Folk singer Will Varley will be among the acts performing at Deal record label Smugglers Records 2012 Festival. Tim Collins caught up with him to talk about his music.

From an early age Will Varley was drawn to music and its ability to convey his experience of the world.

Rejecting conventional education and preferring a do-it-yourself attitude, Will taught himself to play the piano and later the guitar.

This sense of self-reliance has shaped much of his musical career to date and led him to join Deal music collective Smugglers Records.

The label was set up by a group of musicians who hoped to set themselves free from the commercial processes involved in the music business.

Since joining the label after moving from London, Will, 24, has been on the road extensively, including a walking tour last summer which saw him covering 130 miles around the South East on foot, with just a guitar and tent on his back. His formative years were also spent performing around central London and his hometown of Kingston-Upon-Thames.

He said: “By the time I was 15 or 16 I was getting on a train to travel to pubs around London at least once or twice a week.

“Some of them were really horrible gigs but I always just enjoyed it and I was fascinated how you could take a situation and make it work.”

Often playing to disinterested drinkers in dingy watering holes, Will soon realised that to engage his audiences he would have to learn to stand out.

For the young musician, this would come in the form of theatricality and performance.

He said: “I’m not a very good guitarist and I don’t have a traditionally good voice, so I need to do something else. What I started doing from very early on is putting in lyrics that might pull people out of their world and come into mine for a little bit.”

Will’s style of folk falls into a rich tradition of musicians with a message and given his early introduction to the music of Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg by his father, this is perhaps unsurprising.

From the opening track on his latest album, Advert Soundtracks, it is clear that Will often tackles issues of political, social and cultural significance.

However, he is keen to avoid being labelled a protest singer.

He said: “If you’re going to respond to your life experience through song, it would be crazy to write songs only about relationships or one night when I got drunk.

“I like to respond to everything and often that is the fact that the country is in meltdown, but I certainly don’t class myself as a protest or political singer.”

One target for Will’s keen sense of satire is the effect that shows like the X Factor have had on music. In his track Monkey On A Rock, Simon Cowell is firmly in the singer’s sights.

About the media mogul, Will said: “A lot of people don’t watch those sorts of shows thinking ‘this isn’t real’ – they think this is reality.

“The process isn’t as easy as that, you don’t just turn up to an audition and win a £1m record contract.”

“It’s a false representation of success, and I think what that does, as a lot of things seem to do, is increase the massive sense of insecurity that our generation has about themselves and what they are capable of.

“Simon Cowell is the enemy to my generation, not its spokesperson.”

The Smugglers Festival is a family friendly gathering which takes place on four acres a few miles away from the sea, in the rolling Kent countryside.

It is being held in a secret woodland setting near Deal. Festival-goers find out where it is after buying their ticket.

As well as Will Varley the rustic three-day extravaganza hosts Syd Arthur, Coco Lovers, Nuru Kan, Peter Roe and Zoo For You. Spread across three stages, the music ranges from world music and folk to hip-hop and psychedelia, as well as performances from some of Smugglers Records’ own list of acts. For children there are entertainers and activities.

The festival runs from Friday, August 31, to Sunday, September 2. Weekend tickets £60. More details at www.smugglersrecords.com.