Essex storyteller, Scott Lavene gives another tantalising preview of his forthcoming album Disneyland In Dagenham with the engagingly quirky new single “Sadly I’m Not Steve McQueen”, out now in Australia through Cheersquad Records & Tapes.

Scott Lavene is the kind of artist that can be compared only to himself, he’s that voice in our ear who always has a tale more weird, more tragic, more funny than our own, but in whose experiences we can see our own. “Sadly I’m not Steve McQueen” contrasts the dreary romance of his Essex upbringing with his dreams of international stardom – a Malibu mansion next door to Keith Moon’s and a bright red open-topped sports car, but today such validation no longer matters.

“It would be nice to make £150,000 a year from tours and sell 20,000 records, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t really care about that any more”. After some years of personal struggle, Lavene’s got something worth more than any of that – a fanbase for many of whom his music means absolutely everything.

“My music’s a bit marmitey,” he says, but for those who love it it’s a love that runs deep – a recent crowdfunding campaign for Lavene to set up his own home studio, for instance, rapidly outstripped its target, setting the stage for “the grotty Essex Neil Young album” he’s already got in the pipeline.

An audience that’s both smaller and more dedicated can mean a type of connection more worthwhile than any arena show, he says. “That guy’s come to three or four gigs since then, and to meet the guy is just so fucking beautiful. Music’s given me a lot over the years, and I find it bizarre and wonderful that mine can give that to people too.”