Hello, I’m Eric. I’m a musician, photographer and author, based on the Shropshire/Powys border in the UK. I’ve been involved with a few bands over the years including epic45 and Strap the Button but have mainly recorded under my own name.
Many of these solo releases, including my most recent E.L. Heath EP ‘Cambrian’ have come out on the wonderful Wayside & Woodland Recordings label, based in Staffordshire. Back in 2013 my Welsh language psychedelic pop album ‘Tŷ’ was named album of the week on both BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Foyle. I’ve had a short story published and am in the process of arranging a few more of these into a collection, alongside other literary projects. You can find me, and some of my photography, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
‘Cambrian’ is a collection of songs in English and Welsh inspired by the Cambrian Coast railway line, which takes in the upper curve of Cardigan Bay as it sweeps up towards North Wales and the Llŷn Peninsula. It’s an amazing journey, including where the line turns inland towards Shrewsbury, passing near to my house throughout the day. It is often flooded and occasionally washed away, with ever more violent storms disrupting its route.
I recorded ‘Cambrian’ over the past few years and produced it with my partner Victoria, right down to the artwork itself. It’s out 7th June on Wayside & Woodland Recordings, but the pre-order has been selling quickly. You can find the EP here.
I also co-run a tiny record label of my own called ‘Plenty Wenlock Records’ with Victoria, principally from our dining room table. Her art adorns many of my (and our) releases. She’s an exceptional artist and her current project creating storyboards for an imagined 1980s supernatural horror film just blows me away every time I see them. You can see more of these on her Instagram account.
Plenty Wenlock has grown quite a bit over the last few years, putting out a number of releases and reissues. We focus mainly on music with a rural, psychogeographical feel, with hints of local customs and folklore. Currently planned this year is a collection of recordings of fictitious covert radio stations by our ‘Shropshire Number Stations’ project in July, and the long in the works ‘Creepy Jenny’ EP, which is drawn from our shared love of 1980s John Carpenter soundtracks. Do keep an eye out for more in the coming months on the PW Bandcamp site or via Twitter and Instagram.
Where did you come from and where are you going?
200 light years from Alpha Centauri there’s a tiny rock called 1199322… OK being serious now, I was born in the United States but moved to the UK when I was very, very young. My extended family is split across the UK and America and while I’ve lived here all my life, I’m very aware of having a set of distinct national identities, and a strong sense of hailing from somewhere else. I find the recent surge towards nationalism a really difficult concept to understand as a result, we’re all bits of star dust anyway.
Where I’m going? Good question. You’d probably get a better answer if you imagined yourself, so yes, do that. Then let me know what I was supposed to be doing.
What preoccupies your mind these days?
Oh, the usual turmoil and malaise. It feels like an incredibly restless time, where so much has gone on in such a short period that I find it hard to adjust. Things I was used to not that long ago now seem really disconnected, I travelled a lot for work and love seeing different places, but much of this has now gone online. Due to back issues I’ve found it harder to get out and about – I love to climb hills and at the moment that’s not a possibility. Only a few years back I wasn’t supposed to drive more than a few miles, things like that leave their mark, so I’ve focussed more on music, writing and graphic design, things I can control.
Trying to run a tiny record label is tricky at the best of times, but it didn’t help that we relaunched ours right as the UK left the EU. Suddenly posting releases abroad became a lottery – in so many ways, whatever the result of the referendum, it remains an utterly surreal thing for any country to choose to do, but it also directly attacks small labels like ours and the fans abroad who follow us. The complete lack of care or interest in this confounds me and I desperately hope something is sorted after the forthcoming election.
Last year I played my first gig in what must have been around 6-7 years, at a secret gathering in rural Worcestershire, as epic45 realised their Drakelow EP live just a stone’s throw from the giant blast doors of the complex. I was broadcasting a series of fictional number stations to people in the audience with their own personal radios, as you do. The warmth and encouragement from all concerned was the highlight of the year for me, meeting people I’d only ever contacted online, or sent CDs to. I was convinced people wouldn’t get it, but I needn’t have worried.
