Du Blonde's Sniff More Gritty was one of the very best albums of 2024, the latest addition to a stellar catalogue identifying Beth Jeans Houghton as one of the finest songwriters making music in Britain today.
This week, for the first time in five years, Du Blonde is taking her songs on the road, on an 11-date British tour (dates and details below). Before she set off, she sat down with Louder to share her memories of eight songs which changed her life, and helped inspire her to become the singular artist she is today.
Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
"This was the first ever song that I heard on vinyl, when I was about six. My mum had Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon album on gatefold vinyl, with the lyrics handwritten on the inner sleeve, and I was fascinated by the whole concept. You put a needle on a piece of plastic and hear someone's voice preserved forever in this thing? How the fuck does that happen?
"So this was the start of my fascination not just with recorded music, but, like, with physical music, and I still have that obsession to this day. This sounds very capitalist, and I don't mean it in that way, but I'm obsessed with merchandise, like the stuff that holds the music, and things like zines, that get people's ideas across, that you can have in your own home.
"This song also started my love of Los Angeles. It's about Laurel Canyon, which seemed to me like this magical place where loads of musicians lived near each other in cabins, and were kind to each other, and played on each other's records. My mum had a huge '60s and '70s music collection, so I would read all the credits on albums by The Byrds, and the Mamas and Papas, and whoever, and see the names of musicians from other bands popping up. So I've picked this because it paints this really beautiful picture of that time and place."
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
"Specifically I'm talking here about a live performance recording of this song from 1972 which I saw on TV when I was a kid. In my head I thought I'd seen it on Top of the Pops, but that doesn't seem to be true. Anyway, it was on TV when I was, like, eight or so, and when I saw it, I was like, Who the fuck is this? I couldn't figure out if it was a guy or a girl, it was this alien, otherworldly creature.
"I think this was maybe the first time that I recognised that someone was playing a character, but underneath is a human. It was kinda like seeing a superhero, like with Clark Kent and Superman, and I just liked that idea. I've always liked musicians who put on a performance, rather than just turning up and playing.
"Also, there's something about David Bowie in that era, and with Marc Bolan and glam rock in general, where it's very simple, but he gets across so much with so few chords. I'm always bowled over by the simplicity and catchiness of it, and it showed me that if you get the right guitar tone on a song, you don't have to put down 100 guitar tracks."
Minnie Ripperton - Les Fleurs
"This was a really big song in my circles in Newcastle in the '90s, and I chose this because it was the first time I'd heard a song where it's almost like a soundscape, with the instrumental side of it painting a picture. When I was a kid, I was like, Oh, it sounds like a magical meadow.
"In the way that the song was constructed and the instruments were arranged it wasn't just that the lyrics were getting a point across, but the instrumentation really supported that, and it was very visual to me. I think that's bled into what I do with my production, where I use a lot of samples and things to try to make like an audio documentary of what I'm singing about."
Wild Man Fischer - Merry Go Round
"Okay, for the record, I really don't like this song. But it changed the way that I thought about music forever.
"I got into it because I was really into Frank Zappa, and he produced Wild Man Fischer. I listened to this record, and it's so fucking weird and really uncomfortable. It's technically a bad song, but when I heard it I thought, Ah, but that still got pressed to vinyl. So that was the thing for me, I was like, Oh, you can literally do anything! Loads of people don't know who this guy is, obviously, but his records are collect items, and there's something about that that I really loved. It made me think about how I make music in terms of telling myself don't question so much. It's not always about, does this sound pleasant? It can be, does this sound interesting? Does it elicit an emotional response? So that had a really big impact on me, even though I hate the song!"
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention - Camarillo Brillo
"My dad used to have a Frank Zappa compilation, called Have I Offended Someone? and it was all of his offensive songs, and Camarillo Brillo was on it. I remember hearing it when I was about 13, and we were in the car, and, for me, it's my ultimate number one favourite song, forever, the perfect song. I couldn't even say why, it just brings me loads of joy. The instrumentation is amazing, with lots of different lead parts that come in and out, and space for all the instruments to do their own interesting things, yet it's still quite a simple song.
