Joel Pike - Tiny Leaves

Joel Pike, a.k.a. Tiny Leaves

Joel’s music transcends traditional genres, blending elements of ambient, folk, and electronica to create a sound that is uniquely his own. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for storytelling through music, Tiny Leaves invites listeners on a journey of introspection and reflection with each delicate note. Explore the captivating world of Tiny Leaves and immerse yourself in the beauty of his sonic landscapes.

I’ve been friends with Joel for about seven years now. We met when a mutual acquaintance asked me to supply the bar for one of his gigs. I was captivated from the first note but we really hit it off when we realised we both loved Shrewsbury Town as much as music or wine.

As is the way with so many friendships, I’ve had a million conversations with Joel but never asked him any serious questions so nearly all of this was new information. He’s even more of a travelling troubadour than I realised.

Unfortunately this was yet another interview that was done via email rather than in person but we will definitely be rectifying that mistake very, very soon.

THE INTERVIEW.

PP - Music is obviously the focus of your world but where does wine fit into it? 

JP - I’ve been in love with wine for so long but I think it dramatically changed when I lived in the Rhone Valley as a young and newly wedded, impoverished student, a couple of decades ago. We had literally next to nothing to live on but incredible wine was a couple of Euros per bottle from local vineyards, so the experience was amazing.

PP - Have you got any early memories of when wine first crept onto the table? Has it ever been the catalyst for musical inspiration or the downfall of an evening in the studio? Is red wine on your rider along with brown M&M’s?

JP - During the last years of school / early college years, I had a friend whose upbringing was posher than my own and I distinctly remember enjoying brilliant Christmas parties at his with his parents hosting and entertaining guests with a Raclette melting by the fire and unending Bordeaux. We were mostly accustomed to cans of cheap lager or cider in the local park shortly before then. I certainly got a taste for things then.

Currently, wine is important for me as a gigging musician, if the rider is read properly, promoters will know I like a decent light and easy organic red (think Pinot Noir, Beaujolais or equiv), especially for live shows on my rider, bonus points if it’s a local vintner and even more if its paso primero. Forget the brown M&Ms, I’m a crisp and cheese man.

PP - I’m a big believer in ‘wine moments’. Beer has advertised itself so well around the evocative idea of that thirst-quenching first drink after work but wine seems to struggle to capture the imagination in the same way. When are you most excited to reach for a glass of wine? What’s the moment when only a glass of wine will do?

JP - An absolute favourite go-to of mine is a weekend cooking session in the kitchen with the radio or a missed podcast session on and a bottle of red. I try to do this at least every other week. I love cooking and trying out new wines. I also enjoy looking forward to complementing the hump of the week with something special, these are two solid look-forward-to-wine moments. It feels seasonal here in the UK sometimes to me, as the colder winter months are accompanied by more full-bodied reds alongside the fire in the warm winter with great hotpots and roasts, whereas our summer seems to afford a desire for a wider compliment of wines of all colours and body. In all honesty, I’m an absolute sucker for Fitou all year round which still resonates after its first introduction and wonderful experience in France with the wine, meal and good company many years ago.

PP - I’m fascinated by the creative process so this is a broad question in two parts. To be honest I’m not even sure how to ask it so feel free to answer however you want!

First up, there’s a lot of creativity in wine but there are plenty of external limits. Music is limitless. Or at least only limited by your creativity. What’s your starting point for putting a record together? What does the process look like to a layman like me?

JP - I think there are similarities between winemaking and music projects in the past, with the constant development of knowledge and experience maybe? It must always be a mix of thankfulness for the journey but very much with feet in the present realising, there has been a progression from the last release. I also have a hunch that everyone is creative and that creativity is always available but there are certainly times we need to rest and recoup.

Like any pursuit, the creative process is different every time as life always changes and progresses year upon year. I used to only create in the late evenings and do my best work through the night for years with a young family, but that’s completely changed. I find now that you have to be so deliberate with choosing time, whether or not the muse is there! I must turn up at the page and begin, often in the first half of the day, whether I’m inspired, tired or full, I must begin.

I’m personally very inspired by nature and the lesser-known sounds that exist in the natural world, especially in my local landscape. I often use my natural surrounding habitat as inspiration to create music. Life happening around us seems to matter much more now in my creative pursuit. I feel like there is a symbiosis between our natural environment and creative output that we need to pay attention to in the recently designated term of our age as the ‘Anthropocene’. Maybe wine and music have an even more vital role than we ever knew in this chapter.

PP - Secondly, music is so evocative of time and place. How easy is it to listen back to your old albums? Can you use them as benchmarks for your progress as an artist or are they too tied to a specific moment in time? I can see a linear progression in quality through the vintages of my wines but music is much more subjective.

JP - It’s not easy from a ‘quality’ perspective as the natural evolution of your craft means a progression and advancement from the last stage, resulting in stuff years ago seeming almost alien. I think though that somehow themes and emotional qualities seem to replicate album after album. For example, I might cringe at my musical execution of a piano phrase from five or ten years back but I’m amazed at the similarity in emotional voice, if that at all makes sense. Your vintages at Paso have always had a quality but what do you also think about similarities with the iconic debut albums that were recorded crap but were so genuine and with no outside influence that they sounded real and we often love the first albums - is it the same with wine?

PP - What’s on the agenda for 2024? What are you excited about? Where can people find you, support you and, more importantly, listen to your music?

JP - I’m very excited about bogs, mosses and these remarkable carbon sinkholes that give birth to extremely specialist species on mosses, particularly what this sounds like! I’m still gigging my latest album Mynd this year and planning to record and release an A-B side later in the year influenced by recording sounds from a pool on the Long Mynd in Shropshire. I’ve released a lot of music under the stage name Tiny Leaves which is available on most platforms alongside videos and other stuff: https://linktr.ee/tinyleaves

PP - This seems a bit unfair given that you’re a musician but I always want to know what people are listening to at the moment. I’m not after favourite tracks or desert island discs. Just what’s caught your attention recently? Feel free to plug yourself! I’m always drinking my own wines!

JP - I absolutely love listening to new music and make a good habit of it a few days every week, and some stuff can stick for a while and be constantly revisited. As I bridge these genres in my own music creations, I’m a massive fan of electronic, ambient, modern classical, post-rock, shoe-gaze and modern jazz-type music which dictates a lot of my listening. I think I’ll give anything instrumental a listen! Recent and on repeat go-tos are: Benedicte Maurseth’s ‘Heilo’ from her incredible ‘Harr’ album, Maria BC’s Spike Field, Emily A Sprague and Mette Heriette and would throw The Sweetness of the Morning by Tiny Leaves into that bunch as it stll surprises me that I made that! But really, I’m always listening and had the radio on in the house 24-7.