Catching up with…Council Cut
A quick-fire Q&A with one of Stoke-on-Trent’s most exciting budding artists
“Sold my Rolex, paid off the warlord; drive this Transit round like a Concorde.”
Recently I caught up with Will, a.k.a Council Cut. Raw, real, and uncompromising, Will is an artist who’s in it for the…well, music.
With an uncanny knack for documenting the fleeting peaks and inevitable troughs of working-class life, Will is as poetic as he is accomplished.
There’s no pigeonholeing Council Cut. He’s neither this nor that — he’s on a new wavelength that’s filled with gritty nuance, style, and head-nodding melody.
Read on to find out more about one of Stoke-on-Trent’s most exciting (and important) budding artists.
Hello, Will. How are you keeping, mate? Could you tell me a bit about yourself and what inspired you to start making music?
“Alright, mate! Yeah, so I’ve always been creative and bursting with ideas, and more often than not, this manifests itself through words and melodies.
I’ve walked away from many musical projects over the years for various reasons — this usually ends in self-destruction. So this time, a little older and wiser, I’m back with Council Cut.”
Stoke-on-Trent is an industrial city brimming with creativity. How has your hometown and your experiences within the city inspired your work?
“I think it’s a superb place to be creative. I function better as a lyricist and songwriter in times of struggle and strife, and there is no shortage of that around here.
The estates I grew up and hung around on were grim in many ways but offer a wealth of charm and character that can be cultivated into art.”
One of your more recent singles, ‘Make Do’ documents the ebbs and flows of working-class life in a way that’s gritty and soulful. What was your process when writing and arranging the track?
“I like to mix things up with every song, and I like to think I can write songs in many different ways while borrowing from many different genres.
With ‘Make Do’, I just stripped everything right back down to what is essentially spoken word poetry over a piano riff.
As you rightly said, it’s quite a gritty message. So I chose to highlight that by keeping the arrangement and structure simple and to the point.”
Many people describe you as ‘Brit Pop meets Hip Hop.’ Do you agree with that statement?
Yeah, I’m relatively happy with that. I find it difficult aligning myself to just one style, which is a pain in the arse when it comes to getting on playlists and genre-specific radio.
It would be really easy to pick up a guitar and be just another Britpop indie band, just as it would spitting some generic bars over some mass-produced beats and calling myself a rapper.
But I just think all of that has been done over and over again. If I can carve out my own little niche and float between several genres, I’ll be happy.”
What would you say is your biggest musical achievement so far?
“My biggest achievement in music is to still have the desire in me to continue. It’s a tough game, financially crippling, humbling, draining, often humiliating . . . I could go on and on.
You have to be resilient and thick-skinned, I think. Developing these qualities is the biggest achievement, albeit not specifically musical.”
Finally, what’s next for Council Cut?
“Just making more music. I can’t see myself stopping for a long time. I’ve got too much to say. The process of growing an idea into a fully-fledged song is addictive.
I always think that people who like fishing fish til they’re old, and golfers play golf til they’re old. But for some reason, being creative is almost seen as a luxury that should be nipped in the bud after so many years.
Well fuck that. I’m an artist, and I’ll make art til I’m old — regardless of whether there’s an audience or not”
