Gary's Action Zone
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Welcome!
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To a special issue of GAZ with a Interview of Gary Moore, some might know this interview. This interview is the one which feature on the DDIP - The Interview Promo CD, but here it's with the questions and all the answers. I would like to thank Gary's Mangement and Virgin Records UK giving me premission to print this interview in GAZ. I really hope you will enjoy it!
At the the 10th November we will see the third Gary Moore single released in UK called 'Always There For You', a new recorded version of song along with two mixes of 'Rhythm Of Our Lives'. Both versions of 'ROOL' was played just before the concerts started in the last part of DDIP tour, and the new version of 'ATFY' hit the speakers just after the show was finished! 'ROOL' is a drum'n'bass track with Gary playing guitar, this is the only track that Gary has writting by himself. He co-operated with guy called Shortman (Professor Stretch). When I first heard this two tracks at the concert in Oslo, it really blew me away. I am also enjoying the new version of 'ATFY' very much. I am looking forward to hear your opinion about the new single.
I am sure that many of you will be missing the submissions part in this issue, but this was skipped to make space for the interview. I hope you can live we that!
Arve Akervold has been working on some new lyrics, and they have now been updated at GAZ Web-page. New lyrics are G-Force, both Greg Lake albums, Black Rose album, Non album tracks of DDIP, BBM, Blues For Greeny and correted the DDIP album lyrics.
Note! The GAZ web-page has got an new URL: http://home.sol.no/~gaz/
Next issue is planned released just
before the Christmas time!
Best Regards.......
Ole-Johan...............
The content this issue:
1. News
2. Gary Moore Interview
3. Fanzine Information
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1. NEWS
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Gary Moore has played on a drum instruction video made by Gary Husband in the beginning of November, also Jack Bruce appears on this video together with the two Gary's! According to Gary Husband!
Dr. Strangely Strange has released their third album called 'Alternative Medicine', with is their first album since 'Heavy Petting' from 1971 which Gary Moore is featuring on! Gary Moore has confirmed he has contributed some guitar on this album. More info when I get the CD.
'Always There For You' The third single from the album DDIP to be released 10th November in UK. Featuring following tracks: 'Always There For You (New Version)', 'Rhythm Of Our Lives (Stretch Mix)' & 'Rhythm Of Our Lives (Gary's Mix). Formats are CD-Single (VSCDT 1674) & Cassette Single (VSC 1674). There are also two UK promo's released, 1 Trk Promo CD-Single in Hard Paper cover with edit version of 'ATFY' and 12" white label promo with all three tracks, where 'Rhythm Of Our Lives (Stretch Mix)' are on the A-side. More detailed info please visit the New Releases Page at the GAZ Web-page.
A 'new' Thin Lizzy Live CD is released, called 'The Boys Are Back In Town' - CRCL-7001 - NIPPON CROWN CO. LTD - JAP - 1997. Featuring tracks: Jailbreak/Bad Reputation/Cowboy Song/The Boys Are Back In Town/Waiting For An Alibi/Are You Ready/Me And The Boys Were Wondering How The Girls Are Getting Home Tonight*/Baby Drives Me Crazy - Live In Sydney 30.10.78. The track marked * are not featuring on the video release.
Another Volume in The 'Philip - The Man And His Music' has been released. This times it's number 6 and numer 7 will be released within '97 according to the booklet. Featuring tracks: Ghetto Woman/Hate/With Love/Parisienne Walkways/Black Rose/Got To Gove It Up/Thougest Street In Town/Don Believe A Word/Bad Habits*/Baby Please Don't Go*/Mama Don't Like It*/Choosen One* - First off there is a song called "Ghetto Woman" from a radio broadcast from January 1974 (w/Gary)! Then the CD moves on with some demos Thin Lizzy recorded prior to making the Black Rose album. The CD ends with some Thunder and Lightning demos. For full tracklisting and a track for track review check out the reviews section of my Northern Light webpage at: http://hem.passagen.se/ctc
For complete info of any release, please
check out the discography pages at the GAZ Web-page!
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2. GARY MOORE INTERVIEW
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This Gary Moore Interview are printed with premission of Virgin Records LTD, UK
This Gary Moore Interview some of the
answers are featuring on the Promotional CD called
'Dark Days In Paradise - The Interview'
made in Holland, Catalog# GMICDJ97 in jewel case with no sleeve.
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Ql. OK, in the idyllic countryside with Gary Moore. You've basically as a musician travelled through rock, jazz, fusion, soul, funk, and now an album that explores just about everything, you've combined the lot here. I listen to this and I think, this is the album he's wanted to make for years, cos all these ideas have been milling around and you've thought, well, what if I put them all together. Am I right in thinking like that?
Al. Well you just answered it all for me there really .. yeah, itls very much a collection of all, all the influences that I've had over the years and all the styles I've played in, plus a few new ones as you can hear that I've never sort of touched on before. I mean the main thing with this record was I wanted to write songs again, I wanted to get back to writing melodic songs and it didn't really come into it what sort of direction it was gonna go, and it didn't matter what kind of songs they were as long as they were .. I thought they were good songs and that they all stood up on their own so .. I just tried to put a collection of songs together, I mean there is a thread in so much as it's obviously the same singer all the way through and the same guitarist, you know, but probably there the resemblance ends, as you can hear.
