Singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner embraces lockdown to get his songs exactly as he wants them ahead of Peak District show

And he said he was overwhelmed with his first live show in many months as Covid restrictions ease.

“It’s kicking off at the moment,” he says. “Gigs are back on the diary.

“To do my first proper gig in so long, it was unbelievably intense and emotional.”

Interference (Of Light), his seventh studio album, is due out on August 20, ahead of the rescheduled gig at Castleton’s Peak Cavern, on September 25, which is he now planning.

“It’s going to be quite an interesting set up for me,” he says. “I’m talking to tech companies, it’s been fun.”

Although the gig has been rescheduled, the plan was always to showcase some of his latest album.

But Newton has not wasted the delay – instead he has spent the time getting the album’s sound exactly how he wants, rather than writing to deadlines.

“Time wasn’t an issue for the first time ever,” the 36-year-old says of the long days of lockdown.

“I spent time in the studio. There is one track on it that I spent four months working on it every day.

“I’ve been working in them until I felt it it was right, but at some point you do have to let go.

“I spent two years making this record, but normally, if everything went to plan, it would have to be finished in a couple of months.”

‘It’s infinitely better for it’

And his delight with the finished product means taking his time is something he plans to do when writing songs going forward.

“I’ve never missed a deadline, but without a deadline, it took two years instead – and I think it’s infinitely better for it,” he says.

“Normally I would have to get someone in to play on the record, because there’s not much time and we would get them in to do a bunch of drums in one day, for example. Then we have everying we need in a short space of time.

"But because the time was open-ended, and I knew how I wanted it to sound, I could do it. I was playing with a metronome for hours and the same with the bass parts. I wanted to create what was in my head – the sound does change when other people come in.”

He is now working out how to translate the multi-instrumental sound he created almost single-handedly into his one-man show, for Castleton and the following tour, which includes a date at Sheffield’s The Leadmill on Tuesday, October 19 – and hoping technology will make his life easier, even if it’s a learning curve.

“I am still in the process of working out the intricacies,” he says, “but I have got a fancy looper board, that’s a situation I have never found myself in before – I’ve never really looped before.”

For tickets, see newtonfaulkner.com

Support your Derbyshire Times by becoming a digital subscriber. You will see 70 per cent fewer ads on stories, meaning faster load times and an overall enhanced user experience. Click here to subscribe.