Exclusive interview: Liam Fender on the “romanticism of string sections and horns”

Liam Fender is set to make his long-awaited debut appearance at Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre this evening for a performance that promises to be one of the venue's most captivating evenings of 2026.

Fender, who is the older brother of the stadium-filling phenomenon Sam Fender describes his music as "post-industrial romance", drawing influence from the likes of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Neil Hannon and Richard Hawley, giving him a sound that is rich and cinematic but oozes emotion, authenticity and honesty. The performance in Barnoldswick stands to provide audiences with an opportunity to witness one of Britain’s great contemporary songwriters in an environment that values rich storytelling, excellent songwriting and authenticity, but what approach will Fender take for the show?

“It's just me on my tod tomorrow. I much prefer to be out with a band, but it's also nice to do a little stripped-back gig, so I'll be playing a little bit of acoustic and a little bit of electric, and I'll be playing piano on a few numbers as well, so a little bit of variation,” Fender said.

The opportunity to perform stripped-back gives Fender the opportunity to rearrange his songs, giving them a unique spin in the intimate surroundings of the Music & Arts Centre. Such is the variety in Fender’s sound, ‘Don’t Follow Me Down' – a track off his first EP ‘Love Will' – begins with an electronic loop and sees Fender’s vocals remain somewhat restrained before the delivery of the lyric the “tides may turn, but I’m not changing,” the rest of the instrumentation creeps in, and Fender’s vocals soar, creating a unified wall of sound. Fender also released a cover of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, putting his own spin on the classic track with a strings-heavy arrangement.

“I've always loved that song. I love the Joy Division version. I think it's probably the most heartbreaking song I can think of. I've heard quite a few bands cover it over the years, but I'd been covering it on gigs for a little while and realised that I hadn't really heard anybody cover it quite in the way that I was sort of doing it, like really laying it bare and bringing it just back to the guitar and the voice. And so that's kind of why I went with that one,” Fender said when discussing the arrangement choice.

As he did on ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, Fender regularly incorporates strings sections within his music, giving his songs a rich, cinematic feel and adding an extra emotional weight to his sound, but when did he reach the decision to give strings a driving role in his arrangements?

“That's a good question,” Fender said. “I'm not even sure I'd know the answer to that. It's just when you write a certain song, I tend to have a good idea of the arrangement in my head when I get a song idea. I can hear everything that's going on, and I'm just very sort of drawn to that romanticism of string sections and horns and such,” Fender explained.

The use of strings in ‘Here We Are’, Fender’s most recently released single, ties into that romanticism. The song, which is about finding light in the moments before you disappear into the sun, blends string swells alongside gritty, overdriven guitars, creating a huge wall of sound on a track that ties into his critically acclaimed documentary ‘800 Years: Here We Are' – a project that was hosted, narrated and anchored by Fender as part of North Shields’ 800 Celebrations. But what was the biggest thing he learned when putting together that project?

“The biggest thing I learned,” Fender said, taking a moment’s thought. “I certainly learned that I felt very much out of my depth, and there were moments, because we got some funding to do it, where I was like, why did I agree to this? Doing that on top of everything else I was doing, it was a pretty manic year. But I learned a lot about myself. And I learned a lot of things about my hometown and the cultural history that I thought I was fairly well versed in. But turns out there were lots of things that I was unaware of. So it was an education in many senses.

“I think it came out pretty well in the end. So, it was great just speaking to people as well, speaking to a lot of artists that I've known for a lot of years and admired and hearing their take on it, and just sort of seeing the landscape through other people's eyes was a really interesting time and place to sort of look at,” Fender concluded.

The aforementioned ‘Here We Are’ single marked the end of a musical chapter for Fender, as he opted to take a break from music following its release. “To be honest, I was just feeling pretty burnt out,” Fender said when asked what came into the decision to take a break.

“I had three, four years of just constantly working away and trying to put stuff out but also working a day job at the same time as well, because it’s well known in this industry, when you're in your early years, you're not really making any money off the back of streaming or record sales or gigs. So I just needed to take stock of things and just have time to get back to the drawing board and just recuperate really. But I'm dipping my toes back in now and got the hunger for it again, which is good,” Fender added.

2026 has been a quiet year for Fender musically, but he revealed he has been doing a bit of writing. However, there are no plans for any imminent releases. “I'm not somebody that, I don't force songs,” he said. “I don't get up in the morning and discipline myself to say I've got to write a song today. They have to come to me, really. I'm sort of back in the studio next week. We're starting to work on some new material, but no solid plans for any releases just yet,” Fender said. Nevertheless, having that time away has given Fender the opportunity to breathe and have a bit of clarity that he was potentially looking for.

“I think the way I'm approaching the songs we're working on at the minute, I've taken a lot of pressure off,” Fender explained. “There's no deadline at the minute, although I know I do need to get something out eventually; otherwise, people will forget I exist. But the last two EPs were kind of up against it and on quite a tight budget. So it's just nice to sort of take time approaching songs and not feel as though there's a sort of external pressure to get them across the line at a certain time, really,” Fender finished.

Liam Fender will perform at the Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre this evening. Tickets are available at https://www.barnoldswickmusicandartscentre.com/liam-fender-2026