Interview with Teenage Waitress: ‘I’m not in a band, there are no rules, I can open my “fancy dress” box and see what instruments I want to use, that’s quite liberating’

Southampton-based 60’s-infused singer Teenage Waitress aka Daniel Ash will release his second album Your Cuckoo tomorrow (9 June).

His artistic name is something of a happy accident: ‘The first album was supposed to be a one-off,’ he said. ‘I had these short stories in the songs and the idea of an eavesdroppimg teenage waitress – the listener – who wouldn’t hear the whole story, just bits of it. I didn’t want to use my name because I’ve been confused with Daniel Ash from Bauhaus when I used it in the past. I think people turned up to gigs expecting me to be him (laughs).’

Your Cuckoo consists of 11 tracks that come full-circle. Ash describes the album as ‘melodies and storytelling, it’s a bunch of characters singing songs about love, youth, drugs, boredom and of course, dancing’: ‘It’s quite all over the place but that’s how I like it, a lot of my favourite albums do that,’ he said. ‘It’s like a fancy dress box, that’s what it’s like when I’m writing (laughs). I’m not in a band, there are no rules, I can open my “fancy dress” box and see what instruments I want to use, that’s quite liberating. My first love was 60’s music and that still shows, although I’ve gone through many other musical phases since then, but it’s still my north star.’

‘It felt like a good way to introduce people to the album’

The album title is a reference to a lyric in the opening track, the soulful ‘Baby Blue, which culminates in a fantastically funky outro: ‘I really struggled with the title. What I do, I tend to have lists in my phone, a shortlist, and I kept coming back to that one.’ It’s a dreamy, 70’s-tinged track that evokes summer and lazy days: ‘It’s really old, six or seven years old. My friend Michael who produces all my stuff, his role is the gatekeeper to the good and bad ideas (laughs). He will say what he likes and doesn’t like. Every good artist needs a producer to spar with! That song was just lying around. ‘Baby Blue’ fit perfectly, we dug it out of retirement and gave it a wash down (laughs). It’s almost the same as before, we just added a spoken word part. There’s not a big story behind the lyrics, although it’s basically about a wedding singer.’

As the track kicks off: “Now you’re around. That comely face in the crowd. This stagnant life. Your cuckoo. Baby blue.”

Evocative storytelling weaves its way throughout the album, especially on tracks like ‘Grey Sky’, which was the first single he released from the album. It’s a beautiful rollercoaster of a song, opening with a gentle 70’s melody before breaking into an 80’s-style song with a huge, singalong chorus which is very reminiscent of A-ha. ‘It’s one of the ones that felt like a single, it felt like a good way to introduce people to the album,’ he said. ‘It felt like it had the most radio-friendly chorus, I think it’s the chorus that would get people singing along. It started off with the lyrics. Sonically, ‘Grey Sky’ is my producer Michael Bissett going full-on mad scientist with pedals and synths! That’s where a lot of the unusual sounds come from. I’ll normally come in with the song and Michael will spend ages tinkering with effects and pedals and plug ins, exploring the unknown almost. I really admire that, I’ve not got the patience to persevere like he can. I’m thinking of buying him a lab coat soon! My old band, in my mid-20’s, it was like world domination (laughs) but I had an epiphany halfway through and realised that the fun part is being creative. It’s about friends taking an interest in the music, not receiving the pay check, the journey of recording something. I know so many artistic people who should be doing it full-time for a living but can’t afford to. It’s a call of encouragement, really, to all my friends.’

As the track opens: “In Liverpool we danced to songs we didn’t know. We put the world to rights. ’Til they asked us both to go. Naive and twenty-two. With everything to prove. Electric honeydew.”

Ash excels at writing intricate, layered melodies that are both nostalgic and fresh, with choruses that you find yourself humming for days afterwards and when I tell him this, he is delighted: ‘Stories and melodies are the two big things for me, I spend an equal amount of time on both of them,’ he said. ‘The melody is first and then I’ll be all “la la la” on it (laughs). I’ll play with scraps of paper, often until the last minute. My producer will say “That could be better, I’ll go and make a coffee, you’ve got five minutes to re-write it” (laughs). There’s a Pulp album, Different Class, half of the lyrics were apparently written the night before. Jarvis Cocker just got a bottle of whisky, I think, and wrote them. I can definitely relate to it!’

‘We were thinking of surf songs and ‘Wipe Out’ (by The Sufaris), we wanted to do a modern day version of that’

‘I Like The Way You Fall In Love’ opens with a feathery drum beat and beachey feel, morphing into more of a Beach Boys song in the outro as the guitars storm towards the end. It keeps the listener on their toes, moving from a fast section to a slow section, loud section then a quieter section, changing key in the process. I could imagine it being played in a classic old film: ‘We were thinking of surf songs and ‘Wipe Out’ (by The Sufaris), we wanted to do a modern day version of that,’ he said. ‘I think the drum beat is 4/4 but it really doesn’t sound like it, I think it’s because it sort of gallops. It gives it a very strange, travelling kind of feel. There is a kazoo on that one! It’s pretty well hidden under a guitar playing the same part, though. It’s quite mad, quite busy, it goes all over the place. It changes key twice, it doesn’t settle. It was such a thrill to record live, it’s quite a complex song. I had the title and just played with it. It started out as a conversation between two people, it came together pretty quickly. The album was recorded in London but I live in Southampton, which is about two hours on the train. I remember writing this one on the train.’

