Rich(ard) Dawson has drawn so many long drafts from the whirlpools of elemental North Eastern archetypes that he may now be one himself. Fearless in his research and willingness to follow his inspiration, Dawson has created an impressive catalogue of music and storytelling, steeped in both ancient myths and contemporary dread. A fog of sickness, trauma and mute inevitability inhabits his records and is often expressed in the havoc with which Dawson’s hands produce sounds from his long-suffering guitar, an instrument as bruised, individual and indefatigable as its owner.

Dawson’s forthcoming new album End of the Middle (out in February 2025) is intricate, evocative, stripped-back, tactile, and (almost) has the transportive ability to put you in the places and scenarios it describes. The album focuses on a family unit. “It zooms in quite close-up to try and explore a typical middle-class English family home,” Dawson says. “We’re listening to the stories of people from three or four generations of perhaps the same family. But really, it’s about how we break certain cycles. I think the family is a useful metaphor to examine how things are passed on generationally.”

The title of the new album End of the Middle is a suitably slippery contradiction, one that invites multiple interpretations: Middle-aging? Middle-class? The middle point of Dawson’s career? The centre of a record? Centrism in general? Polarisation? The possibility of having a balanced discussion about anything? Stuck in the middle with you? Middle England? Decide for yourself on Fri 14 February 2025.