Abercarn musician Skip Curtis on his solo career, love of music and success with XY&O

ABERCARN singer-songwriter Skip Curtis stumbled his way into success as part of alternative band XY&O but is now putting his solo career on the forefront.

Mr Curtis, who is also a lecturer in music business at the University of South Wales, has spent the past 18 months recording and rerecording his new album Culture Violet, which is set to be released next summer.

“I’ve written, self-recorded and produced it all,” he said. “I wanted control but that means things are slower to be done when you do everything yourself and I changed my mind on one of the songs.

“So, it was finished but now I need to redo the one track.”

(Skip Curtis performing at Clwb Ifor Bach. Picture: Nadine Ballantyne)

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Not just set on creating the record himself, he is also releasing it on his own label – Pet Shop Records.

“I’ve always been interested in the business side of things and it allows for more creative control for me over my work.”

Mr Curtis is happy to be doing his solo music. “I’ve always wanted to do solo stuff as I’ve wanted to do music on my own terms.

“I’d always wanted to be a songwriter as I just love writing songs, whether they get big or not.”

The interest in music was always there for Mr Curtis, despite having no musicians in the family and never studying music.

(Tudor Davies, Skip Curtis and Nick Kelly make up XY&O)

“My dad is a massive music fan and I inherited it. I really find it hard to dislike any genre.”

He has been writing songs since the age of 13, and while in school at 16, his first band got played on BBC Radio 1.

He didn’t think he would be able to learn the guitar properly and decided that he wanted to become a producer.

He got managed as a producer and had a steady stream of work, but he wasn’t satisfied.

(Skip Curtis performing at Newbridge Memo. Picture: Sly Panda)

“I wanted to become a songwriter and my old manager as a producer Sandy heard some of my songs and then I decided to start putting them out there.”

It was here that XY&O was born in 2015. He teamed up with a friend from Barry who did beats, and they created XY&O on Soundcloud.

“We weren’t a real band, but we blew up especially in the United States of America," he said. “So, we got a third member and quickly became a real band.”

Part of their success came as debut single Low Tide took off on streaming sites and was played on American radio.

“We played our 10th live show at Glastonbury which was mad as bands play for years to get there.”

But playing live was not for XY&O.

“Our fans were online and not live. We played live quite a few times but it just wasn’t right.

(XY&O from left: Tudor Davies, Skip Curtis and Nick Kelly)

“We were marginally successful in America but that meant that it was hard to get out there on tour because of the cost and it wasn’t a genre that I was passionate about.

“I do listen and appreciate it but it isn’t the way I wanted to perform.

“It was a happy accident that we got where we did and I am very grateful.”

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The trio were able to get a potential tour in America but that was when the brakes were put on XY&O.

“I hit a crossroads of going full pop with XY&O or gambling on a solo project. I knew that for us to go to America, we would have to be fully committed and I think we weren’t ready.

“XY&O are still a band though and eventually we will be releasing more music.”

While XY&O is currently in the back of his mind, Mr Curtis is fully focused on the release and promotion of Culture Violet.

He released his third single from the record Satellite last month and will be releasing another early next year.

(Skip Curtis' Satellite single artwork)

“I don’t want to be one of those artists who just releases all the tracks as singles, because that way there wouldn’t be any point in making an album.

“So, I may release one more after the next one and that would be it until the album comes out.”

But he does have more surprises in the pipeline.

Yesterday, Friday, he released a live session of latest single Satellite and has a live EP in the works too.

He will also continue to perform – whether its solo, with a band or as a duo and entertain audiences around the country.

But he will always remain humble about his career and success.

“I’ve been amazingly lucky people like the songs I’ve done and that I have been able to make a financial career out of it.

“But even if I didn’t have that, I’d still enjoy it because it’s the one thing that I have always come back to – no matter what, I always come back to writing songs and performing them.”