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 Northampton based singer/songwriter Robert Bray has been doing the solo artist thing since early 2002, after years of playing in various bands. His style lies somewhere between Badly Drawn Boy, the Kings of Convenience, and early Beatles, with hints of Jim O'Rourke and a bit of folk and country creeping in here and there.
Sometimes to be found playing alone, but more often with a drummer, bassist, and violinist, Robert fingerpicks his way through all manner of scary looking chords, usually with the guitar in some kind of alternative tuning, and sings insightful lyrics packed with crafty rhymes, always with an emphasis on melody.
In addition to his main solo project, Robert also plays bass for another local singer-songwriter (Sara Spade www.saraspade.com), and plays drums for Joe Woolley. "Northampton's acoustic scene is awesome right now", says Robert."There are loads of us, and we're all friends and we all watch each other at the many local acoustic nights and play or sing in each other's backing bands. It's a warm and wonderful thing to be involved in."
 As well as Northampton and elsewhere in the Midlands, Robert has represented his town at twin-town festivals in Marburg, Germany and Poitiers, France. He's made five EPs, and has recently put together a retrospective compilation to round off the present chapter of his songwriting in preparation for a change of direction. "I'm getting a bit darker," he tells us, "and moving away - to some extent - from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus approach to songwriting. Also, I've mostly been writing about falling in love for the last two years, which is a great pop staple, but now it's time to move on and address the less pretty subjects."
Bags more stuff can be found at www.robertbray.info . Please have a look!
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