Billy Lockett ready for release of debut album Abington Grove this week

Billy Lockett releases his eagerly anticipated debut album Abington Grove this week.

The 12-track record features new material, tracks which Lockett has performed to fans at recent gigs and six singles released in the run up to the LP.

Abington Grove, released on Photo Finish Records, includes the Northampton singer songwriter’s latest single Miss Missing You which was recently picked for BBC Radio 2’s B-Playlist.

While the Chron has spoken previously to Billy about his forthcoming debut, we sat down with him at his studio basement to answer some more questions about Abington Grove.

Talking about Friday’s release, Lockett said: “It feels good. I’m terrified, happy, nervous, excited, hopeful and doubtful - I'm literally feeling everything from this.

“You only get one debut album and I’ve been working on this for 10 years.

“Some of these songs I wrote 10 years ago, some I wrote four or five months ago.

“This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life.”

FAVOURITE SONG ON THE ALBUM

“My favourite is Not Okay, which is actually one that's probably ‘flopped’ the most of all the singles.

“I really thought it was going to be a big one. It’s done nothing but it’s still my favourite.

“I’d already finished the album, it was done and then it kind of got to the point where a mate, Josh Daniels, was like, ‘shall we do a couple of days writing and see what happens?’

“We wrote Last Thing On Your Mind and Not Okay in the same day and the reason I love Not Okay is it’s just huge.

“It’s a different sound from me, it’s way bigger than anything I've ever done before – clearly people didn’t want that, (Billy jokes) but I like it because it was just something that was pushing me out of my normal boundaries.”

OLDEST SONG ON THE ALBUM

“The oldest one is We Used To, I wrote that with Northampton rapper Dizmack.

“We wrote it probably about 10 years ago in my cellar in Abington Grove - pretty much everything was written there.

“It’s a beautiful song but I’ve never been able to get the production right.

“I’d tried it with five or six different people throughout the years. I wanted it to be out earlier, but it was too good to just not get perfect and it all just fitted into place really.

“I’ve been playing it live for 10 years and I've always loved it.

“I remember when I was in the basement at about 4am one morning with all my mates about eight or nine years ago, we were all drunk and I put the demo. I still vividly remember everyone just being amazed by it. I knew I’d got something special there.”

THE NEWEST SONG

“The newest one was Last Thing On Your Mind and it’s a classic ‘Billy ballad’.

“I’m known for my ballads, that’s pretty much my whole career and to not have a ballad on the album felt wrong.

“I wasn’t forcing one, but when it came, it just happened and I knew it had to be on there.

“There was songs like Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself, but that’s got drums and guitars and strings but I didn’t just have a piano ‘Billy ballad’ until Last Thing On Your Mind.”

SONG YOU WROTE THE QUICKEST AND SONG WHICH TOOK THE LONGEST

“Don't Be So Hard On Yourself just fell out of me and I wrote it on my own.

“It’s one of the only songs on the album I wrote on my own and every single bit of it was so easy.

“It just made sense. I knew exactly what I needed to say and I knew exactly what the chords were supposed to be.

“We changed a few things when I took it to the studio, but it was so easy and it's actually one of the most complex songs on the album in terms of arrangement and structure. It just happened.

“But then you’ve got songs like Miss Missing You which, if I’m honest, was one of the hardest songs I've ever had to write in my life. It took over a year.

“I spent a year writing this with Danny Connors and we had about seven different versions.

“We tried it with Adam Gammage at The Lodge on drums, then I made the chorus a verse, then a verse a chorus.

“Me and Danny fell out, (Billy jokes) we didn’t speak for about four months, it was just a nightmare and then when I got a new producer he managed to get it.

“Bass, drums vocals – that was the key. It took me ages and that was my ‘hit’ and it’s annoying because it kinda taught me you have to spent that long to get successful songs.

“I’m hoping Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself becomes a hit as well because then it proves that there's no rules.

“I know exactly where I was when I wrote it, I was sitting here (Billy’s studio basement) and the melody and words just came.

“I was bored and started singing, ‘Don't be so hard on yourself,’ I stood at a keyboard and it just flew into my head.

“I posted a clip on Instagram and it went through the roof.”

SONG YOU THINK WILL BE THE FAN FAVOURITE

“Miss Missing You seems to be the song that is exploding at the moment but I think the fan favourite is going to be Last Night.