Q2. It's interesting that .. indeed, is there no end to the musical hunger of Gary Moore, I mean is this the beginning of... you say 'Well, once this album's gone, yeah, I'm gonna tackle something else next." It's as if you're not, you're not frightened but you don't want in that sort of time warp, you wanna push forward all the time.
A2. Absolutely, I mean I'm just, I'm not interested in the past really, you know, I've done .. you know, whatever you've done, you've done, why do it again, I think right it's done, let's move on .. Especially in the nineties I think music is so great again, I think it's the best it's been for about 20 years. I think the eighties was not a very good time for music at all. It certainly wasn't something that I felt, that I felt comfortable with ... a lot of the music at that time to me was very designed for one purpose, and one purpose only, and that was to, to make money really, you know, so I .. I hated that whole kind of thing and .. at the end of the eighties I kind of reacted against the whole thing, I suppose, in a way by making a blues album because it was so far removed from what was going on at that time .. I thought, well, you know, this is the music I started off playing, I'm gonna get back to something that I can really get my teeth into, into something where I feel like I'm coming home again, so that's, that's how I got back into that. And now there are so many great things around, there's so many great. influences to draw on, I just sort of .. erm, I listen to music all the time now, always listening to music .. always go out and buy loads of CD's and I'm coming back here I even listen to the radio now for the first time ever not that one .. don't look at my tuner. Erm, you know, so there's, there's music everywhere these days which I think erm .. you know, I just think it's great again, I think there's a lot of energy there, I think a lot of the young bands have lost their fear and they're starting to experiment again. It's, it's a lot closer actually, in it's spirit to what the sixties was that it has been for a long time, and I can hear that even in you know in the dance music, people might say "What are you talking about?" but I can actually hear erm, a real correlation between the dance music today and what was going on in the sixties, it's that kind of psychedelic thing there, you know, that I used to love when I was growing up, listening to people like Cream and Jimi Hendrix and everything, maybe it's what they, you know, maybe it's the chemically assisted format that they all operate .. I dunno what it is but whatever it is, I like it.
Q3. Interesting that I think .. I mean, are you lyrically driven now, or are you melody and rhythm driven, because you've always had a knack of hitting a lyric line bang on, be it with a ballad, be it with a rock song .. you've got a skill of putting that, that killer lyric together just at the right time in the riff. Is it lyrically driven, or is it melody or rhythm driven now?
A3. I think it's both you know, I think it depends on the song .. sometimes, you know, the melody will come, but I mean I'm not, I'm not happy with a song if the lyric does come first if I know, if I know what the song's about before I start because I've had situations sometimes where you go in and put a backing track down, and you really don't know what you're gonna sing over it, and those are the songs that always turn out to be the weak ones for me, and I tend not to write, and I tend not to let it go that far any more, so if I haven't got an idea what the song's about, I probably won't proceed with it. Like, a lot of the songs on this album virtually wrote themselves lyrically, some of the lyrics just, you know, as fast as the pen could keep up, they were coming out, it was that kind of, almost like that automatic writing, you know, it was like, what is this about, I dunno, who cares, just write it, you know, and things were just .. it was a very inspiring time for me because you know we were moving around all the time, different locations and and I definitely wasn't short of ideas, I probably recorded like twice as much as I needed you know, with different versions of things and all kinds of stuff were coming out so it was it was very exciting.
Q4. You've got a real, a renewed enthusiasm about music these days .. this is the Gary Moore who's suddenly thought "Hang on a minute, I'm gonna get back into this, I'm really gonna enjoy .. there is a real enthusiasm for you in what you wanna do, isn't there?
A4. Yeah, yeah, I really .. I mean I feel like totally rejuvenated musically, I think, you know, the last year and a half, I think this is the most enjoyable record I've ever worked on, it's been so, it's been, it has literally been like starting all over again for me, and I was just .. the fact that I allowed myself the time and space to kind of experiment and do exactly what I wanted to do, I feel that I have as you said made the record that I've always wanted to make.
Q5. Interesting that "Always There For You" has a programming that I know I've not heard in your work before .. a great late night radio record. But you worked vith a programme on this album didn't you as well.
A5. Yeah, what you're hearing about 70 per cent of the time is the band playing together with. drum loops and various things inserted into that, and in, on like 3 of the tracks like "Afraid of Tomorrow", "What Are We Here For", and, "Always There For You", they were, they were actually programmed you know, but sometimes it's hard to know anyway, I mean if I was to say to you "Which which which?" you probably wouldn't be able to tell because these days you know the samples and the programmers are so good that a lot of the time you can't actually tell but a lot of the time we did it as a live band and then we inserted the kind of modern technology into that and kind of worked it around the the real drums and bass and .. I've got such a good rhythm section that they can play so steadily to anythihg so therels no problem with that, we can always do that afterwards and it will always sit together. And I think that was a nice way to do it because that way I kind of got the best of both.
Q6. You've got a mean rhythm section, it has to be said, they are. 'One Good Reason', the first single has this shock effect where there's this little, almost like listening to a little, like you said, listening to the radio, this little transistor radio, and then in comes this riff. lt's hard to listen to, and not exactly radio-friendly .. and the strings on it are almost 'Sergeant Pepper' in places, the way that comes in is is .. I mean, was this the idea, to make this a real, you know 'Listen, you're gonna, you are gonna listen to this track no matter what"?