As the track kicks off: “Flowers and dinner dates. Learning his last name. I like the way you fall in love. Under a sky of stars. Away from the seedy bars. I like the way you fall in love.”

One of the loveliest tracks on the album is ‘Too Much Of A Good Thing’, an upbeat, genuine love song that reminds me a lot of Paul Heaton, particularly in the chorus. Voice messages from Ash are spliced into the song, complete with hooky harmonica fills, and it turns out to have a sweet backstory: ‘I wrote it around the end of the first album but it wasn’t quite ready to go on it. The first thing I thought of was Chas & Dave (laughs) and making a fan fiction song. It’s about my girlfriend. I’ve always worked from home but before lockdown, she went out to work and I’d find myself waiting for her by the door to come home, like a dog, I missed her (laughs).’

As it opens: “I looked in the crystal ball. At our messy and lonely flat. Yeah, there might be a few decent records on. But I’m sulking with a cat. Well, I’m rubbish at speaking at the best of times. So I’ll put my words to a beat.”

He already has enough tracks for the next album, which will herald a new era of storytelling for him: ‘Songs like ‘Too Much Of a Good Thing’ on Your Cuckoo are told from my perspective, it’s one of the more personal songs. This album is a good bridge between the fictional stories on my first album Love & Chemicals (2020) and more of me on the next one. The next album will have little bits of my life peppered on it.’

‘The band that inspired me to experiment with genres was The Magnetic Fields’

Your Cuckoo brings together a bigger melting pot of musicians and flavours than Ash’s debut album, although half of it was recorded live. It’s still got elements of electronica in songs such as ‘Backseat’ and ‘Grey Sky’ but feels bigger and more ambitious than his first album.

In the closer, ‘Salutations’, the album comes full-circle, referencing a couple who have been married for a long time, who may or may not be the couple referenced in ‘Baby Blue’, Ash is leaving it up to the listener to decide. It’s a sunny, euphoric, vintage-sounding track lifted up further by the infectious “Oh la la’s” throughout: ‘There are bits of ‘Baby Blue’ in ‘Salutations’, a couple of nods lyrically that connect those two songs,’ he said. ”Baby Blue’ is about someone who’s a frustrated wedding singer and ‘Salutations’ is about a married couple many years later who could be the couple from ‘Baby Blue’ or maybe they’re not. I didn’t set out to make the album come full-circle initially, it’s a happy accident. I have sung at weddings before myself, but it’s always been a pretty positive experience. The person in ‘Baby Blue’ is certainly in a bit of a funk. I think the last place that person wants to be at is a wedding!’

His inspirations range from 60’s stalwarts such as The Beatles and The Kinks to The Magnetic Fields: ‘I attempted to first start writing songs when I was six or seven. Of course, they were all rubbish but I wanted to be a songwriter so much that I just stuck with it and kept learning and listening. I’m still learning today. I think it’s important as a writer to never get it 100% perfect. That way there is always something to aim for next time! The band that inspired me to experiment with genres was The Magnetic Fields,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘One of their songs could be a skiffle one or a cheerleader one. Kate Bush, I really love her, she’s a fantastic storyteller, a never-ending pit of excitement. David Bowie shakes it up. I really love Silvertwin (a London-based indie band, which blends 60’s nostalgia, Beatlesey melodies and a nod to 70’s disco and Billy Joel). I know we’ve talked about them before. Every time they release something new, they get even better. I don’t know where the ceiling is, they just keep going up, it’s incredible.’

If he could go for a drink with any musician dead or alive, he is quick to say David Bowie: ‘He was the reason I got into writing music. My regret is that I never saw him live, I was too young. I would thank him for putting me on the musical path. I was obsessed with him from the age of 5 to 15. Those omnipresent songs you remember hearing from your childhood, you don’t forget them.’ I ask him how he got into Bowie in the first place: ‘When I was four or five, we went to Madame Tussaud’s, they had a rock and pop display. They had him and were playing ‘Space Oddity’ and I wouldn’t shut up about it all day, I kept going on about it (laughs). My dad had a Best of Bowie CD, he gave it to me back at home, showed me which song it was and I took it to my room and kept playing it. My incentive to do well in school was that they’d take me to HMV and buy me another David Bowie if I did well. I wanted to be David Bowie when I grew up!’

Ash’s dream line-up would reflect his favourite influences: ‘The Magnetic Fields, definitely. Can I have Bowie as well? Kate Bush then probably me, I’ll do a couple of songs and the evening would go downhill from there!’

If he could write a song with anyone, he picks Paul Weller: ‘I’ve learnt so much just from listening to his music, so I think I’d learn even more from writing with him,’ he said. ‘Paul Weller has always been a huge songwriting inspiration to me. I was forever sending demos and CDs to his team. Then one day I went to see him at a BBC4 interview and, magically, he spotted me in the crowd and invited me up to play a song on his guitar. I’d had two hours sleep and was all kinds of nervous! He sat on the side of the stage and watched me play my song, shaking in my little loafers and getting all the words and chords wrong! It still feels like a dream when I look back to that moment. I’m so grateful to Paul for that opportunity. It meant everything. What an amazing person and what a lovely thing to do. He didn’t need to do that but that’s the kind of person he is. They say never meet your heroes but if your hero is Paul Weller then you’re gonna have a great time!’