| Track | Album |
|---|---|
| Fallen Down | Rise Above |
| She Sleeps Alone | Rise Above |
| Something New Under The Sun | Sleeping Star |
| There’s A Rumour | Sleeping Star |
| Emily May (You Make Me Feel So Fine) | Sleeping Star |
| You Can Be My Baby | Change My Life |
| Something’s Wrong | Change My Life |
| The Wishing Well | Change My Life |
| Cry A Tear | Good Things |
| Fadeaway | There’s A Light |
| Bonus Track | |
| C’mon Daddy | Wild Smile |
Like his brother, Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks combined being an entirely distinctive artist with wearing his musical influences very much on his sleeve. Unlike Nikki, however, whose touchstones included artists like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Faces, New York Dolls and especially Johnny Thunders, Epic’s major influences were primarily brilliant pop songsmiths such as Brian Wilson, Lennon and McCartney, Carole King and Laura Nyro. The German group Can and the American songwriters, Alex Chilton and Todd Rundgren, were other key influences on his style.
Despite emerging from the post-punk scene, Epic’s own work centred on the pursuit of the perfect pop song. Although he operated under financial constraints, he also tried to give his songs the kind of layered, well-crafted and intricate arrangements which characterised the work of his idols. Epic’s music was also suffused with an air of vulnerability and melancholy. For me at least, this occasionally makes it reminiscent of the work of other great English artists like Nick Drake and Duncan Browne.
Epic Soundtracks was born Kevin Godfey in 1959. He was born in Croydon, but the family moved to Solihull in the English midlands when he was young. Along with his brother, Adrian (aka Nikki Sudden), his first major musical enthusiasms were for T. Rex and Can. After going through a number of short-lived bands, the brothers eventually founded the group, Swell Maps, with other local musicians, including Jowe Head, Richard Earl (aka Biggles Books), David Barrington (aka Phones Sportsman) and John Cockrill. Although they were founded before punk, the Maps have often – probably rightly – been described as being a ‘post-punk’ band. In a sense, this reflects the eclecticism of the group’s musical influences. For anyone who wants to find more about their history, I recommend Rick Leach’s excellent Toppermost.
After the demise of Swell Maps in 1980, Soundtracks recorded an (until recently) unfinished album, Daga Daga Daga, with another of its members, Jowe Head. This was a very experimental album – which included the brilliant single Rain, Rain, Rain (it can be heard here). Jowe’s account of the making of the album – and why he only recently came to complete it – can be found here. The CD also stands as a fascinating contrast to Epic’s own later work.
Epic subsequently worked as a drummer, first with his brother Nikki’s new band, the Jacobites and subsequently (with his close friend Rowland S. Howard as guitarist) in the Simon Bonney- fronted group, Crime & the City Solution. After leaving the latter band he joined These Immortal Souls, which functioned essentially as a vehicle for Rowland S’ songs. Soundtracks’ natural diffidence meant that, at this point, he preferred the role of being a backing musician to being the one in the limelight. However, in the early 1990s, his friends Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth offered him the opportunity – and some much-needed encouragement – to record a few of his own songs. To do so, they gathered together a group of excellent musicians which also included Rowland, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Martyn Casey of the Triffids and the Bad Seeds.
The resulting album, Rise Above was a departure for him in that it centred on piano-driven pop songs. Although Soundtracks was best known as a drummer, he was also a talented pianist and had played keyboards on occasion with Swell Maps. My first choice from Rise, Fallen Down, was based on chords Laura Nyro used regularly. The song is strong enough, however, to bear this comparison.
It is also striking for its combination of an upbeat melody with quite dark lyrics. As in some of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s best work, this jarring quality only increases its potency as a song. As my fellow Toppermost author, Marc Fagel, has put it, “Fallen (is a) stellar pop tune, sweet and absolutely gorgeous.” My next choice, She Sleeps Alone, blends a beautiful stately melody with an underlying air of restrained melancholy. This is a combination which characterises most of Soundtracks’ finest songs.
Epic Soundtracks’ second album, Sleeping Star (1994), is more understated than his debut. The starker quality of its production means that the best songs on it are even more haunting than those on its predecessor. My first choice, Something New Under The Sun, is a beautiful brooding ballad which features some fine guitar work by Harry Georgeson, an alias for the album’s producer, Henry Olsen. Both it and my second choice from the album, There’s A Rumour, have a slight folk-rock feel, vaguely reminiscent of Richard Thompson’s work with Fairport Convention.
By contrast, Emily May (You Make Me Feel So Fine) is another one of Epic’s Brian Wilson-inspired pop classics.
Change My Life, Epic’s third solo album in 1996, was the final one he released during his lifetime. My first selection from it, You Can Be My Baby, is a surprisingly upbeat song, which also displays Epic’s droll wit. Something’s Wrong is a strikingly clever pop song. Indeed, the slight lag in Epic’s vocal gives it an unsettling quality which fits perfectly with its title. The Wishing Well is another of his trademark wistful ballads, suffused with that sense of yearning which was key to some of the best 1960s and 1970s pop.
In the years following Epic Soundtracks’ tragic early death in November 1997 (its causes have never been clearly discovered, although both his brother Nikki and several of his best friends believed that it resulted from a ‘broken heart’), his reputation as a songwriter has steadily grown. The release of a number of excellent posthumous releases, including Good Things first released in 2005, aided this process. Epic’s good friend and collaborator, the American guitarist Kevin Junior, put the CD together. The album features demos which the two men recorded as a template for a possible follow up to Change My Life.Given the circumstances in which they were recorded, they are quite rough and ready.
Despite this, the quality of the material on the album is remarkably high. My selection from it, Cry A Tear is a beautiful if sombre ballad, which highlights Epic’s vulnerability following a recent break up with his girlfriend. At the time, he was also feeling depressed about the trajectory which his musical career was taking. Perhaps, as a consequence, the song has a stark and haunting beauty which is reminiscent of some of Nick Drake’s last recordings.
My last selection, Fadeaway, comes from the recently released live album, There’s A Light. It was recorded during Epic’s final ever live tour on which Kevin Junior accompanied him. Fadeaway is another remarkably beautiful song. As Marc Fagel has pointed out, it also displays Epic’s ability to write songs which “really … [dig] into your gut”.
While researching this piece, it also became clear to me that a minor cult is beginning to develop around Epic’s songwriting. Sadly, this is too late to benefit the man himself, but it is a testament to the enduring beauty and timeless qualities of his music.
Bonus Track
Although Epic Soundtracks’ music did not achieve much commercial success during his lifetime, his work did manage to draw the attention of some of his better-known contemporaries on the indie scene. Among the chief of these was Evan Dando of the Lemonheads with whom Epic wrote this supremely catchy pop song. This live performance also shows Epic’s tendency towards self-effacement.
NB: I have drawn on the excellent liner notes by Chris Coleman (Wild Smile) and Kevin Junior (Good Things) in writing this piece.
In the late 1980s, Epic Soundtracks and Rowland S. Howard were central figures in the post-punk and alternative rock scenes …
Epic Soundtracks by Peter Paphides (Melody Maker)
Fergal Kinney on Epic Soundtracks
Solo Live & Interview 1992, French Radio Show 1992 (YouTube)
Blackpool Sentinel article on Epic, Kevin, Nikki
Marc Fagel’s review of Rise Above (1992)
Andrew Shields is a freelance historian, who grew up in the West of Ireland and currently lives in Sydney, Australia. Along with an interest in history, politics and literature, his other principal occupations are listening to and reading about the music of Bob Dylan and, in more recent years, immersing himself in the often brilliant and unduly neglected music of Phil Ochs.
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