LIVING IN THE PRESENT: IAN ANDERSON & MARTIN BARRE OF JETHRO TULL

By Tom Semioli

This feature appeared in Amplifier Magazine, October 2003

Martin Lancelot Barre is a humble man with a self-effacing, affable veneer. Especially when he's assured that materializing five minutes late for an interview is no big deal for a musician of such historic renown. "I forgot I was a rock 'n' roll legend, thank you for reminding me!"  Says his working partner of thirty-four years, the extremely talkative and confident Ian Anderson, "without Martin Barre, there would be no Jethro Tull."  Anderson and Barre need no introduction to classic rock fans, nor to each other. Landmark albums such as Aqualung, Thick As A Brick, and Benefit gave birth to arena rock, air-guitar, and established the importance of FM radio in the 1970s. The band is still filling stadiums worldwide, and a retrospective DVD entitled A New Day Yesterday will stuff many a Christmas stocking.  This year, the prolific duo have unleashed two wildly different solo albums for entirely different reasons.

Barre's effort, Stage Left, is an devil-may-care instrumental excursion into blues, jazz, classical, and heavy metal, save for one vocal track, ironically titled "Don't Say A Word," rendered by a local pub singer and friend, Simon Burrett, from Martin's hometown of Devon, England. "I've never had to live up to anything because I've never been a guitar hero," opines the youthful Barre. "My reputation is of someone who is particularly under-rated. That's fantastic; I can get away with murder." With no specific game plan other than to "get on with what I want to do," the guitarist soars. Among the many stand-up  cuts is a rather noble attempt at traditional blues entitled "As Told By." Barre transforms the rudimentary twelve-bar three chord template into twelve chords and endless melodic tangents. He laughs "that's my problem; I can't leave well enough alone. I find it very hard to be simplistic. Then again, I try not to be a smart ass. My music sounds easy, but has depth to it."

Barre turned his sidemen loose in the studio with minimal instruction. "Nelly Returns" features stellar fretless bass work from current Jethro Tull member Jonathan Noyce, whom Barre drafted fresh out of music school. The swirling effects employed on "Celestial Servings" were borne as a result of Noyce's noodlings with a device which drove Barre "bonkers" every night backstage during a recent Tull trek.  Barre confesses he hated the sounds at first. Then he fell in love with the contraption and made it the basis of a song. "Winter Snowscapes" exudes orchestral ambitions with grandiose, cinematic textures. Recalling the misstep of Jethro Tull's A Classic Case, an album of symphonic greatest-hits, Barre waxes ala Monty Python: "I'd like it done properly." Nudge nudge, wink wink. "Oooooow, aren't I a bitch!"

Modest as he may be, there is one jewel missing from the crown for Martin: the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. "It's a shame, I don't know what's gone wrong" he notes with sadness.

"I used to think that stuff didn't bother me, especially after we won the Grammy. That award means a lot to me now. I'm quite proud of it. I'd be honored to be in the Hall. Jethro Tull has never taken a year off. Somebody there doesn't like us I guess."

As one of rock's premier showmen, Ian Anderson is accustomed to the spotlight. Tull traditionalists will be overly pleased to discover that Rupi's Dance, Ian's fourth solo outing, evokes the warm, acoustic trappings of Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses. Anderson pontificates "part of being around for a long time is looking back and taking stock of what you've done and not existing in a mindless bubble, chasing the next thing. For me this album is like Cezanne and Monet, who spent their latter years re-examining what they perceived years before."

Relieved from the constraints and responsibilities of writing for a band affords Anderson the freedom he relishes every now and then. Rupi's Dance delves into more personal, intellectual, and emotional areas than do the group efforts. Ruminations from a table in Starbucks ("Calliandra Shade: The Cappuccino Song"), voyeuristic delights ("Photo Shop"), a paean to a famous Italian flautist ("Griminelli's Lament"), confessions of a CNN junkie ("Not Ralista Vasileva"), adolescent insecurity ("Two Short Planks"), artistic rivalries ("A Raft Of Penguins") and fear of failure with the opposite sex ("A Hand of Thumbs") coalesce via English folk motifs, jazz licks, progressive-rock leanings, classical passages, and rich melodies. With a work ethic that forgoes demos, re-tracking, and multiple takes, Anderson's song-cycle is fresh and exuberant.

The album's centerpiece is the title track. Rupi, the object of Ian's desires, is not a woman, in fact, she's a cat. "The song explores the way in which we personify animals. There is a sexy thing that parallels between the way a cat moves, and plays with you emotionally and physically. I don't intend to hoodwink anyone. The emphasis is on the grace and femininity of the feline form…or a sexy, dark haired lady who is trying to get you to go to bed with her."

