I met with old friend and phenomenally talented musician David J Boswell (Bozz), to talk about the release of his third solo album, Going Down Slow, out 19 Jan 26, hot on the heels of his EP I Know What I Saw.
David has musicianship running through his veins. And he started young – he remembers, with both frustration and humour, being thrown out of a school recorder group, for over-enthusiastic improvisation. “I think I was like Lisa in The Simpsons – I started to get all John Coltrane on their ass”.
Wavering recognition for his talent has been a persistent theme for David. He’s worked with some big names in some big bands (The All Seeing I, Jarvis Cocker, Phil Oakey, Roots Manuva…), travelled Europe as a celebrated DJ…but you still probably don’t know who he is. Which is both a travesty, and a too common phenomena with people who don’t fit the mould or play the game.
We got together to talk about fame, inequity in the music industry, his fascination with UFOs and his personal experiences of being an autistic musician.
So your EP, I Know What I Saw came out just before Christmas – but what did you see?
Well I’m pretty obsessed with UFO’S and Big Foot. I Know What I Saw is about seeing a UFO when I was walking back from The Moor in Sheffield.. I looked up and I saw, well, it was a flying saucer. The thing is, I’m obsessed by all that kind of stuff, you know. I spend a lot of time watching Bigfoot and UFO Videos. I know it sounds crazy to some people but the American government have all admitted the existence of UFOs now. Then there’s Big Foot – there’s that much evidence out there, there’s no way it doesn’t exist. Most people think I’m a bit bananas though.
Oh, you know, why not? People believe in a man in the sky…
Well, exactly. There’s more evidence for UFOs than Bigfoot than there is for any religion. Anyway, that’s what the title is all about. The EP came out on the 15th December 25, just as a digital release. The album is out on the 19th of January 26. They’re both out on a label that me and Alan (Deadman) used to run called Atlantis Audio Records. I never really even bothered talking to anyone else about releasing them, I just wanted to do it myself. That way I could avoid what’s happened before; people trying to get me to change things. Yeah, no. No thanks, you know – it would destroy it, make it less what I wanted it to sound like.
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The album definitely has a pleasing rawness to it
Yeah, well everything these days feels produced to fuck. It feels like there’s this one guy making ALL of the dance tracks. They all sound exactly the same. And they all get released on Spotify, so that guy (Daniel Ek) can get more money. Then he can sit on his golden billions – sit there and not pay anybody. And then you’ve got the problem of promotion. You’ve got these things like SubmitHub, and companies like that. But when you actually look into it, they don’t care about the music. They just criticise you and take your money.
I guess doing things your own way has been a relief then. No-one to tell you you can’t combine guitar-based storytelling with electronic jiggery-pokery.
I feel like the electronics that I mingle into the tracks bring them alive, in a way nobody seems to be doing. There’s lots of people, like Moby for instance, that have got an old blues track, and put a breakbeat under it. But the electronic parts aren’t, well they’re not IN the track, do you know what I mean?
Yeah – your folk-guitar vibe is fused with bleeps and now it has, well, bollocks
There’s a couple of raw acoustic blues tracks the album. It’s been great to be able to just release those. I’ve wanted to write more songs in all the projects that I’ve been involved in, like with All Seeing I. I just didn’t get the chance. With Hiem, with me and Nick (Nick “Nico” Eastwood), there was a bit more I could do. But now it’s like, look, I want to do it my own way now! I’m the bloody boss here! No messing about. It’s me and the acoustic guitar, and a load of electronics. That’ll do me.
And it’s great. I was getting all sorts of Eno, Ziggy Stardust, “postive Pink Floyd”, 70s TV theme & 80s horror film electronica vibes from the EP – like a bluesy John Carpenter film soundtrack. And I swear you channel Prince in “Going Down Slow”.
Prince! Wow. Well, Prince has been a massive influence. Not the latest stuff, but the really early stuff. I Would Die For You off Purple Rain, that’s techno – it’s like a techno tune! Prince did it.
There’s more than a nod to your dance music influences, particularly on the EP. The two remixes of I Know What I Saw are particularly exciting. I really loved the Tom the Cosmic Cowboy mix.
The “Tom” in question is the son of an old school friend in North Wales. There were a few of us, and they’re still my best friends ever – Joby, Terry and Lee. We used to play music, be in bands together, all the time. They’re all artists in their own right now. Tom, the Cosmic Cowboy, is Paul, Joby’s son. He wrote the first track on the album, Casual Encounter, about a…well, there’s debauchery…
I think your upbringing in Wales is mentioned in that Guardian article
Oh, Tony Naylor’s one, from yonks ago
Yeah, says something like “If Bozz is a prophet unrecognised in his own land, he is not alone”. I wondered what you thought of that…
I think all that was Tony’s view really. I think he thought “Why is Bozz always on his own with this kind of stuff”, which wasn’t really a true picture. At the time, I was in Berlin a lot, and Cologne, and Strasbourg and all these crazy places. He noticed a lot of people in Europe really dug my music. I mean, there was a track I did with Firm records in Cologne, in my cocoon. It was massive, in Europe; France, Spain, Germany, all over.
