Jay Buchanan

Rival Sons’ frontman on his solo album, songwriting, the call of the wild, storytellers, falling in love, destroying his past…

Interview: Polly Glass

Jay Buchanan was a singer-songwriter who worked in construction before he became a rock star. Last year we were reminded of that, watching him mesmerise a tiny club in London’s Covent Garden with soulful, folk-laced Americana – a week or so after his band Rival Sons’ set at Ozzy’s Back To The Beginning show at Villa Park.

“Everyone’s been on me to make a solo record ever since Rival Sons has been a band,” says Buchanan, who’s writing for their next record when we talk. “Even when we got together the intention was going to be us doing that and me also making these solo records. But being in a rock’n’roll band, it’ll take up your time and energy.”

Creatively mined in a bunker deep in the Mojave desert his album Weapons Of Beauty saw Buchanan reclaim some of that energy, channelling it into transportive slices of widescreen storytelling.

The collection was sequenced by Scott Cooper, director of last year’s Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, in which Buchanan makes an appearance.

You seemed really happy at the London show. I can’t remember the last time I saw you talk or smile as much on stage.

When Rival Sons is on deck, when I’m talking in between songs, I feel like I’m having to hold back this gang; they’ve got their chains and their pipes, and they’re ready to, you know… and I’ve gotta, like, “Whoa, everybody, hang on!” It’s a high-octane band, there’s a lot of energy on deck. But when I’m playing solo it’s completely different. Like that night I think I played for around two hours, and easily twenty to thirty minutes of that is just me talking [laughs]. I like to take my time. I don’t like being rushed.