“Because it’s there, because we can, because of the story”: Ian Button interviewed

The last few years have increasingly found Folkestone-based Renaissance Man Ian Button running through this Freq scribe’s record collection and related writings like a stick of rock — though in an altogether more nourishing and healthy fashion than a piece of vintage confectionary.

For starters, there’s been the bands that Button currently leads or co-leads, in the shape of communalist polymathic pop enterprise Papernut Cambridge, wide-screen retro-psych melodicists The Penrose Web and blossoming indie-veterans supergroup Railcard.

Then there are the ventures that funnel his reliably adaptable team-mate and side-man skills. This has been most evident with fellow-travelling Skep Wax label comrades Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey in the varying live and studio combinations of Swansea Sound, The Catenary Wires, European Sun and the reunited Heavenly. Less to the fore, but no less important, have been his supporting player roles for Keiron Phelan’s Peace Signs, Pete Astor, Michael Warren and Mark Fry.

When Button is not actually making music — or undertaking mixing and mastering commissions behind the studio scenes for Precious Recordings, Fika and other outlets — he’s curating it as a co-founding benevolent éminence grise at Gare du Nord Records. A peculiarly pioneering and rudely healthy record-releasing venture, the label has brought us a dizzyingly diverse and compelling array of wares from some of the aforementioned endeavours, as well as the likes of Robert Rotifer, Andrew Rumsey, Alex Marker and Ben Reed, Misha Chylkova, Ralegh Long, Joss Cope, Jack Hayter and The Last Of The Lovely Days.

Corresponded with over email, right at the very start of another busy year of activity – with several bouts of live Heavenly bookings to fulfil upfront — Ian openhandedly gave over time to tell all on his early career routes; the life and times of Papernut Cambridge being celebrated across the freshly dispensed and indispensable Everybody Is In Papernut Cambridge compilation; the philosophies and operations of Gare du Nord; his broad range of other cultural commitments; and plenty more in between.

For the benefit of those less familiar with the early part of your extensive CV, what is the potted history of your musical career prior to founding Papernut Cambridge?

This is quite potted…

1982 — I’d given up uni and was working at Pinnacle Records the distributor. I met and joined a band called The Climb, which morphed into Thrashing Doves over the next couple of years — we got signed and I ended up being in that band, or variations thereof, until about 1991/2.

1992-1995 – I had my own project Motorcyclone — writing and recording, and had a band… then becoming new aliases Ashley Flowers and The Anthony Anderson Project. Signed to the short-lived Almo Sounds label.

1995-2004 – became part of the studio/live lineup of Death In Vegas, from when it formed (co-founder Steve Hellier had played in Motorcyclone) and for the first four albums.

2004-2013 – Moved into teaching/lecturing in music production. At the same time started playing and producing/recording for other people — particularly the London anti-folk scene.

2011 – I’d still been making my own music as The Anthony Anderson Project, but began to assemble a set of songs that I wanted to give another name / alias to. This is where the idea for Papernut Cambridge came from.

What were your original operational intentions for Papernut Cambridge as a group project and how intrinsically have they been aligned with setting up Gare du Nord as a label? Could one have existed to the same extent without the other?

Papernut Cambridge really started as just a continuation of what I was already doing — working on my own, ‘releasing’ music under an alias… but I definitely liked the idea of getting friends and guests to play on tracks this time — involving other people and getting some fresh ideas and ingredients, which I’d then edit / assemble. I’d ask someone to just play something on a couple of songs, send me the files… someone else, a couple of different tracks. The collective idea began that way, on the first album.

This was a year or so before we started Gare du Nord really…. it was when Robert Rotifer, Ralegh Long and I all realised that we had our own albums we wanted to release, and we had the idea to do it under the umbrella of a label. So, I think Papernut Cambridge could maybe have existed on its own… but it definitely wouldn’t have had the same momentum as it did alongside Robert’s and Ralegh’s, as part of a new ‘thing’ we were doing together.

“Come join the Papernut / Most of us have never been to Cambridge”, goes a wry meta-lyric in your spy-themed Cambridge Circus concept album. Where did the band name emerge from?

I have to give the nod to Robert Rotifer for writing that line — that Cambridge Circus album was the one where all the current members wrote complete songs each for it… part of trying to make it even more inclusive I suppose… I’m not sure how everyone felt about doing that to be honest — everyone also fronted their own projects and wrote for themselves too.

