Stephen Lynch Interview

American singing comedian Stephen Lynch is gracing Brighton this November with his new tour to promote fifth album ‘Lion’. Holly Cozens catches up with him to talk YouTube fame, the new album and what to expect from his performance

How’s the tour going?
‘I think we just hit the sweet spot of the tour, It’s been going on for 8 months or so and it;s going really well. We’ve honed ourselves into a well oiled machine now, it hasn’t gotten too stale for us yet but we’ve been doing it long enough that we know what were doing and all the cues are there.’

Great, that will be good for when you come to Brighton then?
‘Well no in Brighton were probably just gonna give a good 30-35%'(laughing)

Have you been to Brighton before?
‘Thats a good question. I think this is the first time.’

It’s nice to have you down here, as before I have travelled to London to see you perform…
‘Yeah well this is just for you. That’s the whole reason I’m gonna be in Brighton so you have a shorter drive to the show.'(laughing)

It’s a shame as my Dad loves your music too and he came with me to London…
‘No kidding! I don’t know if my show is something I would want to watch with a member of my immediate family! I appreciate it though!’ (laughing)

Well I really look forward to it…
‘Will you be bringing your father again?'(laughing)

No. It’s a shame because my Dad lives really far away…
‘Where does he live?’

He lives in Devon which is about 4 hours South West of here?
‘Hang on, I’m adding Devon to the tour. Tell him we’ll be in Devon the day after Brighton.'(laughing)

For people who are coming to see the show, how would you sum it up?
‘I would say that I am bringing really funny people with me and really great musicians which is a rare combination and I have managed to find some diamonds in the rough. One of those is a woman called Courtney Goldberg, who is a singer songwriter from Nashville and she sings with me on the record and has been nice enough to do this tour with me.

There’s another guy, Charlie King who is on the record and he’s coming over with me and my long time collaborator Rob Cone. It’s really sort of a greatest hits combo that i’ve managed to dig up and I think we’ve put together a really good show. It will be good music and hopefully good laughs too.’

I find that here in the UK you don’t seem to have much exposure except maybe YouTube…
‘It’s kind of the same in the States, I don’t do a lot of TV or radio so mainly it’s word of mouth and people passing files or YouTube links with their friends so probably the same in the UK.’

How you feel about your music travelling in that way rather than through masses of advertising?
‘Well clearly it’s the only reason why I have the career I have today especially a career outside of the USA. I mean when I first went to Europe I had no idea if anybody would know who I was or whether they would show up. I had done a couple of shows and things on the Comedy Channel here in the USA so I guess there’s that exposure I had here but not in the UK. So because of YouTube and friends swapping links and telling their friends about me, it did all the publicity work for me really so as much as I hate the quality and sound of most videos on YouTube or someone’s s****y recording on a cellphone, I welcome it. I’m glad it helps spread the word because without it I wouldn’t still be doing this that’s for sure.

Are there any songs that are particular crowd favourites?
‘There are some staples of my set that have been in there as long as I can remember that I will never probably take out because people like them and I still like them which is important. ‘Craig Christ’ is one people want to hear and then there’s the ‘Bowling Song’ which I never play so people shout that out at me so it becomes a running joke that at some point in the show, someone requests it and I tell that person to.. you know..

There are some favourites I will throw in every once in a while if i’m in the mood and then there are some I will probably never do again for the rest of my life. I try to mix in ‘quote unquote hits’ into the new material just so there’s a lot of variety in the show.

Have you ever been censored before you play a gig, been asked to change lyrics or told not to play certain songs?
‘I don’t think so, I don’t know that I would ever agree to a show where I couldn’t play whatever I wanted to. I don’t think I’ve ever had stipulations about the language of the show. I’m struggling to remember but I don’t think so. I did do a show at a casino in Florida once, it was a Native American casino and I was instructed that I was not to make fun of Native Americans or their culture in any way. Which I had no intention of doing anyway! That’s the only time I can think of where I was given the ‘this is what you can and can’t do’ but no, that’s never happened.’

How does your new album differ from the others?
‘I just put a lot more effort into this one. On the music side of it, I really took my time with it. As far as the comedy side of it I decided I wanted to write an album full of songs that I would like and not write just for the sake of writing. I really concentrated on each individual song and started writing music first and when I was happy with what I had written musically I decided to figure out how to make that funny.

I didn’t always do it that way, a lot of times I’d come up with a premise and write the song around the premise and in my opinion the comedy was more important than the song on the older records. This time I decided I really wanted to make a good record musically so I guess that’s the real difference. All the songs are more of the style of what I like to listen to and what I’d write if I wasn’t writing comedy songs. I took enough time with it to still make it funny.’

Stephen Lynch Live, The Old Market, Monday 11 November, 7.45pm, £20