Every so often you'll come across an artist, witness a live show, embrace a performance that is truly, truly special.
Rationale's headline performance on the Clash stage at this year's Great Escape was one such moment. The material is there – crisp, soulful, introspective but warm – and the voice is golden, but it's the aura of the man that stands apart.
Fans flooded into the intimate venue, with images, vines, live clips quickly swamping the net. There's a bond here, that much is evident – something special is going on.
Clash spoke to Rationale a few days ago, with the singer fresh from yet another sold out show in London. He speaks softly, but clearly, emphasising each word and taking time to formulate his thoughts.
A real perfectionist, his under-stated but evident ambition seems to ring through with every sentence.
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So what's happening in the studio?
Oh man, just working really hard and trying to basically finish my first album. In between gigging, and also just continuously writing. I don't think the writing process will ever necessarily stop but just planning and plotting. Because each show, when I perform, I'm pretty ambitious… so we want it to be bigger and better every time. So just aim for the album, really, and get away for the summer.
Everything's really blown up for you.
Oh man, it's crazy. Since the project is only about a year old, in terms of having released our first song, and from there to the Scala, the Village Underground… it's been amazing. And the actual situation when you're there, and you're performing, that first song has always been the most interesting one because you can guage what the vibe is going to be like instantly within the first two minutes.
I remember going on tour and going to different cities, in and around England – and a part of Scotland, of course, as well – and the energy is always different. You know if you're going to have to work really hard to win them over, or do a different kind of set. But coming to London, yesterday, is always the best because it's your home town, and it's something you'll always love. So you feed off of that and do the best you can. And that's what we're trying to do.
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What I do take a lot of pride in is knowing what has worked.
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You've got to keep active.
Yeah! I'm laughing because right now I'm sitting in probably the most tired pose you can ever try to have. I'd love to take that energy back in, but the day afterwards is always really tough because you're shattered and you're trying to get back into a very different kind of working mode. It's one thing performing live, it's the ultimate end goal, but in the studio it can be tough, and at the point we're now at, we're now tweaking certain things that aren't quite as good as they can be. So that places a different kind of focus on the energy.
What I do take a lot of pride in is knowing what has worked. I performed yesterday, but you can gauge the response as to whether the emotion is right or certain things that are probably unnoticeable to the average person. Tweaks… like how heavy the track is in the bass. Take that information and try to relay it into the record and make sure it's the best that it can be. That's always interesting.
Have you always wanted to produce an album, in the classic sense?
100% man. I mean, it's great coming out with EPs, and putting various things out, but it's nice to put something together that feels like a body of work and people can read into. I feel like they can put together the stories and meanings behind the songs. And for me, whether it's 11, 12, or 13 songs – perhaps more – it will feel like I can put a marker on something, where I started something that's really cool.
I've got tracks that maybe won't make this album because they're almost too far ahead of where I want to end up, in a sense. So I can put a marker on the process, go out, play it, learn more about what influences my short work, and introduce the sound to more people. And maybe do the same with the second album. But yeah, a body of work is the goal. That's my motivation for the moment.
Are you a storyteller, do you think?
I think so, but it depends from song to song. I kind of like to find relate-able subject matter and write about them. Sometimes they end up being stories, y'know? There's one song that is kind of a twist on a Fleetwood Mac kind of mode. And I really enjoy those kind of songs. It'll never be a single because they're things I want to include on my album. To answer your question: all the time. But the majority of the time it's things I have felt and experienced I am singing about.
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This is the very basis that I survive…
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It seems music has always been the main love in your life.
It's where the inspiration comes from. I struggle to think… in fact, I know what I'd do without music. I've been in a position where I've tried to make music but I can't do it perfectly or full time, because life doesn't allow that to happen – we've all got bills to pay. I remember when I was thinking about releasing this music, and what name to do it under, the feeling of the word 'rational' was about cause and meaning.
And without this particular cause that I had some writing towards, this is the very basis that I survive. I'm probably not the most social human being in the world, so I think I cope better making music. It keeps me alive, it's my lifeblood. When I said earlier on that I had no money, I'm still not floating around in pennies. A big bucket of Donald Duck gold coins! I'm now able to do it full time, and not have to give too much attention to anything else. It's an interesting time for me, y'know. It's important, and I want to make the most of it.
