With the release of EP ‘Butlinland’ and the co-foundation of a new label, the joy of DIY music and art-making has been a defining feature of their year.

Watch Paint Dry makes music as reserved and ramshackle as the England they often choose as their subject. Studies of Butlins, Jools Holland and kitchen tables abound, speaking also to the contents of their visual work, another strand of the same creative process. Having released a number of songs across the ‘Butlinland’ EP and a string of two-song singles, they have gotten rediscovered the magic of making DIY music and doing things on one’s own terms.

2023 as Watch Paint Dry.

This year has been a lovely one for Watch Paint Dry. It marked the beginning of our independent label CLODHOP Records which gave me and my label co-runners, Sid and Jesse, the push we needed to start releasing music again after a bit of a hiatus. It’s been a real boost to feel part of a collective and I’m really proud of what we’ve started.

My EP ‘Butlinland’ came out in March of this year on Bingo Records. It was a long time in the making so it was really special when the physical records arrived in a big cardboard box with my name on. I have loved Bingo Records and all they do for a long time, so I feel very privileged to be a part of it. Recording a couple of tracks for the record with my good friend Morgan Fraser-Jones was lovely too, he’s a genius. It was also really nice to design so many visual elements of the EP, a highlight being the making of a woolly knitted stop-motion animation for the track ‘Demanding Holiday’.

I have played music with other people much more this year. Having Jesse join as part of the live Watch Paint Dry set up has been really fun and pressing buttons and being part of Mabel Clarke has been a real highlight for me.

I managed to squeeze in a two-track release titled ‘Useless Farmhand’ just before the end of this year that I’m really happy with too, all loosely about model villages and farms.

This year feels like it’s the most playing, writing, recording, releasing and thinking about music I have ever done in 365 days so long may that continue.

Album of the Year.

‘Careful of your Keepers’ by This is the Kit has got to be my album of the year. I have loved them for years and somehow every new release is always even better than the last. I remember seeing them at some festival when I was about seventeen and Kate Stables, who is the main creative force behind it, is one of the people that made me think, “Yeah maybe I do really wanna do that.” ‘Scabby Head and Legs’ is probably my favourite track from the album. It swaps between asking lofty unanswerable questions about why we exist alongside describing the movements of a scruffy pigeon on a ledge.

This is the Kit band member and collaborator Rozi Plain also released a brilliant album this year called ‘Prize.’ As a duo they are unbeatable for me.

Song of the Year.

My song of the year is ‘Goes w/o Saying’ by Frog. I have been obsessed with Frog this year. They are a two-person guitar band and self-proclaimed ‘swamp dwellers’ from New York State. I only found them this year but they feel like they should have been a teenage obsession of mine. Listening to it makes me feel like a teenage boy growing up in Midwest America.

Musical Career Highlight.

I’m not a fan of the word career but I’ve played alongside so much good music by so many good people in so many good places this year that I think my favourite thing about 2023 is

how much I have thought about how lucky I am. I know some truly brilliant people through doing this and I’ve really been taking note of that more than ever this year.

Favourite live show you’ve played.

I have played quite a few venues for the first time this year which has been really nice. I loved supporting the Last Whole Earth Catalogue at the Shacklewell Arms, they played a beautiful set and the whole gig had a lovely feeling to it. R U Listening’s November gig at the George Tavern with Garden Centre, Kissing Gate and Van Zon was super special too. I’ve just decided I’m not going to pick just one so I’ll also say our first CLODHOP night at Ivy House was so nice too. The lineup was Boy Bovis, Watch Paint Dry, Mabel Clarke and Dog Daisies. I felt like I got on stage a lot for that gig, playing in multiple acts, which was in equal parts embarrassing and fun. Playing a song with my brother that night felt like a really lovely moment.

Favourite thing someone’s said about your music:

My friend Freddie said my recent song ‘Ariel View,’ “Reassures us that everything is pretty much okay”. There’s a lot of nasty stuff in the world but if I can feel a bit better while writing a song and someone can feel a bit better listening to it then I feel like I’ve done something good and worthwhile.

… and the strangest response to it:

I think the strangest response might have been watching someone dance very slowly right in front of me while we played a set at the Sebright Arms. A sort of strange physical response. It was like watching someone in slow motion but I think he was just off his face. No complaints though, it was strange in a good way. We were supporting Maripool at Sebright, they’re brilliant and it was a good time.

What are you looking forward to in 2024?

More of the same, I hope. Even though Watch Paint Dry has existed for about six years I am just now working on my first full album that will come out sometime in 2024. I’m a big fan of EPs and small collections but it’s really nice being patient with when you decide something is ready, choosing which songs work together and which ones are better somewhere else. For me, Watch Paint Dry covers more than just the music and is also about everything that happens around it. In the coming year I would like to find the time to do lots more physical making, painting, drawing and video stuff and find some nice ways to keep bringing all of those things together.

I’m also looking forward to bringing in the new year with lots of people that have made this year of music extremely good at the My Life is Big New Years Party at the Sebright Arms, come along.