But the name – yes, I’ve often recounted how I wrote it down after a dream I had in 1990, in New York, while we (The [Thrashing] Doves) were over there recording. I dreamt I was outside a gig (in the USA) and there were two bands on the poster: Papernut Cambridge and Elvis Breakdown. That’s all I remember!

You’re celebrating the first twelve or so years, with the generous twenty-three-track Everybody Is In Papernut Cambridge compilation. Did you actively seek to capture the eclecticism baked into the catalogue or did you just follow your instincts and personal preferences?

One of the main aims for the comp was to choose songs which featured as many of the friends and collaborators as possible, rather than picking any favourites or curating it another way. I did think about the running order — I mean, I deliberately didn’t go chronologically, it was pretty random as I thought of tracks that could be on it. Hopefully it hangs together OK that way.

Amongst the picks from the more ‘main event’ albums like Cambridge Nutflake, There’s No Underground, Love The Things Your Lover Loves, Outstairs Instairs and Channel Suite — although sometimes in different versions — you’ve included plenty of material from your one-off singles, EPs and other side-outings, with your cover of “Hooky Street” from Only Fools And Horses being a notable highlight. Has it been important and fun — if sometimes complicated — to let the Papernut Cambridge body of work roam across such a wide variety of musical routes and formats?

Yes, I wanted to include some tracks that perhaps hadn’t been available before on the main albums, or on CD for example. I wanted the side outings to be represented; things that maybe weren’t originally on Gare du Nord even — the snippet of the seventy-seven-minute piece we did for WIAIWYA, the Jacques Dutronc cover that was for a lockdown online video event. It’s definitely important and fun, all of it.

The “Hooky Street” cover and the John Sullivan theme songs EP started with my disbelief that you couldn’t get the Only Fools And Horses theme songs on a 7”. Then I wondered about doing a cover — I might’ve even suggested it at some point to Terry [Miles] and Lawrence [from Felt] for Go-Kart Mozart to do it. That would have been a great single. But anyway, I ended up joining forces with Luke Smith & The Feelings to do the EP. Quite a lot of the Papernut philosophy is me imagining people saying “Why is he doing that?” and wanting to do it even more. The complicated bits are my own fault!

Has the whole compilation assembly process made you reflect on what have been your favourite individual Papernut Cambridge releases to date?

Not really — I don’t think I have any particular favourites or otherwise… obviously I view the covers albums bit differently… they are slightly like a side hustle I suppose – ‘supporting evidence’ or something. But incredibly important still, because they answer any questions about influences and inspiration, really, that was the point of them.

For all the diversity in the discography to date, what do you consider to have been the common threads that have run through it all? Whether they be specific artist influences, a fondness for certain cultural eras, philosophical outlooks or other things.

A lot of it is what I’d simplistically call ‘pop music’ I suppose — by which I mean trying to have tunes and melodies, harmonies, not much in a minor key, repeating the good bits. Trying to be concise. Writing about small things as well as big… I don’t know… it’s not easy to pick exactly how the influences come out. I grew up on ’60s pop via my sister Ann, then ’70s pop, art rock, prog and glam, then punk and post-punk, then from the ’80s I was actually in amongst it, trying to do it.

Quite a lot of the songs start with “I wonder if I can put together a track that does some of what… (eg Marc Bolan, Jonathan Richman, Wreckless Eric, The Supremes, Scott Walker, The Psychedelic Furs, etc)… does?” Then I’ll try, and fall somewhere one side or the other, or it ends up a bit of a cocktail of things…

Who or what do you think has inspired your distinctive vocals?

It took a while for me to find out that I could do passable lead vocals — I’d always done backing vocals and harmonies… but when I first tried to write and sing my own songs it was very weak and twee. Somehow, I found a way to sing in a range that worked, and a way to enunciate, sound convincing… double-tracking and compressing everything works wonders of course!

That’s from things like Bolan I suppose… also that ’60s sound of tracked voices singing quite straight, like The Beach Boys, The Byrds… but I also like the kind of throwaway thing of Lou Reed, some Steve Harley… although they’re doing Dylan really aren’t they? I’ve been told lately I sound like Jim Reid… which I can see — he was doing a Beach Boys thing too, I guess. I’ve got this cracked raspy thing that happens — I don’t know what that is but I like using it some times.

From “Papernut Cambridge” and “Papernut Pledge” on your first EP to “When Everybody Was In The Band” on the standalone seven-inch companion to the Everybody Is In Papernut Cambridge collection, would it be fair to say that you’re also quite fond of self-referential commentary songwriting?

