Song Deconstructed: ‘Lake Walk’ by James Lloyd Smith

James Lloyd Smith: “I think working with restrictions is quite good for creativity.”

On his latest single, the Kent indie-folk songwriter found his inspiration in the tranquil landscapes around Hever Castle & Garden

James Lloyd Smith is an indie-folk artist from Kent, the so-called Garden of England – an apt origin for a songwriter whose music is steeped in natural imagery and quiet introspection. Self-recorded and produced, his sound merges organic instrumentation with the gentle intricacy of baroque pop, drawing comparisons to Mount Eerie, Nick Drake, and Sufjan Stevens. Influenced by the landscapes that surround him, his songs often reflect the shifting moods of the countryside and the stillness of solitude. Here, he takes us inside the making of new single Lake Walk – a meditation on nature and quiet renewal.

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INSPIRATION

The inspiration for this song came about in a bit of a strange way. When I was in my early twenties I started working at Hever Castle & Gardens as a steward while I was studying. As an early twenty-something I was full of angst, low on cash and (perhaps regrettably) reading about transcendentalism.
The year before I started at Hever had been a very melancholy and hermitted one for a variety of reasons. I’d recently quit an indie-pop band which I had fronted for over six years, I was working backstage at a theatre and spending hours alone recording music in my room. Starting at Hever essentially felt like a fresh start and realised a lot of my dreams of being outside in nature away from a lot of the woes of modern life (at least in my Thoreau-tainted romanticism).

James Lloyd Smith: “The song essentially came about from me noodling around in open B.”

The song is about ‘lake walk’ as an action, but also lake walk as a duty. One of the daily duties at Hever involves walking around the lake to clear out visitors at the end of the day. To this day, I can’t believe I get paid to walk around one of the most beautiful lakes in the South East. Initially I thought it was funny to name a song after a duty on a rota; it’s kind of interesting to me to put something mundane on a pedestal. But, eventually, I lost all irony about it and just wrote the song as an ode to the edifying quality of being in nature and a love letter to the lake.

LYRICS

Lyrically speaking, I approach the lake in a few different ways. Initially, I just wanted to set the scene with imagery that immediately establishes the setting: “Walk past the lake, the pines, the furs, the shade.” I was inspired by the poet, William Carlos Williams, who excels at painting a scene with just a few phrases. After the scene is set, and the listener knows they are walking beside a lake, I delve deeper.

The second part of the verse deals with the internal emotional landscape as opposed to the literal external one. “Pause for some grace, quit saving face,” is essentially my inner monologue telling me to slow down and take things less seriously; advice that at the time was pertinent. As the chorus opens up ,“(Be)cause all you ever wanted, could all be disregarded in no time at all,” I really try to hammer home the sentiment that – no matter how much I stress or push to make things happen in life – the universe has its own plans, so I might as well just enjoy the walk. I return to this idea in the next verse with “(Be)cause all that’s transient’s not shallow.” I really wanted to convey in this song the intangible value of something as simple as a walk in nature.

MUSIC

Musically, this song was led by a lot of happenstances. For a long time, after seeing Feist playing one, I really wanted a little parlour guitar. I found one for £10 on eBay and took a chance on it. When it arrived, I couldn’t tune it to standard without it feeling like the neck would break, so I opted for a lower open B tuning. For a long time, I wanted to write something in an open tuning like Joni Mitchell or Nick Drake but I’d never really learnt how. The song essentially came about from me noodling around in open B. The rest of the arrangement was informed by indie-folk and baroque-pop cornerstones. I played most of the instruments on the track with the exception of the double bass provided excellently by my friend Sam.

IN THE STUDIO

I wish I could boast about interesting vintage analog pre-amps or microphones that they used on Pet Sounds, but my setup for this album was essentially a 2011 MacBook Pro, a couple of [Shure] SM57s and a two-input audio interface. This feels like an affectation now, but it’s really all I had at the time. I think working with restrictions is quite good for creativity so I’m not too worried about it. Working in this way also gave me a lot of flexibility with recording. I recorded the majority of the song in my room but also ventured out to record a grand piano in a college lecture theatre and organised quite an impromptu double bass recording in my friend Sam’s house.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s hard to know if you’ve ever achieved what you set out to do with a song, but I’m proud that I could turn an everyday routine into a musical exaltation about nature.

Lake Walk by James Lloyd Smith is out now on DSPs. For music and more, follow @james.lloyd.smith on Instagram

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