The community of people who follow what I do and support me and the label are a huge help and source of inspiration. There are some who own everything I’ve done – it’s quite startling when they send a picture of it all together. I’m at the age where everyone else has families or other commitments, where it’s ever more difficult to find a time to meet up, so I find the kind words when I put something out, or someone contacts me about a CD or wants to release something on my label a real help. It feels like being part of something greater.
Name a favourite taste, touch, sound, sight and smell
Smoked aubergine, warm grass, a light breeze rustling the leaves above, sea air.
Describe one of your most vivid dreams or nightmares
I don’t usually remember dreams for too long, but I had one not too long ago which seemed to build on some others. Our house had somehow become connected to our neighbour’s, through a maze of corridors. I spent most of the dream trying to work out the layout and how it had come to be. The neighbour in question isn’t great, so I woke up really confused and worried that it had happened, still somewhat convinced that I’d find a door somewhere and find out where it was leading to…
Have you ever had an uncanny experience?
I’ve had a few very light ones, the meow of a cat that had died a few years before, and another ghostly cat shape running round a small table in our current house. Victoria has had many, many more – she has seen the ghostly cat, but also the lower half of a man who walked out of my studio room, which was presumably his some time ago. She said she’d seen his face peering over her shoulder when she was knitting while sat in a chair and also him disappear through the kitchen wall, where there used to be a door. When she was much younger she woke up in bed with the woman who had died in the house she was living in staring her straight in the face. I keep telling her she should contact Danny Robins about it for an episode of Uncanny.
How does your sense of place affect the way you express yourself?
I find I’m a very different person depending on place and company. I love the countryside, especially the calm before sundown. My mind craves peace and quiet. But I love the variety of cities as well, not having to drive everywhere, varied cuisines and cultures. I found myself more of an extrovert in cities, taken by the wave somewhat and enjoying sights and sounds, but at home, deep in the countryside, I can find the rural landscape and glacial pace of life sometimes leads me into a lull, and a sense that I’m coping rather than living, especially during the harsh winter months. I haven’t found the halfway point yet between these two poles. Perhaps there isn’t one?
What has particularly touched or inspired you recently?
Coastal erosion and the plight of the Cambrian Coast railway line really piqued my interest of late, especially the suggestion that the village of Fairbourne could be ‘decommissioned’ and returned entirely to the salt marsh, with all signs of human habitation removed. The finality of this tone and its reality struck me – it would be in effect, evidence of a catastrophic misjudgement – a village built by an Englishman in coastal Mid Wales on a totally unsuitable site. A giant folly, with people unable to sell their houses, the land currently worthless. The whole place considered unviable, impossible to continue protecting. An example of our ever more extreme climate and some extremely dubious planning considerations. I channelled much of this into ‘Cambrian’, which was written in a mixture of English and Welsh. A love letter to the line and the Class 158 DMUs which run its route.
The line itself has been poorly served for years – there’s been promises of an hourly service for as long as I can remember and recently it was announced that this would begin in 2026 and only operate for half the year, in the summer months. It’s a real slap in the face for the people who live along the line and rely on it, and the assumption that the services would only be needed because of increased passenger numbers in the tourist season is deeply disrespectful to them. During the winter months it’s a fairly deprived area, life is not easy across a lot of Mid and North Wales, so it reinforces that deprivation. It says to people that they don’t matter, they aren’t worth the bother. Which isn’t something anyone should have to live with.
Tell us a good story, anecdote or joke
A little while ago a local bus company trialled the removal of the rear section of the roof of their buses to allow them to operate as a sort of semi-sightseeing tour bus, with the usual commuter section remaining nearer the front. It didn’t catch on and they put the roof back on a few months after. You could tell where this service stopped as the signs had a picture of a bus with the latter section of the roof faded out.
People will try anything to make a few quid these days.
Wyrd Daze 