Tenderhost live from The Close Encounter Club

We invited Tenderhost to The Club. Here's what Gabriel had to say about the songs they performed.


Blue Buffet - Is a whimsical couple of minutes that I wrote to heartily welcome the audience. I love a good intro, be it for a play, live music or comedy show - something distinctive to set the tone for what’s to follow, an acting theme. All you can eat (blue because my lyrics are generally quite sad).



Below The Ribcage - Was written purely for my own amusement. I played an early demo of it to some friends and they seemed to think it was worth taking more seriously than I was at the time…so I saw it through. Instrumentally/rhythmically it’s very inspired by the latin/jazz/disco fusion stuff that was coming out of New York in the 70’s, lots of sunny moments poke out of what I think is quite a harmonically dark and strange progression. Lyrically it’s about being a raving hypochondriac. Dealing with the guilt of being unjustifiably sure of my imminent collapse, when there’s nothing at all wrong. And that what I hope to never feel is all somebody else knows. I was unconvinced that any studio version of this song would do it the justice it deserves, so we’ve decided to debut this and Blue Buffet as live recordings.



Plod Along Phenomenon - Released in October last year, Is about the monotony of living in a city that’s squeezing you for small change, and so turning to vices for some form of escapism. We leant heavily into the soundscapes/storytelling of Brazilian folk music (Elis Regina/Edu Lobo/Chico Buarque) which myself and co-producers Nathan Ridley and Seth Evans were listening to pretty much exclusively at the time. I’ve had Plod in my wheelhouse in various different forms for a long time, so it was nice to finally find the shoe that fit.



After A Good While - Is an antisocial love song, to call it something...I wrote it when I was dealing with a spell of agoraphobia. Anxiety/mental health in any form can feel isolating, but was definitely exacerbated by not going anywhere or seeing anyone. It’s about coming to terms with being happy in your own company, and not feeling the need to apologise for that - there are others who feel exactly the same. That’s why I suppose the ending feels so celebratory to me.

Tenderhost are:

Gabriel Levy: Vocals/Guitar
Bessie Coates: Vocals
George Mooney: Saxophone
Olivia Hughes: Trombone/Keyboards
Henry Nicholson: Bass
Nathan Ridley: Drums
Micah Baker: Percussion/Vibraphone

Instagram @tenderhostofficial

Audio capture: Nevison “Nevy” Kusokora & Henry Boothroyd

Audio mix: Nathan Ridley

Lighting: Richard Owen & Eve Shalamon