Interview with James Domestic

Hello Poetry Lovers

Welcome back to the Talk Show Studio.

(Rapturous and rowdy applause)

(Dobby bangs a ruler on the desk. Silence)

Now settle down PL’s, because our talented and prolific guest is about to come on!

A big welcome to James Domestic!

(Standing ovation. Security rush back from their fag breaks)

(Our esteemed guest glides elegantly down the lighted stairway)

Welcome to the show, James. I hope you found us alright. We are thrilled to have you as a guest.

I see you’ve brought your lovely cats with you (Dobby glowers in the wings)

Yes, I thought they could swap notes with Dobby. And they have a packet of Dreamies!

So, thanks for having me on the show, Heather.

My background is a bit all over the place. My parents were from London, though they’d moved out to Hertfordshire – a little place called Wormley – by the time I was born. 

Then when I was four, we moved – along with almost every other member of the wider family – down to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.

I now live in Suffolk with my missus, Lu, and our two cats, Susan The Cat and Freddie Fuzzles.

I left school with almost no qualifications because I was rarely there, and when I was there, I couldn’t seem to concentrate and just mucked about. I was only interested in music, girls and alcohol by the time I was 14!

I spent my early post-school years between the dole and the factory, and a few other equally mind-numbing poorly-paid occupations (see Guff CV from the recent Poets Day Dream book). 

Then, out of desperation, I did an OU degree, and it had a massive impact on my life. I did a few years working in social housing, and then, for really over-the-top levels of scholastic compensation, I ended up doing a PhD in my thirties and now work at Essex University. None of my teachers would’ve seen that coming!

I’ve played in bands since I was fourteen and have made a lot of records with different ones.  I always put a selected, but not exhaustive, discography in the back of my books in case people want to check those records out.

I’ve played with my main band, The Domestics, for fourteen years and we’ve been all over – The Basque Country, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands…all good fun!

 

As the main songwriter in most of the bands I’ve been in, I’ve always written lyrics, which I guess – at a push – you might say are a form of poetry!

The first ‘proper’ poem I had published in 2013 in a book put together to raise funds for The Freedom Bookshop in London, which had been firebombed by fascists.

After that, a couple of spoken word pieces appeared on records by The Domestics; our 2015 split 7” with a band called Volunteers had Just Some Arsehole That Plays in a Band on it, and our 2017 album, Cherry Blossom Life, included Human Ikizukuri.

I’ve only really been having my books published and doing poetry gigs for maybe three years.

 

Well, I’ve always enjoyed John Cooper Clarke and Ivor Cutler, and from that got into Luke Wright, Attila The Stockbroker, Rob Auton, Spike Milligan, Saleena Godden, Mark Grist and many more. I’m never really sure if they’re direct influences, but they may well be! 

I think I’m often far more influenced by poetry that I don’t like…trying to avoid those traps!

Well, I don’t think there’ll be any more books from me in 2025 – two is probably enough in one year! – so I’m focusing on the live stuff really, and also trying to pull together an hour long show with a bit of a through-line, but I’m not supposed to talk about that yet, so that’s all you’re getting on that subject!  Haha! 

There’ll be another book sometime next year as I’ve a lot of new work, but there’s no hurry.

The Domestics are slowly working up new songs for the next record and should be heading back to The Basque Country for a few gigs next year too.

I still have a fair few gigs in the diary for this year, I think.  You can check www.jamesdomestic.com for the latest info, to buy books or my folk art, or whatever.  Maybe sign up too…you’ll only get a handful of emails a year (I’m too busy to do more than that) and you’ll get a heads up about significant activities.

I have terrible Seasonal Affective Disorder which usually creeps in around late October/early November, which means I’m unable to gig through the months on November, December, January, and February, so I try to squeeze plenty in in the remaining months.

Oh blimey!  I can totally remember the worst – thanks for making me think about that, Heather!

I did one in Southend quite early on.  I was the main feature and on after the open mic section.  I started to get a little worried during the open mic as every single person – in fact, every other person in the room – was doing very serious, earnest, confessional stuff, which as you know is not what I do at all. 

It came to my set and they just did not know what to make of it.  Deathly silence between each poem.  It was excruciating.  I had a 25 minute set to plough through, and it was dreadful. 

You could hear every time someone took a sip of their drink or shuffled in their seat! Also, there was a council meeting going on upstairs and so halfway through my set there was a lot of noise of people strongly disagreeing on points of discussion. 

It honestly couldn’t have been much worse! But, having said that, I was pretty new to it and all the gigs I’d done up that point – maybe half a dozen – had gone really well, so I guess it was a leveller if nothing else! Anyone can have a shitty gig now and again.

There have been so many good ones. The supports with Luke Wright, Attila, and Andy Riley have all been great and I’ve had some great ones at Patch in Colchester, Good Shout in Peterborough, and at Poetry Scum in Nottingham, amongst others. 

The one that surprised me the most was when I was asked to do a five minute unpaid slot at Frinton Literary Festival last year. I generally don’t like to encourage what are essentially “pay to play” gigs if your expenses aren’t being covered as a minimum, but I took a chance on it and I was so glad I did!

I was on just before the break and there was a queue at my merch as soon as I left the stage.  Definitely in the top 3 gigs in terms of number of books sold – I almost ran out!

Also, that’s where I met the brilliant Andy Riley, a writer on Black Books, Big Train, Smack The Pony, Veep and tons of other stuff.  He’s ridiculously funny and we’ve done a couple of gigs together now, with more to come.  So, it was a fortuitous evening.

(Our esteemed guest shuffles uncomfortably)

Out with it, James! Lee’s barred me again, hasn’t he?!

Erm.. I think it was that ‘Fluffy Kittens’ poem you did, Heather.

Er…Susan! Freddie! Dobby! Wait for me!!

(Mr Domestic legs it up the lighted stairs!)

Thanks for tuning in, Poetry Lovers. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon…