With his new pop project, Wolverhampton native Tom Aspaul is redefining what it means to be a Black Country artist
The Black Country, AKA the area of the West Midlands that incorporates the four boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, does not immediately spring to mind when you think of pop. Or, as singer-songwriter and Wolverhampton native Tom Aspaul puts it: “You associate it with coal, steel, and metal bands, not flares, sequins and Studio 54.” That has not stopped him from channelling his homeland’s heritage on his forthcoming album, Black Country Disco, a pop project that’s being drip-fed via monthly singles, with December’s being a cover of Everyday, a song by Wolverhampton’s very own Slade.
In fact, the region’s rock heritage runs through the heart of the album, not least in its visual identity, which pays tribute to the logos of some of the area’s more hirsute bands (think: ELO and Black Sabbath), all jagged, blood red metallic lettering. Musically, the album playfully incorporates the genres of its title, but forges a more symbolic link back to the Black Country via a rush of nostalgia. It was brought on by moving back home from
London following the end of a five-year relationship. “Sonically, I listened to a whole raft of disco from the mid 70s to the mid 80s;
music I’d imagine my mom dancing to at the Lafayette club in Wolverhampton when she was young,” he explains.