Not all heroes wear capes. As Songs For Walter’s eponymous debut album and its vivid tales inspired by his late grandfather attested, they’re more likely to own a favourite pullover, worn only on special occasions. On new album An Endless Summer Daze, the family’s grand tradition of storytelling continues and has clearly been passed down the generations, from the most outspoken to unassuming observer alike.

Nom de plume of songwriter Laurie Hulme, Song For Walter is about to make a hefty impression on those who have followed his sonic trajectory to date. Through an astute voyeurism of friends and strangers he’s encountered along the way, An Endless Summer Daze is a bold and self-aware release that strips back his previously hefty guitar sound in favour of majestic acoustic flourishes. Whilst the debut LP came to fruition in Manchester’s sprawling suburbs, this time around the travel bug returned without warning and he found himself hitching a train to Edinburgh. “By absolute fluke, I ended up staying in an architecturally award-winning modernist house. I set up in the owner’s study and laid down the tracks,” he recalls.

An album which holds no barres and flexes artistic license whilst exploring the complexities of life, its lyrics both challenge and entertain, telling tales as tall as they are true. “I’ve never wanted to write about love, it feels so unimaginative,” explains Songs For Walter, of his development as musician and writer. “I like writing about peculiarities in people, personal stories, the bizarre world we’re born into and strange things we do.”

Channelling subtle melodic activism through the anti-folk stylings, latest single ‘Earwigging’ dabbles in Orwellian themes, telling of the contrast between rising alienation in the western world and CCTV culture whilst ‘Aliens’ was inspired by a Louis Theroux documentary about ET hunters. Masquerading behind upbeat major 7th chords, the unfortunate reality of an historical unemployment protest in Salford can be heard on ‘The Battle Of Bexley Square’ and ‘Squaring Circles’ laments the helplessness of workers tied to the 9am-5pm grind. “As a songwriter I develop my songs one bit at a time. The whole process is like doing a jigsaw, slowly finding each piece,” he tells.

With his past singles receiving BBC 6music spins from Laverne, Lamacq, Cocker, Robinson, Maconie, and Ravenscroft – who extended an invitation to play Belfast’s In The Court Of festival – Songs For Walter has found good company in fellow capeless comrades. Further shows have included Festival Number 6 and Indie Tracks, not to mention unforgettable experiences supporting his own heroes, The Wedding Present and Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr. “Supporting Lou was incredible and surreal,” he recollects. “He showed me how to play a couple of my favourite Sebadoh songs. One day I hope to ask Bill Callahan how he has bucked the trend and kept on releasing great music.”

Recorded at Manchester’s 80 Hertz studios, An Endless Summer Daze features adapted and manipulated homemade instruments, brought into the mix with Working For A Nuclear Free City’s coveted film and television composer Phil Kay. The album’s nostalgic title-track takes its name from a deleted line, rescued from the cutting room floor (“I can’t remember waking up from an endless summer daze”), whilst talented artist friend Amy Tidmarsh was enlisted to adorn the album sleeve with her pencil line drawings. Depicting an Okapi forest giraffe, a native creature in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it’s style recalls the famous artwork of Smog’s Julius Caesar and Palace Music’s Viva Last Blues, only adding to the album – and Songs For Walter’s - otherworldly charm.

TRACK LISTING

Earwigging
Squaring Circles
Traitors
The Battle Of Bexley Square
An Endless Summer Daze
Alien
A New Beginning
I Don't Know Who You Are
Your Shoes
Stranger

Songs For Walter debut record is released on highly limited gatefold clear vinyl and digipack CD – both come with a unique set of polaroid photos

They say youth is wasted on the young. It’s something Walter, the late grandfather of guitar-wielding and song-writing troubadour of Manchester based Laurie Hulme, would probably have agreed with. As nom-de-plume Songs For Walter, Laurie’s eponymous debut album is a record that’s as much a brutally honest tribute to the legacy of Walter, as it is a stirring portrayal of Songs For Walter himself.

“I was very close to Grandad but we did fall out briefly in 2006,” Laurie recalls, referring to album track ‘Competition, Diffidence and Glory.’ “I went to lots of protests at that time and Walter was not impressed. He called me an anarchist and accused me of damaging the fabric of society. He later wrote me a letter of apology saying he was wrong.”

The album is an astute melodic recounting of his grandfather’s wildly curious tales. Whether telling of Walter’s dabbling with communism in the 1930s (‘Useless’), his hatred of space travel (‘Moon/Two Out Of Ten’) or his love story from first date (‘Meet Me At The Empire’) to being painted head to toe in iodine on his wedding day (‘Purple Blue’), it’s only when those snapshots are brought together through Songs For Walter’s accomplished musicianship that the picture is completed.

Marked with all the scrapes, dents, and surface noise of real life, the record was written in Laurie’s car as he filled time between the school guitar lessons he continues to teach each week. And reinforcing the album’s DIY feel, it wasn’t recorded in a studio; it was laid down in bedrooms, living rooms, corridors, bathrooms and cellars. “That definitely adds some variety and scruffiness to it” he notes. “Looking back I wouldn’t have recorded it any other way.”

Inherent perfectionism and different locations aside, Songs For Walter is the fruit of five years’ labour. Laurie and co-producer cousin Ed Hulme (Working For A Nuclear Free City) had to squeeze the record’s completion in between their additional musical exploits Beat The Radar, Golden Glow, and cover acts of Laurie’s favourite bands Sonic Youth (Phonic Poop) and The Smashing Pumpkins (The Cash-in Pumpkins). It lends to the record’s vastly divergent take on alternative folk through placing dreamy lo-fi meanderings (the poetic nuance of Nick Drake inspired ‘Nicks Song’ and ‘Watch The Dogs’ Bill Callahan/Smog style thematic imagery) alongside indie rock punch (‘Dunkirk’s driven 90s rock sound recalling The Lemonheads or Dinosaur Jr).

Following the release of his debut EP on Red Deer Club, which won him praise from BBC 6music’s Tom Ravenscroft, Steve Lamacq, Jarvis Cocker and Lauren Laverne, and bolstered with a full live band, Laurie has spent the last twelve months bringing the songs to life with live performances around the country.

With the release of the album in January there are exciting times ahead, but with Laurie’s relentless work ethic (already he’s working on his next ‘heavier’ project), get your ears around this before the wind changes. “I spent a long time deciding what to call the record. I may not do another under the Songs For Walter moniker: I like the way it documents this period in time and the subject matter.” Clearly these are songs that emerge only once a generation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tougher Than A Soldier’s Boots
2. Nick’s Song
3. Stamping On Snails
4. Useless
5. Dunkirk
6. Meet Me At The Empire
7. The Joint World Record Holders
8. Purple Blue
9. Moon/Two Out Of Ten
10. The Three Legged Race
11. Flowers On The Windowsill
12. Competition, Diffidence And Glory
13. Final Project