Sporting the beard of a folk musician rather than the more familiar clean shaven face of butler, as seen in Downton Abbey, Michael Fox sits in a rather extravagant church here in Southampton. He shows me the many pews and stained glass windows. I instantly get the sense that he is a warm person, smiles abundant from the get-go and apologetic for the late start. ITV have kept him busy this morning and he’s soon due an appearance with the BBC.
Sounds like it’s been a hectic day for you, Michael. How are you?
“Yeah, good. We’ve just done a little live session on the piano in the church. I’m excited to talk about it and for, you know, more people to hear about it and get people in here – it’s brilliant.”
It’s interesting to see you with the piano. Most people will know you from your work as an actor with Downton Abbey being a huge hit with UK audiences. How does the creative process compare between acting and music for you?
“It’s weird because it’s kind of a similar world, I guess, but, for me, it’s like a completely different process. It’s so much more personal. I write music every day and just sit at the piano every day, in between long periods of space with acting – naturally that happens. It’s more like… just seeing what flows out.
“Whereas when you’re acting, you’re looking at whether you can match a director’s vision. Their own thing. Can you see what’s going on in their head and try to make a picture of that?
“Music is more personal so, for that reason, it’s more exposing and nerve-wracking, but more rewarding, really. I always think that a play, when it’s working, when it’s really good, is like a gig; it feels really alive and the audience are really with it. That’s when a play really works. And then you know a gig is going well – it’s similar but just at. whole different level for me. It feels amazing. Kind of like… more independent but also more pressure on you when you’re doing music. And all generated by myself. But that’s also really creatively inspiring I think. It’s more open-ended in that way.”
Sounds quite different. It’ll be good for fans of your work to see you in a new light when you perform your music. You’re going to be playing in Southampton at St. Michael & All Angels Church on Tuesday 16th December. Why was it important to share your music with people in Southampton?
“I’ve got a family connection to this church and performing here is something we’ve been talking about for a while.
“Since I’ve got family here, it seemed like a natural first step out of London to play live. I mean, I just want to be out playing music to people, and the Stonington gig went down really well last year, so it’s a progression of that, really – as we’ve done a few gigs in churches in London, but I love this space. I’ve been singing here this morning and the sound is incredible. I wanted to come down here, specifically, and then hopefully it’s the start of more gigs in towns around the UK, not only London, where I can share the music.
“There’s nothing quite like having that interaction with an audience. Like there’s recordings, but it’s not quite the same as when you get to actually perform it live. We really test the songs as well. You can tell in the set really obviously where the stronger songs are. So that feedback is what we want, even if it’s very subtle; you can just tell the ones that carry along and they’re good, you know, they’re the ones you keep in. Then you can just kind of gradually work through your set and get rid of songs: you’ve got more upbeat ones if you need them, slower ones if you need them.”
Has any feedback surprised you at all? Are there any songs that people connect with maybe more than you expected?
“Bones, for me, is a very personal song. So playing that live the first couple of times was really amazing. I think people can tell when it’s very personal. And even though I tried to keep my lyrics relatively vague, because that’s what sort of lyrics I like to listen to, there’s still something that others can relate to. But that one was wicked because it feels like it really has connected with people and yeah, it’s good.”
Speaking of Bones, your EP was released on 21st of November. What were your main motivations or inspirations behind writing the EP?
“Well, some of those songs I’ve had for a while. I wanted to make something that felt of me, something personal and connecting. It’s an EP about connection – everyone’s so insular now. There’s two key aspects within it: talking openly, being vulnerable, and then finding connection with other people… because I think that’s what music is. That’s what it is for me.
“I guess I wanted to show that sense of being with other people, and community, and valuing what’s important in this bizarre, noisy world we live in. You know, just taking more time to be with people that you love.”
I do get that sense from it. It’s also layered. I was listening to the EP quite a lot in the last week and I feel like it’s kind of an oxymoron. It captures that strange sense of melancholy mixed with happiness – I felt that kind of tone throughout. The song Bones, specifically, certainly has that bittersweet melody to it and you bring in ideas of hardship and happiness at the same time. Did this emerge from personal experiences (because you mentioned it being quite a personal EP)? What was the writing process for you there?
