Weather Being Literary References: Neck Romancer

“’Neck Romancer’ was something I’d wanted to do for a long while. It wasn’t something I’d given much thought to, but after I’d written the first album and I was working on the second, I just felt that I was going to do it”. “As a track, ’Neck Romancer’ turned out to be a bit of a milestone, and it’s proved one that has really stood the test of time. It’s based on a story ‘The Return of the Sorcerer’ by Clark Ashton Smith. This was a short story published in 1931 during the Great Depression, which has some really potent symbolism and that sets it apart as a classic.” “‘The Return of the Sorcerer’ is a retelling of fables, from ‘Midas’ in the 8th century BC, to second-century Lucian, to ‘Faust’, to later literature, like ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ and ‘Frankenstein’. It’s a basic theme that comes down throughout human history, and its message is just about the excesses of avarice or greed. When I started to write it, I had the first part worked out in my head, the introduction, and instrumental sequence of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Gradually the pieces all started to actually link up. It’s one of those tracks where anyone can have their own theory. It regards this figure of a sorcerer, either myself, or themselves, all theories are allowed, including that of just random rhyming nonsense.” “I look back on it as a very clear message, that this is me accepting Goth. I was admitting that to myself initially, but then, by default, to the rest of the world, that I was raising my dead self, my former image, and now this is me, trying to live with the new me. I think about that middle bit: ‘Wants to take a journey to a foreign land…’ and that’s me, still being haunted by whatever I’ve done and what I am, shaking off one Johnny Stowmarries and embracing another.” “I’d lived out this lyric in my life, after I wrote the track, when I went and moved and lived abroad for thirteen years in Europe. When I came back, I developed myself back to the solo artist I am today. It may well have been an allegory of the new Johnny Stowmarries revelling at last in my true self persona, as one that I could live with as an artist.” “‘Neck Romancer’ worked in a way that I hadn’t experienced ever before. It really proved its worth in everything when the video of ‘Neck Romancer’ suddenly raced to over 10,000,000 views on YouTube. This moment came as a complete surprise. The focus had been just to get material out there on social media. Instead, you could say, this was hit.”