Mercury Prize-nominated jazz band founder turned singer-songwriter Nick Mulvey tells Tim Hughes he’s where he wants to be musically...alone

It was as a founder member of Mercury Prize-nominated jazz outfit Portico Quartet that we first got to know Nick Mulvey.

But it has been outside the four-piece that he has made the biggest impact and, he says proudly, has been at his most creative.

The master of a bizarre melodic steel drum-like percussion instrument called a hang, he helped introduce jazz to a whole new audience and, in the process, make it cool again.

On the eve of the launch of a new single, the singer-songwriter and shortlisted BBC’s Sound of 2014 artist, tells us that, sometimes, it’s only really possible to achieve one’s goal alone.

“I had my own music on the back burner while Portico Quartet were doing well,” he says. “We were nominated for the Mercury Prize so that made things really busy. My own music had a long gestation, as a result, and it was always a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ I’d leave the band. That’s not to say I was thinking about it all the time, though, and for the first four years of my six in that band, it never came up.

“I had no confidence and didn’t think I could go on my own. Plus, I really, really enjoyed being in that band.”

So what changed?

“I don’t think I was creatively satisfied after a while,” he answers. “I wasn’t playing my primary instrument – I play guitar, but used to play the hang in Portico Quartet. so I felt a bit frustrated by that.

“In the end, I didn’t have a choice about leaving the band and going solo, I just had to. I knew I had to make a change, and that it would take two or three years to release something as a solo artist.

“We were about to start recording the third album, so that was the perfect time for me to leave.”

The departure, in 2011, allowed him to focus on his first love – the guitar – adapting a style he picked up while learning the instrument in Cuba. And his groove-laden sound has gone down well.

Laura Marling asked him along as tour support, and last year’s festival dates will be followed, next month, by a trip out to Austin, Texas, to play the South by South West music convention.

On Monday he releases his new single Cucurucu. That will be followed by a string of live dates including a show at The Art Bar, Cowley Road, on March 8.

“I am really happy with the way the song has worked out,” he says. “It’s got a big arrangement and there were times when recording it that I had to stop what was happening because I didn’t want it to become too big and epic. But because of the melody, I think as soon as the drums and other instruments kicked in, it just took off.”

The song is an adaptation of the DH Lawrence poem Piano. And he admits to having taken longer than expected to release it.

He says: “The poem depicts a child under the piano, smiling as its mother sings, so I thought it would be lovely to have a song within the song. I’m singing in her voice, really, and then I got the chorus about ‘yearning to belong’, so it’s not just putting his words to my music. At first I was bothered by that, because I didn’t think I should’ve changed it, but I’ve got used to it.”

Having seen his own Portico lyrics quoted by Alt-J on their Mercury Prize-winning debut album, he clearly doesn’t have an issue with borrowing.

“I think it’s okay as long as it’s done with integrity,” he says. “Bruce Springsteen borrows from folk songs and has talked about it a lot. It’s true to life.

“Originality is for people with short memories. You’re deluded if you think you’re having an original idea. It’s about fresh perspective and doing something different with your influences.”

And what does the title mean?

“It’s meaningless,” he confesses. “It’s meant to be a noise a child would make. It might relate to a bird sound too.

“It’s actually quite similar to the noise they make in France for a cockerel. You know how we say ‘cock-a-doodle-do’? Over there it’s like that ‘cucurucu!’ “When I play gigs in France I get lots of smiles and to start with I didn’t know why. I was pretty embarrassed.”

In May he releases his album First Mind, produced by Dan Carey (Hot Chip, Steve Mason) in Streatham and released on Fiction Records.

“I recorded it in September with Dan, and it’ll be out before the festivals start. It feels a long way off, but then I thought I would’ve made the album a long time ago.

“And even though it was made in September, it was two years in the making before that, writing, demoing, performing and so on.”

But he is satisfied that it hits all the right notes.

“When I was in the band, the four of us would be able to tell if something was good, just because four is enough opinions,” he says. “But when you’re on your own there’s more doubt.

“Engineers and producers I’ve worked with always say nice things about what I’ve made, but you never know if that’s just because they feel they have to!”

CHECK IT OUT
Nick Mulvey plays The Art Bar, Cowley Road, Oxford, on Saturday, March 8. The show starts at 8pm.
Tickets cost £8