Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I grew up in a suburb in the South East of England, not far from London. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like an especially rock ‘n’ roll backstory, but the area has a surprising amount of musical heritage – legend had it that Eric Clapton went to the school up the road, and the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck all have connections to the neighbouring towns.
As for a career in music…well, as a very introverted and socially awkward kid, I found music to be a bit of a lifeline – a way to express myself when I wasn’t so good at expressing myself verbally. It was very cathartic. Not that I had a lot to be angry about, necessarily; more that as a slightly anxious, awkward teenager, there was a feeling of serenity that came from playing music with other people. A bit like primal scream therapy for your fingers. And that was before I discovered the adrenaline hit that came from playing in front of an appreciative audience – it didn’t take long to get hooked on that feeling.
And speaking of expressing myself, I think the instinct to create my own material was always there. I won’t pretend the results were always good, but it’s become part of who I am, like some process always ticking away in the back of my brain. I can’t imagine ever fully switching it off.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: Not a lot of training, but I had piano lessons for a couple of years, which, gave me a really valuable foundation. Fortunately, I “clicked” quite well with my piano teacher, who gave me an introduction to Jazz, as well as the confidence to improvise. Off the back of that, I read up on quite a lot of music theory (going back to what I said about being socially awkward…), and so when I first started trying to teach myself the bass guitar, it didn’t feel like I was fumbling around aimlessly. Once I’d got the hang of the bass, I got the bug for trying my hand at other instruments. Some of my friends have suggested that if I could make three or four different pitches from banging a tin can, I’d try to play a tune on it.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: I remember The Doors and The Who as early epiphanies – it probably syncs up with starting to learn instruments myself, as playing the piano likely drew my attention to Ray Manzarek’s haunting electric organ playing; similarly, learning the bass helped me to notice John Entwistle’s extraordinary bass playing. Quite apart from the musicianship, both groups had very distinctive writing styles, and I think their influence still looms large over the way I create and arrange songs.
It would be a few more years before I’d discover Tom Waits, but his wonderfully dark, strange music has had as profound an influence as the ‘60s blues-rock and early-’70s prog that I gorged myself on as a teenager. It’s become a running joke on my live streams that I have to include an “obligatory” Tom Waits cover in my setlist each week.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Never Know’. Is there a story behind it?
A: It’s about the creeping rise of a number of malign forces around the world. I feel like a lot of things have been getting steadily worse since around 2008, but everything seemed to really nosedive around 2016. It’s hard to say exactly what changed, but at some point the people we’d laughed off as gobshites or pound-shop fascists managed to grab the wheel, with alarming numbers of people cheering them on as they steered us towards a very dark future. So Never Know is about exactly that: how these angry, unpleasant impulses start to rise again, and we’re left wondering how we got into this state.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: Yes indeed! Never Know is the lead single from my first full-length album, Magnolia Smoke. I don’t have a firm release date just yet, but there is another single on the way before the album drops – the next one is called Circus. (It’s not a Britney cover.)
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: In a nutshell, “where the Blues gets weird.” The EPs I’ve released to date have leaned more towards Folk-Blues, and Magnolia Smoke tends more towards Blues-Rock, but the common elements are the Blues, and the weirdness. I adore the Blues, but I’m very aware that a lot of artists have a tendency to fall back on the same tropes and cliches that people use to parody the genre. So I’ve made it a bit of a mission statement to drag Blues music, kicking and screaming, into new and uncharted territory.
And I’m sure that means a lot of gatekeepers and purists will hate what I do, and tell me it’s “not real/proper Blues”, but then I’m not making it for their benefit: I’m making it for the people who are up for something fresh, something challenging. So forgive me if I’m not about to rehash another Stormy Monday or Texas Flood – they’re great songs, recorded by great artists, don’t get me wrong, but they’ve been done. Let’s explore a bit further, and push at the limits of what “the Blues” can be.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: I have a handful of very dedicated fans, and I cannot overstate how grateful I am for them. Through the pandemic, I got into a regular schedule of livestreaming, and it was so nice to be able to play for them every week that I kept on doing it even after things started to open up again. I just wish I could find more like-minded people to expand that group! There’s so much more I’d like to do – not least of all, getting back into playing “conventional” live shows – but it’s hard to know where I should focus my efforts to make these things happen.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: I often worry that my process isn’t very consistent! Everything starts with a little kernel of inspiration, but that could be a snippet of melody from noodling on an instrument, a motif or lyric idea that comes into my head, reading a phrase in a book that sparks my imagination, or even just an interesting rhythm from idly drumming my fingers on a table! The most important part of the process is making sure I write it down somewhere.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: Imposter syndrome. I could suggest things which have hit harder in the short-term, but they always pass eventually. Imposter syndrome is always there, bubbling away in the background and causing me to doubt everything I do. And no matter how far I get – no matter what I manage to do with my music – there’s always a nagging feeling that somehow everything I’ve done is terrible, and everybody will hate it. Some people seem to have a knack for silencing that chronic self-doubt…I’d love to know how they do it.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Prior to this solo project, I played bass with a group called Cherry White – in fact I still do, but we’re not as active these days! And for a couple of years it felt like we were on our way to “making it” (whatever that actually amounts to…). We were breaking through onto some medium-sized festivals, starting to play gigs abroad, getting played on bigger radio shows, and so on. It was hard work, but it was exciting, the gigs were enjoyable, and it felt like there was a bit of a buzz carrying us along. In the end, circumstances were changing, and we started to run out of steam, but it was great while it lasted, and I still feel like it was something we could all be proud of. It gives me a certain amount of optimism for what I could achieve with my own solo work – and I am not normally an optimistic person!
