When the late, great Phil May of The Pretty Things (cited as a major influence by both David Bowie and Jimmy Hendrix) began curating songs for what would become the band’s final studio album, amongst covers of songs by Muddy Waters, Sheryl Crow and Robert Johnson, May included a song by British singer-songwriter Will Varley.
In becoming an avid fan of the troubadour from Kent he joined an army of followers that has been growing steadily across the globe for last ten years and includes the likes of Billy Bragg, Skin from Skunk Anansie and Adam Duritz from Counting Crows, all of whom consider Will to be one of the best songwriters of his generation.
In recent years Will has become a regular collaborator in the writing rooms of Nashville and Los Angeles, co-writing songs with Grammy award winning and CMA winning artists from the heart of the country music world. But over the last few months he has been holed up in his ramshackle studio, deep in the Kentish wilderness, working away on his latest offering – a new album now firmly on the horizon.
There is a sheer depth to Will’s writing that sets him apart, and has propelled his music far and wide. From the Dylanesque, post-apocalyptic dystopia of 2021’s “Dreamland” to the captivating and ambitious “Weddings and Wars,” in which he endeavours to compress the entire history of the world into four minutes, Varley’s songs seem to transcend themselves, marrying vivid imagery, emotion and surrealism to capture his musings in a way that is quite remarkable.
