Existential Boozer: A Proustian pint with Baby Dave
While there is certainly an art to small talk, a lot of the time, it’s completely useless. It serves as a vehicle for a transactional conversation that offers no real way of getting to know someone, especially someone like Isaac Holman, otherwise known as Baby Dave. He’s been a constant in the British music scene over the past decade, and so, such a life lends itself to proper conversation.
There’s a depth to his life and career that goes beyond musing over the changing state of the weather. From launching Soft Play into a mighty indie outfit during the confused post-Brexit era, his retreat into a quiet life centred around gardening or, more recently, his experimental solo project Baby Dave, Holman has got plenty of source material for an appropriately existential chat.
Loosened up by the beers of Far Out’s Existential Boozer, we sat down with Holman to truly get into it. There was plenty to be discussed in the worlds of music, be it his collaboration with Damon Albarn or love for lyricists of the Great British era: Mike Skinner, Terry Hall and Ian Dury, to name a few. But around that, we learned about plenty more of his interests, and nature was just a small part of that.
He’s seen it all in the music industry, but came out of the end of Marcel Proust’s questionnaire with the sobering reminder that the key elements of life don’t exist in the green room or all-access areas of festivals, but in the intimate moments that are accessible to us all, rock stars or not.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
“Sun out. Feet out. Covered in pigeons”.
You like your pigeons?
“I love pigeons, man”.
What is your greatest fear?
“Brain-eating amoebas”.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
“I was going to say my terrible timekeeping, but I made it to this a few minutes early”.
Felix White kept you outside for a little bit.
“He did. Lovely bloke”.
But you were punctual. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
“Rudeness in general”.
Which living person do you most admire?
“Chris Packham”.
And why?
“Because he’s just the goat. He’s just cool”.
What is your greatest extravagance?
“I go to Joe and The Juice quite a lot, and their smoothies are like £9. But the way I think about it, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, so £9 on a smoothie here and there”.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
“My pet rat, Betty, who sadly passed away. Rest in peace”.
When and where were you happiest?
“Probably just in the studio. In a flow state, just making some shit”.
Is there a song on this record that comes to mind?
“I would say all of it, to be honest. I have such a good time when I’m just with my pals in the studio, like I’m never happier than when I’m just making stuff”.
Which talent would you most like to have?
“I’d love to be sick at piano. I’m so in awe of people that can just, like, jump on a piano and just take it away. I think it’s sick”.
On a lot of the Baby Dave tracks is a healthy element of keyboards, but there’s a rudimentary element to the keyboard playing that is so cleverly used…
“I’ll make all the beats on GarageBand just on my laptop, and I don’t have any gear, so it’s all just done on the qwerty keyboard. So it’s never that technical”.
On the first record, particularly, there was an almost Damon Albarn influence?
“He co-produced a lot of that first record, and he played a lot of stuff on it. So that’s why that was a bit like the musicianship was a bit better, I think”.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
“I built a pretty trusting relationship with a badger last year, after spending a lot of time with it. Every night, I would go out at the same time and hang out with this badger. We got pretty close. Yeah, and then I had to leave town, and it was the saddest thing ever.”
What did you have to do to do that?
“Just repeatedly turning up. I worked out what was its favourite food and stuff. And then I’d just go every night and just spend ages, sitting there with it. And it got to the point where I was super, super close to it. Just like chucking little bits of the floor.”
What were its favourite foods?
“Peanuts and dried apricots. But like, my big goal was to hand-feed it. I was like, ‘I’m going to hand-feed it soon’, and then I had to leave”.
Not seen it since?
“No, but I’ve got a new squad of badgers in Brighton I’m hanging out with, and I’m going to try and get there with them”.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
“A dog, like a really well-loved family dog”.
Where would you most like to live?
“Brighton”.
What do you like about it?
“I just love it. It’s my favourite city I’ve been to. I’ve always wanted to live there. It’s super liberal, it’s full of nutters, it’s by the sea, it’s just got a cool vibe. Good music scene, good wildlife, can’t complain, mate, I love it.”
What is your most treasured possession?
“My gold fidget spinner”.
What is your favourite occupation?
“Gardener/musician”.
You did gardening for a bit, right?
“We had a bit of a time off the band, well, we didn’t think that we were going to do it again, my other project, this is. Yeah, I became a gardener, and I just fell in love with it. Still now, when I’m not touring, I just go and do that for a bit. It’s wicked.”
What do you think is your most noticeable characteristic as a person?
“I was thinking looks-wise, rather than as a person. I’ve got no earlobes, and sometimes people notice that. I wear quite big earrings to cover them up, but they’re connected to my head. When I was younger, I really wanted earlobes, so I used to like to pull my ears, all the time, just to try and, like, slowly stretch them. Yeah, it didn’t work.”
What trait do you most value in your friends?
“I would say, they’re all super easy to be around and non-judgmental. With a certain depth and a certain silliness”.
Who are your favourite writers?
“I don’t read half as much as I should, to be honest. If we’re talking like musicians, I’d say like Mike Skinner, Terry Hall from The Special, Damon Albarn, Ian Dury. Blindboy, I don’t know if you listen to the Blind Boy podcast. To name a few. I could go on.”
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
“Maybe that dog they sent to space?”
Who are your heroes in real life?
“I’ll say like my family. I know it’s cliché, but, like, my folks and my brothers. We’re all in competition with each other constantly. But yeah, I look up to all of them”.
What are your favourite names?
“I really like the name Ronan at the moment. Like Ronan Keating. I really want to get another rat and call it Ronan”.
How would you like to die?
“Old and content in my sleep. This seems pretty comfortable”.
What is your motto?
“I was going through a really rough time once, and one of my mates was just like, ‘Hold on’. And I’ve taken that with me ever since that. And then anytime shit gets really hard, I just say that to myself, and I think it’s a good one.”
One for the road, what is your favourite Baby Dave song?
“Probably ‘Am I Clean?’, which I’ve just put out. It’s a song about obsessive compulsive disorder, which I have, and, yeah, it’s a good vibe”.