The way things have progressed for you has been incredible – when do those SoundCloud plays, Spotify streams, actually become real?
I think it only transfers, and only feels real, when those numbers and comments and likes end up coming to a show. That's the true place. There's no hiding, there's no digital magic, trickery, or any kind. To be honest with you, I rarely look at those numbers any more. I did at the beginning, of course. When I put 'Firestorm' out I was hoping for 500 plays or so in a week – that would have been great – and the way it did what it did, and has done, is incredible. Someone told me that across the board it's done something like 12 million, digitally. And to me, that number feels great but it also makes me think: I want to give them something new as quickly as possible.
I want to be ambitious on that level, and I want my music to be heard where I don't even worry about the number, it's more of a conscious elevation of all the greats that I already love. I was listening to a song the other day – an Elvis Presley song – and you could name any Elvis Presley song and many, many people across the world would know what it is. I think it's everlasting, timeless music. And that's the score.
Numbers are great, but the song will generate those numbers, and I'm aiming to try and write… I'd love to have eleven of those on an album. Whether you can do that or not, it's hard… but that's what I want. That's what excites me. The numbers are great, but it's about more than that, for me. Much more than that.
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I think it's everlasting, timeless music…
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Are you a perfectionist?
Yeah. I think I am. I think frustratingly so, sometimes. The live show has been an interesting, ambitious undertaking. I sit in a room, and I tick away at making things work, and I create music on my own, I have a writing time to help me get things mixed, to get them sounding great. But a lot of it is just born out of me, noodling away and create a mood, and a feel. And when you try to put that across in a live element, with four other boys, and backing or something that tries to help you emulate the record, that's an ambitious thing to do. I would be very easy to walk out, run the whole backing track and press play. Maybe have a couple of the guys do some things over the top.
So I think if you come to a live show the one thing that people will normally say is: man, it's much bigger than I expected it to be. Sometimes people are surprised, maybe they wanted it to stay kind of cool. Chilled music. But I remember the times when Donny Hathaway, or Prince played, and it's just a spectacle. And that's the focus, that's the ambition, to get to that level. If I can get there I'll be a happy man.
Those are lofty heights!
It's funny… when I'm with friends, or my girlfriend, for example, I'll often get in trouble for wandering off. I'll say: I'm just going to go and sort this one thing out! And then two hours later I'll be making a piece of music, or working on an idea. It's inherent in my. I need to keep doing these things. It's there, it's the thing that gives me some calm. And it always has been all the way through my life. It's the only thing I've ever been really good at without having to try. It comes naturally. It's like a puzzle to me, something interesting that I want to crack. Something you can find that it just unique. I want to write a timeless song. I'm driven like that, and it'll always be that way. It's inherent within me.
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It's inherent within me.
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Where do you think that timeless quality can be found?
It's a combo. I've gone through different phases of thinking that it was always to do with the human being, and the delivery. I think there was a song… 'you were always on my mind' – I've heard that sung by a million different people. Some people could never tell you who wrote the main song. Some Stevie Wonder songs, for example. That challenged my idea that it's to do with the person and the delivery, because a great song has a lyrical connection. The melody and the chords behind it, to a degree.
But I think a lot of it is to do with sincere relate-ability, because the lyric is probably the toughest thing, the most important thing. You can craft music in and around it, to a degree, but if you sing something that people will understand, and relate to, that's partly what makes a song timeless. If I had a formula I'm sure I'd be sitting on a million gold coins, but that's what the fun, isn't it? That's what we all, as musicians, strive to make.
The process is a funny old thing. I had a chat with a friend who said 'oh, you don't hang around at gigs any more, have you changed?' And I was like: no, I haven't changed, it's just I'm working on my music, and things are getting bigger and better. Fingers crossed. It also means that alongside that you have to take these trips, and speak to people – it's a process. I always wonder sometimes if that process is something that true greats, or people I admire, went through. And how they managed it, and were still able to write timeless things.
Someone like Adele is an interesting person, to me, because she managed to have this wonderful way of making great records. She's one of the biggest stars right at this second, but I wonder how people keep that up? I hope one day, man, I'll make some timeless stuff, but as the journey's going right now, it's a good one and I'm enjoying the ride.
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Catch Rationale online.
