JOE PAYNE GOES SOLO
The Enid’s ex-frontman previews his eclectic new material with help from his former bandmates.
Joe Payne releases his debut single this spring – and he believes his solo career will showcase his diverse range of musical tastes.
“When I listen back to what I’ve written, it really sings true to all of my influences,” he says. “I’ve somehow managed to create a weird hybrid that is this sort of cheesy pop, theatrical, classical, proggy thing.”
Payne left The Enid in 2016 after falling ill with depression and anxiety, but has enlisted former members Max Read, Nic Willes and Duncan McLaughlan to help out with his solo work.
“I was with the band for about five years, and things had just been niggling away at me,” he says. “One day, rather than my mind telling me to stop, my body did. All of a sudden I had this physical reaction to all of the stress, whereby I couldn’t even move. I was paralysed by it.”
Payne sought medical help and then spent a year working in a bar, which allowed him to regain his individuality.
“With The Enid, we lived together in basically a commune, so no one had any independence from the band,” he says. “Working in the pub surrounded me with a network of new friends. It gave me the strength I needed to just go, ‘You know what, fuck it! I’m whatever artist I am. You can take it or leave it’.”
Payne releases his first single I Need A Change under the moniker That Joe Payne on March 2.
For more, visit www.thatjoepayne.com. CC