Words From The Sky: An Interview with Rock Poet Oliver Shaw

He's a storyteller at heart

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Oliver Shaw, a true Camden veteran and an artist whose musical journey spans over a decade. We met on March 27th before his gig at The Good Mixer, where he holds a residency, and we delved into his experiences, influences, and the creative process behind his upcoming fourth album. With insights into his personal approach to songwriting and storytelling, this conversation shines a light on the world of an artist who is continuously evolving while also remaining deeply rooted in his artistic origins. Join us as we explore the sounds, stories, and inspirations that shape Oliver Shaw's music.

When did you first start writing songs?

I have been writing for many years, since I was around 15 years old, and now that I’m getting older, I can look back with joy as I have such a large body of work to share with people. When I was 18 years old, I moved to New York, and I got a record deal with a major label, Parlophone, which was also working with The Beatles and lots of other great musicians. That didn’t go as planned, but I'm working on my fourth studio album now! I’d like to do eight and then see where my writing takes me.

That’s very impressive! You grew up here in Camden, right?

Yes. Camden has always been the center of the rock music scene in London. When I first moved here, I was playing the bass in a band called The Garage Flowers. That’s where I met my current drummer. I was also working on my own songs for my solo project.

Living in such a creative environment must have been quite inspiring.

Yes, in a way. I met Amy Winehouse here, for example.

Wow! Really? I heard she was playing at The Dublin Castle quite often.

Yes. I only saw her perform live once at a place where I used to play a lot called the 12 Bar Club, in Denmark Street, but it closed down now. Then I met her three times, twice at The Hawley Arms and once at The Dublin Castle. It was very cool and inspiring.

What are your main musical influences?

I've been doing this for a long time, so I've had different periods, from Alex Turner to The Strokes and The Libertines. I actually met Alex Turner before Covid here at The Good Mixer and he brought me a drink, and all the musical influences he listed were my influences. Now if you're 30 and younger you might like Fontaines D.C.

I absolutely love Fontaines, yeah. Are there artists that inspire you from an instrumental point of view and others that resonate more from a lyrical perspective?

Yes, that's a very good question. I've never been asked that before, but it's something I think about often. I'm a music lover, but when I write I use a different part of my mind. It has a broader spectrum for me, the writing side, it's ever-changing. My favourite songs keep changing and I think it's due to the lyrics. Songs take on a different meaning, even for the writer. I can revisit them from different perspectives, and that’s what’s interesting to me. That’s why I’ll always write songs, I’ll forever be fascinated by them.

I get that, which is why it’s very uncommon for me to fall madly in love with a song if the words don’t resonate with me. It could be the most cryptic thing ever, but if they strike the right chord, I can listen to the same track for months.

I've always worked hard on lyrics, and usually they come naturally to me. I mentioned The Libertines as an influence because I like the fact that Pete Doherty has always outwardly said he was a poet, which was quite rare at the time. Musically speaking instead, I really like Thomas Yorke. His voice has a beautiful range.

I’m a huge fan, too! What themes do you focus on in your lyrics?

All my lyrics come from personal experience because if I listen to something I’ve made and I can’t connect with my own lyrics I don’t think anyone else would be able to connect with them either. Sometimes when I revisit them, they acquire a different meaning because my current context is different compared to when I wrote them. For me my music is timeless, it might not be for anyone else, but I can always connect to it, even if I wrote it a long time ago. I’ve never kept a diary, so my songwriting plays that role in my life. I’m a music and poetry fan firstly and if I look at my favourite songwriters, they always speak to me with their lyrics. My first musical reference was to look through CD booklets with lyrics. That allowed me to sort of get to know the person behind the songs, how they were truly feeling. It’s something that has been lost a little bit in music nowadays, but it has always been with me. I’ve been songwriting for as long as I can remember. My family used to accuse me of being distant, in my own little world, and unsociable, even in my early childhood. I would just hum my own tunes. My mom would ask me what tune I was humming, and I’d say, well, my own. I was composing before I could even play an instrument.

That is incredible! You found your vocation very early in life, which is not that common, I believe. What other artistic areas interest you?

I sketch and I do all the band’s artwork myself. I draw storyboards within the parameters of three minutes.

How do they complement your music?

I’m a storyteller at heart and an extra string to my bow of storytelling is artwork. It adds a visual layer and then I have the complete package. This is why it often gets featured in my music videos. I believe artistry should hold no bounds. But right now, I’m too busy recording my fourth album and I'm actually very excited about that.

When is it coming out?

Hopefully by the end of the year. I have a music video coming out this Saturday for a new single called “A Scarlet Widow”. I'm quite proud of it because I got to use all those little skills that I have attained over the years.

What does “A Scarlet Widow” talk about? Tell me about the creative process behind it.

