Ear this: Chris Singleton and the Distractions

Chris Singleton and the Distractions Photo: © Pal Hansen

With one album behind him and another planned, you’d have thought Stoke Newington-based, Dublin-born singer-songwriter Chris Singleton was on the road to success. However, in order to be able to record his second album, Lady Gasoline, Chris had to overcome a rare ear condition – hyperacusis, which is often described as an allergy to sound.

“I thought that I wouldn’t be able to make music any more”, Chris recalls. When recording the first album he noticed a sensation that he describes as similar to “when you get out of a swimming pool and experience blockage of the ears”. As time went by the problems increased, which made the making of the album extremely hard and frustrating.

Hyperacusis makes a person overly sensitive to sound, so that everyday things such as a trip on the Tube or bus become near to impossible as the sound levels are too loud and therefore too painful. While severe hyperacusis is rare, milder forms of the condition are known to affect musicians. This is because of overexposure to certain sound frequencies. As many as 86 per cent of patients also suffer from tinnitus – a ringing of the ears that is caused by the same exposure to sound.

After seeing a number of specialists who couldn’t find anything wrong and trying different methods, Chris was finally able to get the right treatment which helped him get out of a “very difficult time” and back into the studio to record his second album, which he describes as being “a compendium of different styles” and inspired by classic British rock like David Bowie, The Beatles and Mark Boland.

Chris’s first album Twisted City – “compiled as a journey through London” – got good reviews, making him well received in both the UK and his native Ireland, as well as landing him a distribution deal with Universal. Whilst Twisted City was a one man accomplishment, with Chris producing, playing the instruments and setting up his own record label to release the album, Lady Gasoline has been made in collaboration with friends and fellow musicians The Distractions, who in the past have worked with well-known artists like The Killers and Razorlight.

The main theme of the new album is relationships and all the emotions that come with them. The title track serves as a thread binding it all together: “she’s a sort of super-muse – she walks all over the record, leaving her boot prints on every track,” says Chris.

Lady Gasoline was released on IRL records on Monday 28 June.