Lupen Crook
Encyclopedia
Lupen Crook is an English musician and songwriter who records either solo or with his backing band The Murderbirds.
" and "gothic folk music
".
He has been described, variously, as "a solo singer/songwriter of a particularly unique ilk", "insidious, vile, an enigma"
"a larger-than-life personality that sometimes wilfully seems to court the reputation of idiot savant and awkward bastard" and "Kent’s finest neo-gothic psychedelic folk troubadour".
As influences, Crook has cited Syd Barrett
, Carter USM
, early Walt Disney
and Bon Scott
of AC/DC as well as "the spirit that is punk rock, the smell of sex and the sound of stray sods singing out from the Medway Towns."
He himself has been compared to artists as diverse as Kevin Coyne
, The Jam
, The Libertines
, Ray Davies
, The Clash
and Jamie T
.
Crook is also a visual artist (working predominantly in illustration and collage) who creates the artwork and packaging for his own releases as well as exhibiting work formally.
(in the Medway
area of Kent
, England
) and had a Catholic upbringing. He became interested in music at the age of eight, making early experiments with his father’s guitar and an eight-track recorder as well as forming a pre-teen rock band called Devil’s Disciples. During his later teen years, Pritchard attended art school. He also began exhibiting symptoms of what he later learned was schizoaffective disorder
and spent a month sectioned in a Medway psychiatric ward: although he’d been informed by his doctors that his obsessive interest in songwriting was damaging his mental health, Pritchard opted to ignore their advice and continue with music. He has variously claimed to have spent the subsequent few years "off the radar completely" while signed off as unfit to work, or has listed various low-status jobs taken prior to devoting himself entirely to music and art.
During his early twenties, Pritchard played in the Chatham area bands Pet Burger and Bonzai Reservoir (the latter under the pseudonym of "Jilted Jack Cann"). He claims to have taken on the pseudonym "Lupen Crook" as "a character idea" and in order to pursue a change of persona, although he has also recounted a story of having adopted it after an eerie experience in Chatham’s Victoria Gardens during which he was pursued "for a whole day" by a bird (an experience recounted in his song 'Matthew’s Magpie').
"-style acoustic act in the Medway area in the mid-2000s. His first gigs took place in 2004, and his initial demo CD was given a limited release by a Chatham record label, Tap 'n' Tin Records, in early 2005. Tap 'n' Tin also released his first EP 'Petals Fresh from Road Kill' in August 2005, which was followed up by the 'Halloween' single in October 2005. Crook immediately made an impact with New Musical Express and was included on the magazine's Cool List compilation CD in 2005: an experience which he made light of at the time, but would later confess "completely threw me – it made me retreat hugely... I was a far more insecure person back then and I didn’t have my gang and my band around me."
Crook released two more short-form releases in 2006 - the 'Love 80' single in March and the EP 'A Silver Boot for Sam' in October.
Lupen Crook’s debut album was Accidents Occur While Sleeping (released in July 2007 on Tap 'n' Tin). The album was credited to Crook alone, despite the Langridges contributing to many tracks. The album received a varied critical response (being described as both "schizophrenic" and "cinematic"). Crook himself has referred to the album as being "probably over-ambitious, and as a result (it) was very stop-starty. I personally think it suffers from a sense of suffocation; basically it took too long to record." In November 2007, Crook released the 'Matthew's Magpie' EP, the first release credited to "Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds".
Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds embarked on a UK tour in 2007 in advance of the release of Iscariot the Ladder, their first album as a group. Crook has since described the tour as "a complete disgrace, utter fucking chaos. It didn’t do us any favours in the long term, we made a bad reputation for ourselves along the way but for those few weeks we were untouchable punk rockers, who with little in the way of resources, mostly frozen to the bone and filthy right through, built the foundations of a brotherhood that stand stronger than ever today." At the end of the tour, Crook and the Murderbirds briefly relocated to America, spending two weeks living as illegal immigrants in New York City
. During their time in New York the band met fiddle
and mandolin
player Craig Harff, who became the fourth Murderbird.
Iscariot the Ladder was released in February 2008 to mixed reviews. Criticised in some quarters for a lack of songwriting discipline and focus, it was praised in others for its raw recording and outlook, with Subba-Cultcha magazine commenting that "the raw ingrained grime is spread across this sophomore album’s runtime like a public toilet’s handtowel. Its sordid themes and embittered melodies are all ruptured and flowing, creativity stemmed only by finances and narrow vision. The fantastist wanderings of Lupen’s debut opus are less in evidence here; instead, a balance between grim faerytale and dirty reality has been achieved. Tottering between both, the unhinged quality of Lupen’s output is just as plain as ever."
