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My Festival Feelings: Tristram

Gareth Main

Quaint singer-songwriter Tristram is a delicate flower. He sings songs tearfully lamenting somebody stealing his bicycle, and his debut EP ‘Somebody Told me a Poem’ is full of tenderly sung folk songs that are pretty hard not to fall in love with.

“There is something to said for old fashioned English awkwardness,” he says when we chat. And there is no doubt that, as he banters awkwardly onstage between songs, he’s the sum of his influences with a quirky British edge. It lifts him above his contemporaries, and there seem to be a hell of a lot at the moment.

“I'm not sure,” he responds when the subject of what makes him and his band stand out in a sea of folk arises. “Originally I would have said a sense of humour, but our new songs aren't very funny... the fact that we have a cello - which is our folk secret weapon - and the fact that we're all very good.”

There’s no denying that fact, or denying that there is plenty of quality influences that stamp their presence over Tristram’s music. From kooky Americans in Devendra Banhart and Bill Callahan to Thee Silver Mt. Zion if you’re a fan of quirky British folk, you’ll probably catch him at one of the summer festivals this year.

Do you prefer going to festivals as an artist or a punter?

It's a lot more relaxing going to anything as a punter, because you're not in a state of anticipatory fear, and you don't have to stay composed for anything.

What has been your favourite festival experience?

I met my first girlfriend at my first glastonbury, that was nice. For a few years running I used to steward in the Lost Vagueness area, which has this amazing 50s diner playing old rock n roll, and a burlesque tent, and a chapel of love. Most recently, I went to Secret Garden Party last year, and was pretty into the fact that you can go boating in a floating milk float.

Do you tend to stick around at the festival or do you leave once you've played?

It feels weird to leave festivals before they finish, like you're betraying someone in some indefinable way.

Are there any festivals you'd like to play but haven't?

Green Man, End of the Road, South by Southwest.

What would be your perfect festival - setting, audience and line-up?

Setting: In a treetop village, like the one at the end of Star Wars.

Audience: An assortment of cave men (and women) and ninjas, like in that Wu Tang video.

Line-Up: Beirut, Wild Beasts, Grizzly Bear, First Aid Kit, Coco Rosie, Sons of Noel & Adrian, Bon Iver, Peggy Sue, Us, Leonard Cohen, Alessi's Ark, Mariner's Children, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Kimya Dawson, Herman Dune, Smog, Johnny Flynn, The Low Anthem, Experiment On a Bird, the Misfits, Skream, Loefah, etc. .