The Gobshite in the Glasses

More used to playing as one fifth of former Mercury Prize winners Gomez, Tom Gray's foray into the solo world is still in its formative days – this is only the third time he'll be playing alone since joining the band 12 years ago. 

But this is not a career change – Gray doesn't appear to be planning to go it alone long-term. Rather, it's the chance to try something new. He is characteristically droll about his upcoming performance.

“I’m hoping that people are intrigued about what the gobshite in the glasses who writes the songs is all about,” he tells me. “This is a very brief foray into something that I just wanted to experience.”

The first chapter of that foray came earlier this year in Manchester. Panicking beforehand, he consulted his Twitter followers for suggestions on what songs to play. This time he’s more assured of what he’ll be doing, though he doesn't shy away from admitting he is still both nervous and excited about taking the stage on his own:

“It’s unusual. I feel like I’m 17 again and I’ve got something to prove,” explains Gray. “I’m still learning massively about this. Even though I’m a seasoned performer, as it were. I’m very unused to this.”

He’s aware that his audience will be coming because he’s in Gomez, so his set list will be taken exclusively from their back catalogue. What will be interesting is hearing him perform songs that he wrote but gave to other band members to sing.

Or as he puts it: “I am going to sing some songs which I specifically gave to someone else because they’d sing them better than me. Not much of an advert for it but there you go.”

The thrill of a solitary stage appearance isn’t all that's bringing Gray up to Edinburgh. For six years he’s been writing children’s music for the Long Nose Puppets group. They are performing their latest work, Penguin, at the Pleasance Courtyard throughout the festival.

“I really wanted to pop up with the family and hang out for a few days,” says Gray. “So the gig kind of became a wonderful ruse for making all this happen. And for blotting out the Gomez diary so I could come and do something else.”

Of course, rock musician and puppet show on the same billing immediately sounds very Spinal Tap. But Gray has got there before me, quipping that there will be “no jazz odyssey” at his show, at least not this time.

“I’ve been doing the puppet stuff now for about six years now and I’ve never given a shit about what people say about it. So I’m not going to start now,” he says. “I think adults like to pretend to themselves that they don’t really like children’s entertainment. When in fact there’s nothing nicer than giving your cynicism a short break.”

Penguin is an enchanting piece of children’s theatre and Gray’s whimsical soundtrack is an integral part of the show. ‘Penguin Song’, from the show’s climax, could almost be a Gomez single. “That was my attempt at writing a Neil Diamond song,” he admits.

Much as his wife is the sounding board for his Gomez material, his two-year-old son gets first approval on the children’s songs: “He must have heard some of them about 500 times by now,” he says. “But he lets me know if it makes sense to a child’s mind.”

The show and Gray’s music in particular has had very favourable reviews in the national press and Gray finds the whole process quite cathartic.

“It’s kind of liberating,” explains Gray. “Not to say that when I’m writing for Gomez I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. But people at least imagine that I am in some way taking it seriously. With the kids’ stuff I have free reign to be as silly or otherwise as I like.”

Gomez are currently “knee deep” in writing their next album most likely for release next year.

“It’s a long way from being finished but at the moment we’ve got a lot of very upbeat but edgy melodic tunes,” says Gray. “The last record was very folky. This one’s got more of a spring in its step.”

It is perhaps this determination to do their own thing that has caused them to somewhat drop off the radar in the UK but gain greater and greater success Stateside.

“I think every Gomez record is a small act of defiance,” Gray says. “A very lazy middle class act of defiance, but a small act of defiance nevertheless.”

“We’ve been discussing recently whether we should just make a series of totally generic records to make up for the previous 12 years,” explains Gray possibly only half jokingly. “I don’t want to release albums any more after this one.  I think we should just do genre EPs.

“I mean you’d buy an EP, wouldn’t you? That’s not too much of an investment: ‘Gomez play six country songs, Gomes play six I don’t know… hard rock songs!’ That would be quite good. What do you think?”