A6. Yeah, I mean it's the way the track was written, you know, I just .. when I wrote that song, I probably just wrote it sitting with the guitar, but then I had this idea .. I was also, I was almost gonna cut it into 2, 2 parts and edit it afterwards, to even exaggerate that more, but I think the way we played it we got that effect anyway, so I didn't, it didn't have to come to that, but it is a song about someone whose kind of like trapped in whatever ... it could be about anything. People have said to me "Is that about the music that you were playing or is it about a relationship, or is it about whatever you know frustration?" and it's this little tiny voice that's trapped in this kind of confined space and then they suddenly break out of it so the whole thing just opens out. So I mean that was the you know, to go with the lyric and everything I had to sort of do it that way, and really exaggerate the 2 sides to it.
Q7. Not that .. the radio stations are talking about this .. You recorded 3 blues-influenced albums, why did you move into that music? I mean, in theory, you see, you shouldn't be able to play the blues, cos you're not black, you're not sixty, and you don't live on a porch all the time. But then, you see, unless you include Robert Cray and Keb' Mo I mean and these guys you know are there .. why move into blues?
A7. Well, I mean that was the music that really opened everything up for me when I was starting to play, when I was about thirteen. I had the Blues Breakers album with John Mayall, that was like the, that was the album that at that time turned well, turned guitar playing upside down for a start, turned the whole world of guitar playing upside down over night. And it was an album that, it was the first time anyone had heard that kind of distorted guitar sound, you know, Eric was, that was like such a peak for him, in my opinion, and well, most people would say that. Erm, he sort of did it all on that record, if he'd never done anything after that again, it wouldn't have mattered because he did, he took it so much further than anybody at that point, it was a real, a real piece of, it was a real milestone for, for guitar, that record. And it was the first time I'd heard a guitar with a tone voice, you know, with a .. the guitar had a voice, and it came out of a, out of the speakers at you on a record and it really kind of spoke to you. Erm, so you know, at that very impressionable young age, you know, you're gonna remember that and it's always gonna be with you. And in fact when I did go back to playing blues in 1990, a lot of the songs I was playing were exactly from that era, like very similar versions that I was just you know, playing the songs I was playing in clubs when I was fourteen, fifteen. I mean, now, like people all over the world were hearing it and that was to me, was a real sort of blast to think that you know, you'd sort of gone back to playing what you were playing when you were a kid, and like everyone was getting off on it.
Q8. It's interesting that you mention that album. I interviewed John Mayall, recently
(Gary: Everyone has ... )
That vas the first album I ever bought, and there's a track on there called "Sonny Boy Blow' where he does this tribute to Sonny Boy Williamson .. and I just think that is such a great track. "Cold Wind Blovs" ..
A8. Hang on a minute .. No, I've got this thing about, you know, I disagree with this thing about people not being able to play the blues, you know because they're from different places and they're different colours and all that, because you know, I'll say 2 words "Peter Green" you know, so right there, you know, this is where your theory falls down, and you know, other people, Rory Gallagher, you know, and anyway you saw "The Commitments" where you know, the Irish are the Blacks of Europe, so, remember that.
Q9. The Irish have got soul actually, and I want to talk to you about one of the Irishmen a bit later on. "Cold Wind Blows" has this, has this tribal feeling which could come from Africa, Australia, the Plains, images are very visual, with that rhythm. Where does it come from?
A9. It comes from all those places actually. It has like an American sort of Indian drum beat, it's a blues, right, first of all it's a 12 bar OK, this is the funny thing about it it's the only 12 bar on the album and has a blues lyric but then has like this American native, so shall we say native, drumbeat, and it has an Aborigine voice loop kind of, but it's me sort of doing it, it's like a sort of didgeridoo sort of sound in the background, and then has sitars and then it has slide guitars, so it's like a bit of everything, but it's still a blues.
(Q: No country in the world, not been touched by this album ..)
A9. (cont): No, it's a sort of you know, world blues song, and it's, and it's a true story as well.
(Q. Which is about?)
A9 (cont): Somebody you don't like .. sending something after .. it's telling them you know, wherever you go, there's a cold wind blows, because, you know, of the deeds that you have .. you know, it's sort of like telling someone it'll all come back on them.
Ql0. And what's going around comes around. Could this album be too eclectic with the diversity of the music on this album?
Al0. Maybe .. not for me. I mean, itls, the thing is, I have this thing about music where I don't believe in putting up any barriers between any styles, and that's, you know, reflected very much in this record and it totally, this is the statement I'm making with this record, if there is any statement, is that I love all music and I don't care what kind it is, you know, there's good and bad in everything, and you know for me it's all there to be enjoyed, and you know, instead of this whole thing of like worrying about whether it's fashionable or cool, just you know, dig what you want to listen to and get into it, don't worry what people think.
Q11. Excellent. 'I Found My Love In You" .. classic Gary Moore, I just think it's wonderful. It would set well on a film score, it's moody, ambient and soulful to a point. What gave you the idea for a song like 'I Found My Love In You"?
