Liam Frost

by Joanna Orland

I first met Liam Frost about 4 years ago when we spoke at V Festival in Chelmsford. He was a young and promising singer-songwriter from Manchester with a bright future ahead of him. Four years on, he may not be AS young (not old by any means though… ), but he’s certainly just as promising.

I rang Liam up on the night of the UK election, (hence the lack of our usual in-person-unflattering photos of interview subjects). I was surprised that he remembered me from all those years back! But that’s the kind of guy Liam is. Friendly, genuine and obviously very good at remembering people! I barely can remember people I see on a daily basis, nevermind four years on….. Such a nice quality of character to possess…. unless I’m just such a freak that it’s so hard to forget me…. anyway, this is not about me and how unforgettably freaky i am…..

While Liam as a man is such a positive and bubbly character, Liam the singer-songwriter is much more serious. Writing is his passion, and it is obvious. A lot of his emotions and experiences go into his music, which is what makes it such a joy to listen to.

The past few years have had many ups and downs for Liam. Major ups include having written his second album alongside Ed Harcourt, having done a successful duet with Martha Wainwright (or “sister of Rufus” as I call her), and getting invited to take part on a sailing expedition to promote climate change in which he replaced Jarvis Cocker as the musician-type.

With all of the positive opportunities that Liam has had, there was one major low to mention…. and that was when his label Columbia let him go from their roster. But when life gives you lemons, you gotta churn out the lemonade, and that’s exactly what Liam did. He managed to get back the rights to his second album and release it on his own start up label “Emperor Records”. Turns out Liam is much better off and seemingly happier being in control of his own career!

I did have a lot of solid questions that I had asked Liam, to which he delivered a lot of interesting answers. As I am so used to doing live-in-the-flesh interviews with a recorder in hand, this whole note-taking thing didn’t work out quite as well for me… (My handwriting is appalling!)

Instead of putting his answers into context, here are a bunch of really random (and just-about-decipherable from the hand-writing) Liam quotes that make no sense without said context:

“Feel like a total douche”

“All of it’s bollocks”

“Write it phonetically”

“Flakey and Rubbish”

“Pie in the sky”

Something useful I did actually learn (without the need to write down) about Mr. Frost is that he is currently writing his third album! That’s quite good news!

The interview was coming to an end, but just before I let Liam go to watch Channel 4’s alternative election results, I had to ask it…..

If there is one word to sum up “Liam Frost”, what would that word be?

“ Laughable. no wait….. Curmudgeonly.”

Think that’s what I was supposed to write phonetically.