Believer Interview II - Interviewed by his 'believers' (those who have invested in him on Sellaband) - February 2008 - click here to read
Will you be recording all new tracks for your SAB album, or will some of the existing tracks be re-recorded?
The three song session I recorded with Tony Platt (She’s a Knockout, The City Inside and The Most Important Thing) was the first time that 6 months after a recording I didn’t think ‘I’d really like to re-record them’. I am happy with those recordings and I certainly won’t be recording them all again for this album. I won’t rule out recording a different version of one of them though as I like to keep my options open. The reality is though that I could sit here and list 50 songs I have written that could be considered – so you understand when I say the choice is going to be hard. I plan to sit down for a fair while with my chosen producer and discuss all the song options. I have nearly completed 3 new songs that I have been working on for the last couple of months and I am really excited about them. They are called The Queen of Something New, The End of My Summers and My Beautiful Predicament. I would be very surprised if at least 2 of those don’t feature but we will see. I have been thinking about this album for a long long time now – I even know what I am going to call it.
Is the 4th March at The Bedford in Balham your first gig for 2008, and will it be streamed live as usual from the Bedford Website?
Yeah it will be streamed live and it would have been the first gig of the year until being asked to play at The Sellaband Orchard gig - but it is the first normal one that I will be promoting heavily. Apart from it being a great venue with great sound, one of the key reasons to play there is that is gets streamed and non-London people can watch it, I think that is important to do every now and again so I don’t just give a ‘London, London, London’ message to all the believers around the word…
Any thoughts on bringing out Songs from Soho as a CD? What are the costs involved in such an enterprise?
I would love to at some point but I will try and show what my current thinking on this is…
I could put it out as a CD now – or put it on iTunes just as MP3s - but I am aware that $30-35k isn’t a massive budget and I really want to be able to offer a special leCD that everyone will want to own. The extra content I think most people are interested in is music. I know that is true for me. If I play all my cards now I think I would have less ability to do that. It may not come across that well sometimes as I don’t want to appear arrogant but I am very confident and very ambitious when it comes to my music. I want to put out a leCD that is so strong in quality and quantity that not only will people in the Sellaband community be trying to get hold of it, but so subsequently so will all of those people outside of Sellaband when they become more aware of the music. People who have 10 copies of my leCD album will have no trouble in selling them on and the recordings on the standard CD will speak for themselves.
I appreciate this approach may mean I am missing a trick or two on the way to 50k but I think it will be worth it. Some of my believers may be thinking ‘hey, I want that now’ but people visiting my profile still get to listen to more songs and hopefully can be more convinced of my credentials.
How much would you have to have charged each of us lucky 25 to break even for the night?
It wouldn’t be fair of me to give details of prices but I got what I would consider to be some great deals along the way – but add them all up and it still comes to a hell of a lot of money. I haven’t done the sums but something like 4 or 5 times what people paid. I think it was fair to ask for a contribution towards what most people saw as a very enjoyable night, but sadly my end-game at this stage has never to be able to break even – and that goes for gigs, rehearsals, videos and studio sessions as well as Songs from Soho! It has been over a decade of paying out, I probably could have bought a yacht by now…
Which great opponent of Cartesian dualism resists the reduction of psychological phenomena to a physical state and insists there is no point of contact between the extended and the unextended?
I feel very stupid right now……
I am always amazed by the creative process of writing music. I would like to hear more about your process of writing. Do you for example start with the lyrics or the music? Where do you get your inspiration for your lyrics and music?
I think every artist does this differently. When I was younger I always used to write my music when I had a guitar in my hand or occasionally a piano at my fingertips – but for about the last 4 years I have always written songs, or the beginning of a song, in my head without instruments. The longer I let my head shape the song (work out the rhythm, settle on a prominent bassline or riff) the better I think the material is. So I leave it as long as possible before picking up my guitar. Quite often I will pick up the guitar, work out the chords and then sing it into a dictaphone so I can’t completely forget it, then put the guitar away for a while and carry on shaping it and writing the rest of the lyrics.
I live in a big city and I don’t switch off much. I often find myself reading and listening to an iPod at the same time, or painting and watching TV - and the rare times I find myself in near-silence my head seems to make up sounds to fill the void. I always need a reason to write the song and I always need to have some lyrics in my head. Sometimes everything comes at once – I write the lyric in my head and it seems to come with a tune attached that expresses it.
Although I say I need a reason to write a song, I think I am different to most artists as I don’t write music for any sort of cathartic reason. I don’t feel the need to express myself and I don’t have any typical artistic traits like depression or a volatile temperament.
