Rhodes

David Rhodes has been playing under his current moniker Rhodes for just a year and his music has already drummed up a substantial amount of support already from fans and industry peers.

On Wednesday, we headed over to the Disaronno Terrace to check out his captivating performance and to catch up with the man himself...

Rhodes, pleasure to meet you!

We’re here at the Disaronno Terrace and you’re about to play in an hour or so, what are you going to bring to the stage tonight?

It’s just me today, with my electric guitar and I’m going to play some older songs and some songs from my new EP.

When’s the release date for the new EP?

There’s no official date yet but it’s coming out in September.

What inspired you for the EP?

I think musically I’ve been listening to a lot of film music, that’s really inspired me; I’m trying to create these quite vast, sound-scapey songs so I’ve been listening to a lot of Danny Elfman who does the Tim Burton films. Then it’s the normal sort of things that inspire me, family, relationships and things like that. It’s been a very eventful year so I’ve had a lot to write about really!

What’s the biggest thing that’s happened to you this year?

Probably getting playlisted on Radio 1, that’s quite weird actually hearing yourself on radio! Also my first live TV performance at Glastonbury, that was pretty insane!

On the film side of things, is it something you’d like to get into?

Definitely, one day! I’d probably want to write for a British film, I’m really into Shane Meadows, I think that would be quite a dream to do the soundtrack for him.

You’ve been described as quite dark and mysterious, is that something that reflects your personality or is it an avenue you’ve chosen for your music?

I don’t know really, I don’t think it was intentional so maybe it does reflect on my personality! I wouldn’t say I ‘m a particularly dark person but perhaps that just how I vent it through music.

So if you had to sum yourself up, how would you do that?

Well I’m a singer/songwriter, I like to create quite expansive, dark pop music I suppose. Yeah, I guess that’s how I’d sum myself up.

You’ve had a lot of support from Nick Mulvey, Laura Marling and Rufus Wainwright, how does it feel to have all that support?

Incredible actually! I’ve been really lucky think, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind and it’s not until you reflect back on it that you realise what you’ve done and the places you’ve played. Obviously the dream one day is to be playing those big venues, I played at Brixton Academy supporting London Grammar and that was just unbelievable! The place was just heaving with all these people, it was quite inspirational actually. I think everyone I’ve played with and supported has been very inspirational and I’ve sort of learnt something from all of them really.

What was your big break into the industry?

I got quite lucky with the whole online thing, before I’d even done a show there seemed to quite a few people taking an interest in me, so there was a bit of luck there really. Maybe I was listened to by the right people or shared on the right blog or something? I did my first show about a year ago and I put a song online a few months before that so the momentum built online first and my first show was then pretty packed out.

You’ve been described as the male Adele, how do you feel about that?

I don’t know about that one! That’s very kind! I read the new band of the day on The Guardian website and that guy can be quite cynical to put it nicely, so yeah, that was nice of him! We’ll see, I’ll have to work on that!

What are you listening to at the moment?

I’m listening a lot of film music just because I like to write with a sort of visual in my head, a scenery or a landscape. I never really got into who was creating all this film music that I really liked so I’ve ventured into that. Bands I’m really into would be The National and I'm also listening to a lot of the bands I’ve been touring with as well. Nick Mulvey’s album’s great, it’s really good. London Grammar’s music is obviously huge and really good. I also like a lot of older music, a lot of blues.

Is Glastonbury the most important gig you’ve done to date would you say?

Definitely, the live performance aspect definitely felt the most important, it was certainly the most nerve-wracking for me. Being there was just crazy, such a big place, it felt quite special actually!

What does the rest of year hold for you?

Lots and lots of touring, lots of writing, I’m going to hopefully start recording my album soon so I’m going to start writing lots down and experimenting. I’ve written a lot of songs already, some are just idea’s, some are full songs but I reckon I’ve got about 15 songs already that I’d be happy to put out. I’m spending the next month or two, filtering through the phone recordings and the demo’s on my laptop and then I’ll try to piece together all of the things I’ve done over the last year.

Rhodes performed at the DISARONNO Terrace at Platform Bar, Netil House. For further details on forthcoming DISARONNO Terrace events follow @DISARONNO_UK, visit www.facebook.com/disaronno and Disaronno.beoriginale.com.