JOHN BLAYLOCK: THE NEW MANCHESTER SINGER-SONGWRITER READY TO MAKE 2026 HIS YEAR

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BLAYLOCK by Morris Shamah

Last month, Manchester singer-songwriter John Blaylock released his brand new single ‘Moonshine & Roses‘, a taster of his debut solo album ‘Sounds Of The Dreadnought’ coming March 2026. Written by John and produced alongside Grammy Award winner Guy Massey (Ed Sheeran, Manic Street Preachers, Jack Savoretti) and Helen Boulding (Ward Thomas), ‘Moonshine & Roses’ highlights a singer-songwriter who has boldly delved into personal reflections, to share his authentic experiences and emotions through his music.

After recently concluding a successful UK tour, we had the opportunity to sit down with John to discuss his new single, the upcoming debut album, and the excitement of performing these tracks live.

This is such a lovely listen, but ripe with such deep and confessional themes. How do you balance the lyrical content vs. the musical vibe?

Thanks man. I see them both as equally important. A great lyric that doesn’t sing well or fit the vibe can’t work, and a great vibe with stock lyrics is just as redundant. If there’s space for 2 verses in a song, I generally write 5 or 6 then whittle it down. Takes some time but I enjoy it

‘Moonshine & Roses’ is inspired by two modern classics of American literature On The Road and The Catcher In The Rye. What did you take from these books into your writing? How did the quintessential American experiences influence your creative process?

You’ve done your research! Indeed, the quote “Moonshine and Roses” comes from The Catcher in The Rye. There was a lot of inspiration to be had whilst traveling around America as a 19 year old with a guitar. I did some cool things like riding a freight train over the Mississippi while watching the sunset over Memphis. You can’t buy that kind of inspiration. There were a lot of Greyhound’s too and it felt like the guitar had to come out at every stop, I actually came up with the fingerpicking part for the chorus at a bus station in Albuquerque, New Mexico

You’ve just wrapped up a UK headline tour. What was it like playing these particular songs to a live audience?

Yeah it was awesome, I did the shows with Wet Wet Wet in huge theatres just me and an acoustic guitar which was epic then followed it up playing headline shows in smaller venues. People seemed to really connect with the songs which I loved.

Your upcoming album is called ‘Sounds Of The Dreadnought.’ Maybe this is giving too much away, but what is the titular Dreadnought?

It’s a nod to my guitar. I play a Martin Dreadnought and pretty much always have. So much of this album is based around the flashy fingerpicking parts I thought it deserved some credit!

You’ve released a few of these songs already, but the bulk of the album is still to come. What are you looking forward to us hearing?

There’s some absolute belters still to come. ‘Violets’ is this tortured love song that I can’t wait for people to hear, but the big one really is ‘Where Did All My Friends Go’; it’s about growing up and losing your childhood friends, it’s pretty anthemic so we’ll save that for the last release with the album

The album releases in March. Will you be supporting it with some live dates?

Yes indeed, having a big release party at a 700 seater venue in Manchester, but then will also be touring through March leading up to that and doing some big support shows with the likes of Damien Dempsey and Ian Prowse. It’s gonna be a fun start to 2026!