out before I could finish... Oddly enough I thought this quite apt for the album ending as the song seems to almost disintegrate so I kept it in! It was such a fun experience to record, the whole mechanical and out-of-the-box aspect was so interesting to do and just smashing it out in a night was the perfect thing for me.




Do you have a favourite track on the album, or do you love them all equally?
Well the newest one on the album is 'Brother Of Mine', I spent many an hour trying to get my fingers to work on the picking pattern which I find pretty satisfying to nail after all that struggled practise. The subject is on mental health which I believe is good to talk about – even better to sing about.

Which local bands have caught your eye recently?
I've been on tour a couple times with Leeds based People Poems who always blow me away with their performances. Good friend of mine Adam Ridley has an album coming out soon as 'Ridley Woof', his music is just insanely good.

Any final words? What's on the horizon for you?
Hopefully the album will open some doors and lead to more gigs around the country! Things seem to be at a steady incline at the moment so I'll just keep chipping away and working as much as I can! 

SUPPORT GEORGE


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