Believer Interview I - Interviewed by his 'believers' (those who have invested in him on Sellaband) - August 2007
Q: Why a stick man? Did you draw it yourself? Do you draw many stick men?
Haha, no, I don’t tend to draw many! I did draw that one though…
I didn’t want to take myself too seriously as an artist and thought that logo gets that across. Yes I have a message in my songs and yes the songs mean something to me but I have a sense of humour, a sense of reality and don’t have any illusions of grandeur.
Q: How many brothers and sisters do you have, are they artistically inclined as well?
I have one older brother, one older sister and one younger sister. My dad was a trumpet player and a closet singer/songwriter and listened to a lot of good music as I was growing up. My older siblings learnt the piano (amongst other instruments) to a high level and my brother wrote some songs. I was the unmusical one in the family who dropped out of piano lessons after a few months but I loved music and eventually picked up the guitar and started to write songs at 13.
Q: What's your favorite or best way of unwinding after a hard day?
After my work, music and social life commitments there is not too much time for relaxing but football is my other passion and I love to just lie down, read the papers and watch some quality football on TV. At the moment, the answer is not picking up a guitar and strumming but if I ever got the opportunity to do music full-time I think it may be as I wouldn’t need to switch off as much.
Q: Tell us a bit more about your band and what they currently do for a living?
Hmmm what can I tell you about my band? Well they are three, very different people who do different things. One is a teacher, one works in advertising traffic for a large multimedia company and one works with computers. We all have to pay the bills but ultimately I see them as musicians. They are all very very talented in their own way. Milo is incredibly naturally gifted, Helen has a feel for the music and approaches the songs intelligently and Jen is a young singer with an amazing voice who has the world at her feet. Sometimes I make mistakes in rehearsal because I am listening to them too much. I don’t know quite how much they all want to build a career in music but I am happy that at the moment they are choosing to play with me.
We rehearse in humble surroundings but we all have a bit if a chat and get on well at rehearsals and gigs. I think this is important and I do think you develop a bit of a bond through shared experiences (like SellaBration). Personally, I felt proud to see them alongside me on stage at the Paradiso, doing what they do best.
Q: Do you have any ambitions to rekindle your old band Bullet Galloway in any form, and specifically, might there be any BG style tracks on your SAB CD?
I definitely miss playing electric 4-piece gigs but I have no plans to reunite my old band. It was great while it lasted but the other band members have moved on and it would be nothing more than a hobby for them now. As I am in the situation where people have financially put faith in me, I think it is only fair that everything I do is given maximum effort.
However the songs are a different matter. I still believe in a lot of the material we played and my early solo gigs featured some Bullet Galloway tracks and probably will do again. I still play around with a few at home and you never know… In my head I don’t separate BG tracks from DWM tracks as I wrote (virtually) all of them and I have just been a bit of a chameleon in writing for the instruments around me. My SAB CD wont feature any BG songs recorded in a BG style though as I think it’s a bad move to have totally different styles on the same CD, especially if it is your first proper release.
Q: Will your SAB CD be you, Milo, Jen, Helen or might you bring in other musicians too?
I like to think us 4 will be a constant, probably alongside a drummer/percussionist. I want guest musicians to come in and play on certain tracks but I will keep plans under wraps for now…! A lot can happen between now and 50k so I can’t be too set in my ways (but I am ready now folks!).
Q: Any thoughts on the No of tracks and any extra material for the leCD?
I think the number of tracks is an interesting question. I think maybe the bar was set too high when everyone assumed a 10-12 track album was possible. For someone like me with a fairly simple sound, I would hope I could get to 10 tracks but for other acts that may be hard. Spreading the budget too thin will result in good demo level recordings rather than the professional CD we all crave. In terms of the leCD, I want to make this special and I am sure there will be the odd extra feature!
Q: Do you have a day job and if so, what is it?
Yes I do. I would love to be able to write and play music full-time but there are a lot of things that have to happen before that is possible. I like to keep my day job quite separate as I work hard to contribute to my company but I don’t want to pretend it inspires, shapes or affects my music.
Q: I'm sure your music will be recorded on a SellaBand album shortly (within the coming months) but where do you see yourself five years from now?
I hope so!! I have no real plan B to be honest. I am still writing, recording and playing because I believe in the material and I just want the opportunity to record it properly and be able to play professional gigs to lots of people. I hope I can be doing that in 5 years time. If I can’t be, I don’t really see a way to be happy but I am privileged to be healthy and have an education to earn enough money to live, so I will do what I can to be content.
Q: What part of you (i.e. personal experience), if any, is in She's a Knockout? What inspired you to write it?
Oh-oh here we go…(deep breath) - I took the decision ages ago to never really explain what songs are about as if I did that I have to censor what I write but I suppose I have to give something back here! I wrote this one as I find that everyone tries to intellectualise things and profess that looks are not that important but then they will go round the corner and bump into a girl that makes them go weak. I just think some age-old things just exist and we should accept them for what they are. I definitely think we should celebrate beauty a lot more – in all its many forms… (exhale) hmm - have I done ok?
Q: Is there any place or thing that you do that inspires you to write songs more than any other?
A few years ago I realised that I had written my best stuff without a guitar in my hand. I think your brain tends to pick out certain notes when you strike a chord and perhaps my vocal melodies were not as interesting/varied this way. So now I have a funny situation, as most of the original ideas for my songs come to me when I am walking down the street or leaving a pub. This normally results in me having to call the answerphone in my flat and leaving a muttered bit of singing on a message so I don’t forget it. I have a chorus for a new song (probably going to be called ‘I Just Want to be a Somebody’) that hit me just as I was getting off the plane in the UK after returning from Amsterdam. I was by myself and had a few strange looks as I quickly sung something down the phone before I got to the customs line. I am quite an emotionally level guy but the ideas normally come when I feel a bit abnormal - either melancholic, happy, tired, elated, drunk or all five!
Q: If you become a successful full-time recording artist, where would you like to live/work and why?
I love to travel and would love to live in different places but sometimes it’s not that simple as family and other musicians tend to stay put. I could see myself potentially living in NYC, Rome, a major Spanish city but I will go wherever I think creatively I could thrive and I think that place would still be London.
Q: Do you believe the lust to make music is a gift or a burden?
This gets the ‘Deep Question award’! I think the real answer to this is an ‘over a pint’ answer, it depends if your motivation is songwriting, playing on a big stage or telling everyone you are a musician!.... but I will summarise by saying I think it’s a burden if you don’t get to do anything with the gift, but a gift if you get to provide pleasure for a lot of people. I think I am somewhere in the middle at the moment so ask me again in 5 years!
