Benjamin Francis Leftwich is chasing the rainbows

Forget New York, New York, an artist coming to Reading this November is focusing on chasing rainbows.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich is celebrating the launch of his new album Some Things Break, and will perform tracks from it when he visits South Street Arts Centre.

The album includes the song New York, which was released as a single earlier this year.

He told MNPR that it came from a writing session with Matty Healy from The 1975.

Playing an early version, he performed it while opening for Phoebe Bridgers three years ago. The footage went viral, and meant it was a shoo-in for the album.

“It is a song about running to big shiny cities for big shiny things,” he told MNPR.

“For me, it’s about missing the simple humanity and imperfections of the things one can convince themselves to run from.

“Every time I’ve ever chosen to chase a rainbow for a pot of gold, I’ve ended up wanting to chase the next, and I’m the last to know that I could have found what I was hoping for right where I left it.

“Often, the gold I imagine I will find soon reveals itself as concrete in disguise.”

Some Things Break (Dirty Hit Records) is produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Jimmy Hogarth, Some Things Break features collaborations with fellow songwriters including Mikky Ekko, The 1975’s Jamie Squire, Jon Green.

Fans of Leftwich’s work will associate him with a rich but pared-back acoustic singer-songwriter sound infused with a charming wistfulness and disarmingly candid lyrics. 

Aside from his own material, Benjamin’s songwriting, co-writing and collaboration with other songwriters and artists include The 1975, Nick Mulvey, Jasmine Jethwa, Rachel Chinouriri, CMAT and Holly Humberstone. 

Support comes from Naida Kadek and Blair Davie.

The show is at South Street on Thursday, November 14, from 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £18.50 including a booking fee and can be ordered from the whatsonreading.com website, or by calling the box office on 0118 960 6060.