Ten Tonnes a.k.a. Ethan Barnett has had a rollercoaster of a week after releasing his self-titled debut album into the world. Sharing snippets of the record in the run-up to its release, the tension has been building as the Hertford-born singer-songwriter geared up for one of his biggest years yet. But, in a rare moment of quiet, Sarah Thomas sat down for a drink with Ten Tonnes in his adopted city of West London ahead of the release to chat about the process, and capture the calm before the chaos.
Gigwise: Your debut album is out in May, how does it feel now you’ve finally finished it? Your first EP was in 2016, so has it felt like a long time coming?
Ten Tonnes: Yeah kind of, at the end of last year I was still writing, and there was a pencilled in date for early this year and I was just getting so impatient cause it had felt like a really long time. But I’m glad we took our time with it because I ended up writing a few more songs for the record in that October/November time that ended up being on the record, and being really important tunes on the record. I’m glad we took our time and it feels right now, I’m glad we didn’t do it any sooner because I don’t think it would’ve been as good but it kind of feels like everything’s building up.
GW: You toured with your brother George Ezra last year, did he give you any tips for the first album?
TT: Not really because we’d both always been doing music and then when I properly went for it he was like ‘I’ll give you as much or as little tips as you want’ and I kind of just said ‘I just want to do it by myself and make mistakes or whatever’. But it’s been good so far, I don’t think he would know what to tell me anyway.
GW: Yeah because both your music is stylistically very different…
TT: Yeah, it’s weird as well because his album came out in 2014 and it already feels like the music industry has changed. Streaming wasn’t as big as it is now, so it still feels like quite a different thing already.
GW: You’ve included ‘Lucy’ on there which was one of your first songs, in terms of the newer stuff how long have you been writing it? Is there anything you’ve been sitting on a while waiting for the right time to release?
TT: Yeah, so when it was like September/October I was still writing and I went to LA for a bit to do some writing which I didn’t really want to do, I just wanted to be at home. It was my birthday on the Thursday, and then we did Reading and Leeds, then on Sunday I had to pack and then Monday I left. It had been at the end of summer and I just wanted to stick around and see everyone for a bit and then I ended up in LA by myself just having a bit of a shit time.
GW: Oh no, that doesn’t sound fun!
TT: No one’s given me that much sympathy because you’re in LA so it’s not that bad, but I’d never been before I just don’t think it’s my cup of tea. It was ok it was kind of like last effort let’s see if we can get any songs and I was just like ‘fuck it lets do it’. Then it spurred me on to finish songs I had for ages because I was like ‘fuck it, I went all the way to LA and didn’t get any songs’ so I thought ‘I might as well finish some’ and there’s a bunch that I just finished myself. There’s one called ‘Counting Down’ which was this really slow surf-rock tune I wrote in 2015 or 2016, I just made this shit demo on my Mac and I found that and I was like this isn’t what the record needs but the idea of the song is cool, so then I just completely changed it and finished writing that. I always try and go back and see if there was anything good that I missed the first time round because occasionally it might be something that sparks something else.
GW: I guess you might say this album is more of a chapter of your life then?
TT: Yeah, exactly that’s it as well. I didn’t want to write too many songs that seemed really old-man and be proper love ballads because ‘Lucy’ I wrote when I was 18 so I wanted to still feel exactly that. To feel like a young record and because I think doing all these writing sessions you can end up having all these beautiful songs but they’re just anybody’s songs they’re not specific to me, so I wanted to make sure it felt like my record.
GW: You’ve worked with some amazing people on this record, but as far as producers you had Hugo White (The Maccabees) and Dan Grech. I read that Hugo pushed you for a one-take recording style. Was that a lot of pressure?
