TIDILY turned out in Tweed jacket, full frame spectacles and bow tie, J Willgoose Esq appears to have just stepped out of either the BBC’s stereophonic workshop or a geography lecture on oxbow lakes.
A glance at the musician’s back catalogue may confirm the impression of mannered charm – with tunes about the London Blitz, night mail train, Space Race, coal mining, Titanic and the conquest of Everest. But as we know, appearances can be all too deceptive.
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The driving force behind electronic-rock band Public Service Broadcasting, J is a creative dynamo and his music a powerful blend of soaring electronica, propulsive pop, bombastic rock, spiky dance-punk, emotional synth and euphoric brass – his inventive soundscapes layered with vocal samples harvested from archives and delivered with captivating visuals
It is elegant, engaging, groove-laden and thrilling – and has gone down a storm everywhere from grungy clubs and chaotic festival fields to the RAF Museum, National Space Centre, a former coalmine... and the Royal Albert Hall.
This summer J, drummer Wrigglesworth, multi-instrumentalist JF Abraham and their expanded band earned the rare privilege of celebrating the centenary of the BBC by performing This New Noise – a musical tribute to the broadcaster at the Proms, accompanied by folk star Seth Lakeman and the massed ranks of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
For a band whose 2013 debut revelled in the title ‘Inform-Educate-Entertain’, it was an inspired choice.
“That was not the sort of thing I’d ever have envisaged us doing,” says J – still buzzing from the experience.
“It was a pretty special musical experience and incredible to have the chance to work with such amazing musicians.”
It was the band’s second outing to the South Kensington concert hall, having previously presented music there from their astronomical album The Race for Space.
“It’s not something I ever thought would happen, or will happen again!” he goes on.
“When I first started recorded music I expected it to disappear into the ether – but people seem to like it.
“We work hard with a modicum of talent!”
On Sunday, October 16, they downscale slightly as they return for a show to Oxford’s New Theatre.
No strangers to the city, the band have played everywhere from upstairs at the Jericho Tavern to Modern Art Oxford and the youthful Truck festival in Steventon.
“Oxford holds a lot of memories for us,” J says.
They are touring their latest project Bright Magic. The album is an impressionistic portrait of Berlin but J he says, is “really about all cities”.
Written during a stint living in the German capital, it is his most ambitious, multi-faceted body of work yet; a century-spanning tribute to a metropolis he clearly loves and to people, like him, who have found themselves there. While still very much a Public Service Broadcasting record, it is less immediate and at times abstract with fewer samples and more guest vocalists. It was partly inspired by Walter Ruttmann’s 1928 sonic ode to the city, ‘Wochenende’ (Weekend) – which is sampled on three of its tracks.
“Part of my job is to make sure these things live on in posterity,” he says.
He describes the album as being more conceptual in nature than previous projects.
“It’s not telling an A-B-C story but paints a conceptual portrait of a city which became a haven for people from all walks of life,” he tells me.
“The record is our account of Berlin as a centre of creativity and trying to examine that and draw inspiration in the process. We are trying to do something bold!”
So having taken listeners from the beaches of Dunkirk to Everest, the Welsh Valleys, Berlin and the Moon, what is his next project?
“I can’t say because I don’t know,” he confesses.
“I’ve had a couple of things floating around... and have got my antenna out.
“I need to record stuff and get excited by an idea. You don’t chase an idea, the idea gets you excited and leads you in directions you don’t think you’ll go in.”
Though, he hints: “Next I do plan doing something less male-heavy. Though with the Prom and having a second child, it’s been a busy year.”
Fans at the New Theatre are guaranteed many of their favourites tunes too, with crowd pleasers Spitfire, Go and Everest fixtures at most shows.
“We have too much respect for our audience to leave them out,” he says.
“Those are the songs people want to hear and it would be pretty self-indulgent not wanting to play them and to just stick to German modernist expressionism!”
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He goes on: “There are up to 35 songs we are able to perform live so can mix it up and keep things different.”
So what can we expect on Sunday? “Oh, the usual swearing, violence and nudity,” he chuckles. “There will be eight people on stage so it will be very engaging. There will be live vocals and a brass section. It will be an audio-visual assault, but in a good way! And hopefully people will enjoy it."
Public Service Broadcasting, New Theatre Oxford, Sunday, October 16. Tickets: atgtickets.com
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