Rupi's Dance will be represented in Ian's solo ongoing "Rubbing Elbows" tour, an interactive event featuring local guests from television, radio, and print media. "It would be easy to say it's David Letterman with a flute." Intrigued by the masters of the talk show format for their improvisational prowess and quick wit, Anderson looks forward to the mental challenge of blending dialogue and music with a rotating cast. Remembering his numerous stints on Late Night and the Howard Stern Show, Anderson exclaims "I don't really know what I'm going to be talking about until it comes out of my mouth." Intimate concerts have their drawbacks. "I just did two shows in Greece and noticed that most of the men folk have yet to discover a bar of soap. There was this acrid smell in the audience. It was the same in Turkey. The Italians: probably one-in-four had a hygiene problem. The Germans are clean as a whistle, they love showers." Is Anderson willing to go public with his research? "I'm a CNN guy, but I think I'd choose my moments before I talk about stereotypes. Yet it wasn't the women. I went out and sniffed a few, and they were fresh as roses!"

Ian Anderson’s Rupi's Dance and Martin Barre’s Stage Left are out now on Fuel 2000

THE THRILLS DISCOVER THEIR INNER ADOLESCENT

By Tom Semioli

This feature appeared in Amplifier Magazine, October 2007

“Teenager is an album about youth and growing up” declares Thrills singer/songwriter Conor Deasy. As for the two pubescent juveniles in the throes of passion which adorn the Dublin based indie-pop band’s new album cover, Deasy notes “That’s not me on the bed! I just didn’t want the art to be cryptic like our last one…”

No great album goes unplanned. Deasy and his cohorts Daniel Ryan (guitar/bass), Ben Carrigan (drums), Kevin Horan (keyboards) and Padraic McMahon (bass/guitar) set out render a collection that will stand the test of time. Integral to achieving this goal was to bolt the sunny, safe Southern Californian environs of their previous two releases (So Much For The City and Let’s Bottle Bohemia) in favor of a derelict area in the Gastown district of Vancouver BC.

“Sometimes those juxtapositions work” says Deasy, whose vocal character and tone on Teenager could easily be mistaken for Flaming Lips’ mastermind Wayne Coyne. “I like the fact that we didn’t know anyone there.”

The Warehouse Recording Studio, which is owned by Canadian rock super-star Bryan Adams and was recommended to the Thrills by their former tour mates REM, was once a morgue and allegedly inhabited by ghosts. “It was perfect for the big 1980s rock snare sound” enthuses Deasy. “We had to build a makeshift small room within the big room – the last week we were in the haunted basement studio.”

Otherworldly interference aside, producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Smashing Pumpkins), who also helmed the band’s debut, was an important catalyst. Hoffer and the band chose eleven of the best songs from over the thirty that were recorded. “He’s very loyal, hard- working, and funny. This was our ‘difficult’ album – not a record finished in one breezy session. One of Tony’s rules is that anything recorded after 1 a.m. is unlikely to sound good the next day – though there are exceptions. If we didn’t catch a song quickly, we’d move on to something else, or go get lunch.”

As the title implies Teenager froths with the conflicts most adolescents face: loss of innocence, anxiety, and youthful optimism. Many of the tracks take on an orchestral bent via layered vocal harmonies, mandolins, wailing harmonicas, bravura motifs, swift swinging rhythms, fluttering piano trills, and the occasional anthem – all signature of the range of emotions in an age when hormones rage.

Written mostly in Co Wexford in the South East corner of Ireland, Deasy demoed a few songs at first, and for others, he simply worked on them in the flesh along with the band members. “That’s when the years started disappearing” recalls Deasy.

After sharing the stages in major venues with the likes of the aforementioned R.E.M, U2 and Oasis, The Thrills are primed to make a lasting impression stateside. Reviews of Teenager, which was released in Europe this past summer, have been nothing short of worshipful in all the major rock rags across the pond.

Taking all the accolades in stride, Deasy draws a deep breath. “I was definitely quite hard on myself this time around.” Did he set that new standard for the band and himself? “Yes, we achieved it!”

The Thrills Teenager will be released on October 23, 2007 by Capitol Music Group

SCISSOR SISTERS CUT & PASTE POP FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE

By Tom Semioli

This feature appeared in Amplifier Magazine, July 2004

"Someone described our music as a Trojan Horse," laughs Babydaddy from his London hotel room. "It's the idea that we're presenting something in a very wholesome package, but deep down, we're a bit more subversive than everyone realizes."