“With the song Bones, in particular, that’s exactly it. I wanted to capture anyone’s life experience, where you experience difficulty, but there are always parts which bring joy. I want to offer that perspective, finding value in the smaller things in life.
“Without getting too specific, we’ve just been going through some difficult times over the past few years. So, it has led to me reconfiguring what I think is important and so I wanted to deliberately make those two verses, the happy and the sad, stand in contrast to each other. It just kind of came out, really. It sort of spills out. The best songs just do kind of spill out a bit.
“I can’t really help myself. I sit down to play music like how some people would journal. It’s a reflective space, if I’m on my own. When I used to play in bands, it would bring me out of that self-reflection and I’d be much more front-footed.”
It’s interesting that you put it like that, as “spilling out”, because I was going to ask how you get the tonal balance right – but it’s almost sounding as though it kind of automatically accidentally happens. How would you put that into words?
“Lyrics wise, it starts as mumbles and then I listen back to the mumbles and seem to make sense of them. Then, if they’re good, they reflect how I am actually feeling, but they’re not too… cerebral. They’re impulsive. I sit with them for a bit and then whittle away at it. I don’t know how to read music or anything like that. So none of it’s particularly thought out.”
That’s interesting. It’s quite an “actor way” of approaching music, actually, the way you frame it.
“It’s this impulsive and instinctive thing. If I find inspiration, I follow that – it’s a bit of a compulsion. You know, I’m late for trains and buses and everything all the time because I go, “oh yeah, I’ve got five minutes, I’ll go and play some music”. It’s very impulsive and not the best way to organise my life.”
I love that. The music can’t be contained. I want to talk about the words themselves. You have mentioned lyrics a little bit there but let’s dive deeper. I felt that the words were quite poetic and I also noticed that there were a few threads which appeared again and again. So, like one of those was this idea of not being able to reach someone or something. Do you notice these threads when you’re writing? Are they purposeful? Why do you think, for example, this idea of reaching out keeps popping up?
“That is a feeling I have about life. It’s why I act. I try to feel more connected to what it is to be human and feel connected to people. That’s the reason I write songs.
“I find articulating stuff difficult to do. Like, I sort of feel that I have to work quite hard to do that. I try to use music to do that. But you’re right. I mean, they all are really about that. But I also think that’s what everyone on some level is trying to do, you know; you never can be fully connected. I find it hard to just be in the moment and be still. And that’s why I like acting and music because it forces me into the present moment. I hadn’t really put that all together that they were all like that, but they really are. The whole EP, not just the song Bones.”
Yeah. I think when you are approaching someone else’s work, you can almost see those things more than they can in the moment. I’m a teacher, so when I’m reading students’ work, I often see that there are certain images that they keep returning to across the year. I find it really interesting because I don’t think people are always aware that they do it.
I found that there are quite a few lines in the EP that I really found myself clinging to. Again, it’s probably the English teacher in me, but I liked the mention of “tangling thoughts fill the skyline”. What did that mean to you, when you wrote it?
“I wrote that in lockdown with Ross Leighton, who’s in Fatherson, and it was weird writing in that atmosphere. You say “hi” on a Zoom call, which feels distant, and then you go “okay, well, let’s get into the song” and it can be very personal. You end up with lines that spill out and then I go “oh, that’s actually cool. That’s a cool image”. And that, for me, is enough to warrant it being in the song. I don’t know what it’s about, in a way, but I know it’s about something.
“As soon as I start thinking too much about it, the song dies a little bit for me. So, I go off the feeling. I quite like a lyric that feels a little bit unusual and a bit hard to work out. I think that’s what keeps me coming back to other people’s music and the slightly obscure lyrics.”
I think it’s nice to see a little bit of variety because there’s certain cliches and things that people rely on. And they’re solid, reliable images – you know, there’s always going to be a reason to use images of light and dark – but those more unique phrases are the ones that really stand out and I think it’s the ones that you reflect on a little bit more. That’s why I really like that line because I was like, “that is really interesting”. The idea of a tangled thought really resonates with me because my brain is chaotic.
