Music: Chris T-T & The Hoodrats

Chris T-T talks bears & blogging with Jeff Hemmings

Prolific and forever involving himself in music and writing, Chris T-T (Chris Thorpe-Tracey) has been resident in Brighton for ten years, and has just released his ninth studio album, The Bear, on Xtra Mile Recordings, home to a plethora of alternative acts with Frank Turner being the most well known.

“I have a great love for bears,” says Chris, “the last project I did was a children’s record, based on A. A. Milne poems; I loved working with bears then – albeit not Winnie the Pooh though, because Disney owns Winnie the Pooh…” Possessing a punk ethos in his writing and music as well as his approach to making music (several of his albums have been self-released), his lyrics are about telling a story (“I like to shove lyrics in people’s faces,” he says) and invariably possess a directness and honesty, as well as a beautifully crafted fluidity, that has won him many admirers. It’s not so much ‘shoving lyrics into people’s faces’ as providing the very meaningful foundation on which to build proper songs.

But The Bear is also very much a ‘band’ album, featuring some excellent players collectively known as The Hoodrats, and who include Jen Macro, who tours with My Bloody Valentine, and former Brightonian Johny Lamb, who also records under the 30 Pounds of Bone moniker. “It is very much a band album; we played it in a room, and it’s got that band feel. In fact, the band threw off two songs that I really loved – that gives you an idea of the power I gave away. I am so power hungry most of the time, it’s a good discipline to say, ‘OK, I’m going to let go of a whole sector of my power’, because they are such good musicians. I can be a complete dictator the rest of time when I do my own stuff!”

Chris has just finished a residency as Blogger-in-Residence for Brighton Royal Pavilion and Museums. “There is a bear at the doorway of the Booth Museum, the mother bear! I do get a bit squeamish about all the amount of killing that has gone on, but it is a beautiful space, if a little spooky when it is quiet… I was writing a couple of blogs each week and posting pictures; I was able to go anywhere where the staff go, and I sat in a lot of meetings, learning about the logistics, maintenance and everything involved; from restoration to marketing. All that range of stuff within one organisation is really fascinating. There is the new Keep [Falmer], where we had a sneaky tour before it was filled with records and archives; that is an amazing space – that weird juxtaposition of amazing hi-tech equipment in order to store old records. I loved that – it was part of the joy of the residency.”

Chris T-T & The Hoodrats, Bermuda Triangle, Saturday 11 Jan 2014, 7pm, £11