Beyond The Coral: Lee Southall interview
Leaving Hoylake heroes The Coral presented Lee Southall with a welcome opportunity to start over – as he prepares to release debut album Iron in the Fire, we meet an artist for whom change is a wholly positive force
A great many of us dream of starting again. What a rush, what a thrill it is to imagine casting off the shackles of your life, throwing everything into a bag and heading out where nobody knows us; no judgement, no hassle, just a fresh start.
Of course, it’s a little easier for Joe and Joanne Public to break their chains and plot a new course, but what of those of us with a little more history and reputation? What of those of us who have a whole career behind us but carry strong desires to forge their own path?
‘Forge’ is something of a key word for Lee Southall. The former Coral guitarist has done exactly what a lot of us can only dare to consider. With Iron In The Fire – his debut solo record – he has allowed the kiln of his past and present lives to forge art that both closes a door on the past and opens another toward a bright future. Present on some of the greatest cuts The Coral had to offer, from their stunning, mystical self-titled debut of 2002 to 2010’s Butterfly House, his guitar work has always provided a solid undercurrent to one of the Northwest’s greatest and most reputable groups.
But Southall has granted his art the opportunity to reflect the massive sea changes that his life has undergone since leaving The Coral and with that has created a vital, urgent and revealing record that proves you can reclaim the original fire that once possessed you.
For Southall, Iron In The Fire is a labour of love; a commitment to the craft and people that got him to where he is in the first place. It all came about after a series of radical decisions left him facing a period of soul-searching; asking himself the most fundamental questions pertaining to his purpose, goals and achievements.
“The record is about change,” he tells The Skinny. “A lot of my life has changed in recent years. I left The Coral, became a father and moved to Hebden Bridge from Liverpool on my own. All of a sudden I was totally independent and had to do everything by myself. It helped change me musically, it helped me to diversify, to get away from just the electric guitar and to try other approaches and modes.”
Moving away from Merseyside
It was the move to Hebden Bridge that facilitated the ‘new’ Lee Southall. A clean break from Liverpool – a city like any other; vibrant but overbearing – brought with it a new found sense of perspective. The storm clouds that intermittently gathered over the hills mirrored the emotional storms swirling in his life.
Southall’s new surroundings brought with it unique challenges. Taking time out from life to quite literally build dry stone walls for a year, he found that the climate and increasingly erratic weather patterns of the hills did much for his artistic temperament.
“The weather changes here so much. I can get every season in about five minutes. I’m 1,000ft above sea level. So I combined these things that were going on in my life and the constantly changing weather – one minute it’s hammering down, the next it’s sunny – and the whole thing bled into the record. It felt like the weather was pulling me in certain directions”.
But it was becoming a father that really gave Southall pause for thought; proving to be the catalyst for not only his decision to leave The Coral, but to strike out on his own as a solo artist.
“The Coral went on hiatus in 2012 or so with Butterfly House, after the whole promotional conveyor belt had stopped. I remember being in a room with them all and discussion was leaning toward the idea that maybe we should take a break, everyone have some time off and allow us to stand on our own two feet.
“This came not long after my daughter had been born and there and then I felt like I didn’t want to just sit around and wait for everything to get started again. James (Skelly, Coral vocalist) had his solo album tied up and Ian (Skelly, drummer) was pursuing new projects too. So I thought it was time to step up and do my own thing before time passed me by.
“Around 2014 James sent me some demos and I liked them, but it wasn’t what I was interested in doing and so I thought it would be better if they moved forward without me.”
And so an amicable parting of ways – “I don’t think I could have asked for any more” – for long-time friends and cohorts has proved to be a blessing for us mere mortal listeners. With Iron In The Fire, Southall has readily spread his wings and proven his chops, allowing plenty of influences to seep into the music.
“There’s the Bert Jansch side to it, the acoustic English folk side as well as other musicians I love – I really got into Ryan Adams over the last couple of years. There’s also a soundtrack element to it. There’s synth at times, it can be very atmospheric. Plus there’s the stuff from The Coral that I’ll have kept hold of…”
The evidence is there in the soft, snowy choral refrains of the album’s eponymous track. It calls to mind the likes of Fleet Foxes and, inevitably, the sultry vocal harmonies that became a Coral trademark. Well, you couldn't have expected Southall to forget where he came from, could you? The titular track is like a call to prayer: pristine, echoed vocals are layered over crystal clear, twanging guitar and further imbued by a building sense of atmosphere and drama. If we're talking about setting the scene, then this is as pure as it can get.
Yesterday Morning chimes like an alarm clock. Southall’s voice is one of striking clarity as he laments the one who 'each and every day has passed along my way'. The other key moments on Southall’s imminent debut are Under The Weather – which sounds like a chart hit waiting to happen – and In Accordance, which builds from a slow, brooding love song into a rapid race to the finish line over the course of six perfect minutes.
“It feels like a completely new chapter”
Any doubts that may have been held about Southall ploughing his own furrow are dispelled immediately by a record that could be one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2017. To say Southall is relishing the opportunities he has afforded himself is something of an understatement. He is positively raring to go.
“It feels like a completely new chapter,” he enthuses, sounding expectant and happy. “I haven’t been around Liverpool and The Coral for nearly six years; I’ve been up here on my own and yeah, it feels like I’ve stripped everything away and started over.”
For Southall, leaving The Coral, becoming a father, taking himself away from the hustle and bustle of grimy urban living and finally reaching deep down inside to create some truly affecting art may have been the key to opening that door to the future.
“I was always Lee From The Coral, who played a part and I was very quiet. Then I moved here and I kind of found the person who’d always been lurking inside and wanting to come out after all this time.”
It is perhaps a lesson we could all do well to heed. Don’t settle, keep fighting, break out and take a chance. You may create something as wonderful as Iron In The Fire yourself.
Iron in the Fire is released on 21 April via Wonderfulsound