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It was around 5pm in a lush West London recording studio. The room was so big and full of brand new-looking instruments, that I didn’t even see Dave at first. I didn’t initially realise that the poignant music I heard was being played by Dave himself, who was sat at the piano with his hoodie up. We shook hands and went into the room next door, just the two of us, while his team stayed back. (Thankfully – it’s so awkward to have a third party sat there listening in on interviews.)
Dave has an unusual aura. You feel a mood around him, like a shift in the environment. Although he projects strong emotions, his face doesn’t change very much –sometimes an expression flickers before going back to a straight face – so it’s felt purely as an energetic field. You get the vibe that he has had to live with his guard up for a long time. But once he relaxes, he has a lot of quirky mannerisms and quite a dry sense of humour.
In interviews, I normally like to let people speak until they’re naturally done with an answer so I can hear all of their thoughts. With Dave, this was hard because he’d have so much to say. I’d have a million tabs open in my head trying to keep track of all my follow-up questions. Even though we spoke for over three hours, I felt like I really only asked a handful of things. Because The Boy Who Played the Harp represented such an important shift for Dave, I didn’t need to do too much work – there was so much to unpack in the evolution he’d gone through in the four years since his last album, and the change he wanted to be in the world.