Hah! Yes, I’ve always like the idea of band theme songs and self referencing — Mott The Hoople I guess is a good example of a band that did that more than once. I’m afraid Papernut Cambridge might have a few too many now though, haha! It’s not just about self-referencing and bigging up your own band. I like it because it’s also about being honest, transparent, demystifying, acknowledging that you know what you’re doing — like breaking the fourth wall or something. “Yes, we know this is all meta/fake/wishful thinking, so we’re going to do it more!”

Do the current commemorations mark the end of era for Papernut Cambridge in some capacity?

I think so… a kind of a natural line drawn under it for a while — I mean, even the two newest songs are over a year old. I’m kind of getting the feeling that there isn’t really much new to say about Papernut Cambridge… it’s like a dinosaur band now isn’t it, over a decade old, etc.

It could just keep going of course, more songs by me coming out… but to be honest I have been much more inspired by the collaborations with Rachel and Allan, in Railcard and The Penrose Web. I’m getting my creative thrills there now, and in a different way again — proper 50/50 co-writing and building the songs with another person. It’s the most inspired I’ve been for a long time, in both of those projects, sparking off another person in a very equal way…

Outside Papernut Cambridge — but in a parallel timeframe — how much have you enjoyed co-running Gare du Nord?

I enjoy doing all the associated things around making and releasing music, whether it’s something I’m involved in, or someone else’s. The excited feeling about getting something ready to release, seeing finished product, or someone’s response to the music etc. It’s fulfilling and fun.

For the uninitiated, can you briefly explain the semi-unique devolved way the label functions?

This is how I’ve recently described it: it’s a vehicle for a group of interconnected artists and bands to release their music collectively. It operates differently from a commercial label in that it’s more a facilitator to help artists release autonomously. All the artists control and run their own releases, costs and sales, but the label can provide in-house help with things like production, mastering, artwork, PR and distribution.

From the initial three of us who set things up to release our own respective albums, we started to open the door to friends and other artists who had stuff they’d like to put out, or who needed help to get their product or release together.

Do you think that the strength and sustainability of Gare du Nord is largely the result of its unconventional approach?

Simply by doing it enough, the label has got some kind of identity and momentum I suppose — people approach us perhaps thinking it IS a proper commercial label, and I have to explain that it’s not… it’s just like doing it yourself, but with a kind of faint branding and technical / moral support. Because it doesn’t have a proper business model, nothing’s at stake, it can’t fail (or succeed actually, haha!!). It’s sustained by the enthusiasm and resources of the artists themselves…and mine I guess.

Do you think that you have been able to provide a safe haven for distinctive artists that just wouldn’t have been accommodated anywhere else? I’m thinking of the likes of Andrew Rumsey, Michael Warren, Alex Marker and Ben Reed particularly in this respect.

I see what you mean — yes, perhaps. Without taking anything away from people’s work or art, I am conscious, and happy, that we can be an open door for artists who perhaps haven’t found a home elsewhere. We’ve been a backstop option for one or two who approached other labels first, that’s fine. Not through design, but maybe through a kind of natural selection, we don’t attract ‘young’ artists… I mean we also don’t attract artists who are chasing success, stats, views, streams… or if they are, I have to warn them that our reach is very small!

Of those three names you’ve mentioned, Andrew Rumsey has probably come closest to commerciality — in terms of sales / streams, radio… but much of it is driven by him, not the label. Ben Reed has had help putting out his own albums, the one with Alex, and also an album of chiptune electronica he made when he was at school. That last one is a perfect example of GDN releasing something sort of ‘impossible’, but interesting. We don’t know who to send it out to, it won’t get on the radio, it’s not songs, there are no gigs, it’s digital-only. Why would we want to release it? Well, we do because it’s there, because we can… because of the story, and because it’s all a kind of statement about art really.

Beyond the business matter mechanics of Gare du Nord, it seems that you have been able to join the dots between British eccentricity of a pastoral-meets-kitchen sink mindset and more exotic European cosmopolitanism. Is that something you’ve consciously sought to nurture or has it been more of happy accident?

That’s just me you’ve summed up there isn’t it? Haha!!

Looking away from your two main long-running responsibilities, 2025 manifested itself as seemingly your busiest — or at least most visible — ever year in terms of side-projects, being part of other bands and helping out other artists, both in studio and live set-ups. Just how do manage it fit in all in and find time to sleep in-between times?