The first Beast Reality release was a Lupen Crook solo compilation of archive material called Old Books, Broken Bands And Other Little Treasures which was released in November 2008. This was followed in 2009 by two Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds releases – a second album called The Lost Belongings (in July) and the free 'Great Fears & Curious Predictions' EP in September. During the summer of 2009 Crook suffered a relapse of his schizoaffective disorder
. When recovered, the experience inspired him to release another Murderbirds EP called 'The Curse of the Mirror Wicked' in association with the mental health charity YoungMinds (to whom Crook suggested fans made donations in lieu of paying for the download.
Crook released his second "solo" album, The Pros and Cons of Eating Out, in 2010. His eclecticism continued to provoke both interest and irritation in reviewers, with Subba Cultcha magazine complaining "The thing with this album is half of the songs are brilliant and the other half are distinctly average, making makes this album more lopsided than a table with only two legs. Fans of Lupen Crook’s earlier work will love this record and everyone else will love half this record." The album was supported by the subsequent release of the 'Dorothy Deserves' EP, featuring a remix of the title track by Howie B.
Style
Initially making his name as an acoustic singer-songwriter, Lupen Crook has gone on to create an eclectic music style incorporating garage rock, "broken folk", "skiffle, hip-hop and gypsy punk", "off-kilter skaSka
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
" and "gothic folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
".
He has been described, variously, as "a solo singer/songwriter of a particularly unique ilk", "insidious, vile, an enigma"
"a larger-than-life personality that sometimes wilfully seems to court the reputation of idiot savant and awkward bastard" and "Kent’s finest neo-gothic psychedelic folk troubadour".
As influences, Crook has cited Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
, Carter USM
Carter USM
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is a British indie rock band formed in 1988 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style of power pop, fusing samples, sequenced basses and drum machines with rock 'n' roll guitars and...
, early Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and Bon Scott
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980...
of AC/DC as well as "the spirit that is punk rock, the smell of sex and the sound of stray sods singing out from the Medway Towns."
He himself has been compared to artists as diverse as Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne was a musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The former "anti-star" was born on 27 January 1944 in Derby, UK, and died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Germany, on 2 December 2004....
, The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...
, The Libertines
The Libertines
The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty . The band, centred on the song-writing partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall and Gary Powell for most of its recording career...
, Ray Davies
Ray Davies
Ray Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
, The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
and Jamie T
Jamie T
Jamie Alexander Treays , known by his stage name Jamie T, is an English singer/songwriter from Wimbledon, South London.-Early life:Jamie Alexander Treays, was born in Wimbledon, South-West London...
.
Crook is also a visual artist (working predominantly in illustration and collage) who creates the artwork and packaging for his own releases as well as exhibiting work formally.
Early years
Matthew Pritchard grew up in ChathamChatham
-Places:In England:*Chatham, Kent**Chatham Dockyard, frequently referred to simply as "Chatham"**Chatham Historic Dockyard, a maritime museum that occupies part of the site of Chatham Dockyard...
(in the Medway
Medway
Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
area of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) and had a Catholic upbringing. He became interested in music at the age of eight, making early experiments with his father’s guitar and an eight-track recorder as well as forming a pre-teen rock band called Devil’s Disciples. During his later teen years, Pritchard attended art school. He also began exhibiting symptoms of what he later learned was schizoaffective disorder
Schizoaffective disorder
Schizoaffective disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by recurring episodes of elevated or depressed mood, or of simultaneously elevated and depressed mood, that alternate with, or occur together with, distortions in perception.Schizoaffective disorder...
and spent a month sectioned in a Medway psychiatric ward: although he’d been informed by his doctors that his obsessive interest in songwriting was damaging his mental health, Pritchard opted to ignore their advice and continue with music. He has variously claimed to have spent the subsequent few years "off the radar completely" while signed off as unfit to work, or has listed various low-status jobs taken prior to devoting himself entirely to music and art.
During his early twenties, Pritchard played in the Chatham area bands Pet Burger and Bonzai Reservoir (the latter under the pseudonym of "Jilted Jack Cann"). He claims to have taken on the pseudonym "Lupen Crook" as "a character idea" and in order to pursue a change of persona, although he has also recounted a story of having adopted it after an eerie experience in Chatham’s Victoria Gardens during which he was pursued "for a whole day" by a bird (an experience recounted in his song 'Matthew’s Magpie').
Initial releases
Rechristened, Lupen Crook emerged as a solo "anti-folkAnti-folk
Anti-folk is a music genre that takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this anti-folk are difficult to identify, as they vary from one artist to the next...
"-style acoustic act in the Medway area in the mid-2000s. His first gigs took place in 2004, and his initial demo CD was given a limited release by a Chatham record label, Tap 'n' Tin Records, in early 2005. Tap 'n' Tin also released his first EP 'Petals Fresh from Road Kill' in August 2005, which was followed up by the 'Halloween' single in October 2005. Crook immediately made an impact with New Musical Express and was included on the magazine's Cool List compilation CD in 2005: an experience which he made light of at the time, but would later confess "completely threw me – it made me retreat hugely... I was a far more insecure person back then and I didn’t have my gang and my band around me."
