Hub Magazine Interview

As part of the promotion for The Change's pre-launch gig of 'Attack Of The Chevron Action Flasher', I was interviewed by Hub Listings magazine by email. An edited version appears in the first December issue, mostly around East London. You can also find it at www.hublm.co.uk.

Below please find my unedited submission.


Hub: How old are you?

25.

Hub: How long have you been playing the guitar?

Seven or eight years. My first guitar was a cheap nylon acoustic that I bought off someone at school, it had the bridge glued on and when I took it home, I tried to tune it too high and it didn’t like it. Suddenly there were bits of guitar imbedded in my bedroom wall.

Hub: How long have you been in a band/s?

Four years. Off and on. I’ve always played solo gigs, as a songwriter I’ve always believed it necessary to perform in public, whether there is a group or not. But being in a band is much better, it gives you much more freedom. My first band was when I was at school at the age of 17, and I was the singer. We formed exclusively for the purpose of making a short film.

Hub: Tell us a bit about the change, members, characters etc...

The band started in 2002 at University. It was Danny Hewis – the drummer- and I, with some other guys. Danny and I were always the core I feel. There was an understanding about the way music should be performed, as well as a mutual willingness to engage in rock n roll stupidity. But earlier this year we were fucked as a group. Danny had gone back to Lincoln to where he had a longstanding involvement in a band with his two brothers up in Lincoln – The Hail Cesars – and I was trying to make a totally fresh start. Two things swung everything round. I started recorded the mini-opera as demos in my home studio and had every intention of releasing it as a solo record as I’d really delivered on them. A friend of mine who manages other bands heard some of the recordings on myspace and really encouraged me to go out and promote it.

So, I had some dates lined up, which never happened, but I phoned Danny not to ask him to play because I thought that he was unavailable. But he wanted to get involved, because he wanted to be out playing music with our kind of group. So, we started to rehearse. We’ve been living at opposite ends of England but I thought that a few train journeys shouldn’t be an obstacle.

Alex Baker, our bassist, was an old school friend of Danny’s. We had someone covering for us on bass but he wasn’t a bass player first and foremost. We brought Alex in and I think for the first time, I’ve got musicians around me who I can have total confidence in to go with me when I play and also who I can hand my songs to unreservedly.

It isn't just a matter of dynamics though. Their is a mutual desire to make this work in the long term and to deliver to some fairly lofty expectations that we've set ourselves. Key to this is that Danny and Alex give me quite a free hand. We understand our individual roles, and I for one, won't tell a drummer or a bassist as good as ours what they should be doing.


Hub: Who are your biggest influences?
Drop the question mark, and you have your answer.

Hub: That was more a statement than a question, so the Who, tell me more about your connection with them.


I have been a big fan for years. They got me through those turbulent teenage years that everyone goes through, but being somewhat overly sensitive as a kid, there was something that rang very true in music that is often about fragility but performed in a very powerful and aggressive way.

Danny is a big fan too.

Its changed quite a bit for me in recent years because my music has become much more of a focus in my life. Its now my time to make waves. I found - rather than adopted - a very Townshend influenced style on both electric and acoustic guitars, and as a songwriter I've always pursued the path of having a home studio and recording demos in isolation before taking them to the band.

The other big thing was that I was advised to study art which was time and process based for my Masters at University, as my background had been film. I chose auto-destructive art, and Gustav Metzger. He provided Townshend with an artistic rationale for smashing guitars, as well as providing groundbreaking light shows for bands including the Who on one occasion in the mid-60s.

But Metzger fundamentally changed things for me. He's a very curious, tragic, enigmatic character...and I spent a lot of time talking with him. It made me really sharpen up on my objectives, and by extension what could be achieved through my natural approach to music. I decided that I had been on the right tracks in terms of being very serious about what could be achieved and the challenges that threaten us. Its all very much linked in with the potential within the alignment between art and rock music. Art demands a pursuit of truth to me, rock music demands that deliver spectacle.

I'm also one of the first 22 beta testers of Pete Townshend's Lifehouse Method music software, which is part of his great 'Lifehouse' project, that originally became Who's Next. I have had two musical portraits created already. Its a remarkable experience. I hope that you can share the same one in the future.


Hub: Why a 'Mini Opera'?

