#39 Deeper Into Outer Space | David J Boswell

We catch up with our old mucker Bozz to get under the hood of his new electronic Balearic album, ‘Going Down Slow’...

“Having weird posh, London hip people asking me around for dinner was all a bit much for my autistic brain to handle,” says artist David J Boswell of his brushes with East London’s oi polloi.

From Prestatyn in North Wales, now rooted in Sheffield, David (aka Bozz), has moved through various musical phases, scenes and cliques in his creative life.

You might know him as one half of electronic duo Hiem who turned heads with their self-released ‘Chelsea’ or killer Crosstown Rebels 12, ‘She’s the One’ (a big anthem round these parts way back when). Or as part of Sheffield’s sprawling collective, the All Seeing I, a group which connected disparate players within the city’s music scene and turned it into chart success.

Now you need to get to grips with his new record, ‘Going Down Slow’. Released as David J Boswell, this collection takes a left turn away from European dancefloors into more Balearic and intimate pastures with no little soul-baring on his part. Blues guitar, drum machines and vocoders all rub up against each other across the album’s 11 tracks…

Here, we catch up with one of Sheffield’s great underground heroes…

How has being from Prestatyn/North Wales shaped you and your music?

Growing up there was tough, but then I found the drums when I was 10 so I totally ignored school, joined a new wave of British heavy metal band and just did that instead.

Then the band I was in, Monza, broke up and everything went to pot for quite a few years. It was horrible, aside from the depression and anxiety, folk were really mean to me back then, and it was hard to figure it out, but I moved and it all ended up okay in the end.

I still play a few songs I wrote back then. So yeah it’s the rough with the smooth, I’ve got some great friends still there though.

What were the first electronic records you loved?

For me when I was about ten I really loved Donner Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’, ‘The Model’ from Kraftwerk was a big one and of course all those early synthpop records from that time. I was so into the two-tone thing, punk and everything else that was going on back then too.

What is this new record all about? How and where did you make it? And what has inspired/influenced the songs on this new record?

Well quite a few of the tracks were demo’d years ago, some from when I was 18 or so and a lot of them were recorded on a four track cassette when I was living in Barnsley at college before I came to live here in Sheffield.

I found the old cassette with them all on, and thought I’ve got to finish these songs and get them out there. I’ve been working on the different tracks over the last 15 years or so, some in my studio when I was at Stag Works and some at home and different studios around Sheffield.

“A lot of the songs are inspired by what’s going on around me and definitely influenced by a lot of folk/blues artists like John Martyn, Nick Drake and all the early delta blues artists.”

Could you talk about your production process on this new album? How did you go about making it and what kind of gear/software did you use?

I’ve been using Steinberg’s Cubase since I was 16, it’s the only software I can actually use. I usually track the guitars and vocals first, then add all the synths, which makes it all come alive. It’s quite an odd concoction but seems to work and somehow I can reign it all in.

I’d like to ask about your past too - How did you get involved with All Seeing I? What were your experiences with the collective like?

When I was coming up from Barnsley to record, I’d use a few different studios and met Dean Honer, Parrot and Jason Buckle. Dean and I got signed to Bush Records for a couple of singles, which never saw the light of day.

I just carried on doing vocals for different records, they used to call me Barnsley Bozz then and a lot of people thought I was a woman because I sang so high in falsetto.

They’d just released ‘The Beat Goes On’ through London Records which was a massive hit, so London wanted them to make an album. They got me in to sing and produce a track called ‘Sweet Music’. So the album got released and they needed someone to front the whole thing and they asked me to do it alongside Jarvis, Phil Oakey and all the other artists on the record.

I’d switch from guitar to bass, synths and vocals whenever Jarvis or Phil couldn’t make the shows to sing so I was doing a lot live.

I did Top of The Pops and all the telly stuff, it was all a bit of a blur to be honest, the best of times and the worst of times. I didn’t like the business side of things, the London industry people can come across so phoney. I remember playing Fabric , Carl Craig was in Room Three, Thomas Bangalter in Room Two and we were in Room One. After the show, when we got backstage there were all these people /liggers there and I couldn’t get my head around it at all. It scared me to death around that time, all the girls that had told me to fuck off a year before were all skipping around me all of a sudden.

When it was all over I think all of us went a bit loopy to be honest.

“I’ve always said I wasn’t that good at being a pop star type. I’m a lot happier bubbling under the radar on the underground, just popping my head above the pulpit now and again.”

How did Hiem first meet too? Was this via the All Seeing I? Are you still working/writing with Nick?

Ahh well Nick was in Venini which was Russel Senior’s offshoot from Pulp.

We just met backstage at Reading and Leeds festivals, I think he was eating my scotch eggs so that’s how we met, we wrote really well together and that’s how Hiem came about. I’m sure there will be some more Hiem stuff in the future, I guess we’re on ice at the moment.

I’d like to know more about Crosstown Rebels too - how was working with the label? What was Damian Lazarus like?

Yeah to be honest I think ‘She’s The One’ was our biggest record up to that point, I think the Matthew Jonson remix was very popular worldwide on the dancefloors and the original italo themed track seemed to work perfectly with the electroclash movement which was the big thing at the time.

I lost touch with the label when they turned really techno, Damian was very London but his heart is in the right place, we had some laughs.

How has your sound evolved now? You’re now working across all these various different aliases?

I think the sound has evolved. I’ve slowed things down a bit, stripped it back a bit and given my music more space to breathe. I’ve done a few techno remixes as per usual but I can do a lot of different kinds of music. One name is for this, another alias for that.

What’s your favourite track off this new record and why?

I think I’d probably say ‘Going Down Slow Pt2’ . It came out very cinematic, it’s probably the spaciest thing I’ve ever done. With ‘Better Days’, I was going for a kind of Robert Wyatt, kind of thing. ‘Going Down Slow Pt2’ was written in the middle of the pandemic. I remember walking down the Moor in Sheffield, it was like a sci fi movie.

I think the pandemic affected a lot of people, still even now I don’t think anybody will forget that in a hurry, it was so surreal.

Connect with Bozz and buy his new record, ‘Going Down Slow’.

Bandcamp | Rough Trade | Norman Records | David J Boswell