Interview: WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, Nashville Meets London

I spoke to William the Conqueror’s Ruarri Joseph in an interview that ranged from Elvis, grunge music, and hard to follow support acts. Have a read below to see what else we chatted about!

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m here with Ruarri Joseph of William the Conqueror after his set at the Nashville Meets London festival in Canary Wharf. So first of all, thank you so much for joining me today.

Ruarri Joseph (RJ): You’re welcome.

CC: First off, how did the show go for you today?

RJ: I really enjoyed it. I think it went well. We sold out records at the merch stand, so I guess it went well. I don’t know! I enjoyed it.

CC: From where I was standing, it looked like there were a couple of people dancing up at the front too.

RJ: They were loving it! Especially the dude with the Elvis legs.

CC: Seemed like everyone was having a very good time! Can you tell me a bit about the name you perform under, William the Conqueror.

RJ: Yeah, I could. I mean there’s a truth to it and then there’s a hard to explain answer. It sounds cool though, right? William the Conqueror is a cool name. Maybe that’s the short answer to go with it, that it sounds good. There’s a complicated, long explanation in their somewhere about my childhood and innocence, and coming up with a name like that for yourself when you doesn’t really know anything about the world. But it’s a long one, that one. It’s more of a podcast kind of answer, that one!

CC: Well I suppose that kind of story to tell element fits quite well with the genre.

RJ: Yeah, yeah, I suppose.

CC: It terms of a musical style, it’s been described as kind of Americana – would you agree with that?

RJ: I don’t mind that, I think it’s as close as you’re going to get. If you have to have a label I suppose that’s a good one to have because it’s rootsy and it’s raw and we sing rom the heart and everything.

CC: And what kind of influences did you have that helped you to find that style?

RJ: I don’t have a memory from my childhood that doesn’t have Bob Dylan playing in the background from my dad’s record player, so that as a kid, but then you know, the first music that I really got into myself was grunge – electric guitars and heavy stuff, and then somewhere along the way, the two worlds kind of merged for me I suppose. I like the songwriting elements of Americana and folk and country but I like the sound of the grunge. I don’t know if there’s a little crossover in there somewhere.

CC: In terms of songwriting, how do you go from an idea and turn it into a song?

RJ: Well that’s like asking a magician how he does his tricks. It’s different every time. It’s a subconscious thing most of the time – it’s nice to sort of surprise yourself when you’re mixing a song and go ‘where did that come from?’ So I don’t know, it’s not really a linear sort of process, it just kind of happens.

CC: Do you have a favourite song that you’ve written and recorded?

RJ: Oh I don’t know about favourite, but some songs sort of mean more to you certainly, but I wouldn’t class that as favourite. You know, you fall in and out of love with songs. You have one song, and you’re playing it as the encore song for the whole tour and you love it, and then you get sick of it so you won’t play it for ages again. They’re a bit like siblings maybe, you fall in and out of love with them all the time.

CC: And have you drawn on elements of your background to help craft your songs?

RJ: Yeah definitely, I think so. I’ve been performing under my own name for like the last nine or ten years, and then this William the Conqueror project is a new project for me, but yeah, it’s been very much a case of mining my childhood I suppose, and just trying to recapture whatever it was that got me into music in the first place, whatever got me starting to write songs before it became my job, before it became about selling tickets and having a manager and all of that stuff. I wanted to try and remember what it was like to write a song and for it to just be for you. So certainly, yeah, definitely drawing on the past. It’s a murky old rabbit whole, that one!

CC: And in terms of the country and Americana genre as a whole, is there one artist out there who you think deserves a lot more recognition?

RJ: Yeah, loads, loads. But I don’t know if that’s anything that’s specific to the genre. I just think that when you’re under the radar – like as William the Conqueror we’ve been performing for the last four years, we just didn’t tell anybody, we’ve literally been doing it in secret. Because for the last few years I’d been performing under my own name I couldn’t do the two, so I’ve been performing as William for the last four years, completely off the radar, and when you do that, but you’re still gigging, the bands you see play some amazing stuff that you know will never get the recognition. I’ll give a special mention to a guy called Fraser Ross, who is from New Zealand, who was my support act at a show in Scotland. I’ve never ever not wanted to go on after a support act, but I watched this guy and he just melted my heart entirely and I didn’t want to go on because I just like wanted to go home and think about his stuff! So yeah, there’s plenty of underrepresented stuff that’s never going to see the light of day. But then, you know, Van Gogh never sold a painting while he was alive so it’s not a bad thing to be underrepresented – so long as the art is there and so long as it’s making an impact on somebody’s life, even if it’s just the creator that it’s helping, then it’s good. I’m going into the rabbit hole again, sorry!

CC: Well hopefully with events like this, we’ll get more underrepresented artists coming to the forefront.

RJ: Yeah definitely. Events like this are great in showing people that there’s stuff out there other than just Radio 1!

CC: So my last question is what’s the one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?

RJ: Erm, would you like to go home now?

CC: And what’s your answer to that?

RJ: Yes please, I’ve not been home in two weeks!

CC: Alright then, thank you for your time and for speaking with me Ruarri!

Cheers to Ruarri for speaking to me and sharing his thoughts – if you’d like to find out more about myself or William the Conqueror, check us out on Twitter at @CiarasCountry and @ruarrijoseph