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Jesse Malin whom the Times says 'writes vivid songs with killer tunes and sings them with scary conviction' and Lucinda Williams the southern troubadour once named 'America's best songwriter' by Time magazine first met in the early 2000s at a jazz club in NYC's West Village. In a joint 2017 Rolling Stone interview, the two discussed their 'shared love of miscreants, misfits, the misunderstood and the mysteries of everyday lives binds them across the Mason-Dixon line'.

'From the early frontier days of hardcore in New York to all the punk rock and singer/songwriter touring,' says Malin, 'it's all been about survival and reinvention. I wanted to make an open-sounding record with the space to tell these stories. I like to write about characters and people I meet along the way. The dreamers, schemers, hustlers, romantics, lovers, leavers and believers.' Many of the dreamers, schemers and so on from Jesse's own life contribute to Sunset Kids, his new album of highly personal songs being released 30 August 30 on Wicked Cool Records.

Sunset Kids first took shape at The Hollywood Bowl, when Jesse accepted Lucinda's invitation to see her open for what turned out to be Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' final concert. The bittersweet experience inspired one of the new album's highlights, Shining Down, a rainy day jangle about 'keeping alive the spirits of the ones we've lost'. During that same visit, the idea came about of three-time Grammy-winning Lucinda producing Jesse's next record.

'Lucinda has a great eye for finding the beauty in broken things and a knack for always picking the right take. Once she started dancing in the control room, we knew we had it.'

In addition to this rare turn in the producer's chair for Williams, she co-wrote and sang on the evocative country-flavoured Room 13, which Malin calls 'the heart of the record in a lot of ways, about those meditative moments far away from home, where you're forced to reflect on the things that really matter'.

The album also features Chemical Heart, an upbeat pop basher located at a mythical point on Queens Boulevard where Paul Simon and The Ramones intersect, namechecking Bernie Taupin and Jake LaMotta among others. Shane is a gentle ballad about one of his heroes, the lovably shambolic Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

'My first album, The Fine Art Of Self-Destruction, was about finding glory in the wreckage,' says Malin of the album which was upon release Uncut's Album of the Month. 'Sunset Kids is about owning it. The failures, the victories, the moments. And moving up from there.'

After reflecting on his life while walking the streets of London, jamming riffs in an East Village basement and writing songs in Florida hotel rooms while visiting his ailing father, the ambitious 14-song album was recorded on both coasts between the two artists' touring schedules.


It opens with the pre-apocalyptic confession Meet Me At The End Of The World Again, which includes backing vocals by Malin confidante and collaborator Joseph Arthur. Another key guest contribution comes courtesy of Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, who co-wrote and sang on Strangers & Thieves.

'Billie Joe was in town and I showed him where we hung out when we were kids in the hardcore days,' Malin recalls. 'A couple days later, I got a text and he had finished the song. He went into the details of his experience in the Bay Area with that scene, and also my experiences, which were very parallel in New York.'

Those early days found a young Jesse 'riding the subway trains from Queens to the record stores and nightclubs in dirty, pre-Disney New York City' and never looking back. His band Heart Attack put out the first New York hardcore single God Is Dead when Malin was 14 years old. He later went on to acclaim as the frontman for the fast and loud D Generation, whose albums were produced by Ric Ocasek, Tony Visconti and David Bianco.

Bianco is one of the Sunset Kids referenced in the album's title. The engineer, who won a Grammy for his pristine sonics on Tom Petty's Wildflowers and produced the first major-label release of Jesse's career, passed away suddenly after overseeing the initial sessions for Sunset Kids in his L.A. studio.

'Playing music is something I need to do. Singing under those hot lights every night is a great exorcism. We get to put together this pirate ship of characters and go around the world making trouble and singing our guts out.'

As the line in crucial cut When You're Young says, 'Don't waste your life on things that don't get better'. Malin concludes: 'It's about finding ways to survive and navigate through all this stuff. Being compassionate and loving in a world that will break your heart. But you're still here. You wake up again and put one foot in front of the other and live every day like it could be your last.'

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From “Two sausage and chips please, mushy peas with one of those, ta”, to “Meg! Meg! Don’t hit her too hard”. It’s been a thoroughly unconventional trip. Once Meg White had donned those boxing gloves Night & Day Café’s most unique upbringing felt complete.

An initial chip shop - stage - piano combo quickly gave rise to a traditional Amsterdam style ‘brown bar’ and artistic hub; the venue’s journey mirroring, and in no small part contributed to, Manchester’s move away from its baggy era heritage cum baggage.

Like a younger brother who could play guitar much better than you, but had no mates to play to, Night & Day grew out of a barren musical spell in Manchester back in 1991. When the city offered little else except a chrome mating hell, or a look back nostalgiafest. The homely feel and startling quality of the acts brought into the city by the venue made Night & Day the focus of the areas more discerning crowds of the area thereafter.

So much so that the last 20 years have read like a who’s who of Manchester’s continuing creative legacy…

Guy Garvey practically used it as an office, Johnny from I A Kloot worked there, Johnny Marr, Delphic and The Courteeners rehearsed there, Badly Drawn Boy wrote songs there and Mark E Smith’s been known to behave very strangely indeed there.

The walls have withstood the barrage from over 26,000 bands from all over the world. Some of the many, many stand outs have to be a naked Damo Suzuki, The Dirtbombs having to stop and towel down after one song, Meg White vs The Bar Staff, Keanu Reaves popping in to watch some bands, buy a t-shirt and get mobbed, and The Kaiser Chiefs first incarnation getting chucked offstage early.
But, let us not look back to deeply.

Certainly, preaching to the converted has never been the venue’s style or raison d’etre and currently, there are signs of another resurgence in the city’s musical fortunes. Young upstarts such Money can be found regularly hanging around causing botheration and a certain singular Liam Frey can be oft found planning his next lyrical barrage in the labyrinth of corridors downstairs.

Here’s to another 20 years!

26 Oldham Street,

Manchester,

Greater Manchester,

England,

M1 1JN.

0161 236 1822