2 minute read
TEA, TUNES & TINKERING
Alex Klineberg catches up with Nick Hudson, composer, artist and lead member of The Academy of Sun
Nick Hudson, a composer/artist based in Brighton, is the founder and lead singer of Gothic dystopian post-punk ensemble The Academy Of Sun. We caught up with him to discuss his latest album, lockdown and LGBTQ+ icons.
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How have you been coping with lockdown?
I’ve thrown myself into a rigorous regimen encompassing either of three states: workaholism, sleep or abject misery. I’m terrible at relaxing, so unless I’m occupied with work I tend to fall off the chassis and tumble into a chasm. I haven’t yet succumbed to YouTube videos of Ceefax. That happened in lockdown two...
Your new album, Font Of Human Fractures, is your first in five years. How does it compare to your previous work?
Well! It occurred to me that, despite the piano being my weapon of choice since I was six and my solo tours comprising predominantly piano and voice, I’d never issued a record that was piano-led. A bizarre oversight, one might think. So this one is largely scored for piano and tricks violins. It’s closer to a neo-classical record with Goth-electronica undertones than it is a pop or a rock record. With a few curveballs...
One of the songs is inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini. How has his work influenced you?
He’s one of the greatest poets. His Supplica A Mia Madre articulates that sacred, bittersweet love between mother and gay son with a tsunami of pointed anguish. He created an entirely new film language. And it’s fair to say I’m drawn to the quintessential Pasolinian young man too. He embodied manifold contradictions, which I believe to be the only sensible means of conducting oneself in a world where nuance is at risk of being quashed by heavy-handed, brutish ideologues.
Tokyo Nights was written by your aunt. How did that come about?
She was in a band called Room 101 (in a month where the far right are screeching about Trump’s social media censorship as Orwellian I find this faintly amusing). This was their ‘hit’ – in that they performed it on the John Peel show and Billy Bragg crowed favourably about it. She gave me my first keyboard when I was six and thus kickstarted this whole delicious folly. I’d long wanted to record a version in honour of this. My version just happened to turn out like kitsch, deranged J-pop.
This issue is dedicated to LGBT History Month. Which LGBTQ+ icons are you most drawn to?
Well I’m writing this on the anniversary of Queen David’s regrettable passing and crying my way through Reality (in every sense). So yeah, Bowie. Diamanda Gàlas. David Wojnarowich. Derek Jarman – I scored a couple of Derek’s super-8 short films last year; they’ll be coming out on limited vinyl in May. Coil. Very much Coil. Jhonn Balance died on my 23rd birthday. He was, to my mind, a queer, contemporary conduit for similar energies to William Blake. How we miss Jhonn.
When do you expect to play live again? We’re missing live gigs!
I dunno! The pandemic has made Kate Bush of us all. Chinese meals, Earl Grey, interminable studio tinkering and no live dates. Maybe I’ll do a 21-date residency at Hammersmith Apollo when this is all over with my wonderful son Bertie playing the Rolf Harris character.