I was playing at the really big nightclubs, like the German equivalent of Fabric in London. I think he was wondering why I was having all the success in Europe but not at home. And there’s Hiem – people know Hiem, but I guess he was thinking I deserve more, from his perspective.
But yeah, there’s the industry thing as well, which I’ve never really liked. It costs about £2000 to promote a single with a PR company in London. Okay, so EMI or Sony, they’ve got that kind of money, they’ve got all their clout and stuff, it’s all linked to the radio, BBC, all that…but it’s just like a machine, You’ve got to have at least a few grand to plug into it, to press the big red button. You’re paying a PR company to get a piece in Dazed & Confused. It’s got nothing to do with the music.
An aside here: Joyzine Sensei Paul Maps chose Slime City’s This Song Costs £2,000 as his single of 2025, saying it “…should be automatically played every time a listener opens their streaming app of choice…because it makes absolutely clear in pounds and pence just how much the ‘commodity’ that we’ve come to expect for next to nothing actually costs to produce.”
Back to Bozz…
So that’s why we’ve (Atlantic Audio Records) basically done it all ourselves. And we’re getting great response. But when you listen to Radio One or whatever – and it’s not like I’m some old guy whingeing “oh they don’t make them like they used to!”, but songs are getting played because someone’s paying a promotions company. So I think you’ve got to sort of cut your own hole, really. But then again, us in Sheffield have always done that, haven’t we?
Yes, we’re very DIY, are we not? Had to be really. In fact, Sheffield is the “DIY capital of the UK” according to TimeOut magazine.
But the machine aside, and thinking about the music, you’ve worked with some amazing artists. Who have you been happiest to work with, and who have you been most fanboy around?
I think Phil Oakey was a big one. And Jarvis (Cocker) as well. I mean, it’s hard not to look at these people like they’re from another planet or something, even though they’re probably thinking the same about other, more famous/talented people. Like Phil Oakey might get all starstruck if Brian Ferry walks in the room.
Video: Bozz playing guitar – The All Seeing Eye, Top of the Pops, September 1999
But I think the more you get to know someone, the more that sort of wears off a bit. With my friend Steven (Singleton) – at first, I was just like, “Oh my god, it’s Steven Singleton from ABC”. You feel proud that you know these people, but they become mates like any other. But I struggle when people like that say positive stuff about my music – or anyone. Like in a recent review, this guy compared me to Bowie, or Eno, or whatever, and I was like “sorry what?”. Being autistic, it just takes me ages to work out whether they’re being serious, or taking the piss. My brain doesn’t connect to it. Weeks later I might realise it was bullying. And the music business can be rife with that, you know.
Autism is tough that way, I have the same problem, but that’s unacceptable, really shitty behaviour. So how do you keep inspired and motivated on the back of all that, then?
Well, that’s what makes me write the songs, you know
Do you put that emotion into your music do you think?
Oh, yeah, I mean, it’s like my In My Cocoon song. I was playing a live set at this club in Tbilisi in Georgia, and a lad came up to me and says, “Oh man, In My Cocoon, it meant a lot to me, about how I was feeling”, and I thought, oh my god, you know, that vulnerability, I guess it links people, they connect with it. Then there’s the album. That’s pretty emotional. My older brother Edward died in 2010, and then about 6 months ago, my twin brother, Elijah, passed away suddenly, from an infection he picked up in hospital. It’s been really tough. His death links with a lot of the tracks on the album. Most of them were written years ago, on 4-track. I found the cassette, and thought to myself, I’ve got to finish this now.
Has your approach to making music changed as you’ve gone through life, through these struggles and losses.
No, it’s always been the same process really. I think I’ve always just concentrated on what I’m offered, whether that’s TV adverts or collaborations or my own stuff. Obviously, relationships influence me a lot. My songs are usually observations, things that I’ve had to process. Whatever I’m feeling just comes out of my fingers. And my brain. I can communicate better through music; I can’t talk to people normally. I just end up coming out with a lot of gibberish. I always have. I can only say what I mean, what I feel, through music, And music’s a great place to hide as well.
Oh, I’m getting right sensitive now, aren’t I? But being autistic, I have sensory issues, with light, sound. And I really feel vibes off people. I can be on a bus, and there’s some person sitting in front of me, and I can feel the anger and violence coming from them. It makes me very sensitive – I pick up on things that make me anxious. I guess for you as well.
Yeah, definitely the vibes off people being pretty disturbing sometimes. But you can put it into your music, make it mean something.
It’s quite magical, really, sometimes when I write. I can end up doing a whole track in one go – I get completely locked in. I get hyper-focused to the n-th degree, and then I’ll come out with something and go, “how the fucking hell did I do that?”.
So where can people find the EP and Album?
The EP, the single, it’s on all digital platforms. And the album is on Bandcamp – digital download or limited edition deluxe translucent blue vinyl. And it’s in Rough Trade in London, Norman Records in Leeds, Probe Records in Liverpool…
David J Boswell: Bandcamp / Website
Bozz kindly gave his track Walk Her Down to us to share with you as a free download for our 2025 Advent Calendar – check out his music & bag it for yourself at the same time.
Interview by Aitch Nicol
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