Cornish trio William The Conqueror will headline at Manchester’s Deaf Institute next week in support of their fourth album Excuse Me While I Vanish.
The band dropped the album in July, receiving a wave of positive reviews.
Speaking at the time, William The Conqueror frontman Ruarri Joseph said of the writing process, “My favourite kind of song writing is when you have no control over what’s happening. The song just arrives, finding its way through your fingers onto the fret board, as the pen wanders the page and somehow says everything you didn’t realise you needed to say. “The Bruises” was like that. It wasn’t and then all of a sudden, it was.” Bassist Naomi added, “”The Bruises” will stay with you all day. And with a verse that catchy, you don’t really need a chorus. Which is lucky.”
The band produced the 10 track album with vintage gear and mixing from Barny Barnicott. But the album almost didn’t come to be. Ruarri Joseph found himself in the midst of lockdown considering an uncertain creative future before being inspired by his mental health social worker wife Mandy’s example and becoming a temporary care worker, giving him impetus and focus. “My wife was insomniac for the first six months of lockdown, which made it impossible for me to moan or grieve the fact that everything I’d been working on for the last five years had come to a standstill” he explains. “It was a much-needed perspective and made me realise what a selfish undertaking William had been – navel-gazing with my head in the clouds when what people needed was boots firmly on the ground, preferably on the feet of someone like Mandy.”
When do William The Conqueror headline at Manchester’s Deaf Institute?
William The Conqueror headline at Manchester’s Deaf Institute on 19 October 2023