As for the last bit – ‘where do I get inspiration?’… – it can come from many things. It can come from experience, from people, from places and from empathy of how a situation may be. It can be personal melancholy, it can be political, it can be praising someone, it can be damning them. I write about the present sometimes, but I also write about the past, and I write thoughts on the future. I have many metaphors in my lyrics, there are many double meanings and some things are about what they seem and other bits are impossible to read. I try not to be too insular as at the end of the day I don’t think my personal feelings about personal issues are interesting…
As I read that back, despite it all being true, I think it all sounds a bit weird. I am a regular guy who leads a fairly regular life – every now and again I will write a song and every now and again I will perform or record them. I would love to do the last bit more often but other than that, I am just the normal guy down the pub…
What is your favorite thing to do on a cold and rainy day?
Hmmm… I never mind the weather if I am visiting in a foreign city… so is to answer ‘in a foreign place I have never been before’ cheating? – if it is then I will say holed up in a warm pub, with a good bottle of red wine and talking to strangers… or at the cinema by myself, eating sweets and listening to my iPod in-between destinations…
Do you like Dr Who?
I used to. I remember hiding behind the sofa being a bit scared but loving watching it. I think as it got less serious it lost something though… - or maybe that was just my age… - weird question! Next…!
If you can remember back to when your early teens what music were you listening to?
I am both blessed and cursed with a very good memory, so I can remember everything. My teens were spent listening to Billy Joel (Glass Houses, The Stranger, Turnstiles), Cold Spring Harbor), Guns n’ Roses, Counting Crows, Hootie and the Blowfish, Michael Jackson and Madonna – amongst 100’s of others… Tori Amos and Jackson Browne joined the party from 16 onwards and I still listen to all of them today plus so much more…
If you could go back in time and claim to have written any song (before the original artist wrote the song) what song would it be and why?
I wouldn’t claim it if it wasn’t true! But I would most like to have written Hotel California by The Eagles I think. It is definitely in my top 5 songs and apart from loving the vocal melody, I love the way the lines are delivered. If not that, something like Yesterday or Something by The Beatles, or my all time favourite song Summer Highland Falls by Billy Joel.
Who is the person you most look up to, and why?
Woah big question…er…my head divides this into music and non-music because there are some musicians who have done what I am constantly trying to do – Billy Joel, Tori Amos, Ryan Adams – I look up to their ability and their performances but as I don’t know them, I can’t say if I look up to them as people. I am pretty unfazed by celebrity, so my answer would be people who spend their time constantly helping others. I think I respect sacrifice the most above all other things. Someone who does great charity work full-time, someone who battles in surgery to save lives or someone who campaigns constantly to try and right a big wrong. Have I met the person? No. If someone went back in time and stopped capitalism from ever happening, it would probably be them – they would have saved a lot of death and hardship.
What was the last video game you played and what was the first you ever played?
‘Tiger Woods Golf’ or ‘Super Mario Kart’ on the Nintendo Wii would have been the last – the first was ‘Chuckie Egg’ on my friend’s BBC Micro. Did they exist everywhere?!?
Are you the sort of person who is always early, always late, or always on time? What do you think that says about yourself?
Always on time or early… unless I make an effort to be late! I think (if it wasn’t for the last bit) it would say I am a bit of a mug! Haha… seriously though I hope it says that I am conscientious and have a logical brain that can work backwards! I just wish others did!
How old were all of the members of your band (including yourself) when they started learning how to play the instrument they mainly play today?
I started playing a few chords on guitar at about 12 but I consider myself a songwriter and singer really, not a guitarist… I first sang in front of people at about 12 or 13 I guess…
You know what – I don’t know this about my band members! I would guess Milo and Helen have been playing their instruments (Cello and Violin) since early teens. Jen probably sung around the house but didn’t sing professionally until I heard her singing along to a song on the dance-floor in a nightclub. She was on stage with me within 2 months. One of my better decisions…
Where is the most unusual place you've ever played live?
On a big and crowded stage in a very big and empty hall in Glasgow, Scotland. I was part of a YMCA run rock gospel choir (!!) that toured and I was introduced first-hand to the difficulty in selling tickets! I was about 13, I got to sing Thunder by Prince and play (badly) a simplified version of the guitar solo in Movin’ on up by Primal Scream, so it was not all bad… I also had to sleep on a sports hall floor and there were scary kids selling drugs round the corner… - it was a mixed bag.
When and where was the very first time that you ever sang in public and what did you sing?
Errrr - it was probably at a youth club, in front of about 30 people. I say ‘probably’ as it didn’t faze me much as I would have played the song about 100 times in my bedroom first.
