Interview: Michael Weston King on going solo for the first time in 10 years

Weston King explains how “The Struggle”, his first solo album in ten years, came about. For Leven research the conversation about “Theory of Truthmakers” is the most productive. King says their mutual friend Alan Black had kept an unpublished handwritten lyric by Leven. Leven had written it during a train journey they made together and left it with Black. When King approached the artist about the cover of the tribute record “The Wanderer”, he learned of this text.

King wanted to set it to music and release it on the memorial record but did not finish in time. So he recorded the piece for “The Struggle”. By his account the handwriting is reproduced in the booklet. The string-like sounds were contributed by Michael Cosgrave; King had expressly asked him for a sound reminiscent of Leven's records. For the brightening in the chorus King also had Scott Walker in mind.

The rest of the interview deals with King's orientation towards songwriters of the late sixties and early seventies and the recordings with Clovis Phillips in Wales. The story of the Leven lyric is King's recollection; the manuscript itself was not examined here.