A11. I mean the whole album really is you know every song on the album is something to do with what was going on in, my life at the time of making the record, so you know, they're very personal songs, you know, they're kind of hard to talk about but, erm it's obviously a love song, but it's kind of sad at the same time because it's about someone who, I suppose you know, they're kind of rebelling against everyone saying this person's no good for you or whatever you know, and you kind of say, "Well, I don't care, I'm gonna love them anyway". Like people do, you know, it's like being ruled by your heart and not your head. Erm, but you know, like I said, they're all true stories.
Q12. Being very political about this. I think, you know, you look at this, but it's what you say, love is blind, isn't it, very often. A lot of musicians write about this, the hurt of relationships. I mean, you know, you could cry over lots of music. And then, you look on the other side of it, it's that, well, hang on a minute, that's a little bit too near the truth. Maybe the person and the attitude I'm writing about vill hear that. Do you ever think they might and go, 'Bang on a ainute, Gary, that vas a bit too .. you know, why did you do that publicly?'
A12. Well, they have heard them .. cos a lot of the time you know, cos you know this album spans over the last .. well from now going back 2 years, so you know, obviously like that, you know, a lot of that thing would have happened anyway. Erm, you know, that doesn't worry me, no, I just tell the truth when I write, I don't make up things, you know, I can't do that, I have to, you know, yeah, the music, comes from somewhere, but you know, you don't know where it's coming from .. a lot of time the words erm you know, you just, I think you have to be like that, I couldn't do it any other way
Q13. You had one or two forays with Thin Lizzy, worked with Phil Lynott, a man who is supposedly very difficult to get on with. I always found him to be extremely nice, and probably met him not long before the end, met him a few times, and he was always wonderful to me. But, as a musician, was he hard to vork with?
A13. No, I mean, sometimes he was. It's like all musicians are hard to work with you know, I'm hard to work with at times, too, everyone is, you know, it's like there's a lot of things going on in a musician that they can't always handle at the time, you know, and because it's so much like, flying around, you know, people aren't always, you know, it's not always like they're thinking about what they're doing, and it's not, everything's not deliberate. And I know with, with someone like Phil, he had a lot of pressures you know, and he had a lot on his mind, and I think the worst thing that happened to him was when Thin Lizzy sort of ended, he never sort of had a life after that, as it were, because that was his family, he spent more time with those people you know than he did with his own family or any of his relatives or his children or anything, you know, they were there for so long, when that all ended, it's that, I think his whole world fell apart and he kind of lost his, his balance in a way after that, you know, and it was, it was very sad, he was very lonely actually. I mean, we were, we were very close in many ways, you know, as close as anyone was ever gonna get to him or me, you know, it was like a sort of, it was the closest he was gonna get to me, put it that way, but we were like, we were like brothers, in a way, you know, we'd sort of fight and we'd you know, but there was a lot of love between us a well, there was a lot of respect and we had a great musical chemistry and that's what, you know, the thinking .. and so it was almost better that we did work sporadically because when we did something good usually came out of it, and then we sort of wouldn't talk for 5 years or whatever, but at least we were able to do something nice, you know, before the end, and I'm grateful for that.
(Q. I talked to Hughie Lewis about him once and he said he vas a great guy, and he should still be around really, which a lot of people think actually ..)
A13 (cont). I mean, yeah, we all miss him, because apart from the musical side I mean, he was a good friend to me and you know, he was always somebody .. I tell you what he was good at, putting things in perspective you know, like in the eighties when you felt a bit alienated from a lot of the stuff that was going on, he could kind of almost trivialise it and say "Ah, shit, you know, it's just this, or it's that". And when punk came out it was just like "Ah, you know, it's rock and roll with safety pins through your nose, what's the big deal?" you know, "Yeah, right, lets play some of it", you know, let's get in there and not worry about it anymore. Cos at that time a lot of people were getting "What's going on here?" you know, and .. although at that .. I mean, to be honest we weren't that old at the time when punk came out so we were actually hanging out with some of the people like as you know, Steve and Paul from the Pistols, and everything, and we has a band with them so we were sort of in on the scene slightly anyway but I think a lot of the bands who had been around at that time for a long time were quite sort of paranoid about what was going to happen .. quite rightly so, actually, it was their fault.
Q14. But it gave that kick that was necessary I think, and I think that a lot of music today is given another kick
(Gary. Definitely... )
.. which it needed because music was going so boring and there was nothing there, but that kick has happened and it's kicked all musicians which is great "One Fine Day" has a bit of a seventies sound to it, a big guitar sound
(Gary. Sixties ... )
OK, go on then, late sixties, early seventies (Gary. Only early seventies .. about 1972 ..) Are you sort of aware that you know, people might say to you, 'Ah, you know, that song, he's borrowed those influences, there's nothing new on there.' Are you aware of those influences sneaking in at times?
A14. Course I am, I'm not stupid, you know, I mean, you know, what do they think I do, you know, sort of like "Oh, guess, what I just invented", you know. I didn't borrow them anyway, I stole them. You know what they say, "Talent borrows, genius steals, man", go with it.
Q15. Brilliant quote. Jazz has been part of your playing over the years, with Colosseum II and other bits you've done. Have you ever been a jazzer, you know, a real sort of cos jazz people I mean I work with a lot of jazz people now and people say you know, jazz is like the music in a musician and can be very hard to understand. I've been listening to jazz for about a year now cos I work on a jazz radio station and I've found that there's a lot more to it than just what we consider to be traditional jazz. I mean there's a lot of stuff like Peace of Mind , Down to the Bone, you know, a lot of great jazz musicians young guys coming through now. Do you feel that jazz was a bit of a real influence to you as a player?
