Cole Stacey is perhaps best known to our readers and listeners as one-half of India Electric Co. He also plays bass, synths, and mandolin on tour with Midge Ure. No stranger to travel, he has performed on stages from the iconic Royal Albert Hall to Westfalenhalle Arena in Germany, from 700-year-old castles in Gdansk to the Glastonbury Festival.
For a touring life, it may seem only natural that ‘place’ should inspire his music, but with Cole Stacey, it’s his choice of place that makes it so interesting. Due for release in February 2025, the songs, melodies and tunes that make up his debut solo album, ‘Postcards From Lost Places’, take inspiration from the likes of a regenerated Clay Factory in the heart of Devon, a prehistoric settlement on Dartmoor and a Victorian mining village.
The importance of place in music has a long history; it can trigger a unique spatial perception, which, in Cole Stacey’s case, fired the depths of his imagination and creativity. This can be heard on his lead single, ‘Quiet Is Louder’, released tomorrow (18th October – pre-save here), on which he shared:
“The first song written & recorded when I set up a small creative space in a Victorian Clay Factory in Devon, which was slowly being regenerated by a charity. The vastness of it, paired with all the forgotten silent stories and the change being witnessed, mesmerised my imagination and re-energised me. I was introduced to an adjacent Victorian Mining site at Morwellham Quay, which offered the same sort of historical introspection and space – after long tours away from home, there was an energy about this stillness that was intoxicating. On my journeys home, I walked through the empty spaces around RAF Harrowbeer collecting fallen wood from the ancient trees to create the underlying percussive sound”.
Watch the accompanying video, which was filmed by Abigail Barton Photography at the above-mentioned Morwellham Quay, a former copper mine, port, and Victorian village that forms part of the South West’s Mining World Heritage Site. It’s not difficult to imagine how the vastness and pervading stillness of the place made such a big impression when contrasted against the long months he has spent touring the UK and Europe and the constant motion of life on the road.
Sometimes when the quiet is louder
We’re invisible, visceral, invisible
‘Quiet Is Louder’ is the first single from Cole’s new debut solo album ‘Postcards From Lost Places’ scheduled for release on 7 February 2025.
Website: https://colestacey.net/