ABOUT SLOW TOWN CLOCK
Scottish singer-songwriter
Slow Town Clock is the music of Glasgow born singer-songwriter and guitarist Jamie Leven, encompassing multiple projects, spanning several genres, and often accompanied by a varied and ever-expanding band of musical friends.
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No matter the project, the line-up or the style, at the heart of Slow Town Clock's music is wide-ranging and thoughtful songwriting that seeks to chart our inner and outer landscapes, and to weave together ​the miraculous, the mysterious and the mundane.
With influences ranging from Rabbie Burns to Nick Cave, Slow Town Clock stands at the crossroads where traditional British folk song and modern alternative music meet. Jamie has a deep interest in song and verse in its purest form, but also, increasingly, in the exploration of the seemingly infinite possibilities that come with writing, arranging and producing records.
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The Story So Far
‘A class act…a deft finger picker and melodious singer.’ - Steve Tilston
Winner of the 2008 Glasgow Songwright competition, Jamie has toured in the UK and Canada and has spent over a decade travelling Great Britain and Ireland collecting, performing and writing songs.
Jamie has played in almost every conceivable type of venue, from the Glasgow Carling Academy and the Inverness Ironworks to pubs, folk clubs, festivals, bandstands, living rooms, woodland glades, and even - bizarrely - the Scottish Parliament building. He has sung on the streets of countless towns and cities across the UK and Europe, from Galway to Rome, from Stornoway to Pamplona, and in many an alleyway in-between, always tinkering, always working to improve his delivery, and always striving to discover and respect the heart of the song.
By the late twenty-tens Jamie had a huge repertoire of folk and popular songs, but felt he was not devoting enough attention to his many original compositions. As his twenties drew to a close, he resolved to remedy this.
With the help of his future wife and fellow folk musician Sophie Wren - a piano-accordionist and gifted vocal harmoniser - Jamie began to create arrangements for his songs that went beyond the limitations of the acoustic guitar on which they were written.
The pair began making and performing music as Slow Town Clock in 2019, initially recording a four track EP in Calderdale, England. The EP (titled Tables Turning) also featured two local musicians; double bassist Jez Watson and fiddle player Ian Illsley. Engineered by Sam Greenwood, recording took place at Hebden Bridge Underground Studios over the span of almost two years. Tables Turning was disrupted by the events of 2020 but ultimately released in 2021.
After relocation to Northumberland in 2021, Jamie quickly began to connect with local folk and jazz musicians and, almost by accident, formed what could loosely be described as a band. The core members of this group are Jamie's wife Sophie and his close friend John Hirst, north-east drummer-extraordinaire and multi-instrumentalist.
The line-up would go on to feature half a dozen players in various combinations. Beginning in late 2021 and picking up pace in 2022, Jamie and these musicians began working on arrangements for three studio-albums'-worth of original material.
Crossing Tides
The first of these projects, an album titled Crossing Tides, was recorded in early 2023. Jamie wrote this collection of songs in his mid-twenties during extended visits to the Outer Hebrides (a chain of islands off the west coast of Scotland) and the album is structured as a journey north through the archipelago.
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Crossing Tides features Jamie's vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica as well as Sophie’s piano-accordion and vocal harmonies. John Hirst provides vibraphone, percussion, drums, background vocals and haunted dulcimer.
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The album also features double bassist Paul Susans (of well known festival favourites The Baghdaddies) and his arsenal of FX pedals.
Newcastle-based musical octopus Dean Parker provides atmospheric electric slide guitar on some tracks, and melodic mandolin on others.
North-east engineer and producer Julie Bartley facilitated the recording live in the studio with no overdubs. The whole album was recorded in just two days - 17th and 18th February 2023 - in Cupola Studios, Newcastle.
Two music videos were made to accompany songs from the album with the help of Jamie's friend, videographer Sammy Jetter Kell.
Click here to watch music video for "Golden Light"
After the release of two singles earlier in the summer, the album was released digitally in August (and physically in September) of 2023 to positive reviews.
"A lovely album, sometimes stark and simple, sometimes musically rich and complex... You should seek it out." - folking.com
Click here to listen to Crossing Tides
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Upcoming Releases
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Jamie and friends are currently in the process of pre-production and recording of a further three studio albums comprising of three slightly different line-ups, and arguably spilling over into three slightly different musical styles. The spring of 2024 sees the release of the first single from one of these projects, a song called "Little Legs".
Click here to listen to "Little Legs"