Richard Hawley says his new album Standing At The Sky's Edge is a metaphor for the state of modern Britain. Speaking about the album title, he tells NME: "Sky's Edge is a place in Sheffield…But I used it as a metaphor more than anything, for being on the edge and how we have to decide what side ...
Richard Hawley says his new album Standing At The Sky’s Edge is a metaphor for the state of modern Britain.
Speaking about the album title, he tells NME: “Sky’s Edge is a place in Sheffield…But I used it as a metaphor more than anything, for being on the edge and how we have to decide what side of the line we’re on. The Government are using the recession to force through politics that will put us back 125 years of history”.
The album, which was released yesterday [May 7], is the Sheffield guitarist’s seventh studio album and the follow up to 2009’s Truelove’s Gutter. Hawley says that the album is darker than it’s predecessor because he felt it was “time to turn it up”:
“The government are really limiting us by closing libraries and reducing NHS funding. Kids are coming out of university £50,000 in debt and still end up flipping burgers. This is no longer a civilised society, the dignity of our sick and elderly is being taken away.”
He continued: “This has impacted on the sound and made me realise what’s important. We had to fight for those things and I just don’t want to see them taken back away. It’s pissed me off and it think it’s pissed every fucker off to be honest”
Hawley will play London’s O2 Academy Brixton on October 3, which will be his largest UK headline show.