I’m very pleased with how “A Scarlet Widow” turned out. People seem to be relating to it, so I’ve done my job as a songwriter. The main theme of this song revolves around a femme fatale who haunts a man, not necessarily in the bad sense of the word, and will never leave him alone, both within his dreams and in real life. I imagined this character of the scarlet widow as neither a love lost nor as a love foreseen, but a little bit of both. She’s a living entity that immerses the mind and appears not only as an image but also as another part of one’s soul over time. The “haunting” quality of it isn’t necessarily a terrible thing for me, because it's memory-based and this feeling that you have of someone real bursting into your dreams isn’t always bad. This feeling of a past existence with another person, however long that was, it’s quite an intense experience. Actually, there was a TV advertisement here in England, and this is another story behind the song, it might be a trivial thing that nobody cares about, but songwriters tend to retain a memory of even this kind of things. Anyway, this was an ad campaign for an insurance company in the ‘90s that ran for years called “A Scottish Widow”. I was slightly in love with these women who got to model for it, so I used their look for my music video to visually create this dark and mysterious entity. That name I’ve remembered for years, it was just stuck in my memory, and I don’t have an emotional connection with it other than the fact that I first saw it in my childhood, but I remembered it when I was writing the song. When you’re writing a song, you’re kind of picking words from the sky. I actually have a song called “Words From the Sky”, and for me it’s like being in a darkened room. It’s not unpleasant, it’s like you just woke up and you’re reaching for different implements to make a coffee, if it makes sense.

I completely agree. How does the music video enhance the song?

I’m speaking on behalf of millions here, I think. Music is very visual for me, it takes on many different roles, which is what makes it fascinating for me, cause it’s not just the instruments and the voice and the words you’re connecting to. When MTV started, I remember my family got Sky TV and that was always on like a loop. My earliest memory of it is R.E.M.’s music video for “Losing My Religion”. I’d see all these videos and I just connected the music and the visuals together. The visuals are just as important sometimes to tell a story, so for me it was an extra facet, an extra string to my storytelling. In fact, I go so far as to say that it completes a piece of music. My next single is called “A Love Less Ordinary”. It’s gonna be out in a month or so, and I’ve already organized the artwork for it and the concept for a video, but I couldn’t fully do that before completing “A Scarlet Widow”.

How has your style evolved throughout the years?

The constant is that music has always been my psychotherapy. The new album, the fourth, has a romantic feel and there’s an undercurrent of stories that are part reality and part fantasy. My first album was an amalgamation of different things; it had romantic songs, dark songs, psychedelic songs. The second focused more on the dark and experimental side of my music. The third was more expansive sound-wise. I wanted everything to sound bigger and bolder, but as far as my lyrics go this last one is maybe the most personal.

Your band is called The Oliver Show Experience, so I was wondering, in terms of your live performances, what kind of experience do you hope to offer to the audience? Can you think of one word to define it?

Hopefully, transcendental.

Yes! I love that! Who do you usually play live with?

I play with my best friends. I don't work with any other musicians, and I don't jam with anyone else.

But you make most of the creative decisions?

Yes, it's amazing. However, I couldn't do a lot of this stuff without them.

How do you feel about your new residency here at The Good Mixer?

I feel great! I hope you enjoy the show because you helped make it a great evening. I love the support acts, as well. I’ve been a fan of The Good Mixer for a long time. It works very well for me and my band. We’ve played in Paris eight times and that was very nice. I think we’ve played overall something like 400 gigs in the last 8 years or so, and it’s good to have that experience, as well, but I like localizing things. As a storyteller, I can tell my stories well here at The Good Mixer. It’s a nice and comfortable feel and I feel like I can talk to the audience as well as communicate via my music and songs. It’s a great atmosphere and it suits us. I’ve been playing for a long time, so I like a little challenge, for example having to adapt my voice to the room depending on how busy it is, cause sonically it makes a big difference. The Good Mixer is a familiar space, my little playground, like in sports, like a home territory. The Good Mixer is to my band what Wembley Stadium is to England.

Do you feel part of a wider musical movement or music scene?

Yes and no. I’ve never felt part of a wider spectrum or scene. I’ve never felt part of any scene, actually. However, the reason why I say yes and no is because I’ve now been around a more receptive environment in terms of the younger bands. There’s one called Dirty Gear who are gonna support us on the 24^th of April and they’re quite young and the singer seems to be a bit of a fan of my music. It was really surprising to me, so maybe in his mind I’m part of a scene that he likes. Songwriting is utterly introspective and the joy of playing with my band and sharing my music with an audience makes it an “external” experience, too. Even The Strokes, The Doors, Radiohead, Nirvana, who were a big influence for me when I was very young, probably didn’t feel like they were part of a scene. Being part of a scene can be very good, but I personally don’t like to be tagged with anything. I just see myself as a musician, a music fan, a songwriter, a storyteller, and I don’t want to be defined. However, I must say on that note, I enjoy more than ever now seeing new bands. Part of the joy of doing these evenings here at The Good Mixer is that I get to pick the support acts. It’s been a big problem with music promoters in the past. I’ve canceled so many gigs over the years because they just tend to pick a random mishmash of bands and if my band is playing with a heavy metal band, for example, I feel like heavy metal fans wouldn’t like what I do. It’s nice if you like a certain genre of music to be able to see a band and a support act that sound coherent.

On this note, I’ll let you catch the support acts because they’ve already started playing and I can’t wait to see you perform! Good luck on stage!

Photos by Jasmine Wickens