Back with a new album, J.P. Riggall brings us ‘(Stories From) The Dukes County Motel’, a concept album about love, loss and sorrow, stories from the bar of a motel, frequented by a man looking for a loved one. Damian Robinson caught up with J.P. to find out more.
I really enjoyed the album. The imagery and the sounds reminded me a little of Twin Peaks…
Thanks. I know what you mean. There’s something a little David Lynchian about the album cover and some of the ideas about a certain type of motel in a certain type of place at a certain time in history. The album has themes of people going missing so that also fits in with Lynch in a way.
You’re known as a bit of a workaholic, this album coming after ‘Hotel Wilderness’ and then the work you’ve been doing with your current outfit, Weathership. Why was it the right time to put out a solo album? And how do you know which songs to put into which project?
I suppose I don’t really have a creative break, so I’m constantly working on material. Some of it fits in my writing and other pieces sit in Weathership. What I had with these songs was a constant theme and idea for one train of thought. With some songs, that meant I had to play with the lyrics a little so that they fit with this story, but with other songs, they seemed to fit together almost instantly.
Did you do pretty much all of the work on this album?
I did, yes. The album is fully tracked and mixed by me so that also plays into which songs go onto which project. I love the idea of an album, and the idea of it being one piece of work, like you’d get with say Sgt Peppers. So again, that type of idea meant that the album has to feel a certain way and to be played in a certain way also. This may have been the hardest piece of work I’ve ever done in the sense of trying to complete one full creative idea.
And in terms of next steps and launch gigs, what comes next with the album?
I’m not sure at the minute. There was a lot of time spent on the artwork and that’s already got me thinking about the next creative piece. I write so much and I’ll probably go straight into Weathership material and sit and work through some of the new songs that have been created. If people like this work then they should check out Weathership, and future pieces by Weathership, as that’s bigger and louder. The plan was always to be creative and it’s great to keep going.
You can listen to ‘(Stories From) The Dukes County Motel’ now on all major streaming platforms.
