Brian Houston: Days of Pearly Spencer, days of an Irish songsmith

Tuesday 2nd October 2007

Mike Rimmer went to Belfast recently to meet up with the city's critically acclaimed singer/songwriter BRIAN HOUSTON.



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Sometimes it's better than that, as he explains, "Occasionally people call me up and ask me to do a headline show, either here or in England or Scotland. People who know who I am and who can put together an audience. In that case I get well paid. So between one and another I can make a decent living. Even on the rough nights, even when it's the situation I've just described, if I can sell 10 or 15 albums at each one of those shows I can manage to come home with a profit. So if I was signed to a label I'd have to buy the CDs off the label. I wouldn't get to keep the money from that. It would be much, much harder to squeeze a profit out of those situations. So the independent thing works." The moral of the story is that if you see Brian Houston in concert, buy a couple of CDs afterwards even if you've already got them. There has got to be some of your friends who need to get into his music!

He has been making music for a long time and I wondered whether Houston has any game plan for what he wants to do with his music? "I don't know," he admits, "it changes from time to time. I think I've wanted it to be very successful. I've wanted it to breakthrough. I think my music has got a lot to offer in the sense of, it's coming from a very real place, from a very lived life. It's not a 19 year-old 'the moon and June' type of music. It's got a little bit more life experience behind it. I think it deserves an audience and that's why I've given it everything. I think you've got to balance that up though with being surrendered. It's about being a disciple and not getting stressed and being able to put your trust in God and to be able to have faith that all things are working together for you. This whole universe and this whole Creation around you is wanting you to do well and God is in every part of that, wanting you to do well."

He pauses, " I think it's the definition of 'doing well' that it boils down to." He laughs, "I think if you can put food on the table for your family and pay your bills and sleep in your bed at night and be at peace and feel like you're really being yourself, you're being true to yourself and honest and real, then you're a very fortunate person. I think I tick a lot of those boxes and that makes me a very fortunate person and 'successful' in that sense."

But the price of big name success would make inroads into his personal life. Does he really want to be recognised in the street or have tabloid journalists going through his trash? "I get a little bit of that already" He explains, "I get people who live near me writing things on my website and making comments. People call at the house sometimes and ask for CDs or people shout things in the street. There's a little bit of that but there's also lovely things. Like I was walking through Belfast just a couple of days ago, going to buy something in a store, and I walked past a music shop and they were playing my album. I love that! I just stood there and smiled and thought, thank goodness for this wee shop playing my record!"

He laughs, "You get into this thing and you need to realise that if you're going to publicise a record you're going to have to tell people about it. And if you tell people about it you're telling them about you. And if you're telling them about you you're going to be well known. And when you're well known there's consequences, both positive and negative. I've had a lot of very, very positive consequences. A lot of people have been very, very kind to me, very welcoming to me. I'm a shipyard carpenter with no O-Levels and yet I've had doors opened to me at all kinds of levels. I've met kings and mayors, I've met all kinds of people who I would never ever have met if I didn't do what I do. So, I've got to put up with the other side. There's always two sides to everything. Life is about balance, and if you get really good stuff you're gonna get really bad stuff. If the roller coaster goes really high up it's going to have to go really low down. It's just that whole balance of life and you've got to make your peace with that. And right now, sitting here, that's okay. But there's times I get emails, nasty emails, I get nasty comments, I get people talking about me, I get Chinese whispers coming round and that hurts. That really hurts. But you've just got to forgive people and try to not take it too personally."

He also gets free meat! At the breakfast table, Brian had told us about a local butcher who is very fond of handing him packets of free meat. Brian is perplexed by these acts of kindness but reflects, "Maybe he thinks I need a good feed!"

Occasionally he gets to play with some of his heroes. "I got invited to Bob Harris' birthday party. All the Radio 2 people were there and I got to rub shoulders with people like Mark Lamarr and annoy him by talking to him for 20 minutes about obscure Elvis and rockabilly records. And Robert Plant jumped up on stage and started to sing and I had my harmonica and I had a microphone plugged in so I played along and slowly stepped on stage. The next thing Robert Plant is nodding at you for a solo! Hey man, I'm just a 'suck and blow' guy. I don't really know how to play a harmonica, but I gave it as much as I could!"

One of my favourite songs on 'Sugar Queen' is "These Days". "It's a song about breakthrough," Brian explains. "It is what it is. I'd seen this article in Q Magazine or Uncut or something, it was about this album, 'St Dominic's Preview', a Van Morrison album. They said about how it needed to really be played in two halves (because it was a vinyl record). And I thought, flip, I've seen a copy of this down town somewhere! I must go down and get this! So I jumped on a bus and went down town and got it. I brought it home and played it. I played one side, had a cup of tea, then came back and played the other side and I thought, yeah, I see what they mean. I was talking to an English journalist a while later and he turned to me and said, 'So why didn't you just pause the CD?'" He laughs, "I was like, 'You see! That's the reason England conquered Ireland; that superior technical thinking!' The song is about growth. It's a song about people changing. It's a song about development. It would never have been on the album if the producer hadn't have loved it. I just thought it was okay but it's turned out to be many, many people's favourite song."

