After his old band split, Fleming struggled to launch a solo career – then the pandemic forced him to confront his mental health and addiction issues. The reckoning prompted a miraculous back-to-basics record

In 2019, a year after his band Wild Beasts had split, Tom Fleming toured his debut solo album as One True Pairing. It was, by his account, a “fucking awful” experience, with only a couple of well-attended shows. “It was really difficult,” he admits. “Putting Wild Beasts on tour was like putting an army in motion. I wanted to go back to basics. But even then, it was obvious: this is not right and I’m not in any fit state.”

The baroque Kendal four-piece had gone out on a high after five brilliant albums, two of which hit the UK Top 10, three glorious farewell gigs, no animosity – they’re still friends – although Fleming, who was the gruff vocal foil to the more florid Hayden Thorpe, wanted to continue. “If one person doesn’t want to be there, you haven’t got a quartet any more, so I think it was the right thing to do,” he says in his beautifully deep Cumbrian accent, drinking the day’s umpteenth black coffee on a warm October afternoon near Waterloo.