Reclusive balladeer and enigmatic polymath, Keaton Henson, long known as a softly spoken, intensely private figure whose rare live appearances are part of his legend, releases his new album PARADER today (November 21st via Play It Again Sam).
Since his 2010 debut, Dear…, Henson has carved a niche with his folk-tinged, heart-on-sleeve outpourings, earning a devoted following drawn to his deeply felt vulnerability. As he once confessed, “Sadness I suppose is a feeling of which I have an excess of.” That vulnerability was reflected in a 2012 interview with Fourth and Main for KLOF Mag, in which he used quotes from the likes of Lord Byron, John Keats and Thom Yorke to answer a series of questions. In answer to the question “You started out as an illustrator – is it easier to find expression in art or music and had you ever even planned for your music to be heard, especially to such a wide audience?”, he answered with a Byron quote that highlights the often-unwanted aspect of fame:
‘A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know’.
His new album, Parader, marks an introspective autopsy of time, with Henson explaining, “There are these disjointed snapshots, memories across time popping up amongst this collection of thoughts about what it feels like to be this age and a musician.” These glimpses shatter preconceptions, revealing that his musical roots began in “hardcore and emo bands”—a history that splinters the timeline of our reclusive balladeer, often compared to Elliott Smith or dubbed the “British Jeff Buckley.”
The album harnesses these heavier influences with the help of collaborators. Production was split between Luke Sital-Singh and Alex Farrar (Wednesday/Snail Mail), who Henson calls “the king of that loud, snarky American DIY sound.” The record also features a downtrodden duet with Ratboys’ Julia Steiner on “Lazy Magician,” a track Henson says is “evocative” of the suburban magic-realism of the American bands he loved.
Now 37, married, and in the quietude of his countryside home, Henson draws on a wealth of life experience, yet finds himself revisiting the apparitions of his youth: the teenage punk fan in suburban London. He accepts this louder, brasher dimension as intrinsically part of him. The closing track, “Performer,” directly links to the title: “I am the parader. The person who parades around showing their wounds for a living.” In Parader, Henson offers not just his vulnerability, but a confident acceptance of all that he is.
Read his track-by-track for Parader below:
Track-by-Track: Parader by Keaton Henson
1. Don’t I just
I think Don’t I Just acts as a bridge from more of my known sound to the Parader sound. It gradually grows out of something quiet to something more outwardly snarky, culminating in something loud and brash.
Musically, it feels to me directly influenced by the local bands of my youth, fuzzy and tuned down with lazily strummed open chords.
Lyrically, it’s pretty much me at max self-loathing, but in a newly snarky way.
A half-hearted anthem to the moments in life where you just give up trying to be better and surrender to the mess that you are.
2. Insomnia
Insomnia is obviously about not being able to sleep. But specifically that bleary point at which you just give up on the idea of sleep altogether, when memories and inner thoughts start to blur with reality.
Musically, it’s further toward an American grunge/ slacker rock sound. With Alex (Farrar)’s amazing warm fuzzy production.
Lyrically, it is sometimes clear, but time is warped and it pulls from memories and the present in a confused abstract blur of sleeplessness.
3. Lazy magician
This was written back and forth between me and Julia (Steiner from Ratboys). I wrote the guitar part and first verse to the drum machine and we both sort of just free-wrote the rest. Allowing our subconscious to form the narrative.
I like that it’s almost like these two lonely souls singing next to each other, but sometimes over each other, like we’re so lost in our own self-reflection and loneliness that we’re unaware we’re in a duet.
4. Past it
Past it is a song I wrote about questioning the writing of songs.
It’s me thinking about ageing and growing old as a musician. But also reflecting on the whole idea of a 37-year-old man singing the kinds of songs I sing, especially the way I am on this album. Sometimes you can catch your reflection while writing songs and I have these thoughts, and it usually ends for me with wondering if anyone will even hear it, hence the chorus.
5. Conversation Coach
Conversation coach is musically me just stealing the soul of Luke Sital-Singh, who produced it (and most of the record), the sounds are so him it feels a bit like cheating.
It’s about wishing I could just shut up and say the right things, or say nothing at all.
Wishing I had a coach behind me in all social interactions feeding me lines, teaching me how to be a better interactor.
6. Furl
This is a duet with, and written with my wife Danielle Fricke.
It’s one of those songs that maybe only me and her will ever fully understand. And is pretty personal. But I love that how well we know each other ended up forming this song that is super abstract to outsiders but immediately made total sense to us. But I guess it’s sort of about two strange malformed beings holding each other up. It’s us reflecting on our childhoods and how they’ve led us to who we are now.
To me, it’s probably one of the more authentically romantic songs I’ve written, it’s sort of the blood and bones of an adult relationship.
7. Loose ends
This definitely feels like the early 2000s rock bands of my youth. Maybe even the ones that were too pop for me back then. It’s musically fun and lyrically pure snark. Feels very teenage in all ways
I realise now how many purposely wonky guitar solos are on this record. But it’s usually my favourite part.
8. Operator
Operator is pretty purely heavy compared to my previous music. I wanted to make use of Alex (Farrar) for some American confident heft. In contrast to the awkwardness of me and Luke’s English heaviness. It feels like it kicks the door down where we made self-effacing jokes in order to be invited in.
It’s about self-loathing, regret and the id (the operator). It’s essentially an apology letter to myself for hating me.
9. Tell me so
This one sits maybe more in an alt-country space.
It’s essentially a backwards love song saying I’ll be “the other guy” or whatever you need for now until you find a better person.
10. Tourniquet
I feel like this track almost pulls more from some of my favourite poppier contemporary artists like Anita Bennett, Mali Velasquez, Kate Stephenson.
It starts out about running away to LA before realising everything I love is back home. Away from music and performing.
Then it’s a reflection on love and comfort. And feeling like I’ve finally “made it” but not in fame and wealth, just in a person I love and a quiet life.
11. Day in New York
This is a fully stripped-back folk song. Recorded in the room in one take with just Luke playing lap steel for the solos
It’s a song I wrote a while ago. And I just had a weird feeling it’s what I needed on this record. So I dug it out, which I’ve never done before.
I like the sort of time capsule irony of singing about this snapshot of a day I spent in New York with an ex years ago. updating her on how everyone’s doing, reflecting on where I am in my own life, deep in the hustle of being a musician (“selling parts of my soul to get by”) And the poignance of ending with me now singing the line “dads doing ok” at this point, 5 years after his death.
12. Performer
This one is musically probably the most conventionally “me” it feels like my old sound but with the Luke Sital Singh production treatment just updating it a bit.
It’s a real meditation on all these parts of myself I’ve been examining on the record. My need to make people laugh and be liked. My conflicted relationship with attention. My desire to get better, but exhaustion from trying.
It feels like a bit of a goodbye. I just can’t tell if it’s a hopeful one or a desolate one.
Parader is out now. Order/Save: https://keatonhenson.ffm.to/parader.OYD
Website: https://keatonhenson.com/