For U.K.-born soul-pop singer and producer Jamie Lidell, the decision to move to Nashville in 2011 couldn’t have been more practical. Upon arrival, Lidell — who’s a star on the other side of the pond — instantly became one of Nashville’s best-kept secrets. It seems most locals were either unaware (or perhaps unimpressed) that a co-founder of U.K. trip-hop duo Super Collider and Warp Records signee of 14 years was living in their midst. But given the infectiously smooth, futuristic take on throwback soul on his sixth LP Building a Beginning (out Oct. 14), the singer might not be a Music City (and stateside) secret much longer.
Before moving to Nashville, Lidell’s career involved making weird electronica records alone in his home studio for pioneering electro label Warp Records (best known as home to the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Grizzly Bear, Brian Eno and many others) and a largely underground audience. On paper, Nashville’s tenuous relationship with dance music offered few professional benefits. But Lidell’s move here from New York City was pragmatic nonetheless. He and now-wife Lindsey Rome had decided building a life in NYC was no longer feasible and were looking for greener pastures. Talking to the Scene via phone from Berlin, Lidell recalled the pair asking themselves: “Where can we buy a house? Where we can kind of stretch out and think about having a family and doing our art and be surrounded by inspiring people and … people that could fix my synthesizers?”
The couple took it as a bad omen when an improbable weeklong rainstorm thwarted their attempt at scouting for homes in L.A. Friends like left-field superstar Beck and Wilco multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (also a Nashvillian) had both put in a good word for Music City. Then Lidell and Rome visited Nashville, befriended local luminaries like filmmaker Harmony Korine and Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, and spontaneously decided to buy the house they now live and work in.
Produced with all the gloss and sheen of a pop record, Building a Beginning owes much of its core to gritty American classic Stax-style soul. Lidell says life in the South played a major role in crafting that aesthetic, but not in the way you’d expect. He describes the record as a labor of love, built on patience, breathing room and new friendships afforded by his new life in the easy, breezy South. “Nashville has definitely kind of given rise to sort of new music for me,” he explains, “a new kind of perspective that’s come from being able to have space and time. It’s allowed me and my wife to not rush.”
Lidell is reluctant to say Nashville’s style has rubbed off on the way he works, but it’s certainly conducive to what he’s been doing since he got here, having adopted the Music City tradition of co-writing and collaboration. It’s a practice that last year earned him a Grammy nod for co-writing and co-producing Lianne La Havas’ “Green and Gold”; a Juno for “We All Fall Down,” a track he cut with A-Trak; and, with the help of Rome, influenced most of the lyrics on Building, which Lidell co-produced with Justin Stanley, whose creds include Beck, Prince and Jimmy Cliff. Then there’s Lidell’s band on the album, a wet-dream ensemble of stage and studio cats including Jack White drummer Daru Jones and bassist Pino Palladino (D’Angelo, The Who, Paul Simon). Jones also helped recruit former Roots bassist Owen Biddle for Lidell’s seven-piece live band, which makes a rare Music City appearance Friday at The Basement East.
The gig is being touted as Lidell’s live debut in Nashville. That’s only technically true. There was a low-key gig at The Basement a few years ago, as well as a private event sponsored by Red Bull around this time last year, and an impromptu one-song performance during a Feist show in Third Man Records’ Blue Room back in 2011. But when probed, Lidell says his absence on the live scene is mostly due to Nashville’s lack of demand for one. “I’ve not been offered many shows in Nashville,” he says. “And to be honest … one of the great things about living in Nashville is that no one knows who I am, but I guess the flip side of that is that no one knows who I am.”
That said, Lidell is well on his way to being a local fixture, and his home studio is quickly becoming a creative hub for Nashville music. He produced “Comfort Zone” for local synth trio Basecamp — who in turn recently remixed his newest single “Walk Right Back.” He casually mentioned working with a handful of local talent as diverse as rapper Mike Floss, singer-songwriter Anderson East, and Lennon Stella of TV’s Nashville. He teased a potential collaboration with Sansone and says he’d love to work with local fashion rapper Chancellor Warhol.
“[My] house is a great creative place,” he says. “It seems selfish to just make my own stuff. Obviously, now there’s Daru and there’s Owen Biddle, and all of that world is opening up. So I feel like a lot of Nashville is going to start busting open for me, actually. I look forward to all of it.”
Email: music@nashvillescene.com
