Northants, Leics &amp; Rutland

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="969" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-005.jpeg" alt="Billy lockett by Gavin Wallace" class="wp-image-42263" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-005.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-005-300x291.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-005-768x744.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Gavin Wallace</figcaption></figure>



From Northampton Picturedrome to Glastonbury Festival, Billy&#8217;s played them all. And with a big smile on his face too. He&#8217;s toured with the likes of Birdy, Lana Del Rey, KT Tunstall, Lewis Capaldi and the legendary ELO and he&#8217;s performed on The Late Late Show with James Corden, but Billy&#8217;s heart is firmly in Shoe Town. He grew up with his parents in Northampton &#8211; his Dad being the now late artist and bona fide local legend John Luce Lockett &#8211; and we caught up with Billy for a chat ahead of a new retrospective of John&#8217;s paintings, curated by Billy and opening on 5 March at 78 Derngate in Northampton. 



What&#8217;s been the process of putting together the new exhibition of your Dad&#8217;s work at 78 Derngate?



The first step was picking the paintings. I&#8217;ve got a lot of them, I mean, rooms and rooms of them. It&#8217;s a life&#8217;s work, really. So it was just going through them and picking my favourites, choosing bits and bobs from across his whole life, from sixteen to a couple of months before he died at sixty-five. It&#8217;s a real mix of styles and subjects. 



There&#8217;s an exhibition of the photographer Gavin Wallace&#8217;s work, Place Where We Dwell, which showcases the people of Northampton, taking place alongside the exhibition of your Dad&#8217;s work at the same time.



Yeah, that&#8217;s right, it was just a fluke really. Gavin&#8217;s got his exhibition in the other two rooms at 78 Derngate. He&#8217;s my best mate and some of his pictures are actually of me, but there are loads of images of amazing people from Northampton in the exhibition too. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="560" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-001.jpeg" alt="Billy Lockett hanging out at the Orangery at Castle Ashby. Photo by Gavin Wallace" class="wp-image-42264" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-001.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-001-300x168.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-001-768x430.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Billy hanging out at the Orangery at Castle Ashby. Photo by Gavin Wallace</figcaption></figure>



Your debut album, Abington Grove, came out last year, are you recording any new material?



Right now I&#8217;m in between albums and in between tours, so it was the perfect moment for me to focus on the exhibition of my Dad&#8217;s work, but I am working on my songs for the new album at the moment and I&#8217;ve got two months to finish it. No pressure. 



What does your writing process look like? 



I work mostly from my house in Northampton, writing, recording, producing, mixing, the whole thing. It&#8217;s agonising at the moment because I&#8217;ve just broken up with my girlfriend of ten years. This second album is all about the break-up and if I get some good songs out of it then I suppose that&#8217;s a good thing. I&#8217;ve also recently split with my ex-manager and record label, so it&#8217;s scary but also filled with possibility. I like the feeling of being independent and the potential that opens up. Digital streaming and social media have made it a lot easier and more financially viable, so, I&#8217;m enjoying the creative freedom that gives me.



I wrote a lot of ballads when I was starting out and I had quite a bit of success with them, then when I wrote Abington Grove I was so sick of ballads that I wanted to do a pop record. I wanted to prove to myself that I was more than just a piano and vocal guy, so I did a pop album and got it out of my system and now I&#8217;ve fallen back in love with ballads again, so this second album is hopefully a more mature version of who I started out as. The whole album will probably end up being twelve sad break-up ballads. It&#8217;s fascinating how powerful love is and how it can make you feel incredible and also make you want to die. It&#8217;s magic, so I&#8217;m really tapping in to that. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="844" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-003.jpeg" alt="Billy Lockett in a suit Photo by Gavin Wallace" class="wp-image-42266" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-003.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-003-300x253.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-003-768x648.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Gavin Wallace</figcaption></figure>



You&#8217;re quite open on social media about your creative process and your experiences of touring and performing, how big a role does that play in getting your stuff out there? 



I suppose I feel like my fans are my friends, so I&#8217;m just letting them know what&#8217;s happening and connecting with them. It&#8217;s weird that that&#8217;s unusual. I think it&#8217;s odd that that bar is set so low. People are just so used to performers being arrogant and I think a lot of artists just assume the role that&#8217;s expected of them. I want people to be able to relate to me and I love the interaction with people that social media can bring. It&#8217;s great in terms of connecting and getting my music out there, but that&#8217;s not the end goal. The end goal is the buzz of performing my music in front of real people and seeing the room light up. 



Who are your musical influences?



My Dad would always paint to music, so I would sit and watch him. He had a vinyl player in the corner of his studio and I would play his records. Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Joan Armatrading, Sinead O&#8217;Connor, Suzanne Vega, all sorts of singer-songwriters from the &#8217;70s to the &#8217;90s. But when I&#8217;m in writing mode, I&#8217;m only listening to my own songs really and when I&#8217;ve finished what I&#8217;ve done the last thing I want to do is listen to any music. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="791" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-004.jpeg" alt="Billy Lockett with his dog, Trevor. Photo by Gavin Wallace" class="wp-image-42267" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-004.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-004-300x237.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2024/02/Billy-Lockett-Gavin-Wallace-004-768x607.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Billy with his dog, Trevor. Photo by Gavin Wallace</figcaption></figure>



What are the best things about living in Northampton?



All my friends are here, my whole life is here. I&#8217;ve got my whole thing set up, my community, my gym. ETC is my gym, and if I hadn&#8217;t had that through this break-up I would be ruined, they&#8217;re really looking after me. Tim, the owner, will literally message me and say &#8220;You haven&#8217;t come to the gym today, what&#8217;s going on?&#8221; He holds you accountable and it&#8217;s amazing from a physical and mental health point of view. 



I love my house and my dog, Trevor, and it&#8217;s just a very relaxed life here and I need that because I tour a lot and I get that itch scratched from travelling around. It&#8217;s also right in the centre of the country, so it&#8217;s perfect for touring or dashing down to London for meetings. I like the slightly scuzzy vibe of Northampton and the creative energy that brings. 



If there&#8217;s anyone reading who isn&#8217;t already familiar with your music, what should they listen to first? 



I Could Use A Friend. I think that&#8217;s the best thing I&#8217;ve done so far, that&#8217;s a step up. Everything about it just feels right. It&#8217;s what I feel I should sound like and it&#8217;s the beginning of the next chapter. 



John Luce Lockett: A Retrospective Exhibition opens alongside Place Where We Dwell at <a href="https://www.78derngate.org.uk/">78 Derngate</a>, Northampton NN1 1UH, 5 March &#8211; 5 April, sponsored by V&amp;B Northampton, with a live performance by Billy Lockett on the opening night (6.30-9.30pm). 



Billy&#8217;s debut album&nbsp;<a href="https://billylockett.com/collections/abington-grove">Abington Grove</a>&nbsp;is out on Photo Finish Records. His <a href="https://www.songkick.com/artists/4235151-billy-lockett" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">headline UK tour</a> kicks off in April, after which headlines <a href="https://musicbarn.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Music Barn Festival</a> on 29 June 2024 and he&#8217;ll perform a Christmas Special at <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/billy-locketts-christmas-show-2024-tickets-764745282727" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Northampton Picturedrome</a> on 15 Dec 2024. Get your tickets quick!

Muddy meets singer-songwriter Billy Lockett

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