Many of you will be au fait with the Mercury Award nominee and all round champion of folk music - Sam Lee (especially after reading our fruity Valentine interview). With his second album The Fade In Time about to be released (16 March) - and already receiving 5-star reviews - we catch up with him to ask the ‘must know’ questions. He tells us about producing the album at Imogen Heaps studio with folks from Penguin Cafe; the fact we’re all invited to his launch parties - yes, he has four nights in London (17-20 March, venue details listed below); and being a self-released album, he has the most charming crowdfunding Pledge ever - where he offers to share things that inspired him 'not just as a musician but as a person, lover and believer of life, art and culture’. We also talk London, politics, and music - read on!

Run-Riot: Musicians often say the second album is the toughest - how’s it been so far?  
Sam Lee: I didn't get burdened so much by the weight of expectation to create something as bold or as weird as the first one. I actually felt more confident in my creative practice and in the collaborations I worked with on this record.

The challenges were often practical like finding the time to make and record the music.

The issue of financing it is the hardest as I still have a massive debt from Album 1. It’s a costly process that’s meant not working and just spending lots of money on studios. But I felt empowered by a much deeper understanding of the music and a closer connection to the material - I felt confident these songs would be well looked after.

Run-Riot: You laid down the album during October 2013 at Imogen Heaps studio - working with your band and producers/musicians Arthur Jeffes and Jamie Orchard-Lisle from Penguin Cafe. How did Arthur and Jamie contribute to the production?
Sam: They were great at creating the space and environment in which to devise and steer the crafting process. They were superb sounding boards lending that critical ear and saying when to stop and when to evolve or develop an idea.

Working with myself and the band - 6 very vocal musicians with lots of ideas - I think their skills in diplomacy were key to the record being made. They really captured the sound and feel of a great variety of instrumental palettes.

Run-Riot: Can you tell us more about the sound you’ve crafted for the album?
Sam: This album was a much deeper exploration of sounds and styles than Ground Of Its Own. I drew influences from around the world - from the Orientalism of the Japanese Koto in Lord Gregory to the improvised classical orchestration with brass on the Scottish Traveller song Moorlough Maggie.

I was drawing influences from so many sources but always trying to bring to them a sense of Britishness - and an identity that conjures a familiarity in soundscape. My approach to musicianship is about working with players who can address a traditional instrument with a western sensibility yet honour the articulations which define and identify it.

This means that no song will sound like we’re trying to be foreign - but it’ll have the sense of the exotic within it and a sound that is in no way a traditional British record.

Run-Riot: In 2012 you founded The Song Collectors Collective in order to conserve folk culture for future generations. How has this grown?
Sam: The idea of the SCC has been to inspire other singers, musicians and storytellers to explore this rich vein of untapped living culture and avoid having to replicate what’s preserved in books and on old vinyls.

The organisation has been incredible, bringing a community of people together interested in documenting and conserving intangible and vanishing heritage here and abroad.

It’s now a massive part of mine and others lives as a forum for training up new song collectors, repatriating the material we record back to the families of Gypsies and Travellers.

We now have a whole film department documenting the last of these ‘ancients’ who have seen worlds that will never again exist. It’s been a huge privilege to facilitate this journey - to exchange and record a culture that in 10 years will have disappeared forever.

Run-Riot: ‘The Fade In Time’ - what’s behind the album title?
Sam: It’s a line that came out of the rewriting of the last song on the album The Moss House which I learned from an old female Traveller in Bunclody, Ireland.

The song is about my interaction with that community and witnessing the loss of their culture. But also, when I’m in their world - invoking the songs to be sung - seeing how they (the Traverllers) flare up with vigour.

As time passes and as us interlopers retire back to our worlds, concepts of the culture grow stronger, and yet also dissipate in existence.

It is about how time fades away - and as it does some ideas grow stronger and more powerful in their separation. Know what I mean?

Run-Riot: You’re not having just one Album Launch Party - but FOUR - and they’re all open to the public. Why not have one big one?
Sam: I’ve done these big shows and they’re wonderful for the ego - but they miss the intimacy and specialness of unusual places filled with song, allowing you to be right up close with the listeners.

I think there is something very spiritual about this music, in many ways the songs are like secular prayers connecting us with the land and our ancestors. In this sense I wanted to play these shows in places of worship to allow the songs to be held in reverence where that communion happens - allowing listeners to experience a more localised and non denominational ritualising of music, and a sense of place and heritage.  

Run-Riot: You’re producing the album through your own label The Nest Collective with possibly one of the most charming fundraising Pledges of all time - where you’re offering to share things that inspired you 'not just as a musician but as a person, lover and believer of life, art and culture'. Tell us more!
Sam: Well in all honesty half of the answer is about economics and the other half is about freedom of expression and maintaining my independence.

I’m self releasing as it’s the most practical way of maintaining the rights and ownership. I have a really good team around me to make sure it’s done as well as possible. But this means I have to raise all the money myself - it costs a fortune to do it properly. With no other outside investment it’s all down to me.

Crowd funding campaigns like my Pledge are wonderful as they’re a way of connecting with your audience - offering the music in a very personal way.

I have also decided to offer opportunities for people to experience the world that inspired my music making and my life as an artist. One of my greatest inspirations is the great outdoors via my previous life as a wilderness teacher, forager and explorer - I was taught many moons ago by Ray Mears.

I want to share this world with the public - taking you into the woods to sing with nightingales as I did with BBC Radio Four, and spend time foraging and lighting friction fires.

Also, to come and meet some of the Travellers who have inspired this album.

I want to give unique experiences that no one else could offer.

Only a few days left of this so get your bids in quick!

Run-Riot: Music and politics can be messy bedfellows. Have you any comments on the UK General Election 2015?
Sam: I will say this; what I am stunned about with this election is that it has never been more obvious to me which parties - societally - are the most damaging, dangerous and in need to be voted out, or away from. I’m referring to the Conservatives and UKIP.

I hope for nothing more than for a massive change in power control where Britain votes with an empathy for more than just its own self centred interests but with a sense of responsibility for global, environmental and cultural protection and we see a re-evaluation of our duty of care towards this country and its citizens. A shift away from exploitation and towards empowerment and progressive leadership.

Run-Riot: Finally - we have to ask, could you treat us to a Sam Lee London anecdote?
Sam: Wow, from the boy what was born on the Tottenham Court Road where do I start. The thing about London is that it is full of fences. However they are never too high to be mounted and once night falls the city is an absolute playground where one can enter and explore. I once got to sleep out on the roof of the (Southbank Centre’s) Queen Elizabeth Hall and when night fell it was incredible seeing how another side of the city came to life. People appeared on the roof from all places and I was reminded how this is such a powerful place for people to exist below the radar in low impact ways that are about reclaiming the right to roam, to restore a sense of communal purpose, to bend the rules. I love that about this city, its deep rooted sense of anarchy, rebellion or subterfuge. It’s a sleeping beast that when rearing its head has a very cheeky side to it.
 
Sam Lee & Friends: Fade in Time is out on Monday, 16th March 2015
Available from iTunes and Amazon
www.samleesong.co.uk

Album Launch Parties

8pm, Tuesday 17 March
St Mark's Church Hall
Colvestone Crescent
London E8 2LG
Info and tickets

7.30pm, Wednesday 18 March
St Pancras Old Church
Pancras Road
London NW1 1UL
Info and tickets

8pm, Thursday 19 March
Sandys Row Synagogue
4 Sandy's Row
London E1 7HW
Info and tickets

8pm, Friday 20 March
Westminster Quaker Meeting House
52 St Martins Lane
London WC2N 4EA
Info and tickets