TT: Yeah, a little bit. I did music production before and I’ve done it at an amateur level and know a little bit of what’s going on. So, I used to play all the parts as well, that was the biggest thing for me just handing the reigns over to a drummer and a bass player and different people to put their mark on it. Me and Dan did it the way that I do it, which I’m more comfortable with because it means that I play it all and the quality control is a bit more bang on. But the Hugo ones are really great, and I think the songs, I don’t know if anyone else could hear the difference in the Dan and Hugo ones but the ones with Hugo definitely feel more like a band in a room and I don’t know if that’s just because I know.
We do like a live take all in the room and then we’d map a click that would move with our demo, so it wasn’t just set structured which was a really cool way of doing it. I think that’s the beauty of being a solo musician you can experiment and have different people. Having the band was fucking cool, they’re really great. We were in The Maccabees’ studio, but it’s been knocked down now, it’s in Elephant and Castle and the area’s doing this whole regeneration thing turning into flats. It’s really sad because it’s such a cool place and I’ve got so many happy memories there and it was cool that I got to record some stuff there.
GW: You also wrote with Crispin Hunt, Luke Potashnick, and Nick Hodgson, how did some of your co-writes come about?
TT: I did loads and loads, but they were the three I was the most comfortable with. There are so many songs, I think I tried to get rid of most of them, but I had loads of them on my laptop that were just endless amounts of demos with different people. But, they were the people that I wrote some good stuff with, so I just kept seeing them, and it’s always once you’ve met a few times that you write the good stuff. Me and Nick had written loads together but not every time’s a good tune but then once you do it enough you get a good tune. It’s weird as well because they’re all kind of ex-musicians and I don’t know whether that’s partly to do with it as well, whether they get it more than other people.
GW: Did any of them change the way you write creatively?
TT: A little bit, I do think it’s really good when you’re with someone that you respect and trust because then I’m always aware, then I’m trying to impress them. Then your brain’s working overtime to try and think of a funny line or a clever way of saying something, and it feels good when you can do that in a room and they’re like ‘oh sick that was a good idea Ethan!’
GW: Then you’re thinking ‘they liked it!’
TT: Yeah exactly that basically. I’m just trying to impress everyone all the time.
GW: It must be quite stressful, especially someone like Nick if they’ve written a song you really love
TT: Yeah, Nick’s really weird in a really lovely way though. I don’t think he’ll mind me saying he’s weird because it’s in a really nice way, but the first time I met him he wasn’t what I thought he would be like. It’s the same with Hugo or whatever you’ve seen them as The Maccabees and then you meet them and they’re just normal people really. And, usually everyone’s a bit weird so that kind of helps.
GW: ’Nights In Nights Out’ that you wrote with Nick, is a bit rowdier and carefree, and the lyrics “I just want to be alone” kind of sums up our generation?
TT: One hundred percent. I remember when we wrote it that line was so nice to sing, I don’t know why you can just proper belt it out. But yeah, me personally I love my own company, sometimes it’s like ‘can everyone just fuck off!’ That song originally was a bit more Fleetwood Mac-esque, I don’t know if that’s giving myself too much credit, but it was a bit more chilled out. Nick was like ‘on the Kaiser Chief’s songs we tried to make every song sound rhythmically different’, so we changed it to that down-stroke thing and it definitely works in the record because it does feel like a change. It’s about my hometown and the cycle of nights in, nights out and seeing the same people all the time and thinking ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’. That’s how I felt for a long time because I wanted to do music and I was doing open mics but it’s like how do you actually get out there and do it? Especially nowadays it’s like how do you move out of home? It’s impossible. But yeah, everyone likes being on their phone and alone and stuff, so that’s probably a bit of it.
GW: Do you think you feel like that now as well now you’re living in London? There’s so much to do and don’t want to miss out on anything, but do you want to stay at home too?
TT: Yeah definitely moving out I feel very lucky to be able to do it, because it’s just having my independence is such an amazing thing. There are definitely times when I miss being at home and just texting my mates ‘does anyone want to go to the pub’ and they’re right there because nobody else lives in London out of my home friends. But, having my independence is just fucking great.