“It’s cool, it’s boppy, it’s very ‘TikTok-able’ – although I hate the fact that I just said that, but it is and the words are really interesting.

“It’s the story of a guy, me, on a night out trying not to get drunk but always ending up back in the same place. It’s kind of funny and I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to it.

“I’m only coming out for one - and then it’s five in the morning. It’s got a bit of an Easy Life vibe, it’s got a really cool beat to it. It feels early RnB, it’s boppy.

“It’s a cool tune, not my favourite, but I think whatever ‘cool’ means, it fits that.”

SONG THAT WILL SURPRISE FANS THE MOST

“I think Kamikaze or Freaking Out because they are extremely poppy.

“Freaking Out starts as a ‘Billy Ballad’ and then just goes into this pop-club thing.

“I think it will confuse people more than surprise people but I want to do that.”

SONG THAT ‘GOT YOU THE RECORD DEAL’

“Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself definitely I think got me the record deal.

“We’d been talking to labels and there were about four or five interested at the time.

“We had a Soundcloud link and every time I made a song for the album I put it in.

“Some people would drop off, some people would get more interested.

“When I did Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself offers came in. I think that was the final push.

“There might have been a bit of ‘Okay, this guy is what we think he is’ and I’m pretty sure that was the one.

“It’s an anthem. It shows everything about me, it’s a ballad but it’s also big, it’s got pop elements to it and it's very mainstream.

“It's about mental health and about constantly s***ing on yourself all the time.

“I’m always worrying and overthinking everything and that song is about trying to just say, ‘calm down, Everything's gonna be okay’.

“It’s a message, it's almost a mantra to my whole life.

“Ever since I wrote that song, I feel my head has been in a better place, so it's important.”

SONG YOU THOUGHT THE LABEL WOULD VETO

“Don’t Worry is one I definitely didn’t think would make it because I didn't particularly like the demo.

“I wrote about 400 songs for the album but we’d got to the point where we'd already used all the ones that obviously had to be on it.

“There was a couple of spaces left so we had a look at the ‘graveyard of songs’ to see what worked.

“I didn’t actually choose it, my managers chose it and I wasn’t sure

“Then I went in the studio with Barnaby (Billy’s producer) and he turned it into gold because everything he does turns into gold - so that one was a surprise.

“Everyone seems to love it, it’s got a spoken word bit in I’m still a little unsure about, but everyone else seems to like it which is important.

“It’s a bit Billie Eilish - very bass heavy, very beat heavy.”

SONG THAT WON’T BE PLAYED LIVE

“Kamikaze is never gonna happen unless my band is a 10-piece, it just won’t work and it definitely won’t work solo.

“I think most of my live shows I’ll do on my own because I like just being at a piano with an audience.

“There’s so many synths, it’s the sort of song I wrote while I was recording it and built it up production-wise.

“It was made on the laptop, it wasn’t like the rest of the other songs which were written on the piano, that was a new experiment really.

“Sorry, Kamikaze will probably never be played live.”

A SONG WHICH DIDN’T MAKE IT ONTO THE ALBUM

“There’s so many I really liked, but for the album it had to be perfect, the song had to be phenomenal for it to be on it.

“There’s a new one, I haven’t even come up with the name yet but I wrote it a couple of weeks after the album had been wrapped up and I really wanted it on the album, but it was too late.

“It’s going to be called I Could Use A Friend or Friend, something like that. It’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written. There’s another song called Lilo which is awesome.

“This is good because it means album two is going to be brilliant.

“I’ve now got two or three absolute bangers ready for the second album, even though they didn't make it on the first.”

THE HIT

“Well, it looks like it’s Miss Missing You at the moment. It’s on BBC Radio 2’s B-playlist, it’s getting syncs, it’s on Love Island and it’s exploding everywhere.

“Obviously I’ve had waves of things going well and then they simmer down but this wave is bigger than anything I've experienced.

“I know everyone’s behind me, especially in the town. I don’t think I’ve ever had Northampton backing me so much before

“I’m getting in the car and I’m on the radio, I’m turning on the TV and hearing my songs and I’m just, ‘wow, this is finally working’. It’s never felt like this. It’s crazy.”

Abington Grove is released this Friday. It is available to pre-order now via https://billylockett.com and is available digitally, on CD, on regular black vinyl and as a deluxe edition.

Following its release, Lockett hopes to tour the UK again in April and May before playing shows in America ahead of the summer festival season.