Proud Disturber of the Peace (2022 Remaster) William The Conqueror

• 1In My Dreams03:57
• 2Tend to the Thorns03:47
• 3Did You Wrong03:58
• 4Pedestals04:16
• 5Sunny Is The Style04:38
• 6The Many Faces of a Good Truth05:06
• 7Proud Disturber of the Peace05:13
• 8Cold Ontario04:58
• 9Mind Keeps Changing03:41
• 10Manawatu05:05
• Total Runtime44:39

Info for Proud Disturber of the Peace (2022 Remaster)

William The Conqueror are back with a new 2022 mix of their debut album Proud Disturber Of The Peace. Engineered and mixed in LA by Joseph Lorge (Hiss Golden Messenger etc), the new mix has achieved the sound the band and their label saw out of reach in the bands early DIY days.

Including firm fan favourites ‘Tend to the Thorns’ and ‘Cold Ontario’, the album’s alt-rock transatlantic appeal puts the band in the same lane as Drive-By-Truckers, The Felice Brothers et al.

William the Conqueror is fronted by Ruarri Joseph, a wry, patient storyteller, who has managed enough living to portray a world-weary wisdom in his words, but balances it all with enough optimism to suggest he hasn't quite lived. In. Advance of a UK tour and a summer of festivals, they re release their incredible first record, Proud Disturber Of The Peace, which was engineered and mixed in Los Angeles by Joseph Lorge (Hiss Golden Messenger, Blake Mills).

Six years ago, at a loss as to what the hell to do with all the songs I'd written whilst pretending to be a cocky little kid called William The Conqueror, myself and Harry, long time drummer and friend, headed to the Isle of Lewis to find some head space and record some demos. We got hit by a hurricane and only managed a couple of days where we had electricity, but thankfully those couple of days gave us the inspiration and insight to what the hell this William character was all about.

We headed home (a cool 23 hour drive), set up in my garage and roped in our other friend and long time bass player Naomi Holmes, to begin tracking what would eventually become William's first album, Proud Disturber of the Peace – a meditation on dreaming big and being too innocent to see the dramas of the world. We mixed the whole thing on headphones, still not really knowing what we'd do with it, but through serendipitous good fortune, a superb indie label called Loose decided to put the album out with all its flaws intact.

While we remain proud of that first headphone mix, as William gathered momentum and found a new home at another label (Chrysalis), we always thought how great it'd be to re-mix that first attempt at an album and get it sounding as rich and full as the follow ups (Bleeding on the Soundtrack and Maverick Thinker respectively).

Fast forward a few years and a pandemic later, I assembled the parts, keeping in all the rough edges and not re-recording anything, and handed them to the masterful Joseph Lorge, who had done such an epic job on Maverick Thinker.

As well as the new mixes, we also thought it'd be cool to get our mates at Headjam in Australia to re-imagine the artwork to match the sterling work they'd done with the other two albums.

It's been a journey, but now we feel we have all three albums looking and sounding as William would have wanted.

William The Conqueror

Digitally remastered

William The Conqueror
Once a treasure of the folk circuit, Ruarri Joseph has been leading a double existence, 4 studio albums in under the moniker Ruarri Joseph the singer created William the Conqueror and hit a vein of creativity recording 3 albums of new music in his shed. 'I want people to hear the stories from a different perspective. After three years of keeping William in the dark, I want to switch things up. Ruarri can go off the radar it's William's turn now.' It's underlined in bold by the wisdom and wit of a lyrical slipstream that is, in turn, commanded by a scuffed leather baritone a combination that keeps the listener engrossed, informed and mystified in equal measure. Bursting with retro-infused energy, there are a myriad influences, underpinned by a taste for good, old-fashioned roots. One minute it's a hushed JJ Cale that somehow finds its way to an angry Jim Morrison or a late-70s Dylan; the next it's a grunge era Pearl Jam via Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits.

Indie rock trio William The Conqueror might well have just dropped one of 2021’s sleeper hits. It’s a record of cuts and bruises, wrapped within bittersweet leftfield rock n roll tunes. The band is fronted by Ruarri Joseph, a wry, patient storyteller, who has managed enough living to portray a world-weary wisdom in his words,but balances it all with enough optimism to suggest he hasn’t quite lived. ‘Maverick Thinker’ is a record of short, sharp shots to the arm. Fuzzy college rock with chops, one foot lingering menacingly over the distortion pedal.

Recorded in LA at the infamous Sound City Studios, Ruarri, Naomi Holmes (bass) and Harry Harding (drums) rattled through the album’s ten tunes at a breakneck speed. Which turns out to have been a good thing, because the sessions were cut short as the pandemic took grip. With the studio doors locked, the band spent a final, eerie day wandering a deserted Venice Beach before flying home early, but with the record already in the can. All that chaos brings a certain unpredictability to an album that nods to some of the US lo-fi greats and yet arrives at something innately British.

Praised for their grit and authenticity by The Guardian and NPR’s Ann Powers, their live performances have drawn wildly enthusiastic comparisons to Kings of Leon, Nirvana, Buffalo Tom and The Marshall Tucker Band.

This album contains no booklet.