47. Richard Youngs

Portrait by Nathan Berko-Gibson

The first thing you'll hear on this episode is the sound of the English-born, Scottish-dewlling musician Richard Youngs playing guitar with his feet. Entitled “Foot Guitar XXXV,” it’s one example of the many forms that Youngs’ music can take. On the other 99 and a half percent of his recorded output, you can hear him singing and playing nearly every instrument you can think of, and many you have probably never heard of. A handful of American fans have discovered his music due to his somewhat shoegaze-sounding record Sapphie, released in the USA on Jagjaguar records, Richard Youngs has recorded over 140 albums since his 1990 solo debut “Advent.” Many of these albums were released on his own label, No Fans Records. Usually involving an element of improvisation, one could use the blanket term “experimental” to describe his sound. Really, you could call it a lot of things…
Just don’t call it folk music. "That term doesn't mean anything," Youngs said.
Friend of the show Andrew Dorsett joined me in speaking with Mr. Youngs earlier this year to get inside his head, and find out about the stories behind his work. Youngs speaks on the influence his son brings to the table, his long-term artistic relationship with Simon Wickham-Smith, and the ways he continues to challenge himself as a musicisan. He also shares a bit of his expertise on the subject of vegan cooking.

You can find a lot of Richard Youngs’ music at his website.

His all-dad disco band Amor can be found at https://amor-glasgow.bandcamp.com/

Richard also has a Twitter page, find him @nofansrecords