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www.totalmusicmagazine.com Interview with Fish
Total Music: Did you grow up in a musical family/environment (was there much music where you lived)?
Tim Bowness: “A big no to both! I did find out after her death that my Mum had dabbled in theatrical productions and had dreams about being an actor, and my Grandmother (who lived next door) had been an accomplished Classical pianist. Despite that, music and the arts never figured highly in my household and my parents actively discouraged me from getting involved in bands.”
“As for the area, the immediate surroundings - North Cheshire - were pretty dead in terms of venues and there was little to do except create entertainment yourself. Manchester and Liverpool were only twenty minutes away, so as a late teenager, I had access to a great deal more.!”
Total Music: Did you play in any bands we may not have heard of in your formative years and what were you major influences?
Tim Bowness: “A few, mainly in the Manchester and Liverpool areas. I‟d have been aged between 18 and 23. My three main pre No-Man bands were Still (from Manchester), After - or sometimes Always - The Stranger (from Warrington) and Plenty (from Liverpool).
“Still had genuine musical scope and were quite original for the time I think. We were praised by the likes of Mark Radcliffe, but sadly it came to nothing. After The Stranger was more of a standard 1980s Indie Rock band in a Chameleons/Icicle Works/Smiths style. It had a grounding in King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator, so it wasn‟t wholly straightforward. Plenty came out of mid 1980s influences of mine such as The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout, Cocteau Twins and David Sylvian and in some ways heralded several of the approaches No-Man would take when it formed in 1987.”
“Starting out I had varied tastes that encompassed Art Rock (Bowie, Hammill, Roxy Music, Kate Bush), Prog (King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd), soundtracks (John Barry, Bernard Herrmann), Singer-songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Kevin Coyne, Nico), Pop (10cc, The Beatles/McCartney, Beach Boys) and the Post-Punk climate around me (particularly Associates, Magazine and Teardrop Explodes). You can throw in a love of Jazz, Zappa and some Classical into that mix as well. I think that because there was little culture and music © www.totalmusicmagazine.com
around, along with my friends, I really searched for things to listen to and read. One positive was that I was oblivious to what was fashionable, so I listened to the music rather than heeding received opinions about it.”
Total Music: You're clearly hugely prolific and have played with numerous different people over the years but chronologically how did your career unfold?
Tim Bowness: “In terms of career, it started (as it did for Steven Wilson) in No-Man in the late 1980s. By 1990, we‟d received some very good press and radio play in the UK and we got signed to a big label, a big publishing company and became professional musicians (at a time when that was possible!). Bizarrely, because we used beats/grooves in our music, we were originally signed as an artier variation of the then currently fashionable Madchester scene. Our manager at the time also managed Talk Talk (a band Steven and I loved), and he saw us as something of a bridge between the Pop of Prefab Sprout and the album orientated nature of Pink Floyd.”
“With No-Man, I managed to work with many people I‟d admired growing up (such as Robert Fripp, Ian Carr, Mel Collins and Jansen Barbieri and Karn from Japan) and that led to further connections and collaborations.”
Total Music: So what are your memories of working with prog rock legends like Robert Fripp, Hugh Hopper, David Torn and Phil Manzanera?
Tim Bowness: “I‟ve talked about working with Robert Fripp on several occasions before and all I can say is that it was hugely enjoyable and a real honour. With No-Man we worked with Robert in real time. The experience was touching, funny and inspiring. In the studio, music poured out of him in a very natural way. Since then, I‟ve done some work remotely with him and kept in touch (via Burning Shed and in other ways). His work with King Crimson, David Bowie and others was incredibly important to me growing up, so it‟s been a thrill to be associated with him. The same goes for Peter Hammill and Richard Barbieri.”
“Hugh Hopper was a lovely man to know and work with. We did more together than has been released and I remember him as a gentle and witty person. As a live player, he was very responsive and a really good listener. Inevitably, we had many fine discussions about early Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt and his wonderful 1980s album, Two Rainbows Daily.”
“Phil Manzanera has been great. He‟s contributed guitar to a few songs of mine and we‟ve co-written an unreleased piece. He helped me out a lot with recording the new album and is a genuinely decent and generous person, which given his life and level of success, is impressive. David Torn I know less well, but it was nice to be asked to sing for him.”
Total Music: We're rather fond of David Kosten (which album) around here, do you have any interesting memories of working with him?
Tim Bowness: “David was a fan who wrote to No-Man in the early 1990s. He sent us a very detailed letter about how much he liked the music and how it would have been even better if © www.totalmusicmagazine.com
we‟d have done „x‟ or „y‟ to it. For some reason (my admiration for his cheek!), this led to me meeting David and we co-wrote some things together in the early days of Faultline (the band name came from a song I‟d written with David). It wasn‟t a natural collaboration, but it did produce some interesting results. We were friends for a while after that, but due to moves and family life, we‟ve lost touch. I‟d say that Steven Wilson and I are pretty obsessive and perfectionist in our approaches to music, but I have to admit that David probably eclipses us in that respect!”
Total Music: You're a central part of the collective that feeds into Henry Fool/No- Man/Porcupine Tree and more, how did that happen?