A15. Oh, I mean because of the blues thing I mean it's all connected anyway, and I think, I think it's become more of an influence over the years actually, yeah. I think the subtleties and the kind of phrasing that come from jazz and the the dynamics without getting too technical about it, there's a way of, there's a way that jazz people play, there's a kind of call and response playing which jazz people play which is not the kind of linear way that rock guitarists play which basically it means there's a lot more light and shade as you can hear when you hear a great jazz sax soloist, I mean, you know when suddenly they'll go from the bottom to the top and back again, it's always like moving around, there's always this kind of shifting going on. And, you know, I think that's been an influence, it's something that I've learned to do. But you see, people like BB King had that already anyway, and all the great guitar players that I listened to, they all had that, from Jeff Beck, to Django Reinhardt, to Hendrix .. they all had that thing anyway, and I've learned that over the years that that's how you, that's how you play. That is it, you now, and it's like Albert King, all the great blues players, they all had that dynamic and that kind of thing of light and shade, and going from like a whisper to a big sort of scream you know in a second like that, and that's really a lot of what the jazz thing I think has kind of brought to music.
Q16. I think it's brought a lot of that to Gary Moore as well, because your music now has a lot of light and shade, and again, you know, you can see of those influences. 'Like Angels' to me is one of my favourite tracks, it's over 7 minutes long. This thing could be a mini-series in itself. There's a lovely .. 'Hold on to your dreams, learn to fly like angels do' and then a great solo, vonderful rhythm section, just a great track. I mean, when you've done and worked on something like that, can you feel it growing, can you think "This is going to be good .. this is gonna be a long song but it's gonna be great.' Do you really get into a track like that?
A16. Oh, yeah, I mean, when I wrote the song, I just thought that it .. it made me feel something special that song from the moment I .. I did little demo of it at home just with some keyboards and a drum machine, just very simple. But I mean even at that stage, if a song's any good, you can always tell it's gonna happen you know, you can tell the first 5 minutes, sorry, the first 7 minutes in this case. But it, yeah, I mean it's one of my favourites too, and it's er, I like the whole theme of the song and I actually, I did something different on this with the guitar from what I'd done before in there therels a bit right before the solo comes in in the middle, this sort of, this little breakdown which to me every time I hear it it really makes me, I dunno what it is, itls something about this sequence right before the solo, and I er, I wanted the guitar to sound like an angel singing almost so I was trying to find a way to do it .. and I picked up a screwdriver with a really long point on, a real thin blade on it, and I was like I put the guitar in my lap and started playing with this screwdriver, and it just soared, you know, and I went "Yeah, that'll do the trick", you know, so I got this new sound that I'd never got before and it's in there. And then I ended up using that sound again on the song after that, "What Are We Here For?" .. it's got a much more Eastern sort of flavour to it than .. it's not a bluesy kind of slide sound, it's much more kind of, it soars, you know, and it kind of .. you can move the thing around a lot quicker because it's a much smaller surface actually touching the string and it gives you a lot more kind of dexterity that way. So that was, that was a nice thing that happened. My angel sent me that, you see.
Q17. Indeed .. I mean, BBM you played vith .. I mean that was a personal fulfilment cos there's the guys you wanted to play with for years. Not an overwhelmlng commercial success, but personally very satisfying.
A17. Oh, definitely, and the thing about you know everything you do is obviously, it leads on to something else, and you know, if I hadn't done that album this album wouldn't exist because working with Jack and everything, he .. you know, inadvertently or for whatever, I dunno know how it all happened, but he kind of freed me again to sort of go back in this more melodic direction, and to start writing more, I feel, interesting songs again .. because Jack has always been an influence on me anyway, not just his work with Cream but his solo stuff as well was a tremendous influence on me, and sort of like from the seventies onwards I used to listen to all his solo records like "Songs for A Tailor" and "At the Storm", "Harmony Road", there was some incredible music on there, you know, if people only knew how talented he was, you know, I mean, he's like a modern classical composer, almost, Jack, cos he doesn't write within the constraints of rock or anything, he just, again, he does his own thing, he's totally free, there's no kind of barriers there, he writes in all kinds of styles, and he makes it work so you know, to .. to be around him there was a real kind of .. I could feel this thing creeping back into the music again, and that led me to write these songs definitely. But of course, it was a great experience to play with those two because. I mean, like, they're the guys I was going to see when I was fourteen, you know, when they were with Cream, and they were a tremendous .. they made a tremendous impression on me.
Q18. Nice when you can do .. when you can meet your heroes and work with them .. Nice when you can do that I think. 'Always There For You' . . very heavily programmed and the most nineties sounding track on the album, to my wind. Was that a fulfilment for you on that?
