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Anti-folk hero Johnny Flynn has announced details of an intimate UK tour that includes a gig at The Cluny 2 on February 27. The full dates are:

FEBRUARY

10 LONDON – Barfly (solo show, HMV Next Big Thing Festival)
25 LIVERPOOL – Zanzibar
26 EDINBURGH – Cabaret Voltaire
27 NEWCASTLE – Cluny 2
28 OXFORD – The Bullingdon

MARCH

2 CARDIFF – Clwb Ifor Bach
17-21SXSW, Austin, Texas – Venues TBC

Read the feature I wrote on Flynn a couple of years back for FACT Magazine:

“I listened to a lot of the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots growing up. I’m not yet fully grown,” explains up-and-coming anti-folk hero Johnny Flynn when asked about his influences. “Lots of country blues 78’s. And the Pixies. And everything really. I played Bartok in orchestras, sang Gerald Finzi in choirs. My father was a show singer so I know all the Irving Berlin and Cole Porter songs.”

A Shakespearian actor by trade, Johnny Flynn is also a precociously talented musician. Fronting the magnificently named Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit, he creates beautifully fragile English folk with a sharp literary edge.

“The theatre company has nothing to do with the Sussex Wit,” Johnny explains. “The band is a drummer called Matt who sings and sometimes plays guitar, a bass player – Adam, a cellist – Joe, my sister Lillie who sings and myself playing various instruments. When we play live it’s always happy-ramshackle. We don’t get much time to rehearse at the moment. We like not knowing how it’ll go.”

Debut seven-inch, ‘The Epic Tale Of Tom And Sue’, features two ‘Acts’ tied together with a poem. ‘Tickle Me Pink’ is a delightfully sparse song that builds to a quiet crescendo whereas ‘Cold Bread’ reveals Johnny’s darker side as mandolins flit around its sampled beats. Theatrical in both concept and delivery, ‘The Epic Tale Of Tom And Sue’ is a remarkably well crafted first release.

With an album already in the pipeline there should be plenty more opportunities to hear Johnny’s wonderful tales. “We might go to a mountain cottage to do it,” Johnny reveals. “That kind of idea is fun to pursue. It’s good that it’s so easy to record yourself. We recorded the first single in Adam’s bedroom.”

Heavily influenced by Johnny’s theatrical background, the Sussex Wit’s music is almost cinematic in its scope. “It informs what I do on stage or, more specifically, how I feel about it, but lots of other stuff does too,” explains Johnny when asked about his Shakespearian background. “You basically have to have faith in what you’re doing and the rest takes care of itself. Acting’s the same. If you’re really aware of what’s going on you won’t miss doing whatever you’ve got to do.”