I sometimes feel a little embarrassed wince when people ask me how I do it — I might flippantly reply it’s like talking to anyone who does a job or is busy — I don’t know… a doctor…. “Cor, all those different illnesses and patients… how do you do it?” “ALL THOSE DIFFERENT DAYS YOU GO TO WORK! Blimey how do you find the time??” Haha!!!

(Not that I’m comparing myself to a doctor, or that a band is like an illness!) Seriously — it’s because I don’t (can’t) do anything else — it’s work and a hobby rolled into one. I mean, I guess it can look pretty full-on sometimes… but there’s still plenty of thumb-twiddling time really. I’m kind of semi-retired — I don’t have anything like a 9-5 commitment — I’m very lucky there.

The Least Of Our Concerns, your album co-leading Penrose Web with Allan Crockford, was a particular gem with arguably a wider-screen and more directly sensibility compared to Papernut Cambridge. How did that come about as a distinctive venture and is there likely to be a sequel?

I’ve known Allan for a while in recent years (although our paths crossed in the ’80s too) — we were both at a gig in 2023 and both said we felt a bit bored / stuck in a rut with our respective bands (PC and The Galileo 7) and why don’t we try to do something together. We shared ideas for new songs, old snippets of music meeting new lyrics etc, and we turned it into this collaboration, two writers, two singers, maybe as you say a more focused and definable style.

Allan’s pedigree and associations coming from a slightly different direction to mine… and it’s been brilliant, inspiring and fun… we’ve got the seal of approval from Medway hardcore luminaries and indies alike, and that’s a great feeling. We’ve got tracks underway for the second Penrose Web album, currently being corralled into shape for a release later this year hopefully.

I particularly enjoyed the album you did with The Catenary Wires and poet Brian Bilston, as well as the low-key revue-type presentation you all took it on tour. Did it require a lot of careful practice and preparation to make it all fit together? This that the kind of performance arrangement you would like to repeat in future, with Brian and/or other combinations of people?

Being part of the band backing Brian was a breeze really — and it’s always good when there’s been some recording, making the album…. you find you know the material already without really realising it. We rehearsed without him, and with him — it got pretty slick actually, in terms of delivery, band dynamics during the gig. Doing some parts exactly like the record, some not. Pacing it — I think Amelia and Rob and Brian all formulated brilliantly the way the evenings would run. Brian’s idea to intersperse the songs with more poems in between too… that was the thread running through which definitely tied it together more securely.

The great thing is that he’s getting a reaction, laughs, etc — not just at the end of a song, but during it… that was really fun… we played fairly quietly, so it was possible to hear that, and share the laughs back, sort of. Really good. The revue idea is great — versions of it have happened I suppose at some events I’ve been part of — short sets… cameos, no one playing for too long — I really like that — and the idea that you might have music broken up with something else — spoken word, a lecture, Q&A or something. Sometimes wall-to-wall music can be a bit much!

How important have your multiple creative hook-ups with Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey been to you in recent years, in terms of expanding your horizons and opportunities even more widely?

They’ve become the centre of my musical world over the last few years really — as well as great friends — I’ve certainly enjoyed being involved in their projects when they’ve asked…. especially Heavenly of course… being involved in that really means a lot emotionally as well as creatively, being asked to do it.

Amongst all your other group enterprises, you still somehow found the time to establish Railcard, a trio with Rachel Love of Dolly Mixture and Peter Momtchiloff of Heavenly, Would-Be-Goods, et al. Do you have an album in the works, to follow on from the EPs?

Railcard has been a real joy and inspiration, happening really fast, which I like — a flurry of writing with Rachel, adding in Pete’s fab songs, and most recently getting Allison Thomson on board as our fourth member. We’ve got twenty+ songs recorded over the last few months — ten of them… the first three EPs… are coming out in Feb / March as a compilation on CD and digital… then later in the year there will be another album of the rest of the songs. All through Skep Wax here, and Slumberland in the USA.

Is switching between so many musical roles, ‘on and off the pitch’ as it were, both a means of keeping life interesting and making a living? Which disciplines do you prefer the most?

Yes, I definitely like to do all the different things — I think my favourite is recording, or creating the recordings, if you see what I mean. Doing it without necessarily thinking how you could play it live, making a record for its own sake. The ‘making a living’ part really doesn’t come much from my own music directly… that mostly involves spending money, then getting some of it back.

I get some royalties, but mostly from library music tracks I made many years ago… I get paid jobs doing mastering, artwork, some of the band gigs pay, or at least expenses, which is great. My most regular income is from renting out my spare room!

• • Website: Gard du Nord Records