Moody and esoteric, David Ford is not like other English singer-songwriters like James Blunt or David Gray. Instead, there’s a darker tone to his solo debut I Sincerely Apologise For All the Trouble I’ve Caused.

Pieced together slowly and independently in the cellar, David Ford laboured over this release, bringing together different elements beyond the simple construction of voice, guitar, bass, and drums, “I think it’s more about the intent than the actual product of it,” he alludes. “I think you bring to it what you can and what you will.”

At its most basic, I Sincerely Apologise... is a collection of songs that are emotionally connecting and that resonate. “It’s not about big production or trying to be cool or trying to fit into some niche market,” he agrees. “It’s easier to make it connect more because it’s less diluted. But at the heart of it it’s just a bunch of songs.”

With no time limit or a need to work to any particular time frame, the album was created in a vacuum, with no pressure on it as there were no demands, and no-one was expecting the record to happen – there wasn’t a record label or publishing house waiting to hear the songs. “It was kind of nice to not have to feel the need to do anything for anyone to hear,” he says, “but just doing it for the sake of doing it. It’s not something that many people get to do, and not something that I’m going to get to do again.”

Since he recorded it, Ford has been signed up by Columbia in the US, resulting in the album coming out worldwide. There’s little doubt that the lack of time constraint and lack of limitation worked in the record’s favour, as he was allowed to test his own boundaries. “It was more not having any boundaries and not recognising any boundaries,” he enthuses. “It’s not the way that people normally view boundaries as some strange, creative being, but the obstacle is having to actually talk to other human beings when you’re making a record, because people have their own agendas because somebody will want to sell a million records and someone will want to make a this album, or a that album.”

The music itself on I Sincerely Apologise... sounds desperate; there’s a sense of isolation and loneliness to it that comes from an artist making his first solo record, away from his previous band Easyworld. Song titles like “Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck)” and “I Don’t Care What You Call Me”, and the title of the album itself, certainly reference the likes of the Smiths, who merged a great pop sensibility with a dark undertow.

“I think that might be similar to the Smiths in that it’s a knowing wink to the British love of self-loathing – that whole “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” vibe,” Ford says of “Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck)”. “To my mind I think of it as being a positive record and hopefully an uplifting experience; the song “Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck)” is about how there’s more than misery, and there’s things to look for beyond the misery, and misery-eradication rather than wallowing in it. There’s a lot of sadness on the record, but a lot of hope.”

Having started out in Easyworld as a self-admitted naïve young pup with stars in his eyes, Ford is treating his second time around in the music industry very differently, and now feels somewhat shielded from it through his own indifference to it. “When you’re a kid and you get your first record deal you believe that if you have all the self-belief in your music then you can only imagine that it’s going to be a couple of weeks before your topping the charts, and headlining festivals,” he says drolly. “It comes as a bit of a shock to the system as I guess I had a romantic ideal that the best record sells the most copies, but you start to notice that a lot of your favourite records don’t do so well because they’re not part of the machine.”

He admits that he’s a lot less impressed by everything this time around, and that helps him to avoid some of the pitfalls of being a wide-eyed kid who believed everything he was told and took advice on face-value, and was happy to follow other people’s leads. “In this respect I’m being much more of a grumpy old bastard, and I think the best thing I’ve learned is that my opinion is no less valid than anybody else,” he states firmly. “I’m happy to be able to say to bosses of whatever label it is that I probably know better than they do when it comes to my songs.”

Having recorded all the music found on I Sincerely Apologise... on his lonesome, Ford has a band to play with him around the United Kingdom. But when overseas, the expense of traveling with the band is prohibitive and as such he only plays solo. “I’ve got some clever machines that help me out,” he explains, “like a loop machine which helps build up some layers. I view the songs as being my boss, so I do what they tell me to do and hope for the best, and try to make it an enjoyable and thought-provoking and interesting show.”

On I Sincerely Apologise..., “Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck)” adds another layer of sound with each verse and chorus, as the extra instrumentation builds and builds. “That and “State of the Union” are obviously not as full-on as on the record,” Ford says in reference to how they differ in the live format, “but they’re a little more than your standard singer-songwriter with a guitar. I try and push the dynamic of it as far as I can. I must say it’s a lot more fun for me as well; I’d hate to sit down with an acoustic guitar and strum songs.”

When making the record, he admits it was hard to stop himself overcrowding the songs to some degree with layers upon layers. “I tried to keep adding things where I thought something was missing,” he says. “It’s a discipline that some people just don’t have, as you think that every song needs everything and it all ends up fighting for space, but I tried to keep it fairly sparse and try to put things on as they wanted to be on there, and then see what kind of mess we had.”

David Ford’s I Sincerely Apologise... is out now, with Ford opening support for Augie March on their current national theatre tour. Dates:
5 August – Barwon Heads Hotel, Geelong
10 August – The Tivoli, Brisbane
11 August – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
18 August – The Forum Theatre, Melbourne
20 August – Queen’s Theatre, Adelaide