Summer debut

Art rock and soul-inspired Brighton-based WARBY releases his first single from his summer debut album with dates including a homecoming show on August 28, his first live headline show.

Forsaken is the new single in advance of his August debut album Mystic Powers which is set for release on August 28, the same day he plays his debut headline show at Brighton’s Alphabet.

The single follows hot on the heels of his debut single Struggles & Resolutions/Bullies.

WARBY said: “We are all overwhelmed at some time in our life and it can seem hopeless.”

Forsaken is where “a voice asks for help, ultimately seeking refuge in the past.”

Having spent a lifetime encouraging others to tour and record, WARBY is steeped in music and live touring, has run indie labels, recorded with the group R.O.C, occasionally performing live but he has never released or performed any of his own songs before now.

“I was always going to sing, be a musician like my dad, but in my early twenties I was pulled further and further into the business of live music by a succession of phenomenal artists. I continued writing on and off for years, but as the thrills and spills of working with other musicians and my concert booking role expanded I could never truly find enough time to develop my ideas fully.”

In 2020 as the world shut down and touring ground to a halt, WARBY found that he had the luxury of time on his hands. He began to work on writing songs, recording home demos of himself singing, playing guitar, bass and keyboards over programmed drums.

“When it came to the writing and recording of these songs… well, what started as a relatively gentle sensation become more insistent until it was hammering at my very being. I had no choice other than to get them down.”

Going into and coming out of Covid proved to be very challenging times: the loss of close family and friends coupled with great stress over returning to normal life. It was during this time that WARBY experienced a personal revelation, and the themes of Mystic Powers

explore that.

“One strong theme was how life may propel you down one path rather than another, I then questioned what would happen if you had taken or took a different decision. I had this idea of a soft-determinism where your life is mostly mapped out for you, but you have some small degree of choice. I’ve also looked hard into fear and loss and what might be available to help those in pain.”

One piece of unexpected salvation was offered by an unplanned visit to Birmingham Cathedral. An anxious WARBY briefly took refuge there one afternoon during a period of great turmoil.

“I was gazing at the Byrne-Jones stained glass windows and was especially drawn to one called the Ascension window. On my way out I bought a postcard of a detail of the window, a hand of benediction. I couldn’t believe how contemporary it looked. In fact it turned out that the postcard came from a painting of sections of the windows made by a local artist when the windows had been restored.”

WARBY instantly knew that this image was the front cover of his as-yet-unrecorded album: “It perfectly expressed powers that were being offered to me, that substance of which might be passed on in song. The best way to resolve my problems wasn’t to hold onto them, keep them in, or to try and think my way through them. I needed to let them go.”

A black and white version of the album image was used as the artwork for the first single, with the sleeve colours increasing until he arrived at the full-colour album artwork.

Mystic Powers was produced by James Knight, who gave WARBY space to work up the arrangements in his studio located in a roomy basement in Stoke Newington.

WARBY called upon his friends Mal Troon (Jim Jones, Sea Power) on lead guitar and Patrick Nicholson (R.O.C, Mark Eitzel) on piano and the rhythm section of Adam Betts (Pulp, Dave Gilmour) on drums and Dan Drury (Jarvis Cocker, James Taylor Quartet) on bass.