An interview based around
FISHING 4 COMPLIMENTS
at Northern Guitars, Leeds, 13 September 2025
They play beneath a Grateful Dead poster, next to a big dead jukebox.
Saturday night in Leeds is a chaotic fun of pumping noise, with the Calls jumping cram-full of jostling clubs and bars. Northern Guitars is different. They have live music for little more than the price (card-only) of a drink, plus free give-away piles of Roar magazine. Tonight, the band do an up-tempo number that might be called ‘Dreaming’ about spending boogie-nights out on the town ‘in my younger years, where everyone knew my name,’ concluding ‘that was then, this is now.’ Saturday night now is still pretty much spectacular.
Fishing for compliments? Surely the compliments – or not, must come after the gig?
‘That name wasn’t my idea’ Eileen laughs defensively, celebrating the launch of second album Lost In Good Intentions (following debut Off The Isle Of Somewhere in 2020).
So… is it Fishing For Compliments, or is it Fishing 4 Compliments, I’ve seen it written both ways? ‘Hi, Andrew’ she says, ‘yes sorry we did change along the way and now we tend to use Fishing 4 Compliments.’
After a public soundcheck, with guitarist James Alexander stooping to fine-tune the amps, the Huddersfield-based acoustic-electric five-piece open with the propulsive ‘Lost Without Your Light’ with Eileen Wattam – in green dress, swaying and finger-clicking, her long looped neck-chain catching the light. They tick boxes, strong Folk-tinged energy-Rock with an Americana flavour, female-fronted with four intense male musos, luminous within the glow of blue spotlight colouring. Then, ‘Mystic Moonlight’ has a haunting guitar figure. Meticulous drummer David Simpson wears a Belstaff Phoenix T-shirt.
‘Shell’ opens with Ashley Wattam’s deftly acoustic play-in, picked up by Steve Dyson’s building basslines, ‘it’s just a shell, a shell that’s been broken.’ A song of lyrical and musical depth, about introversion. The defensive barriers we build around ourselves. Eileen once claimed that she dislikes doing the between-numbers links, because the songs speak for themselves. Yet she’s doing fine, with every appearance of a relaxed easy onstage manner.
‘I can’t quite remember saying that’ she argues back, ‘but maybe I hoped – at that point, that the song would say more that any explanation I could offer. I can’t quite remember. I know I find the in-between songs chat sometimes difficult as I am quite shy and… like last night for example, saying ‘‘thank you’ doesn’t feel quite enough when people are being so kind as to listen and appreciate our music. Maybe I should ponder that question a little more as you’ve got me pondering now?’
Eileen writes the songs for the band… but to what degree is it also a collaborative process? Did she write before she was part of the band, did she write little poems or lyrics that never became songs? ‘I don’t write the songs for the band’ she further protests. ‘The band have just been kind enough to develop my songs and bring them to life over the years, for which I feel so grateful and lucky. I had written quite a few songs when I met Ashley (rhythm guitarists) back in 1999 and he started playing them for me and encouraging me to get them out into the world, and that’s where it all started. James and Steve were band mates of Ashleys, they were in a sixties band together, so he kind-of reeled them in to add their musical skills to the mix. James actually started out as the drummer but suggested he would like to try playing lead on the songs, which was to become very central to our sound. The process can be so hard to describe.’
She describes it very well. I’m always intrigued by the way that bands function together as a unit, a band that works always has its own unique chemistry. ‘Just to add, that songwriting has really become my way of coping with the stuff of life, and as a way to express emotions I would otherwise find difficult to express in the main. Occasionally, a song idea just comes into my head. I always write lyrics alongside a melody idea, so no – I don’t really write poems or lyrics alone. Regarding the collaborative process. Me and Ashley bring one of my songs to the band and then all the magical stuff starts, from my perspective, when they all begin working on it and transform it into a band song or a ‘Fishing Song’ as we call it. Most of that happens when we’re all in the room together, but James – for example, might work on developing his riffs and come back at a later get-together with his ideas and Steve might have been mulling over harmony ideas as well as his bass lines, until the song takes on a new musical life. I just generally always love what they do.’
