Exclusive: Keaton Henson offers up an illustrated guide to new album ‘Kindly Now’
The ace singer-songwriter’s also a dab hand with a pen and paper - we interview him via the medium of interpretive drawing. Obviously.
He’s a man of precious few words, is our Keaton Henson - not that he needs to waste his time on waffle. With his music as packed with emotion as it comes, his stripped back output would be more than enough for most artists - Keaton’s not like most, though.
Nope; he’s also a dab hand with a pen and paper. A celebrated illustrator in his own right, he rides both horses with all the flamboyance and gusto of a rosette-clad dressage champ - from works that accompany his music and live shows, to ones that appear across the planet in exhibitions, and on the bodies, t-shirts and record sleeves of others (he even illustrated the cover to this month’s DIY Hall Of Fame inductee, Danananaykroyd’s ‘Hey Everyone’ debut), he’s a busy old bee.
With both his tongue-tied nature and his scribbler’s instinct at the forefront of our minds, we thought he’d have a quick catch up with ol’ Henson, via the medium of pen-to-paper, to chat all things new album ‘Kindly Now’.
If ‘Kindly Now’ was a planet, what would it look like?
Can you draw where you went to record the album?
On a scale of ‘messy, scribbly mass’ to ‘one clear ruler line’, what was the process of making ‘Kindly Now’?
What did the inside of your brain look like while you were making this record?
Who is Gabe? Can we have a portrait of him?
[Track ten on ‘Kindly Now’ is simply titled ‘Gabe’. We’re still none the wiser, tbh.]
How do you feel when you finish an album?
Keaton Henson’s new album ‘Kindly Now’ is out September 16th via Play It Again Sam.
