CityLife

Glow from out of the darkness

Pierre Hall, the man behind the music of Golden Glow

Manchester singer-songwriter Pierre Hall bounds into a city centre bar, his skinny frame wrapped in a denim shirt and circulation-restricting jeans, bursting to tell all about his latest band project, the highly-acclaimed Golden Glow and resulting debut album Tender Is The Night.

To begin with, however, our CityLife conversation inevitably draws on cheery reminiscence rather than any current musical plans. Like a human scrapbook of the past few years of Manc music, the 28-year-old seems to unlock your memory banks and release all those fuzzy recollections of joyous revelry on the Manc gig scene.    

Hall, of course, was the man responsible for many of them. A man who was involved in such seminal Manc DIY indie nights as Akoustik Anarkhy and Friends Of Mine, not to mention fronting his own band, the criminally-underrated urchin-pop outfit Lead Balloons, Pierre Hall was, for a brief but influential period, Manc music’s chief party planner, convivial host and hardened reveller.

“Those were mad times,” he smiles. “That’s why I came to Manchester in the first place – to be at the heart of all this amazing music. If anything, it was a real education. I was living with the lads from Akoustik Anarkhy, and I was putting on gigs by bands like The Courteeners and The Answering Machine.

“There were some great parties, but I was also soaking up loads of new music and learning about the industry and how things worked.” 

Hall’s previous party exploits take on an added significance when you consider how his latest project, the much-lauded Golden Glow, came to fruition.

In October 2009, with Lead Balloons in their demise, Hall was involved in a serious road accident which turned his life upside down. Struck by a car on Oxford Road, Hall suffered severe leg injuries, leaving him housebound for six months.

Removed from his beloved Manc music playground, Hall resolved to create his own musical utopia in his Chorlton flat. He began writing songs with an
unfamiliar lo-fi set-up: four-track recorder, a drum machine and basic instrumentation.

What emerged was something of highly accessible DIY pop beauty: Tender Is The Night, 11 tracks which fuse Strokes-ish new wave pop with a more British celestial shoegaze influence. Gorgeous melodies abound, as do genius nagging guitar riffs and the sort of hopeful lyrics that suggest Hall’s home confinement was frustrating, though never defeating.

“At the start, writing music was the last thing on my mind,” he reflects. “I was pretty depressed, but eventually you need an outlet for that depression and I was always going to start writing again.

“A friend gave me this four-track recorder, and it was the first time I’d ever used one. It was pretty basic, but I loved the rawness of the recordings; we so could have re-recorded these songs in a nice studio, but I’m happy releasing them as they are – they’re true to the spirit of how they were conceived.”

In fairness, focus is something that Pierre Hall has never lacked. Born in London to a Mauritian mother and father from Trinidad and Tobago, Hall moved from the capital to Liverpool at the age of seven, then on to Manchester in his late teens to establish a music career.

He is also a poet and has a dedicated Facebook page for his work and Hall flatly refuses to distinguish between his varied creative outlets. 

“I just see myself as an artist,” he considers. “I’ll always write songs, but how I present those songs will change depending on my circumstances.

“Recently I’ve been thinking much more about the body of work I’d like to leave behind – I haven’t near put enough music out. People know me as this Manchester singer-songwriter, but I want to justify that title by having more music for people to judge me by. That’s why Golden Glow is like a first proper introduction to me.” 

Indeed, with Tender Is The Night, it seems like Hall’s defining creative statement has finally arrived. It has been deservedly showered with accolades, with bloggers, critics and long-term Hall disciples declarin­g it one of Manc music’s most arresting new releases of 2011.

Of those many followers fresh to Hall’s talents, surely the most high-profile are acclaimed indie band The Drums.

The New York outfit contacted Hall, not long after he began uploading music on to YouTube, to profess their fan status and offer him a support slot for their London album launch show.

One small snag, however: Golden Glow were a band in name only with Hall having not even considered playing live.

“I had a month to put a band together before the gig, so I just cobbled together a group featuring the musicians from all the best bands I liked in Manchester.

“There’s a few members from Beat The Radar, and it’s a real honour ’cos I’m such a massive fan of theirs.” 

That’s Pierre Hall for you: the ultimate Manc music cheerleader and still at the centre of the Manc music party – and now he’s orchestrating the majestic party soundtrack to boot.

Golden Glow play The Castle (Oldham St) tomorrow. Tender Is The Night (Mush Records) is out now. For info: myspace. com/goldenglowmusic.