‘So what I’m trying to say… is that I probably haven’t done them all justice in explaining the whole process that makes a song move from ‘my’ song to ‘our’ song. I realise I haven’t said much about the drums, but David Sharp who played on all the recorded music took a very laid-back and quirky approach to it all which we loved, and his daughter used to dep drum for us too and we loved working with her. For the past year we have worked as a four-piece with James on bass drum as well as lead guitar and backing singing, which has actually been a lot of fun, but we are excited to be bringing a new drummer into the band who we are sure will in turn put his own stamp in the band sound. Hope I haven’t gone on for too long but hopefully I’ve covered your questions…?’
On the cramped stage, with their backs to the street window, Eileen announces a ‘couple of covers’, the first dedicated to all shy people – and they do the Smith’s ‘Ask’. Eileen grips the microphone stand with both hands as she sings Morrissey’s finest lyric about ‘if it’s not love, it’s the bomb that will bring us together.’ Ask me, ask me, ask me…
Was it Eileen’s choice to do the Smiths cover… were you a big fan back then? ‘Yes, it was, really, I guess. I do love the song and Ashley also does – thankfully, the other guys in the band were up for trying it out too, and it has become one we play at most gigs. I actually wasn’t a big Smiths fan back in the day. I was more a fan of the Cure around that time and would say The Cure are still a band I really love. I thought it amazing when they played Glastonbury a few years ago that Robert still sounded exactly the same. Regarding The Smiths, I knew people who were Smiths-mad at the time. I started to appreciate them more later down the line. I would say that I’m a big fan of Johnny Marr. I just thought I love the combination of Morrisey’s darker lyrics and the way Johnny Marr makes it sound uplifting at the same time.’ She pauses, then adds, ‘I always have to feel a connection to the song-lyrics to cover it. Hope that helps?’
That’s a wonderful insight into the way Fishing 4 Compliments operates, Eileen. Thank you for taking the time to articulate it all for me. ‘Ahh that’s great and thank you for asking.’
Then they play two songs about jealousy – the jangle-Pop of ‘If I Had What You Had’ which touches heaven and turns the world from grey to bright to blue with a catchy chorus, and temptation. There’s something of Eddi Reader in the way she projects, something of Maddy Prior. Newer single ‘Ghosts’ – premiered on the Acoustic Café Radio Show, shimmers with harmony voices about the dance of haunting memory, finding yourself reflected in another’s face.
The neon guitar shines out onto the street outside. There are posters and photos on the walls from previous nights. Mekon Jon Langford has played here, Isabel Maria, the Harriets, Mr Sweet. Earlier today it was Killin’ Floor.
Compliments…? Yes, now is the time for your lavish compliments!
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BY ANDREW DARLINGTON
‘OFF THE ISLE OF SOMEWHERE’ (April 2020)
(1) ‘Lost Without Your Light’ 3:07
(2) ‘You’re Not The Only One’ 2:42
(3) ‘Shell’ 3:25
(4) ‘Wild Bird’ 3:42
(5) ‘Drunken Tree’ 3:09
(6) ‘The Love You Left’ 3:31
(7) ‘Mystic Moonlight’ 3:11
(8) ‘Baby Blue’ 3:14
(9) ‘Way Out Of My Head’ 4:02
(10) ‘Tomorrow Who Knows’ 3:41
(11) ‘We Got It Wrong’ 3:07
https://soundcloud.com/fishingforcompliments
https://www.facebook.com/fish4compliments
‘LOST IN GOOD INTENTIONS’ (October 2025)
(1) ‘Hard To Please’ 2:30
(2) ‘Empty Eyes’ 2:52
(3) ‘Ghosts’ 3:17
(4) ‘If I Had’ 3:16
(5) ‘Secret Room’ 4:20
(6) ‘Making Millions’ 2:55
(7) ‘Feeling Lucky’ 3:07
(8) ‘Hand To Reach You’ 5:34
(9) ‘Listen More’ 4:02
(10) ‘How To Amaze Me’ 4:10