“What that makes me think about is, like in London, the people that have gone before have built all of this thing, but none of them had it right. Even if we expect them to or have this sense that they did. No one knows what they’re doing, really. It makes me think about that. You can assume that everyone had it sorted, sussed, but they didn’t. I think it makes me think about that.”
Yeah, that’s interesting. And there was another image of yours that I liked; there was the image of running whilst others are sleeping. It was quite reminiscent of children’s stories, like the BFG. You know, when they go off and they have all these adventures and all this chaos happening during the night time. Did that come from anywhere or is it another case of the words “spilling out”?
“That’s basically like Where The Wild Things Are and stuff like that. I don’t honestly know. It’s something about escaping the city. London, living in London, can be a bit of a nightmare – getting out of this noise and clearing your head. I hadn’t thought about it in terms of a kids book but then I do you know read to my boy. And maybe there’s something in there that’s come up, you know.”
Yeah, it’s nice. It adds a layer of kind of charm and naivety as well to the music that’s quite sympathetic. I was actually very surprised by how nuanced it really was. I was listening to the song Emily and there’s that mention of London and LA. And you just mentioned London now and getting out of it. How are you feeling about that idea of location at the moment? You’re moving around quite a lot, obviously, doing your promotion.
“Well, it’s funny with that song because it is about my relationship to LA and Hollywood and what you’re chasing as an actor. You can think that that’s the thing that is important and so Emily is just a representation of that because it’s like, “no, I want to be happy where I am here and working with people I want to work with, rather than always thinking I should be somewhere else”.
“I grew up outside London. So I’m more of a fields and woods sort of person. Any excuse to get out of London is a good thing, although I love being there for work – it’s hard to switch off. So that’s part of the reason we’re here is to kind of build something that’s outside of London; the more people that listen to it, the better, and the more I can share it live the better.”
London can be quite all consuming. I have a few friends who live there and whenever I go to visit I’m overwhelmed, over stimulated, and I really don’t understand how they do it every day, to be honest.
“Yeah, it is. It’s part of the joy of it, but it’s also that I need time away to reset, because everything’s work as well. When I want to go back to London tonight, I’m going back in to do work stuff and more work tomorrow. It’s non-stop there. And that’s part of what the EP’s about: how do you reset, connect, wait, pause, actually listen and ask questions of your people around you? Rather than just being relentlessly trying to move forward.”
It’s very much your personal voice and it’s also that separation from the chaos, I guess. It does feel like you’re taking a step back. You can definitely hear that in the music.
“I think I’m writing an upbeat song and then I go and play it and realise it’s slower. I find it very hard to sit still. So I connect to those things that bring me to a slower pace, you know? So I don’t really listen to music that’s upbeat because I feel that’s what’s going on in my head.”
I think it’s interesting to have that incongruity of the frantic compulsion and the slower, calmer, more pensive product – what you’re actually creating isn’t that same frantic energy as the creative force itself. Kind of like a therapy session and I think you could learn a lot about yourself just from that process.
“It definitely is that. Yeah, therapeutic for sure. And, that emerges in those repeated images you mentioned; images of weather appear in my work and also Shakespeare draws on that sort of stuff. That’s the stuff I read. So, I’m naturally going to feel excited by those sorts of images. There’s chaos, but there’s also calm and connection.”
- An evening with Michael Fox & Friends takes place on Tuesday, 16th December, 6.30pm for 7.30pm at St Michael and All Angels Church, Bassett, Southampton.
Join actor and recording artist, Michael Fox, for an intimate evening of music, special guests and candle-lit Christmas good cheer! Features songs from Michael’s latest EP ‘Bones’.
Tickets and parking are limited — book early, and leave time for parking. Unreserved seating and standing room. Doors (and the bar) open at 6.30pm. Concert: 7.30 – 9.30pm, including interval.Michael is well-known as an actor (Downton Abbey, Dunkirk, Endeavor) and a Decca recording artist. He’s bringing well-known friends to the event too such as Mercury-nominated C Duncan, and Mehalah Ray. Check out this video to gauge the mood! youtube.com/shorts/VcgEZihUctY
Tickets and more info: https://nsab.org.uk/concerts
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