The Jacaranda was produced by Elbow’s Craig Potter, who met Gower while working on the soundtrack for independent film Running Naked which the actor was starring in. Potter and Gower recorded the EP at Blueprint Studios in Manchester in April over three weeks.
Gower said: “It was the first time in a long time I felt like I was 16 again, basically writing this music, it was incredible.”
Elbow’s frontman Guy Garvey has praised Gower’s “effortless understated delivery” and the “heart-stopping honesty of his beautifully crafted words”.
Would Gower consider writing music about Bonnie Prince Charlie? He joked: “If Outlander’s composer Bear [McCreary] or Diana Gabaldon ask me to do anything for Outlander, I’m always there. I don’t know if anybody would want a song called ‘Mark Me’. But who knows?
“Of course, every writer’s influenced by what they’ve done, so I definitely have in mind in the future to join acting and music together in some way. Plenty of biopics and plenty of music-based projects that I think can be really, really special. So definitely, it would be something I’d consider but I don’t whether people would be crying out – as I say – for the Bonnie Prince Charlie Musical just yet.”
The Jacaranda launches on August 20