Newton Faulkner: Down to the deadline

Guitarist Newton Faulkner live-streamed the recording of his fourth album, Studio Zoo, and accepted suggestions from the ‘audience’. Thousands of fans were logging on. It was like starring in his own, one-man episode of Big Brother.

WITH his dreadlocks and hazy smile, Newton Faulkner seems super laid-back. He is, until he has a deadline.

“I’m very relaxed. At the same time, I don’t think I’ve ever handed in a piece of work late,” says the singer-songwriter, from Surrey, in London’s commuter belt. “I remember getting ready for bed one night and the phone rang — ‘we need an acoustic version of [1971 Labi Siffre hit] It Must Be Love — in the next half an hour’. My response was along the lines of , ‘okay… let me put the kettle on’. And off I went…”