Interview with Calum Lintott: ‘Just Like Magic is about making your own luck’

Southampton-based singer Calum Lintott’s latest song, ‘Just Like Magic’ is about ‘making your own luck’, he said. ‘In terms of time, it fell out really fast. It’s one of around 50 songs I wrote during lockdown. In proper lockdown, there was nothing else to do! I was writing three-to-four songs a day.’

His blend of indie rock and pop is infectious, with loud- dancey guitars, powerful anthem-centric vocals, driven hooky bass lines and groove-laden drums. The lyrics reflect his mood when he wrote it: ‘Just like magic, a sorcerers spell, stand to attention, copy the cat, longshot to make it out alive, assess the place you’re at in life, why, just like magic.’

‘It’s about proving people wrong and doing things that they don’t expect you to do’

Next up is his song ‘It’s Easy To Do The Unexpected’, which will be released around November. ‘It’s my favourite out of all of my songs, ‘ he said. ‘It’s about proving people wrong and doing things that they don’t expect you to do.’

As the lyrics go: ‘Just know I’ll make ya need it, know what to expect, it’s easy to do the unexpected, rolling, rocking through the mine field, chasing something invisible, blame it on the people, your time ain’t gonna stop to tell you it’s ok and everybody loves you, jump around and be the clown but focus on the view through.’

Lintott’s band also comprises Moritz Kriese (drums) and Luke Rigden (bass). They will be putting on a big gig on 11 December in his home town, which he’s very excited about.

His single ‘Smoke’, which came out earlier this year, is about trying to give up smoking: ‘Everybody has their vices and demons, don’t they? No-one’s perfect. It’s the coolest song we’ve got. I have to give up, I notice it with my voice. Thing is, though, this song actually really makes me want a cigarette! [laughs].’

The song that gets the crowd going when he plays live is ‘Pin-Up’ from 2016, about a beautiful woman. ‘It’s the first one we released in a band format,’ he said. ‘We always play it last and that’s when the gig changes. People are screaming and singing it. You write this song at the end of your bed and then you have hundreds of people singing along with you, that gives me the ultimate buzz up on stage. It’s amazing.’

The band, in its current format, also came about in a very serendipitous way. ‘My drummer, Mo, lives in Germany. I met him through a German friend at uni. He was only over for a couple of days. It was like fate. If I hadn’t happened to see my friend that night, we’d never have met.’

‘The great thing is that we now have two places to build a fan base’

Kriese now flies over from Germany every month or so to perform gigs. ‘The great thing is that we now have two places to build a fan base,’ Lintott said. ‘It’s more exciting, also for our friends and family, who are more involved because they think it’s cool now [laughs].’

The challenge for Lintott is that he wants ‘to release a big body of work but we live in a throwaway culture’: ‘I’m not sure if most people listen to whole albums anymore,’ he said. ‘You don’t want songs just to get lost. For now, we want to keep on releasing songs that are better each time.’

Between them, the band has very diverse musical taste. ‘I like blues but also Buddy Holly, Frank Sinatra and Arctic Monkeys,’ Lintott said. ‘Mo likes house and jungle. He has worked with DJs in Ibiza. Luke likes rock and poppy stuff.’

If he could collaborate with anyone dead or alive, Lintott doesn’t hesitate: ‘Freddie Mercury. He was the ultimate, ultimate frontman. He’s one of the main reasons I wanted to get up on stage and sing. He’d show me up in the studio but I’d love to do his backing vocals.’