Tim Bowness: “I worked with Steven Wilson in No-Man prior to the formation of Porcupine Tree. Colin Edwin, Richard Barbieri and Chris Maitland had worked with No-Man before being in Porcupine Tree. Beyond that, I‟d worked with Gavin Harrison (through Richard Barbieri), and Michael Bearpark (No-Man, Henry Fool etc) had worked with me since the days of After The Stranger etc. etc. A tangled, connected web!”
Total Music: Tell us how your label Burning Shed came into being (and how the hell do you find time to run it)?
Tim Bowness: “It started from an idea I had in 1999 about creating a cost-effective label that could release uncompromising music. By 2001, in association with Pete Morgan and Peter Chilvers the idea became a reality. By 2006, as a result of word of mouth, connections and so on, it‟d grown considerably into much more than the label had been originally envisaged as. [What with] music Burning Shed and family life, it is hard finding the time to do anything for pleasure. I‟m still responsible for bringing in the music and writing the text for Burning Shed and Pete Morgan co-ordinates the office and admin side. We now have full time pickers and packers, IT and customer services staff, but up until 2008, it was very hands on.”
Total Music: When you are writing what are the parameters that would make something into Henry Fool material rather than No-Man - or indeed Slow Electric (Centrozoonand and Darkroom material having obvious stylistic differences)?
Tim Bowness: “Generally speaking, when I‟m writing, I know what‟s Henry Fool and that‟s it. Unlike everything else I do, Henry Fool was conceived as an outlet for a particular type of music, so although it‟s pretty „out there‟ in places, it‟s the only band with defined parameters. Elsewhere, the songs I write are up for grabs as they could work (with arrangement variations) in No-Man, or Slow Electric / Bowness/Chilvers.”
“Obviously, if I‟m writing lyrics to other people‟s music, that has a character of its own unique to the collaboration, so is mostly different from my solo work or No-Man. That said, some pieces I‟ve co-written with Stephen Bennett (from Henry Fool) work well within both solo and No-Man. Darkroom‟s and Centrozoon's music came about from improvisation, so was very particular to those bands / musicians and the time/era it was recorded.” © www.totalmusicmagazine.com
Total Music: Abandoned Dancehall Dreams being only your second solo album, in a decade - and a very long career - do you feel there is possibly a public perception that you have become a perennial sideman and is the track „A Warm Up Man Forever‟ a nod to this?
Tim Bowness: “I was aware that people might see [that song] as autobiographical and there was something of an in-joke in me naming the song that. The lyric has nothing to do with me, though. I‟d hope that the scope of my work overall and the relative success of Abandoned Dancehall Dreams will have dispensed with ideas that I was just a Steven Wilson sidekick.”
Total Music: Is it true that this was originally intended to be a No-Man album rather than a solo album and if so what happened to change that?
Tim Bowness: “Yes, it is true. The thing that changed was that soon after we‟d agreed on a list of songs (that I‟d written or co-written) to work on Steven said that he didn‟t have the time to dedicate to a full-blown No-Man album. He generously offered to mix whatever I came up with and in the end I think he did me a favour in terms of forcing me to complete a large-scale project that I was happy with. I produced Abandoned Dancehall Dreams and wrote more music for it than for any album I‟ve released before, so it is the most truly solo work I‟ve been involved in making.”
Total Music: Tell us about Andrew Keeling‟s contributions and what he brought to the project?
Tim Bowness: “A touch of class. I sang on a song for Andrew a couple of years back and loved his string arrangements. Since then, I was looking for an excuse to work with him. I had a strong idea of what I wanted him to contribute to the album. In all cases, he did a wonderful job of achieving what I wanted and adding his own personal touches. He gave the album a greater scope, I think. We‟ll definitely be doing more work together.”
Total Music: You have been getting some very good reviews and responses to the material on this album what is it do you think that you tapped into this time around that has connected with so many people?
Tim Bowness: “I think part of it is that the album‟s shown what my contributions to No-Man have been in the past, so it‟s given a greater understanding of what‟s gone before.”
“I love grander statements and big productions as much as I do intimate ones. I also like Rock music. Outside of No-Man, my work has mostly been of a more stripped-down, delicate or experimental nature. Perhaps Abandoned Dancehall Dreams showed I could create an album as cinematic, direct and Rock influenced as No-Man? Certainly, one misconception is that Steven contributes the harder hitting ideas to No-Man. The truth is that by the time he works with me, he‟s usually got those ideas out of his system via other projects and he‟s looking to do something more sedate. By contrast, by the time I work with Steven, I‟m usually up for doing something more powerful. Overall, I think that although it was still mostly melancholy, Abandoned Dancehall Dreams had a certain boldness and confidence that‟s not been a feature of much of my work outside No-Man. I obsessed over album structure and © www.totalmusicmagazine.com
arrangements and the album was a great learning experience for me, so it was genuinely gratifying to have such a positive and kind set of responses.”
Total Music: Do you have any further plans regarding the album (singles/videos/remixes etc.) during the remainder of the year?
Tim Bowness: “There are three videos out already. There will be some more live dates over the next six months as well. It‟s possible we could release an EP of live versions of the Smiler related material. Outside of that, thinking about (and recording) a follow up to Abandoned Dancehall Dreams will be next on the agenda.”
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