A year to remember: Richard Hawley talks ahead of Birmingham show

Not only has he released his eighth studio album, Further, but a musical based on a collection of his songs opened in his hometown of Sheffield.

Then, there’s also the small matter of the man celebrating his twentieth anniversary as a solo artist.

Further marks a departure for Hawley who has, to date, named all his albums after Sheffield icons or landmarks. For his new album he wanted something that would capture the intention of moving forwards, but without jettisoning his past.

Optimism lies at the heart of Further, an album that was made largely in Sheffield with Hawley and his crack band, aided by co-producers Colin Elliot and Shez Sheridan.

“I really wanted to challenge myself to try to keep things relatively up-tempo and keep the songs to about three minutes long,” Hawley says.

“I was asking myself, ‘can you get your message across like a bullet? Can you still do that?’ It’s quite a tough question to ask.”

Hawley’s challenge to himself means that Further is quite possibly his most forthright album to date, clocking in at under 40 minutes.

The opening track and first single, the thunderous, Rickenbacker thrasher Off My Mind, sets the album’s direct tone.

Hawley describes his approach on the track as “playing like tomorrow may never happen”.

Other songs that display similar swagger include the Glam stomp of Alone, the outlaw tale that is Galley Girl and the album’s centrepiece, the grungey Is There A Pill.

Conversely, the depth and consideration applied elsewhere on the album’s 11 tracks is typified by My Little Treasures – a tune that Hawley has taken 12 years to record. The song itself is based on the deep personal experience of encountering two of his father’s oldest friends following the latter’s death in 2007, and the complexities of emotions associated with that time.

It would not be a Richard Hawley album without some sumptuous ballads displaying the man’s gift for writing the type of heartfelt songs that have made him the revered songwriter he is today. Nowhere is this exemplified more than on the beautiful, yet simple Emilina, the yearning Midnight Train and album closer, Doors.

“We’re all bombarded by so much hateful stuff at the moment that I was determined to make something that is really loving,” says Hawley.

“Some of the songs definitely reflect that and deal with what’s going on. The song Not Lonely is a good example. It deals with the stage that I hope our children get to, that stage where they can have a place of their own, being able to find their own space and luxuriate in it.

“I write all the time. It’s not like I just specifically write for a project. I sifted through the stuff I’d written and there were 272 songs between my last album and this one.

“The thing that sorted it out was I had an agenda. I wanted the songs to be short and relatively uptempo and to the point. I went for the best songs, the things that were most interesting. I just wanted them to be short songs. Instead of it being like a stained glass window with one colour, it’s like a jar of glass beads.”

“I kept whittling it down and down. There were huge amounts. I tell you, if ever I have to stop writing songs I’ll still have enough to last the rest of my life. I’m sorted.

“Things change as you get older. When I was a kid, I’d write songs and think it would be amazing to end up on a tour bus in Belgium. Not I write them and I’m fearful of ending up on the tour bus in Belgium.

“I just enjoy the time we’ve got on this earth with all the ups and downs of family life. I’m a family man as well as a musician. At the end of the last album cycle, I had the dubious honour of becoming 50 years old. That surprised me. I remember when I was 30 and my dad gave me a card saying ’30? I’m surprised you even made it as far as Thursday.’

Further is the sound of a man who has very little left to prove but that still has something to say. The album reflects Hawley’s own enduring approach to life.

n Richard Hawley plays Birmingham’s O2 Institute on October 10 and tickets are on sale now.