“If I Got Good”
from the album Settle
2008
iTunes
Can you share a little information about yourself?
I’m a solo artist from Leamington Spa in the middle of England. I’m English and of Irish descent. The Irish bit of the family is responsible for making me a musician, I think. I’ve been surrounded by folk music from my family for as long as I can remember. I’m 25 now and I’ve been playing piano since I was 7 or 8 (classical lessons) and singing and playing guitar since I was about 12 (self-taught). I moved from piano to guitar because I was starting to develop musical tastes of my own by that age and wanted to sound more like the punk and rock bands I was listening to.
I started playing open-mic nights at local pubs when I was 17 and then started booking and getting booked for my own gigs around the country, and have been doing that ever since. I’ve been pretty lucky in getting to take in some really cool venues in the UK, places like Indig02 and The Borderline in London, Thekla in Bristol, and The Marrs Bar in Worcester.
The music I’ve been playing since I started gigging is indie-folk, I guess. It’s fairly mellow and pared-down, usually me playing a couple of guitar parts and singing, sometimes with vocal harmonies and more recently with a small string section on my new EP. I just went through the boring administrative process of registering my own indie-label so that I could put the EP out officially, and it’s a nice feeling having a label to work with now. Dead satisfying to have gotten a record that I physically put together with my own hands out at a pro-level too.
You’ve read my blog on at least one occasion, and I’ve visited your Myspace page. So now that it seems the Internet isn’t a fad, what are your thoughts on the power of the web in relation to helping or hurting an artist?
I love the Internet. The novelty of having someone contact you to say they’ve enjoyed a bit of what you’ve done or react to requests for supporting the music never wears off for me. It’s a very rewarding thing. I think the net can make getting a bit of a kick-start to a musical career more difficult if people are immediately nicking your stuff. You might make one record that a bunch of people like but not see any financial return on it to fund making another one. But while the amount of sales you can make goes down, the ability for artists to take the majority percentage income per each of those sales for themselves (rather than middle-men that you’re reliant on for advertising, distribution, etc.) has gone up now thanks to the same technology. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.
Could you describe the recording process of Settle?
Settle was recorded over two sessions at FDM Studios in Leamington. I’ve known John Parker from Nizlopi for a long time and he was into the idea of writing strings and producing some of the tracks. I’m really proud of what we came up with together. I demoed all the tracks minus strings on an 8-track at home and gave John some ideas for strings which he translated from my cack-handed descriptions into some beautiful sounds.
I’m told I’m quite quick in the studio. In the first session I recorded all the seperate guitar parts for two days, sang for a day, then Johnnie Fielding and Martin Radford recorded violin and cello, respectively, for us on the last day of four. They’re ridiculously good musicians those two, it was a bit of a masterclass. Anyway, I got the record home and realised I’d bollocksed up the phrasing of the vocals. A second session of two days sorted that out, and also had us realising that the strings and vocals only versions of a couple of the tracks had something about them too.
I’ve made a few EPs in the same studio before but none of them were mastered or sold anywhere other than at my own gigs so these sessions were particularly exciting knowing the most official release that I’ve done was coming. Also, John was brilliant to work with. I think we share a wavelength. Four days flat out caused a bit of cabin fever and he tolerated my obsessiveness over single notes as the crazies kicked in, and I was grateful for that.
Are there any current bands or records or sites that you enjoy and would recommend people seek out?
Everyone should listen to Million Dead and encourage them to reform so that I can go and see them live. Also, Eels and Fionn Regan if you’re looking for gentler stuff.
Parting words?
Thanks very much for writing about me Jon, much appreciated. And thanks to anyone who read this far into me banging on about myself, very kind that you’re interested.