Stephen Fretwell by Holly Whitaker
Stephen Fretwell released the Man On the Roof LP in 2007.
Stephen Fretwell has made his return 13 years after the release of his last album, and he’s picked a good place to do it.
The songwriter’s new single Oval is out now on the Speedy Wunderground label, where his next album is also due in the summer.
“I think it is a song about marriage, the actuality of it, the responsibility of it, and the gamble,” Fretwell says of the track.
“When my girlfriend was pregnant with our first son, we moved to a flat near the Oval in London. As our marriage fell apart a few years ago, it was this simple song that was the only thing I had to stick in the ground and push on with making some new music.”
“I wrote the song about watching my wife look out of the window in that flat in Oval, looking at her new life as a mother, our new life as parents, and I was trying to show that in some way the beauty that we are gifted by becoming parents is often haunted by the loss of something, too.”
After honing his craft in Manchester, not all that far from his hometown of Scunthorpe, Fretwell’s debut album Magpie got a major label release in 2004.
Man On the Roof followed, as did support slots with the likes of Oasis, Travis and Elbow, and a stint playing bass for The Last Shadow Puppets. But when his first son was born in 2011, watching the wheels became the purpose in life.
“I just forgot about songwriting,” Fretwell adds. “I didn’t even own a guitar for five years.”
