STEWART PROSSER
The Style Council brass man on his latest effort
What could your new set soundtrack?
Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, capturing a mood of solitary reflection, dark, foggy, snowy skies, and a search for Truth.
Who’d you like to produce?
Yussef Dayes, to get his teeth into some ambient-leaning sounds.
Where were you when you first heard one of your songs on vinyl?
Rye & The Quarter Boys’ 7″, Private Number, driving to a gig in spring 1982. It came on the radio and I almost crashed as I pulled over to listen to it. What a feeling!
What’s the last album that you bought?
Espen Eriksen With Andy Sheppard Perfectly Unhappy.
What record made you want to go pro?
Chicago II, a brass-led rock album with the most unusual arrangements. Meaty voicings, baroque lines and harmonies, driving percussion. I could hear Miles Davis, The Beatles, Beethoven, Sly Stone. I wanted to be in the band.
What record most influenced your style?
Kenny Wheeler Deer Wan.
What’d you ask your music hero?
Charles Tolliver, 82. How could he be so prolific, constantly creative and run his own label? He could give a masterclass. I’m starting my own label, so I need to know!
What’s your most prized music item?
My Couesnon flugelhorn. I’ve had it 45 years. I wrote a melody with it over a gorgeous Mick Talbot piano tune and it became a solo feature on tour with The Style Council.
“I WISH PEOPLE WOULD STOP ASKING ME WHAT PAUL WELLER’S LIKE!”
Which of your songs is the most personally meaningful?
Fogbound. A real story of redemption after serious illness, when I was searching for meaning.
Which album, on first listen, is the most startling that you ever heard?
Miles Davis Bitches Brew. It hit me like a brick. So challenging, exciting and energetic. I had to play it again, and it still startles me.
Do you have a go-to ‘comfort album’?
Beatles For Sale. I was given it by my gran and fell in love. It’s like a warm bath.
Which question do you wish people would stop asking?
What’s Paul Weller like? I think that it always disappoints people when I tell them that he was a pleasure to work with and be around. A creative, supportive, empowering, funny person. They probably want to hear that he was as aggressive as some of The Jam’s riffs! Nope.
With whom would you most like to record?
David Sylvian. Every one of his albums builds fabulous soundscapes.
Of all the people that you’ve worked with, who taught you the most?
Paul Weller. His drive to express himself and follow his feelings regardless of trends or expectations is an inspiration. Always looking forward, probing, questioning. When I left The Style Council to start a family, he got me to promise that I’d keep playing and growing as a musician. Thanks, Paul!
Was there ever a life-changing Sliding Doors moment?
Just after I moved to Hampshire, at a dads’ session in a local pub one night, I met composer Damian Montagu and actor Hugh Bonneville. We became friends and collaborated on an album of Damian’s compositions, with Hugh’s words. It went to No 1 in the classical chart. A new creative direction, thanks to the pub!
Dying peacefully on your deathbed, what’d you like to hear?
Miles Davis, My Funny Valentine, the 1964 Lincoln Centre concert.
Stewart Prosser Far From Home EP is on Elmtree, 14 February 2025.