A18. Yeah, I mean that's like I suppose the closest thing to what everyone calls drum and bass now, I mean, or you can go, you can call it like a Latin feel or whatever, but the thing was, the guy who makes my albums is called Andy Bradfield and he makes the Everything But The Girl album which had a lot of that kind of thing on it, and 1 just said "Well, I fancy, you know, I think I'll write .." before he even got involved I, before he got involved I still thought well, I'll er, I'd write something like that. So I had this one idea and I put a demo of this song down, but then he came in with this really great programmer, a guy called Magnus Fiennes, and he had all the very kind of nineties kind of jungley sounds right there, he had all this, all the loops and everything so we put this whole new version down and I was really pleased with the way it came out. I think it's I think it's different from a lot of what's going on today, anyway, in so much as it's got that guitar thing over, it's got like a blues guitar thing over the top of it, and itls actually a melodic song, so it's quite different, although I do listen to a lot of that music, you know, when you came in, you could hear .. I mean, that is a lot of the stuff that I listen to because I love the rhythms and everything but a lot of the time it's not so song based and I wanted to do it in a more kind of song based format.
Q19. I think what you've done on this very much is .. combined eras and genres and things and that you know in combining those you've actually probably discovered a few new ideas actually, .. and you said drum and bass, you know, there are a lot of musicians who come from your background who would say, 'Drum and bass, it's all this modern programme stuff. But if you've got the guts to do It .. I think it comes through. A lot of it is down to courage isn't it?
A19. It's down to like you know doing what you want, really you know, and yeah I mean there is a certain amount of risk involved but you know I'm very attracted to that anyway, Ilm the sort of person .. I like danger, so .. you know, and if there's no danger in any music for me, I'm not interested and I have to hear something in music that sort of feels like it's a little bit on the edge and you know, it's like the guitarists I listen to, that, you know, where everything could just fall apart, it's so close to fatling apart, that's the point where it's really happening for me, and I think you know in everything not just music, and I think that a lot of musicians you know they do close themselves down and they end up making the same record a hundred times over, and to me that's death, there's nothing there, itls like if you don't acknowledge what is going on today in music, and a big part of that is the new kind of rhythms that's happening, they're not a fashion, they're here to stay, if you don't accept then you're dead, you're history, anyway
Q20. Very true, very true .. "Where Did We Go Wrong?' .. a ballad that brings out the best in you .. what .. if I'm right in that there's this heavy intro, and then lt's almost exhausting as a listener. I mean, are you sort of setting the scene by way of an epic climax .. in "Where Did We Go Wrong?' there appears to be this. on the tape I've been listening to there's this really big . . and then in we come with this nice track .. whether they're too close together on the album or not, I don't know.
(Gary. Erm, I'm not sure what you mean by that .. maybe)
Well I don't know, because I was listening to it and I thought .. this is a bit close and the way it goes in and there's this big crescendo, and then in comes this song .. so I might have got the tracks mixed up, but it is quite a shock on the album where you hear this big pinnacle and then in comes this...
A20. The track before it is "Afraid of Tomorrow", is that the one you mean, with all the kind of Eastern thing on it and then it goes into this sort of backward sort of psychedelic thing at the end. No I mean it wasn't just set up I mean that's just the way the running order worked out. But I mean, again, it goes back to the thing I do like to have a lot of contrast and I like to I mean, I really think about how I construct an album and how I, you know, what running order everything goes in . It's the same when I play live, I'm very careful about things like key changes and tempos and that to get the right kind of shift all the time cos I think you can be very boring otherwise, so you know I always try to kind of make that contrast. I mean obviously, "Where Did We Go Wrong" is a ballad, but then you know it goes into something after that again, that's not the last track, there's a big thing after that, so you know again, itls just ... The whole album actually took me on such a journey that when I sort of finished I wanted to feel like if you listened to it you were going somewhere and you ended up sort of almost back where you started in a way. But it has to feel like it, like it's going somewhere, like a live gig.
Q21. I vas just about to ask you ... I think this album will be classic live, I think it will be wonderful. Are you planning to play live festivals? This would be fantastic.
A21. Yeah, we've got some gigs already lined up ... we haven't got anything booked for England yet but we're off to Moscow in June, cos we've got a gig there on ... what is it ... June 27th in Moscow with Sting so that'll be interesting, I've never done a gig with him, and then we're in Prague and in Paris, Montreux Jazz Festival, believe it or not, which isn't really a jazz festival anymore, anyway ... they have all kinds of music otherwise I wouldn't be doing it believe me ... so I'm not taking the saxophone with me this time, but I have done it twice before as a blues artist, you know, so it's kind of ... it's a bit weird cos I'm going back with a whole different thing, so well, who cares
(Q. It's called knobs I think is the way we do this ... 'Dear Claude ... Dear Claude ... )
He gave a a guitar last time I went, he was at cos he thought we weren't going to sell the place out and he sort of, he got me to come in the day before and do all these like interviews with this Moroccan film crew, and like it completely sold out anyway and that, we sold more than anybody on the whole festival. And somebody was there with these old guitars and somebody had this old Strat and I said, I'm not, I don't wanna buy a guitar today thank you very much, and after the gig he walked in and he gave me this guitar, and I said "Oh, cheers, man" ... Along with the festival watch, of course, the standard issue Montreux Festival watch that we all get.
Q22. What he's done is frightening ... I mean 1 vent to Montreux once, I covered Montreux once, it vas the last time it vas televiaed as a pop festival ... I think it vas '88 ... and I did it for like about 50 quid, cos I blagged a free flight, I bribed a lift from the airport, I stayed in a little in a little bed and breakfast over the road, but I was over the road from the casino, I wasn't in a flash hotel up the road. And it was greet because I was there doing it all and just nipping into the casino ... it's a great atmosphere. And what an ambient place to play.