One of things I've noticed about Brian is that he has to battle against cynicism. I ask him about it and he immediately turns the question back on me. He asks "How do you think I battle my cynicism?" I observe that he is capable of being cynical, of observing things that happen - particularly church things or things that happen in the Christian scene and there is a tendency within him to be very knowing and a little bit flippant about it. I don't think he wants to be cynical but he just knows too much. He reflects, "Well I think it's like any organisation. If you have been inside all the inner workings and seen several models, like I've seen, then you get a perspective. There is no returning to innocence in that sense. I used to say, 'I've been to the mountaintop and found out it was a volcano'." He roars with laughter.

But the comment proves exactly what I am saying about him being cynical! "Yeah," he admits. "These days I try to take a more merciful and gracious approach to things. As hard as it may seem I think that God is in the Church. I'm a lover of Church. I'm a fan of Church. I desperately want to be right in the middle of Church, and I need that, right? I belong to Jesus Christ. I'm a son of God with his Spirit living inside me. I'm a prince and a priest. . . I'm all these things that God has made me and privileged and invited me into. So in that sense I'm an equal to everyone who's in Church. I do think that unfortunately a lot of things happen that put people off and so I try desperately to see the good in it and I try to belong and attend it and serve it and give to the Church as much as I can give. I hope that some day when I'm older that I'll be able to give my wisdom. I want to have a vision for growing old with the people around here, regardless of who they are right now and what they may say, what they may do, what their careers might make them do and what their motivations might make them do. And me too, I want us to be old men together and look back and laugh."

He continues, "And that vision for a family of God is the same that I try to apply in my own family. I want to be old with my kids and their kids and their kids, and I want to enjoy that. There is a verse where it says that people without a vision perish, and that's my vision for Church and that's what I long for and that's what I pray for. Therefore cynicism, whilst it's just an intelligent, informed, humorous way of looking at bad things that go on, it can't afford to dominate. Cynicism knows the price of everything and the value of nothing and I know the value of this and I walked in both worlds, a lot. And when I've walked in my world - the world of bars and clubs and pubs for a long, long time - I know the fresh air of walking into a Church. Believe you me, there's a spiritual fresh air. Now if you're there every week you probably don't realise it, you know? But I feel it, when I've been out there doing what I do. At the same time there is a removal. That if you buy into the subculture long enough, you CAN become institutionalised and I don't think that's particularly helpful for people. I think it's a bit out of balance."

He elaborates, "We need to take that scary journey through the real world. This whole idea of having completely Christianised businesses or things like that, in some way I kind of see that as almost anti-Christ. Do you know what I mean? Jesus said, 'Go into all the world and make disciples.' He didn't say, 'Build a subculture where strangers aren't welcome'. And I think we have to be very, very careful. Modern communication, and the richness of the Church and the hugeness of it, has given us the ability over the last 50 years to create an entire Christian society that doesn't even connect with the rest of the globe!"

Houston is an artist who has broken through the walls of the Church and taken his music into the world, writing honest songs about his life experiences. There can be no doubting that his songs connect with people on a musical and emotional level. He's been the "Next Big Thing" for so long that perhaps the next year will finally see him fulfil the promise and live up to the tons of critical praise he's received over the years. And perhaps like his recent success it'll just creep up on him and suddenly he'll be a household name. But will the butcher still hand him packages of free meat? CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
About Mike Rimmer
Mike RimmerMike Rimmer is a broadcaster and journalist based in Birmingham.


 
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Reader Comments

Posted by Pam Case in Liverpool @ 10:25 on Oct 22 2007

Congratulations on an excellent and well written article that gives so much space to the interviewee to put across their points. Once you have heard Brian Houston, or seen him - an artist who is dynamic live - you DO think "This man should be a household name!" Our family have been blessed with being able to get to know Brian a little, personally - he's a great guy and we have seen the Lord working in peoples' lives through what is often considered Brian's "secular" music as well as his Christian tracks. It's great to see his music going from strength to strength. If anyone reading this hasn't heard Brian yet ..... GO DISCOVER !



Posted by Colin Whitten @ 06:54 on Oct 10 2007

I had never heard of Brian Hoston before, but last night Isaw him at Whitewell, as the openiig act to Michael W Smith, Brian was fantastic, and should have been given a longer slot, the interview you have done with him gives a good isight to the man and any one from Ulster in the same age bracket can identify with all the things he talks about. brilliant interview with a brilliant artist.



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