Crook released two more short-form releases in 2006 - the 'Love 80' single in March and the EP 'A Silver Boot for Sam' in October.
The Murderbirds
Initially performing solo, Crook then linked up with two brothers - Bob Langridge (drums) and Tom Langridge (bass guitar, keyboards) – who became his backing band The Murderbirds. Future releases would be credited either to Lupen Crook solo or to "Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds", although the Langridges generally contributed regardless of recording credits.Lupen Crook’s debut album was Accidents Occur While Sleeping (released in July 2007 on Tap 'n' Tin). The album was credited to Crook alone, despite the Langridges contributing to many tracks. The album received a varied critical response (being described as both "schizophrenic" and "cinematic"). Crook himself has referred to the album as being "probably over-ambitious, and as a result (it) was very stop-starty. I personally think it suffers from a sense of suffocation; basically it took too long to record." In November 2007, Crook released the 'Matthew's Magpie' EP, the first release credited to "Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds".
Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds embarked on a UK tour in 2007 in advance of the release of Iscariot the Ladder, their first album as a group. Crook has since described the tour as "a complete disgrace, utter fucking chaos. It didn’t do us any favours in the long term, we made a bad reputation for ourselves along the way but for those few weeks we were untouchable punk rockers, who with little in the way of resources, mostly frozen to the bone and filthy right through, built the foundations of a brotherhood that stand stronger than ever today." At the end of the tour, Crook and the Murderbirds briefly relocated to America, spending two weeks living as illegal immigrants in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. During their time in New York the band met fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
player Craig Harff, who became the fourth Murderbird.
Iscariot the Ladder was released in February 2008 to mixed reviews. Criticised in some quarters for a lack of songwriting discipline and focus, it was praised in others for its raw recording and outlook, with Subba-Cultcha magazine commenting that "the raw ingrained grime is spread across this sophomore album’s runtime like a public toilet’s handtowel. Its sordid themes and embittered melodies are all ruptured and flowing, creativity stemmed only by finances and narrow vision. The fantastist wanderings of Lupen’s debut opus are less in evidence here; instead, a balance between grim faerytale and dirty reality has been achieved. Tottering between both, the unhinged quality of Lupen’s output is just as plain as ever."
Beast Reality
Iscariot the Ladder was the last record on Crook’s contract with Tap 'n' Tin. Having been less than impressed by his discussions with other record companies, Crook went on to set up the Beast Reality label, dedicated to releasing his own material. The label has a strong DIY ethic, delivering releases as downloads or as limited-edition CD releases featuring Crook’s own hand-made cover art. Crook has commented that "the whole thing with Beast Reality will be to get material out as much as possible – I’d like to be looking at two to three EPs and an album a year."The first Beast Reality release was a Lupen Crook solo compilation of archive material called Old Books, Broken Bands And Other Little Treasures which was released in November 2008. This was followed in 2009 by two Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds releases – a second album called The Lost Belongings (in July) and the free 'Great Fears & Curious Predictions' EP in September. During the summer of 2009 Crook suffered a relapse of his schizoaffective disorder
Schizoaffective disorder
Schizoaffective disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by recurring episodes of elevated or depressed mood, or of simultaneously elevated and depressed mood, that alternate with, or occur together with, distortions in perception.Schizoaffective disorder...
. When recovered, the experience inspired him to release another Murderbirds EP called 'The Curse of the Mirror Wicked' in association with the mental health charity YoungMinds (to whom Crook suggested fans made donations in lieu of paying for the download.
Crook released his second "solo" album, The Pros and Cons of Eating Out, in 2010. His eclecticism continued to provoke both interest and irritation in reviewers, with Subba Cultcha magazine complaining "The thing with this album is half of the songs are brilliant and the other half are distinctly average, making makes this album more lopsided than a table with only two legs. Fans of Lupen Crook’s earlier work will love this record and everyone else will love half this record." The album was supported by the subsequent release of the 'Dorothy Deserves' EP, featuring a remix of the title track by Howie B.
Albums
- Accidents Occur While Sleeping (Tap 'n' Tin, 2007)
- Old Books, Broken Bands And Other Little Treasures (Beast Reality, 2008)
- The Pros and Cons of Eating Out (Beast Reality, 2010)
Singles & EPs
- 'Petals Fresh from Road Kill' EP (Tap 'n' Tin, 2005)
- 'Halloween' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2005)
- 'Love 80' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2005)
- 'A Silver Boot for Sam' EP (Tap 'n' Tin, 2006)
- 'The Curse of the Mirror Wicked' EP (Beast Reality, 2009)
- 'Dorothy Deserves' EP (Beast Reality, 2010)
Albums
- Iscariot the Ladder (Tap 'n' Tin, 2007)
- The Lost Belongings (Beast Reality, 2009)
Singles & EPs
- 'Matthew's Magpie (Tap 'n' Tin, 2007)
- 'Great Fears & Curious Predictions' (Beast Reality, 2009)