I have a few heroes: the legendary Tom Waits, genius wordsmith/artist Jeffery Lewis, footballing god Bobby Zamora, charity good-egg Sophie Epstone, supercool Jarvis Cocker… the list goes on. One man who would sit towards the very top of that list though, is unquestionably Jim Bob. I first saw him perform as frontman of indie/pop/dance/punk band Carter USM at Brixton Academy in 1993 and have followed his career very closely ever since, through his solo work over the past few years right up to his recent reincarnation as an author. So when the man who I spent my teenage years singing along to in various sweaty venues around the country headed to the small town in which I grew up, I simply had to grab a few words with him.

Eastbourne’s Gildredge Park was resplendent in the early evening sunshine as it acted as the setting for our interview. With birds merrily whistling in the background and trees dancing in the breeze, Jim and I talked about writing, about music and about the upcoming Carter gigs, before the affable Londoner headed across the road to the ancient Lamb Inn, where he would perform a 30-minute set to a sold-out room.

Below is the interview, along with a few musical snippets from his acoustic performance (note: you might need to whack the volume up to eleven as it came out a little quiet after the upload to Youtube and I’m too much of a luddite to know how to fix it). If you like what you hear from Jim Bob, you can find out more about all of his current projects by visiting his website.

Interview by Bobby Townsend