Do you get nervous before a performance, if so what do you do to try and calm down?
Nah, I don’t get nervous before performing. I rationally told myself once there is no point in getting nervous so I don’t. Actually, I have played a song at a couple of friend’s weddings before and got a bit nervous… - it’s the difference between mucking things up for you and mucking things up for someone else…
I generally get nervous doing things I am bad at – like job interviews or presentations at work - gimme the Paradiso anyday…
What has been the highlight of your musical career so far?
I dunno really, I am always too busy thinking about the next step up to celebrate the present. I suppose I should say the Paradiso as it probably was the best venue I have played – but I only played 4 songs and I think my personal performance was pretty average – so I will either say working with Tony Platt, which was a great experience, or a gig I did once at the Borderline with my old band Bullet Galloway. It was only a 250 person venue but it was packed, I gave a lively and good performance and the crowd were genuinely going mad for an encore.
Have you ever been recognised on the street yet by someone who was at one of your live performances?
Yeah once someone came up to me on the tube and said they had seen me play somewhere, and I get a few strange looks from time to time, but it doesn’t really happen. Sure I have played some good gigs, but I don’t think I have accomplished anything yet so I would be surprised to get recognised.
Are you a glass half empty or half full person? And what would that glass be full of?
Definitely a half full person. People get wrapped up thinking about what they haven’t got that they don’t appreciate what they have got. So the glass would be full of hope, gratefulness and positivity – or Italian red wine.
What is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you on stage?
I suppose the normal stuff like leads not working and technical errors. The odd stumble over a wire but nothing too bad……yet!
What was the most difficult song you ever wrote?
None have been difficult to write to be honest as I don’t ever force myself to write them. There are obviously ones that are partly about people who are not around anymore so they can be a bit harder to perform sometimes.
How does your dedication to charity affect your music?
I am a bit embarrassed about the word dedication but I do think charity is very important. I have real issues with the people who say ‘they will probably spend it on drugs anyway’ or ‘the money won’t get through to the right people’. If that is the case then give through the right channels or make damn sure the money will get through to who you want it to – don’t just sit there and tell yourself these things so you feel a little bit better about splashing out on an expensive item. Most people have charities they support and causes they believe in and I would love to be in a position where I can give something for free that is worth something.
What talent do you wish you had but don't?
I paint simple (kind of) landscapes but I would love to be a really talented artist. I am (very slowly) writing a novel as well and being a keen photographer, but for those things I just wish I had more time to do it rather than being any better. Not everyone can be the worlds best, so do what you can do and don’t do what you can’t.
How hard is it to choose what is on your gig set-list?
Very hard. Every time I write a new song I have to say goodbye to another one if I want it in the set. If I was an established artist I would get to record most of the songs that fade out of the live shows, so there would be some sort of audible record of them. Part of my motivation is that I don’t want the songs to live and die in my living room.
Is there a story behind Soldier’s Song? Do you have a close relative or friend in the armed forces?
I do have grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great uncles who fought in the World Wars but I can’t say that is the reason for writing the song. For some reason, other than having a healthy interest in history, I seem to empathise with the incredible situations people find themselves in, in times of war. Some people want to sing about a kind of Hollywood romance all the time – it involves grand gestures, the right words at the right time, gazing into each others eyes, sweeping people off their feet and a ‘you were there for me honey’ type thing. I just don’t really find those things romantic or very real. I find other things romantic - someone’s last thought on a battlefield, someone yearning for what is lost or someone moving to the other side of the world so they don’t break up a relationship. Like many of my songs Soldier’s song is about many things. It is about sacrifice, tragic romance, the reality of situations, no-one hearing your final thoughts, and people protecting themselves and not allowing the thoughts that make it hard to go on. It was written in the context of seeing thugs terrorising people in the streets, rich young couples worrying about tablecloths and curtains and people treating quite trivial situations as if their whole life was crumbling. In the same scene there would be some elderly women on a bus who was not offered a seat and is desperately trying to hold on for dear life. She probably had a lover who died in the war, has worked for pennies all her life and can’t understand the direction of the world today. For her sufferings she gets a thug, an affluent young woman worrying about redecorating a room that doesn’t need redecorating, and a fit healthy man sitting in her seat. It may sound a bit twee, but if my song can make a few more people think about the sacrifices people have made so that they can worry about their insignificant things, then good.
What do you think is your worst habit?
I don’t know if it is a habit as such but I would say ambition. Everyone thinks it is a blessing to be ambitious, I think it is a blessing to be content.