Most of my songs are stories. Often about surreal characters. It made a lot of sense to write a series together, I wanted to get away from the more introspective songs that I've written before. The irony being that these introspections remain but they are mediated through twisted lens of rock. It also made sense for me to do something compact. I've had big projects that have never got off the ground, this was more manageable. I had enough music written for it to make it twice as long as it is.


Hub: What exactly is a 'Mini Opera'?

A series of songs that portray a story. My point of reference was 'A Quick One (While He's Away)'. The beauty of doing something that's, er, "mini" is that you don't bore people. Our mini-opera runs to just under 15 minutes. Exactly the right amount of time to finish the last scotch and coke before you go off to the Kent Institute of Art & Design indie disco on a Friday night. Any longer, and it becomes Dark Side Of The Moon...which as wonderful as it is, isn't going out music.


Hub: Hub Live sees the debut of 'Attack of the Chevron Action Flasher'. Can you tell us more about the story of the Opera?

Its the story of a 15 year old stuttering boy called Silas who is scared of the dark and is living in isolation from his friends. When he's invited out he has to leave, quietly so as not to alert his over zealous mother that he's escaped into the night. Between him and his friends there is a park, where the Chevron Action Flasher - a former investment banker who lost his money in the stock market crash - lies in wait. He's been terrifying the local neighbourhood for years. Silas, decides to face his fears and so enters the park, where he confronts the flasher with his machine gun like stutter. Suffice to say, there is a dramatic event. That I won't detail here. Suffice to say, Silas overcomes his fears and grows up to become a famous writer who speaks to thousands at the Royal Albert Hall.


Hub: So where else will you perform the Opera?

It will become a central part of our set-list for some time. I have a new, rather fantastically unique project in the early stages at the moment, but until that happens the mini-opera will remain. We hope to tour after recording our debut album in Spring next year. A date in Holland is a possibility. The UK a certainty. I would like to see a short film of it made to and have spoken with a couple of directors to collaborate with.


Hub: How easy is it for bands to record their material and put it on a cd?

It depends where you record. I have a great mobile studio now, but without that we wouldn't have the facilities to do so and it would be very expensive. I think that the main problem is getting the entire package together. This is why the Internet is going to be so hugely important to all musicians. We're still very much on the tip of the ice berg. But I predicted 5 years ago that bands would be offering subscriptions to their websites and would send their subscribers free music, with the option to by a plastic copy special edition if they wanted it. I stick by this still now. It will be the future.


Hub: How do you plan on recording the Opera?

Using my mobile studio at a suitable venue. Probably a live room somewhere. We may go for 24 tracks, and it will almost certainly be digital. We will almost certainly lay it down as a group, and lay on whatever vocal overdubs are necessary afterwards. It could even be me doing this at home as part of the post-production for it. I would like to see us remain true to my original demos. But this time around it will be a group effort. I certainly think that we will allow ourselves the time to get the dynamics right. It shouldn't just be a live thrash. We should make a recording that stands on its own two feet.


Hub: Will it be available for free online?

No. You may be able to audition it. I may make my demos available. But when it comes to having it, you will have to pay pay pay.


Hub: What are your thoughts on digital media distribution (mp3s, iPods etc)

Liberating. And like I said...we haven't even begun with it yet. MP3s allow people to distribute their music without the overheads of cd pressing and packaging. If someone clones our record and starts distributing it for free...then fine. Its putting many units of my work out there into the world. That is after all, what any artist wants. To have their audience served. It might seem like I'm contradicting my previous answer, by not allowing free downloads of the mini-opera, I want you to buy the CD as a package...because it will be a good package. I can't stop you copying it. Be my guest...and if you like it then please show your patronage by paying to come and see us.


Hub: Let's talk about something else for a moment: Ladies! are you straight?

Yes.

Hub: Do you have any embarrassing/funny stories to tell Hub readers about encounters of the feminine kind?

None that you deserve to know. I've never written a love song. Suffice to say, it isn't boring...I am drawn to insane women.

Hub: Are the others in the band as popular with the laydeez?

They have their moments.


Hub: Do you think that free online listings are useful? who for? why?

Very much so. It gives the oxygen of publicity to small acts, and helps people find their way around town.


Hub: Finally, what is the definitive reason for us all to come to the Gramaphone on December 13th?

Because my life depends upon it.


Hub: Thank You Tom.