The U.K.’s talented singer-songwriter, Chris Lewington uses a tried and tested technique when he composes a song; he calls it “classic songwriting.” The result is an eclectic array of music built on a foundation of styles from the late 60s and 70s. While at times Lewington’s work seem almost “Beatle-esque,” at other times, one can hear a myriad of other influences he masterfully mixes into his compositions. Indeed, there’s an inherently timeless feel within the songs of Chris Lewington.
Chris Lewington has been a musician since his early teens when he first picked up the guitar. His first love was not pop or rock music but movie themes and his earliest musical heroes were the likes of Ennio Morricone and John Barry. Later in his teens, listening to the singer-songwriters of the time he started to write songs. “It struck me how someone like Paul Simon or Leonard Cohen could wrap complex themes of love, life and existence up in just a 3 or 4 minute tune with a timeless melody”
Ready for the stage Chris Lewington started his first band, called The Silence, in the early 80s and released his first singles, “A Car in Denmark” and “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter,” The Silence also feature alongside the likes of Julian Cope on the the cult compilation, “A Splash of Colour”, that followed the early 80’s psychedelic revival
By the mid-eighties Chris had formed The Bicycle Thieves, which had a similar style to REM and Lloyd Cole. With The Bicycle Thieves, Lewington penned the singles “Ghostdance” and “Louise,” both of which received airplay on Radio 1. “Louise” would go on to win the 1989 TDK Songwriter Award.
Another single, “Waterfront” received a lot of airplay and some notice on the UK Charts. Chris also got the chance to work with the renowned producer Tony Visconti during this period.
In the early 90s, Chris returned to his singer- songwriter roots as he started a new project called The Famous Blue Raincoats, a folky acoustic style band that performed in smaller sized venues in and around London. During the 90s and 2000s, Lewington concentrated on writing new material to pitch to publishers.
It was not until this year 2018 that Chris set aside time to finally release his first official full-length album as a solo artist. “Technology had advanced to the point that you could make decent recordings for release using just a laptop and recording in your own home”. Hence the title of the album, Landells Road, named after the street where it was recorded, and as a sort of homage to The Beatles’ Abbey Road. The retro amalgam of stylistic sounds found on Landells Road reflects Lewington’s love of classic artists such as The Beatles, Love and Scott Walker as well as contempories like The Smoke Faeries, Calexico and Flaming Lips
“Something in your Eyes” marks the new recording and single since the release of Landells Road and develops the sound and song writing of that album into new territories while retaining Lewington’s core trademark of timeless melodies and thoughtful lyrics. A wistful late summer tune almost pastoral in its ambitions and evoking shades of late 60’s English psychedelia of the Canterbury scene and in particular the sounds of singer songwriter Keith Christmas.
One thing is certain, there will always be a timelessness in the tunes of Chris Lewington. He has studied the masters of classic songwriting, and he knows the key ingredients to pen a hit song never change.
For more Chris Lewington
Website: chrislewington.co.uk
SoundCloud: @the-flaming-pies