"I'd been very much into folk and psych - Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, anything off the Nuggets compilation - but hearing this was the first time I was like, Oh, I'd quite like to be in a band, as opposed to just being a singer with an acoustic guitar."
Led Zeppelin - Tangerine
"I always feel like I should have had a cooler introduction to this song, but I heard it first on the film Almost Famous. I was obsessed with Almost Famous when I was a kid - I watched it like three times every weekend for years - and I'd just dream of being in a band on a bus in America in the '70s. And this is the song on that soundtrack that painted that dream for me. Every time I sing it, it kind of grounds me back to like, What's my goal?In the music industry it's really easy, especially now with social media and everything, to get sucked up with whatever the current thing is that you're meant to do as a musician, but this always reminds me that I just want to be on a bus, playing shows.
"I love Led Zeppelin's heavy stuff, but I also really like their lighter, more folk-tinged stuff. It's kinda like my favourite Black Sabbath song being Changes: I like when the bad boys do a ballad!"
Billy Bragg - A Lover Sings
"This is from Brewing Up with Billy Bragg and also on his Must I Paint You A Picture? compilation album, and I probably heard this in my early teens. Billy Bragg's style, where it's just this almost overdriven acoustic guitar, I'd never heard music like that before: it's kinda punk without any drums, and kinda folky, but with an edge. I love it because it kinda bridged the gap for me between folk and rock, which are my two ultimate faves.
"The lyrics in this song are so specific to a relationship and a moment in time in his life, but even though it's so specific, I feel like so many people can apply it to a relationship that they had in their teens, or the first time they fell in love. And just that the idea of falling in love in a northern town, in my head it was like, Oh, this isn't Hollywood love, or Disney love, it's a very real English love song.
"I used to write very poetically, with lots of metaphors, thinking that if you're not vague, it's too inaccessible, but this changed my thoughts on that. My song Holiday Resort is totally inspired by Billy Bragg, both in its sound and lyrically."
Simon and Garfunkel - America
"My mum had a lot of cassette tapes, and among them was Simon and Garfunkel's live album, The Concert In Central Park. I love the whole album, but specifically America, which is also the opening song on the Almost Famous soundtrack. Ever since hearing Ladies of the Canyon, I was like, I want to live in LA, I had this obsession with wanting to go to America, and it never stopped. So then America by Simon and Garfunkel became kinda the theme of that. One day I was on my way to Vegas to marry a French boy, and I was listening to this song, and I was like, I'm living the dream! And then he didn't marry me."
Wait... What??? You can't just leave that hanging there! You got jilted on the way to getting married???
"Hahaha. It's okay, it wasn't the greatest love of my life or anything! But, yeah, we decided we were going to get married - I was only 20 - and we got a Greyhound bus to Vegas, and he was asleep on my lap, and then he woke up and said, 'I can't marry you'. He was worried about visas or something. I was like, We can totally get it annulled, like, immediately, I just want to be able to have the story of I got married in Vegas at 20! But he wouldn't do it. So when we got to Vegas we just gambled instead. A shame at the time, but probably for the best."
Du Blonde is on tour in the UK from January 22 to February 6, playing the following venues:
Jan 22: Edinburgh The Mash House
Jan 23: Glasgow Nice n’ Sleazy SOLD OUT
Jan 24: Newcastle The Cluny SOLD OUT
Jan 26: Manchester YES (Pink Room) SOLD OUT
Jan 28: Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Jan 29: Sheffield Yellow Arch Studios
Jan 31: Nottingham Bodega
Feb 01: Birmingham Flapper
Feb 02: Bristol Thekla
Feb 04: Brighton Dust
Feb 06: London Scala
For tickets, go here:
