大象传媒

It's early 2008 and 27-year-old Ed Ling is high on the praise he's been receiving for his self-produced Some Best Friend demo.

Reviews of his 2007 CD drew comparisons to Doves and Echo And The Bunnymen, with Tom Robinson saying it was "reminiscent of Guillemots at their best".

"Tom Robinson has a new Introducing show on 大象传媒 6 Music where he plays the best music he's found on the internet," Ed says. "He played America Song and was really positive about me, so that was a good ending to 2007."

The wide range of comparisons is testament to Some Best Friend's ability to avoid pigeonholing, but it's also brought amusement to Ed.

"A lot of people tell me I've got a real 80s pop sound. People tell me I'm like Depeche Mode or Scritti Politti - I know of them and could name a couple of songs, but they haven't influenced me!

"Brian Wilson is a big inspiration for me. As is Scott Walker - I really like his big arrangements."

Hadleigh music scene

Ed says being based in Hadleigh has limited his opportunities to perform in front of an audience, so is thankful for London's proximity.

But his relative isolation has given him the perfect excuse to concentrate on his recordings, all of which are done at home.

Ed Ling, Some Best Friend

"I've been gigging as an acoustic act but I'm really into the production side of things, so on record it's more of a full band sound.

"I've slowly built studio equipment up over the years and learnt instruments as I went along. I bought a bass guitar, learnt a bit of piano and put it all together using my computer.

"I'm carrying on with Some Best Friend at the start of 2008 but I'm already working on a new project, which is going to be a little bit different.

"It's going to be a bit more experimental, more technical, so I doubt I'll be able to perform it live.

"Some Best Friend's songs are all quite structured, so it will be good to do something different."

Visit Some Best Friend's MySpace page for information on upcoming gigs or new recordings.