The "wholesome package" the fashion savvy keyboardist/bassist speaks of probably refers to the Scissor Sisters' campy stage attire, yen for mischief, and fun-loving approach to the serious business of making chart-topping music. The hip shaking, thought provoking grooves rendered by New York City's most valuable new pop export emerge as a lavish amalgamation of 1970s kitsch in the vein of Elton John, the Bee Gees, and David Bowie, combined with an even deeper affection for the shameless excess of 1980s icons George Michael and B- 52s. The Scissor Sisters (FYI- a slang term for lesbianism!) are all the rage in Europe and the hottest underground band in the United States.

While dueling singers Jake Shears and performance artist Ana Matronic use sex as a tongue-in-cheek weapon, Babydaddy, drummer Paddy Boom, and guitarists Del Marquis and Derek G. are masters of the pop idiom; recycling and reinventing the notion that if it's got a melody and you can dance to it, you have a hit, regardless of what genre you happen to exist in. So far, their ticket to ride has been a shimmering, tub-thumping remake of the hallowed Pink Floyd anthem "Comfortably Numb," which was fortified by a sexy, surrealistic video too far out to begin to decipher without a Master's Degree in Psychology (you can see it  for yourself on MTV2).  Babydaddy swears the stroke of misplaced genius was all Shears' responsibility. The flamboyant co-vocalist was alone on his parents’ Virginia farm in the midst of a vintage record listening binge when he arrived at the realization that Floyd's biggest songs were underpinned with disco beats, thereby validating his already revolutionary tendencies.

As with everything the Sisters touch these days, the break-through hit was not without controversy. "People said it was a song about heroin turned into a song about ecstasy," Babydaddy happily recalls. "I can see how that works, though it wasn't conscious for us to do that. It's an update of the song for different times as a rollicking dance track with a dark edge, especially for all of us who live in Manhattan after 9/11. We may be making joyful music, but there's an undercurrent of something that's far more foreboding." Luckily for the Sisters the cut crawled to #9 in the UK, which didn't quite brand them as a novelty act which simply cashed in on Johnny “I Hate Pink Floyd” Lydon/Rotten's dinosaur rock nemesis . "Our original intention was to slip the song on a b-side of a twelve inch for a tiny indie imprint."

With the February 2004 release of the Scissor Sisters' self titled debut achieving  platinum status in the UK, along with a second smash single "Take Your Mama Out," the purposely mismatched fearless five-some were welcomed with open arms on the lucrative European festival circuit, and have shared the bill with few of their heroes, namely Sir Elton and Duran Duran. "We have comrades in the British," Babydaddy  proudly proclaims regarding the political tensions that circle the two continents. "They're our allies in this whole mess. I get the feeling the people of both countries feel equally stupid with what's going on. There's no hostility. They know that when artists blow through that we're the most liberal representatives of the bunch."

Now, as the American market-place beckons with a late summer domestic release of their UK debut and a fall tour, the Sisters are standing strong in the face of record industry pressure. "We've fought like hell just to get this album out here with all the songs in tact. The decision was made by us not to put the album in Wal-Mart, and not to make a clean version. We did have to slap a parental warning sticker on the disc, which is completely absurd. I think a kid listening to Eminem is getting a much more negative message that what we've been putting forward. We've only got one 'shit' and a few 'tits!"

Dedicated to the album format, the Scissor Sisters labored for months over the track order, sonic nuances, and overall length. Inspired by the classic rock albums of thirty years past, the goal was "to create a perfect pop rock album that would pick you up at the beginning, take you on a journey in the middle, and set you right back down in the same place at the end. Every step we took, we looked at history." By making the album as short as possible, the Scissor Sisters put their best feet forward without resorting to the need to include filler or repeating themselves.

With the proliferation of downloading songs now running rampant in Europe as well as the States, Babydaddy has equal faith in the past and the future. "I think we as a culture are going to need entire albums in addition to just 'songs.' I have a great love for the pop song, Lord knows we all have a short attention span at times. Yet there are days when you want to watch a sitcom and other days when you want to see a film. The song and the album are clearly two different circumstances. When I look back on my childhood, my most profound experiences were sitting in my room listening to entire records. That to me is a pensive, personal moment when an artist speaks to me and relates an entire story, not just a little anecdote."

Artists are used to dealing with failure, but success often poses a different set of jet set problems. Babydaddy exudes optimism. "Fortunately, from an artistic standpoint, we have yet to see the money that comes with success. It's a slow process, and it's very expensive to be out on the road like we are. We've all worked day jobs that gave us the time to do what we love, which is music. I'd say we have fairly sturdy heads on our shoulders. But we do discuss 'success' all the time. What's it going to be like when things get easy? Or will things ever get easy? We're not tempted to run off on a vacation just yet."