A22. Yeah, it's lovely actually right on the lake and everything, yeah, it's great to see all these musicians all walking around, like all these people that you recognise, and it's it's exciting ... I like it.
Q23. Yeah, Montreux is good actually. 'Business As Usual' ... now we are talking epics. We are talking a slightly short track ... I get the impression this is, this is your life story ... these are my memories ... a song to escape in in those swirling melodies, and this to me is, you could compare this probably, you wouldn't take this ... you'd find it quite flattering actually, as a 'Stairway To Heaven' in that it tells the story, it all comes together, it has the length that you want to listen to, you don't get bored with this, you wanna listen to what's coming next.
A23. I mean that song, the first thing I had in that song going back to what you were talking about before, lyrics, melodies, you know, which comes first ... I had that one bit ... I had "These are my memories", and I had the chord sequence for that and then I thought, OK, as an experiment, what I'm gonna do is just let memories come out from the very first thing I can ever remember in my life up to now, and whatever comes out, that's it. It's not gonna be changed, it's gonna be like totally like, well, almost like subconscious, you know, just letting things come out. And each line in the song is a memory from a different era of my life, so that is goes right from the very first that I ever remember which is when I was three years old, this thing about the pink crucifix, and all that, and I wanted to buy this pink crucifix and I wasn't allowed because you know, because it was Ireland, and all the thieves go along with that, but I didn't know about that you know so it was like, and it sort of goes on from there and then there's things about my family and then growing up in Belfast and then moving to Dublin and Skid Row, and Phil, and there's mentions of various musicians like Rory Gallagher and Cream, you know, when I went to see the gig, and how I had to sort of run out of the gig at the end to catch the last bus home and stuff like that. So the ... all the things that just, all the things that came first, that was it, you know, they were the ones that ...
Q24. It has a lyric I'd say that really wants you to ... to listen on ... it's not one of these where you go 'Oh, I'm bored with this'. And thea, the melodies coming through, and you think, 'Oh God, what's he ... '. You know, it's great to listen to first time cos it's ... and you investigate the song, and then after a while I found myself going, I found myself humming that line, it's got an amazing hook on it. How did the other musicians feel when they were ... when you said "Well, this is the song, and this is how long it's gonna be' ... How did they feel when you approached them with a song like that?
A24. It didn't start like that, l.mean, that song was recorded with drums, bass, acoustic guitar . . it s a totally live performance. The vocal and everything is completely live. We just did it like that and we had a sequence keyboard just running you know with a time code, just playing the chords behind, like, just to fill it out a bit, at the time, which actually stayed on the track anyway, just for that sort of string sound, and we left that running all the way through. And when we got to the end of the song and I did the kind of the vocal ad libs at the end, we just suddenly went into this other thing you know and got into that kind of Celtic thing ... and that was never supposed to happen, that happened completely spontaneous but it was all done with acoustic guitar and then much later I put the electric guitar solo over it, and much later I put the big string section over it so it kind of grew over time. But I mean originally it, that was just you know, at the end, was just a jam, we just thought well we'll see what happens here, and it all worked out really perfectly, and we ended up ... we had a proper end ... the whole thing just came together, I was just so pleased actually afterwards that it kind of ... that it went into that sort of Celtic thing because again it was you know, it's it's like an amazing coincidence that the song ... a lot of it came from Ireland anyway, and these guys weren't even really aware of that, but it just sort of happened that way and we went into this whole kind of thing so it sort of went back to my roots at the end and ended up you know back where I started which was great. lt's a nice way to sort of finish everything.
Q25. What I like about that as well is that a lot of musicians would have cut that and I've heard so many tracks where just as the hammond organ's coming in, just as the guitar's coming in, they chop the track, cos it's not commercially viable. What's nice is you've just let it roll and it's turned out to be a great song, you know, it's a wonderful song.
A25. At least it's you know it's honest .... the whole album is supposed to be you know, how it is, it's not supposed to be how it's pretending to be ... it's gotta you know, it's gotta a story to tell, and I feel if you cut things off, you know, then you're not telling the truth, and if you just you know if you try and cover things up then you're not getting across what you started to get across in the first place, so I just like to leave things as naturally as possible.
Q26. Absolutely. You've played with BB Xing, the wonderful Lucille, Albert Collins Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, John Hiseman ... Are there any ambitions or people you still want to play with?
A26. There are always people you know, I mean it's like, you know, a lot of the music around today I really like. I'd like to work with a good drum and bass act and you know a good sort of producer whose, whose into all that sort of thing ... who really knows what they're doing with all that because it's kind of something that I find very intriguing and I'd like to you know to see how my guitar would fit over over a more radical version of that than what I've done already. I'd like to you know get into that a bit more ... erm, that would be exciting for me right now. I mean I can't think ... you know I'd like to do something with Jeff Beck ... I've played with him in private before, but we've never done anything together ... I'd like to do just, even one song with him, would be a real sort of honour to do. Erm, John Lee Hooker, I've never worked with in the blues world, you know, there's a lot ... there's still a lot of people. But I mean I've played with most of the guitarists in that world, that I really looked up to, cos there was also Albert King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, so I've played with a lot of those people in different situations so I you know, I feel very kind of fortunate to have done it.
