So this is Leicester Square, one of the hottest locations for busking musicians,
and I've spotted one singing guitarist, who sounds really promising to me!
So I will go, I'll meet him, and i'll try to play with him!
My name is Harvey, I'm from London , I busk here, And yeah I've lived here all my life.
You have a very much 'inside' view, because you are a Londoner,
a proper one! Yeah, I've lived here all my life, it's a lovely place!
It is, but a little bit crazy I think sometimes! It is crazy, I need to get out as much as I can!
For how long have you been busking so far? since I was 18 so three years
And what's your background? Are you self-taught or, where you studying music?
Tell me a little bit more! I'm mostly self-taught.
I started out on guitar then I learned piano and I loved to sing. I started when
I was about 8 years old and I went to music school when I was 16.
Okay, so between 8 and 16 you were just your own teacher? Yes, I mean I had some
guitar lessons here and there but mostly I just learned by listening to a record or a CD.
It must be a strong desire to play, actually to make music?
Yeah, big time! Since I was eight years old since when I started learning the guitar
I just loved music. It was what I wanted to do.
So you are not only busking but you have also other things you do?
These days most of the time I play in my band,
we record in a music studio, we put stuff on Spotify. We are called UNCLE MONTY by the way,
and yeah we try to just get all the gigs around London. We play a lot in
Shoreditch and New Cross area. Do you also try delivering your original music
when you're busking to the 'busking' audience? Yeah, when I'm busking I play
covers about 95% of the time. I do write my own songs, I play in a band,
but I find that I get a lot more money if I play something the people know,
something by the Beatles always goes down well, Ed Sheeran
you know obvious stuff, Oasis- but I've thrown in an original song every now and
then if I'm feeling extra confident. Is it hard to predict what will you actually earn?
It's very hard, I mean if you go to central London, an area like this
Leicester Square, or like the Tate Modern- this is somewhere I go quite a lot, and
you never know what you're gonna get. I mean lunchtime is obviously a good time,
than evening Friday night there's obvious times but still even when you do
a peak time you're never sure what you can get. It could be anywhere from £10
an hour to sometimes £100. Did you ever need a license for for
busking, or do you just show on the spot, and you just play like that?
I've never actually had a license to busk. In certain areas of London you do need a license,
for instance along the South bank, but places like Leicester Square the Tate
Modern which is quite a lot you don't need a license, but it's sort of first come,
first and show up and you want to busk there. But a lot of the time there's a
queue, so you have to wait. If there's someone busking there already, you have
to wait for an hour and - oh yeah. So how does it actually work, is it hard
with this queueing? there is plenty of people that want to play,
so do you sometimes have to wait for a very long time?
Yes, I've waited up to three and a half hours. It depends on whether you get there,
I mean, you've got to ask the person who's busking, when they finish
their song, how many people are in the queue. Each person has one hour
usually, depending on the area and what people have agreed to.
I'm glad I met this guy, his playing and singing is really good, and
he is also a very sensitive person, he's like a touching musician, so definitely
not one of those that he would just pass by, but you would wait for a few minutes,
listen a little bit more carefully so yeah, I'm very glad.
Well done!!