Karl Culley

Karl Culley joins us in the studio this week for another edition of 'Bands in the Basement'. Karl Culley has been a favourite on Recharged Radio over the past year, both for his incredible songs and his unworldly guitar playing talent. During this session, Karl surely didn't fail to impress on both counts, whether it was wowing us with the melodic complexities of Suffering (For Your Love)', or getting us dancing to the beat with the addictively rhythmic 'In Her Nature'.

Bio -

Karl's first memory is one of travelling through the dark. Heading to a now forgotten destination in the back of his parents car drifting in and out of a dream. Paul Simon's voice sparkled soporifically in the air. Years passed.

On the eve of his 18th birthday Karl was given an acoustic guitar by his father who had himself played, entertaining Odeon cinema audiences during intermission as a boy with his band The Whirlwind Trio. Karl taught himself a few chords and almost immediately began writing songs, exploring a wide variety of subjects. Karl is a published poet and his lyrics, likewise, display a talent for imagery and a pre-occupation with otherness and that which is beyond our grasp - "My songs are about being stuck, being affraid, love, alienation," says Karl," metaphysics, light, dark, stuff like that."

After a few years fronting an indie band called The Mindermasts Karl stopped writing songs to concentrate his energies on poetry, prose and painting. But committing song ideas to a 4-track tape recorder sometime later rekindled Karl's love of song-writing and soon he was gigging in and around Yorkshire, in Leeds, York, Hull, Manchester, and Sheffield, including festival appearances and radio sessions.

Karl Culley has somehow managed to distill his many influences (listen closely for wisps of John Martyn, Elliott Smith, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Kelly Joe Phelps, Richard Thompson, Bob Dylan, Tori Amos, Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe) into something uniquely his own in which a compelling tension ensues between breathtakingly visceral frenetic finger-style guitar and the vunerable spectral quality of his voice.

"I'm somewhere else when I play. I sing with my eyes closed. When the song's over and I open them again, it seems that i've been away," Karl tells of his live performances. "It's both cathartic and meditative for me to perform."

Karl continues to live in Harrogate, North yorkshire, where he was born in 1979.