Hi, we're a singing duo called Morton Valence. We are Anne Gilpin and Robert 'Hacker' Jessett. We term our music 'Urban Country', which is basically, our slightly idiosyncratic take on country music.

The fact that we come from London, where many of our songs are set, gives our interpretation of Americana something of a different twist. But that doesn't mean that what we do isn't authentic, quite the opposite in fact, as all we've ever been is 100% authentically ourselves.

We're into lots of different music, we’re into John Prine, Patsy Cline and Merle Haggard, we like film soundtracks by Ennio Morricone, we're into The Carpenters, we like the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, we like old punk rock, and in terms of contemporary stuff, we're big fans of the Delines, and we've always loved Johnny Dowd, Will Oldham and Calexico.

So I guess you could say our tastes are catholic, which probably comes across in our own music.

James Brute is the alter-ego of James Steel, songwriter and frontman of 2000s East London darlings The Brute Chorus. The warp and weft of Steel’s musical narratives on love, loss and lust speak to the basest of our human instincts, pulling on themes and characters both ancient and modern; arcane and mundane.