GW: ’Missing You’ written with Luke, is more of a sombre one, it felt like you were going for more of a 90s Brit-pop vibe?
TT: Yeah I think everyone always says that and I love 90s Britpop, but it’s not my main thing but I can’t help it I just sound a bit 90s Britpop no matter what I do.
GW: That’s a great sound though everyone loves that kind of sound…
TT: Yeah exactly, but I feel like if I tried to make a song that didn’t sound like that people would be like ‘I like the Britpop thing you did there!’. Luke’s an amazing guitarist, when I play guitar with him, I’m just like fuck I don’t know how to play guitar at all because he just plays these weird chords. He had to teach me some of these chords on it because it’s like these diminished 90s stuff but it sounds really cool and they’re like Beatles-y chords as well and I like that. We were writing it and thought this could just be a love-y song which it is, but it’s also about my hometown as well. It’s that same thing of that love/hate relationship of where you’re from. That’s what I mean as well that it’s a young record because those themes are quite 18-year-old themes, like ‘I hate my parents I want to move out’.
GW: There’s a lot of anthemic songs that are going to be amazing when you play festivals and for the fans to sing along to…
TT: Yeah, that’s like the only slow one I put on the record. I knew that I wanted one, but I thought that’s probably the limit. I wanted it to be all bangers and then we just put one at the end that’s just a bit slower.
GW: ’Too Late’ has similar themes of being away from people you care about whilst on tour, does touring inspire you to write a lot?
TT: A bit, there’s some people that write loads on tour and have a mobile recording studio, but I find it so hard because there’s a million things going on anyway and there’s interviews and soundcheck during the day. I think once you’re at the point where you don’t have to do the promo bit and you just have time to chill then it makes more sense. But I need to make sure I can sing in the evenings so I don’t just want to be like ‘ahhh’ and then can’t do the gig. But yeah, it’s about being too late from home and new experiences it’s a reminder to myself really to just enjoy myself.
GW: I like that with these songs that are lyrically a bit more emotional you juxtapose it with an upbeat soundscape
TT: I feel like that trick’s slowly getting old because everyone’s cottoning on to it. I think it’s just because writing bangers are much tougher to do than writing a ballad, so I always try and write bangers because it’s more skilled to write a really catchy song.
GW: Which of your new songs are you most excited for your fans to hear?
TT: All of the new ones I think, ‘Counting Down’ and ‘Look What You Started’ definitely and ‘Missing You’. I’ve been posting snippets of the tracklisting but yeah it will be cool when people can actually hear it.
GW: Have you been looking through the comments and seeing what the response is like?
TT: Yeah. At first, I was like I just want people to listen through it the whole way through the first time, but it doesn’t work like that anymore. If I don’t show people, they’re not going to hear it so I might as well just give them little snippets.
GW: If you could have any of musician or band you look up to buy your album who would it be?
TT: Oh shit, it would be Bob Dylan but he probably doesn’t even listen to music anymore. He’s such an enigma I don’t even know what he’s about. Maybe like Julian Casablancas or something like that.
GW: You’re gearing up for your biggest headline tour yet, what are you most excited to play live?
TT: All the new ones still ‘Counting Down’ and ‘Look What You Started’ because those specifically I wrote so strongly with what it would be like live in mind. They have all the bits where it drops down and the clapping bits and I was thinking so much about what’s it going to be like live.
GW: Any shows that you’re most excited for?
TT: Kind of all of them. The tour at the start of the year was only four dates but I wanted to make sure I did some outside of London because I’ve only done two headline shows in London before. So yeah, I was just buzzing to go and play to some people and I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to show up! And then they were really good shows, and everyone was proper up for it. Last year I did so many support tours I was like I don’t even know whether I could sell tickets or not. So yeah all of them really. Going to loads of towns that I’ve not been to in ages and I’ve only been a support in as well. It’s selling well too so hopefully it will be all sold out.
GW: Thanks Ten Tonnes!
