South London singer-storyteller Gecko has released witty lyricism, vibrant character building and a heartfelt reflection of life and fantasy in his ambitious new album, The Big Picture. Gecko’s knack for finding meaning in the everyday makes for sonic purity you’d struggle to find elsewhere. Working with some talented names, and crossing a range of genres with cohesiveness and vision, we wanted to catch up on all things Gecko and find out what makes up The Big Picture.
This album seems to mark the opening of some more creative doors for you, both in sound and themes. How do you feel The Big Picture differs from your previous work?
It’s definitely my most expansive project so far. Sonically it was my first time arranging for strings and I also got really into the horn arrangements. It was a dream to have Jools Holland’s band leader Phil Veacock grace the album with his incredible sax and clarinet. I was obsessed with combing through Staxx records to try and work out what makes their horns so compelling. They really treat horns like a vocal so they need to have their own space. And there’s less harmony than I was expecting -they often have two or three horns playing in unison maybe across a couple of octaves. Another nice thing about the recording process was Shuta Shinoda (my engineer, mixer and general audio guru) was really encouraging in my home recording skills. So a lot of my original demos ended up in the final recordings. This meant I could really indulge the scrapbook style on tracks like ‘Take a Look Around’. They’re crammed with cool little sound effects and voices that I’ve collected over the years.
Thematically a lot of The Big Picture is my attempt to try and zoom out a bit from the stress and anxiety that just existing in this current social climate seems to create. It’s about trying to do that but also not always succeeding. ‘Take a look around’ for example is a deep dive into the incredibly unlikely set of circumstances that occurred so that we can have the life that we’re currently holding. I hope some people can find some comfort in that.
You’ve shared that Randy Newman influenced your songwriting for this record; can you tell us more about that?
Randy Newman has been such a key figure for my writing. I had always loved the Toy Story soundtracks as a kid, but then, as a teenager, I discovered there was a whole huge back catalogue of singer-songwriter records going right back to the seventies. They had his signature chords underneath, but these weren’t songs for kids. Thematically, they’re taking on everything from nuclear warfare to vengeful gods to colonialism to men who can only share their feelings when drunk. Most of his songs are written in character and hearing that was a game-changer for me. I didn’t know that that was something you could do as 99% of the songs you hear are written from the singer’s point of view.
This record includes a few character songs. And I also think musically there is some direct Newman influence in the chord choices, especially as I was writing more on the piano.
There are many interesting stories told across this project, so it’s hard to pick a single tale to highlight. With that said, we’d love to hear more about how you discovered the story behind ‘Lost Boys’ and what it means to you.
‘Lost Boys’ is a true story about six boys aged 13-19 from Tonga who got stranded on a deserted island for over a year. But as opposed to the narrative of Lord of the Flies ‘Lost Boys’ is a tale of friendship and teamwork.
I read about this story in a book by Rutger Bregman called ‘Human Kind’. The book questions the commonly held belief that humans are innately bad and that as soon as we’re put in a desperate situation like being stranded on an island we will turn into the worst version of ourselves. The fictional book Lord of the Flies fully illustrates this vision of humanity, ending in chaos. Rutger got obsessed with trying to find out if there had ever been a situation like Lord of the Flies but in real life and after a long research journey he found the true story of six Tongan boys from the 1960s. I won’t give away the ending here but it’s a lot more hopeful than Lord of the Flies I can tell you!
Musically I tried to convey the resilience in these remarkable children but also the desperation that they must have felt. It feels like an emotional pinnacle of the record.
What’s been the most meaningful piece of feedback you’ve received about your music?
I did quite a lot of live-streaming during lockdown and it’s been really special to meet some of the people who attended those shows and hear that I was a part of helping them through such a difficult time. Moments like that and little personal messages from people letting me know what a song means to them are huge for me.
Once you’ve wrapped up some touring to showcase the album, what’s next for Gecko?
Yeah, I finish my album launches this month, and then I will be doing a similar run of launches in Germany and the Netherlands. I will also be able to be found at a few festival fields this summer and then will gear up for a full album tour in the Autumn.
I’m excited to see where my songwriting goes next and will be enjoying lots of freedom to just play around. Alongside this, I’m making a new theatre show for children and their families with poet Simon Mole. And am trying to dive into lots of creative projects without burning out!
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Photography: Hugo Glendinning