Robert Rorison’s Blue Balloon have been enchanting people whom have heard their debut album ‘Hearts Are Pretty Heavy’ which was released by Marketstall earlier this year, and been present at their live performances. Now GIITTV’s Lisa Jenkins talks to Robert about his life and work and we give you the first look at a captivating new video to accompany his startlingly affecting track ‘The Ballad of Holly Jealous’.
Lisa: I read initially right from the beginning that you were influenced by hip-hop but then you switched a bit and got into Leonard Cohen, how did you start being influenced by hip –hop and why the shift and the change in your influences?
Robert: To be honest with you when I was first getting into music I was into commercial rock music, I would listen to Oasis and Weezer and other bands who were popular in the 90’s and then a lot of my friends started listening to hip-hop, particularly east coast stuff, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Notorious B.I.G etc. I wanted to be a writer but I never saw myself as a rapper, at that time I was more comfortable in that world as a DJ because I was building my record collection. But when I got the bug to start writing more, writing rap lyrics just never sat well with my persona, I would be this very introspective rapper and not a very good one at that. But then I remember listening to Pennyroyal Tea the Nirvana song which has got the Leonard Cohen lyric in it ‘give me a Leonard Cohen afterlife’ and I wanted to find out about him, when I heard him it just changed my life. From there I began listening to people like Elliott Smith and other such songwriters.
Lisa: The lyrics are very important as well as the music, for me personally I always respond as much to lyrics as to music, if I can relate to the lyrics that resonates as much with me as it does listening to a beautiful piece of music instrumental. So are lyrics particularly important to you not only in your own writing but when you are listening to what other people have written?
Robert: Definitely. That is where I begin every song, if I have a lyrical idea or some lyrics that I have written or are rolling around in my head, then that kicks off a song.
Rarely do I ever write something on guitar and that sparks a lyric, it is nearly always the other way round
Lisa: My next question was what did you grow up listening to but you pretty much answered that, but how did you get signed to Marketstall records?
Robert: I asked Michael who co-runs Marketstall Records if he knew anybody that could mix an album because I had recorded this album at home on my own and he put me in touch with Mark. Me getting in touch with Mark coincided with him thinking about re-starting the label, he listened to and spent some time mixing what I had done and during this time it became clear that he wanted to kick things off again with Marketstall and he just said ‘lets put it out’. Initially the label was going to be vinyl only but I had some ideas about how I wanted all the CDs to be individually hand packaged and he was very
much into that.
Lisa: The trend seems to be that it is all going online now or vinyl is making a huge comeback even though we have less and less record stores now is your album on vinyl as well?
Robert: Not yet. We haven’t put that together, we will see how well things go with the CD release first and if people want to buy it on vinyl then we might make it. I know one person wants to buy it on vinyl because she keeps telling me at my shows that she does.
Lisa: Where did the title of the album come from?
Robert: The title is taken from a line in the last song on the album. Initially when I gave the record to Mark I was just going to release it under my own name but Blue Balloon was just going around in my head as it had done for years, it had cropped up in my lyrics a few times and initially that was going to be the name of the album. Then around the time we were about to get the album mastered I went to play this very rough gig under my own name and I ended up on stage playing this really bad jammed-out version of a Prince song with about 5 other blokes
Lisa: Which Prince song?
Robert: Oh it was Gett Off the version with two T’s. It was so bad it went on for about 10 minutes, cleared the room and when we finished I just made a decision that that was the last show I was ever going to play under my own name. Nobody really knows who I am so I could just re-name the whole thing, from that moment everything became Blue Balloon. The title Hearts Are Pretty Heavy comes from there being lot of lyrical references to weight on the album and I had this very clear image in my head before making the artwork of a balloon sculpture in the shape of a heart, which I eventually got around to making and shooting on a Polaroid camera. You see every single CD was always going to be specially made and the artwork is tailored to making a CD, the Polaroid stickers are just the right size for a CD case, if we were to make a vinyl version of the album we would have to completely change the artwork.
Video credits directed by Michael James Hall
Filmed by Tom Fuller and Joseph Hallgate
edited by Tom Fuller
A mucky hound production for outtakes films in association with marketstall records.
produced by laura cade and duncan brown
Lisa: A few friends said that you will like his stuff because there are a few references to London, a bit of loose-ended question but where do the influences for your songs come from?
Robert: Mostly it is putting personal experience in ways that I couldn’t do in conversation or in real-life. If I was to talk to somebody about some of these things that are going on
in my head and I spoke to them in the way that I write a song then I wouldn’t have any friends. If you take the example of the song Ode to the Big Smoke, which is I guess most obviously about London, that is mainly about the way you can feel quite isolated in a big city like this. In any city, it doesn’t have to be specific to London, ok the imagery in that song is specific to London but that song is trying to capture a feeling that I have felt in many different places.
Lisa: Are you originally from London? Have you always felt that sense of loneliness or isolation at times or is it something that has come through in later years?
Robert: All the artistic things that I have liked have always seemed to be concerned with the dealing with isolation or loneliness and I think that has just become more obvious to
me as I have got older. When I was younger maybe I didn’t know what it was that was attracting me to such things but as I’ve grown up I’ve started to ask more questions of why I relate to such things.
Lisa: Since the album came out what has the response been like and as a newly signed artist to an independent label what kind of advice would you give to those that are looking to get their music out there to people.
Robert: It hasn’t been out that long but on the whole the feedback has been positive. I think that most of the people who have heard it are people who get what I am trying to do. I recorded it entirely on my own, before Mark got hold of the recordings it was a pet project for my friends to have something of mine that I was proud of and that I had worked hard on. The main thing for me was just making the recordings, essentially letting go of the songs from within my own head, it was a long and tough process for me to get it right, it is a small album on an independent label but ultimately the songs are strong enough to stand on their own.
Lisa: That is why I asked about smaller labels because they have the passion to go with the time and energy that they can put into a project that they believe in. Beyond the label what is it that you are doing to get your music out there?
Robert: I use Twitter and Facebook which are both fun ways of having a conversation with people who are interested in what I do but for me it is mainly playing live and its only going to become more important as the band I have assembled for Blue Balloon gets better. Our set up is not conventional in fact it looks quite strange because I split the drumming duties with the drummer. We have a violinist and an electric guitarist as well as me on the acoustic, the way we are set up gives us the chance to really play around with the more ethereal sounds that I was working on when making the record.
Lisa: People have quite emotive responses to your music, what do you want to translate to people when you play?
Robert: I know what it is like to be affected by and feel that way about music so being able to be part of that from the other side of the conversation is huge. I’m doing this because I know what that feeling is like and it means a lot hopefully people see that.
Lisa: So for anyone who wants to go and see you live when are you next playing?
Robert: We have a gig at the Windmill in Brixton on Sunday the 21st of October as part of the Oxjam Brixton Takeover and I have a monthly show at the Strongroom Bar on Curtain Road that is on the last Sunday of every month. That show is either a full band or solo depending on what we can organise each month, but it gives me a chance to play on a bill that I can put together myself, we get to pay all the performers and people still get in for free, it is hard work but a beautiful set up that we have over there.
Lisa: And for anyone who wants to buy the CD, where should they go?
Robert: Go to Marketstallrecords.com, or the Blue Balloon bandpage, or even better than either of those come and see us play live, you know where we will be at least one day a
month now.
