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Back in the late 90\u2019s, Conner Reeves was the UK byword for blue-eyed soul. His 1997 album \u2018Earthbound\u2019 is considered by many to be a modern classic. R&B fans keenly awaited his follow-up but then, nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n Crippling stage fright and significant life events both contributed to this extended absence from the limelight. That and his focus on being a successful songwriter for other artists, including the likes of Joss Stone.<\/p>\n While Conner\u2019s debut album was never officially released in the US, R&B fans may know him from his track \u2018Something Beautiful\u2019 which had previously been selected by Spotify for their \u2018I Love My Neo-Soul\u2019 public playlist.<\/p>\n 27 years later (which is roughly 10,000 days), Conner has emerged with the announcement of his sophomore album. With the first single already released and a second one just about to drop, we spend some time to reintroduce or indeed introduce the UK soul institution.<\/p>\n Interview By: Daniel Bamber<\/strong><\/p>\n YouKnowIGotSoul: Welcome back! How does it feel entering into the fray once again?<\/strong><\/p>\n It feels about bloody time, that\u2019s for sure! Maybe I\u2019d say a mixture of excitement and slight trepidation, because one of the main reasons why I stepped away from the fray was stage fright. <\/p>\n We\u2019ve got a show coming up in London supporting Young Gun Silver Fox on October 5th (at Koko in Camden). I don\u2019t know how many people are going to be there, but it\u2019s a 1,500 capacity venue, so I\u2019m like \u201coh God!\u201d. I\u2019ve obviously done it before and did some really big shows in the past, including Party in the Park in front of 100,000, but that\u2019s somehow easier. That\u2019s like a sea of people and you\u2019re quite far away from where the audience starts. However a 1,500 venue \u2013 that\u2019s going to be a lot of close attention.<\/p>\n YouKnowIGotSoul: You\u2019ve been away so long that you make D\u2019Angelo look oversaturated. At which point during your time away did you begin to entertain the idea of releasing new music?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well I\u2019ve never stopped writing. I could always tell the difference between a general coverable song and an artist song. Songs that are for other people \u2013 you try and get them to the people. The artist song pile just started mounting up a bit. <\/p>\n It was always something I imagined would happen at some point. I was always writing songs and it wasn\u2019t like I was just sat there waiting for someone to knock on the door. The songs that were always special to me were the artist songs, and I\u2019ve got dozens of those. <\/p>\n This album only contains ten new songs with six musical segues\/interludes, so we\u2019ve got so many more. I could almost do another album next week. The difference to me though is the goosebump factor. It\u2019s the ones that give you goosebumps. Usually that\u2019s within the melody and the chord structure but often it\u2019s what you can talk about. It\u2019s the subject matter. The kind of real, raw, deep living that I\u2019ve done (and I\u2019m sure many others have too) over the past 27 years informs the album. <\/p>\n YouKnowIGotSoul: With the first single \u2018Bones\u2019 speaking about 10,000 days passing in one frame, how much was it a case of now or never in terms of releasing new music?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was coming to the point of now or never, to be honest. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve crossed over into my 50\u2019s now, which is the weirdest thing. Part of me is like \u201cthat\u2019s just too old \u2013 forget it\u201d but I completely don\u2019t feel like it. You\u2019ve got people like Pharrell and then Madonna\u2019s like the age of my nan (not quite), and then The Rolling Stones are now grandad age. I looked at that and thought \u201chang on a minute, everyone\u2019s still doing it.\u201d Plus, they\u2019re still continuing to have success now that they\u2019re older.<\/p>\n \u2018Bones\u2019 was actually written a couple of years ago. I just picked out \u201810,000 days\u2019 as a line because it sounded like a long time. I never actually had a concept of how long that really was. Then one day I thought about my first album and wondered \u201cwhen did Earthbound actually come out?\u201d. I knew it was 1997 but wasn\u2019t sure of the exact date. Somebody online told me the UK release date and I added 10,000 days to that. Funnily enough it came to around mid-summer this year, just as the album was being finished. I thought \u201cthat\u2019s so nuts!\u201d I mean, what are the chances of that?<\/p>\n