Q27. Do you ever feel a little bit humble where young guitarists come up to you and say 'Hey, Gary ... you know I'd love to play like that' and you go like "Well, yeah OK, then". Do you feel a bit sort of 'God, you know, why are these guys looking up to me, I just, I just play guitar".
A27. Erm, yeah you do when it's kind of a bit, when it's over the top, you know, you think, erm ... because you don't feel like that yourself, I mean you know what you're doing you try and do it the best you can, but you don't kind of you can't listen to your own music the way someone else does, it's impossible, you can't ... you know, when you listen to what you're doing you hear all the things that are wrong with it to your mind, you know, and other people don't notice this but like in your mind you think "This is really bad", you know, "Why is anyone, how can anybody like this?", you know, it's like you think a lot of the time, you know if you're doing something and it's not really up to what you want it to be, and then you think "Shit," you know, "How could anyone like this anyway?". But it is, it's nice for me if people ... if it means something to people, especially with the songs, I mean the songs almost in a more important way if people come up to you on the street as they do you know and everywhere you go you know people come up to you on the street and they say "I was listening to that song the other night with my wife, you know, and it's something that really means a lot to us" you know and that kind of that's very nice I think and or if you're playing on stage and you see people down the front and they're like snogging or something ... or people crying you know, that's ... yeah that's nice because you know, well it's not nice to make people cry, but it's good to feel that at least they know what you're singing about and it's sort of getting across to them.
Q28. It's the emotion in the music isn't it, I mean if it comes out of you and they appreciate it as well then fine. Finally, 'Dark Days In Paradise' ... come on, you know, I mean, are we on the TV holiday programme, a B movie theme? Paradise Tijuana, we're not supposed to mention it ... is it gonna be hidden there,
(Gary. It's a hidden track ... It's not listed ...)
So we don't talk about it at all . . . OK, allright I'll let you off with that one ... I think it's great actually, it comes up and I think, Cor, this is fun".
(Gary. If you leave the CD on at the end, it comes on, you know it's like there's a minute gap so if you're in the kitchen like doing whatever, ...)
It's the same on the tape ... it takes a while. and I thought 'God, I'm sure there's another track on here ...
(Gary. Yeah, no, but it comes on and it's erm, you know it's just a bit of fun really ... )
Q29. I mean where do you go from here now, I mean now you're gonna tour with this album, you're gonna do lots of things wlth this album, where do you go? I mean, are you ... I'd like to see you do a lot of film stuff, I think you have a real talent for putting music and images together.
A29. Everybody keeps talking about that funnily enough, in the last sort of week when I've been doing interviews, everybody says "Would you like to do film ..." Yeah, I mean I would, and I think a lot of my music does fit into that kind of thing ... I think like especially a lot of my instrumental sort of side you know I think erm, I mean I have done a little bit ... I've done a theme for a film called "The Changeling" which hasn't come out, and it's a sort of a Jacobean tragedy, but it's like an "Easy Rider" vibe in a way, cos it's like it's all these people in period costume and then you look down and they're all sort of like wearing Allstars, so it's very surreal. And it's amazing ... it's shot in Spain, it's this English director whose done it, and Billy Conolly's in it, and Ian Drury, and these people, and it took 5 years to make this film. And it looks amazing ... this guy, he just ... he's put so much of his life into this film, and it still hasn't got a distributor yet, but I'm hoping it's gonna come out ... I think they showed it at Glastonbury last time, that was the last time it was seen, well, probably the first time it was seen in public, but erm .... I've done that, and the rest of the music's Jimi Hendrix actually, in that film, it's all like "Foxy Lady" and again all set against this sort of sixteenth century Spanish background, it's very strange, but it is cool ... it's like one of those sort of cult films ... And then I did ... they used one of my tracks in a really awful film called "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" with Elizabeth Hurley, and some guy you know that dreadful ... right, yeah, well they used "I Need Your Love So Bad" in that, my version, and we won't talk too much about that. And there's been a couple of other thing you know ... there's ... I gotta a script I got something sent to me the other day, what was it, erm ... for a film called "Carl the Conqueror" told them I'd do it if they changed it to "Ken The Conqueror" you know, but I don't think that one's going to be happening somehow.
Q30. What I'd like to see you do is when you're in Moscow and Prague and these places ... that's the sort of movie ... You could do a theme for a spy film, or a real ... I think it's gotta be dramatic, it doesn't have to be light for your music, 1 think you need to be shown some images that are so dramatic .... black and white, running through streets, raining, go for it... I think those are the images where you would shine I think ...
A30. Yeah I mean the thing is a lot of the songs I've already written people could just pick up on and use them for movies anyvay because they ... you know, there' ... in those songs, there's things that everybody can understand, you know, and they fit with so many different storylines. I mean, cos everybody's had those feelings you know, when it's love or hate or anger or you know whatever, resentment, you know they're all ... all those things are all in there and there are songs in there about the world you know, such as you know "What Are We Here For?" and "Afraid Of Tomorrow" and things like that you know so there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that already exist that could work in that format. I think ... I wouldn't like to do a whole film score where they dictated to you by the imagery that you saw, that you were locked into'these sort of, this time frame. I don't think I could work like that, I think that would be too constricting for me, but if they just wanted some songs for a movie I think I could that.
A31. Cheers. (Track 25 on the CD)
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