MY SO CALLED GREEN LIFE.
18.10.11
1Life & Style
In the first of her series, the celebrated singer/ songwriter charts her extensive green makeover back to the beginning and tells us how she fell for the environment and met an intriguing green figure, Mr Wolf...
KT with friend and collaborator Mr Wolf aka Mark Aston and his daughter
HOW IT ALL STARTED
My move to London in 2001 as a wannabe musician was in equal parts an exhilarating, life-altering experience, and a major physical change. I grew up next to the Sea in North East Fife, on one of the most beautiful and wild British coastlines. City-wise up to that point I’d only lived in Edinburgh, which is - let’s face it - a rugged anomaly in the realms of regular cityscapes.
Those first twelve months involved couch slumming, post-traumatic rent disorder, and the entire contents of the flat upstairs' 30-year-old heating being absorbed by my bed via a light-fitting. But my living conditions took a huge turn for the better when I moved in with my then boyfriend, now husband, Luke Bullen, into a tight, bright, two bedroom, first-floor flat in Willesden Junction that he had just bought.
It was a vibrant little hive of activity; Martin Slattery of the band 'The Hours' lived beneath us and would regularly have an unknown James Blunt come round to nick off with his Wurlitzer; Chris Bran was busy writing the beginnings of his Sky Atlantic comedy 'This Is Jinsy' next door, and we'd all congregate in dingy pubs now and then to ensure an audience at each others' gigs. But what nobody realised was that within months, our particular corner was about to get the greenest makeover known to NW10...
MY CAMP FIRE INTRODUCTION TO GREEN
My initial foray into environmental partnerships began in Somerset, surrounded by trees planted by the inimitable Joe Strummer (the late great co-founder and lead vocalist of the Clash who was also a force to be reckoned with in the environmental movement). He had very suddenly and sadly passed away just as Luke and I got together. Luke had been his drummer in The Mescaleros, and took me down to his family home for a magical and moving weekend of remembrance and celebration of Joe with friends. It was there, sat by the fire with a man called Dan that it all began; through the boozy haze we discussed the importance of trees and forests to regulate our climate and impact on the planet. When my first record ‘Eye to the Telescope’ went on to sell a wholly unexpected four million copies, we used some of the proceeds to fund a Scottish forest.
I began to read up; the average British person emmits approximately 10 tonnes of carbon a year. A touring musician with accompanying band and crew, releasing records and travelling the world? Potentially 10 times that. This was defintely not cool.
GETTING GREENER AND MEETING MR WOLF
I decided to stop eating meat, use biofuel for my tour buses where possible, switch to an eco friendly merchandise company, fight for cardboard packaging rather than plastic, cut down on waste, fly with airlines committed to green research...but really, out of all of it, the best thing I did was meet Mr Wolf.
It’s an arresting name I know. Mr Wolf is the moniker of Mark Aston, someone I already knew; he had been the lead singer of the band he and Luke had formed in the mid 90's (Addict). Back then they lived the dream - LA, videos in swimming pools, the lot. But it didn't fly in the end, and when I met Mark he was in the midst of attempting to party away a career quandary. When we mentioned we wanted to totally gut and 'green' our north London flat but couldn't do it due to touring commitments, he simply said "I'll do it."
Mr Wolf was born and Luke and I took the first steps towards a home life that was a deeper shade of green than we’d ever thought possible. And this was only the very beginning.
To be continued…
