interview John Smith

john smith From playing open mic nights to touring with John Martyn and beyond, John Smith is one of the UK’s finest singer songwriters and an amazing guitarist – and to think he owes it all to Bill & Ted…

Words David Mead Photography Jesse Wild

usic has been part curious to join the dots between those early of John Smith’s life Squier Strat-wielding days and a love for from a very early age. traditional English songs. When only five or six “I started listening to Hendrix, Clapton years old he began and later on Led Zeppelin. My dad sat me playing the piano down and played me Kashmir and that blew Mand then, subsequently, the drums. The everything open. Suddenly, I was obsessed guitar came a little later on and whereas with guitar from about the age of 11 or 12; we’ve all got our stories about how our I was playing every day. Got home from love affair with playing began, John’s was school, played until I fell asleep. Then later possibly one of the more original ones that in my teens, I discovered Nick Drake, John we’ve encountered. It turns out that the Renbourn and Bert Jansch. That changed instrument entered his consciousness when everything again. I became interested he saw the movie Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in alternate tunings and I realised the around the age of 11. possibilities of the guitar in a completely “That big guitar duel at the end blew my different way. As soon as you take your mind,” he laughs. “I thought, ‘Oh right, I’m bottom E string down to a D, you’ve got a going to have to start playing guitar.’” different instrument. Then you change John’s father worked in the record them all, put them in one of Nick Drake’s industry and played guitar himself, so, strange tunings, you’ve got a completely noticing his son’s post Bill & Ted enthusiasm different experience. for the guitar, bought him a red Squier “That got me interested in writing my Strat so that he could have some most own stuff, so I had this evolution as I was excellent musical adventures of his own. growing with the instrument and being Since then John has gone on to tour the steered by what I was listening to. By the world armed with an enviable selection of time I was about 20, I was writing my own Fylde acoustics, making albums along the songs, trying to gig them and seeing what way, the latest of which, Hummingbird, would happen if I played out in front of finds him exploring the folk canon. We’re people. With mixed results…”

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From the 80s-inspired Bogus Journey, through Led Zepp to Bert Jansch: John’s guitar journey has been eclectic

Did you go through the open mic “I’d say, ‘I’m opening paralytic. I would watch this and think, experience, festivals and so on? ‘Oh God, is he going to pull this off?’ He “I’d been playing open mics in Liverpool for John Martyn, can always did; he’d always put on a show. where I was living. Doing that every night People would ask Danny Thompson [John for a couple of years, playing as much as I have a gig?’ and then Martyn’s touring partner on bass], ‘How I could, working four part-time jobs to pay I’d get festival slots” did you play so pissed?’ He’d say, ‘Well, we the rent while I was just trying to make a go rehearsed pissed.’ He always managed to do of music. I got a gig up at the Ullapool Guitar it. He’d be wheeled on stage, pick up a guitar Festival. I’d sent them a demo and they slots. Then I got a proper manager and and he wasn’t tense, he was suddenly just offered me a fee. I did the gig, I looked at the everything sort of rolled from there.” relaxed into the slipstream of performance cheque and then I looked at what I’d earned and taking the audience with him. That just from my four part-time jobs in a week and John Martyn had a reputation for being seemed apparent from the moment that he I decided to go self-employed. Then I was quite a fiery individual. How was your was on stage, which was very inspiring. skint for five years, but I was gigging and experience touring with him? “I thought then, ‘Right, maybe I’m I’ve been touring ever since.” “There were three or four Johns – maybe overthinking what I’m doing. I just need five or six – and the bad ones he would often to be a bit more like that, and try to let go When was it that you started touring with keep behind closed doors. You would hear as soon as I get on stage.’ I’ve been trying John Martyn? noises walking down the corridor. He was to do that ever since, but it’s hard because “In 2006. I was offered a spot opening for only ever moody with me a couple of times, there is a lot think about sometimes when John Martyn to which I said, ‘Yes, please.’ but overwhelmingly he was very sweet and you’re at a gig. I think all the best shows Then John took me on tour for the best supportive. He’d take me to one side and I’ve seen have been where the performer part of two years. Right through his last UK tell me that he was glad that people were is completely relaxed.” tours, I was opening for him. That gave me listening to me and that’s how it should be. an opportunity to present myself on the He was just very genuinely warm and, as When did you begin making albums? touring circuit and say, ‘I’m opening for I say, supportive towards me. “I made my first album [The Fox & The John Martyn, can I have a gig?’ and people “At this stage, John was kind of out of it a Monk] in Liverpool in 2006 for £300. would say, ‘Yes,’ and then I’d get festival lot. Some nights he’d go on stage completely I had all these songs and the John Martyn

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John’s first Fylde Falstaff, built by Roger Bucknall, with a cedar top and Madagascar rosewood back and sides

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tour spurred me on to record it and get it pressed, because I was doing them on my friend’s Mac, printing the CDs and then selling them at gigs. You know, hand‑drawing the sleeves and actually making money out of it. I thought, ‘I need to get a proper album together.’ I made my next record [Map Or Direction] two years later in America. That was a completely different project, you know? I went out there and recorded the second album out of the back of a car driving around the Deep South. That was a very enjoyable, very expensive adventure… I don’t know, I just felt like doing something different. “By the time it was 2013, I wanted to make a studio record with all the string parts I’d been imagining and all the songs that I’d been getting together. I’d been through a bit of writer’s block and came out the other side with this collection of songs. That was Great Lakes, which I recorded in North Wales, in a chapel converted into a studio. Then a couple of years later it was time for Headlong [in 2017]. In that interim, I went off and played guitar for David Gray, Lianne La Havas and LeAnn Rimes. I just went and became a session guitar player for a bit. Then I came out of that period with all the songs for Headlong.”

Your latest album, Hummingbird, sees you playing some traditional folk songs. What was the inspiration for that? “Hummingbird appeared out of this desire to record all the traditional folk songs that I’ve been living with. Some of them I’ve been performing but I’ve never presented as my own interpretations on a recording. It just felt like the right time. I suppose I A Fylde Oberon on reached the age where I thought, ‘Well, if Denmark Street first I don’t do this now, I might regret it,’ you introduced John to know? Half of them were songs that I’d Roger Bucknall’s guitars been performing in shows for 10 or 15 years, like Lord Franklin. My dad used to play that around the house. Then a couple of them sprang up when I got together with [Hummingbird producer] Sam Lakeman “I had this evolution couple of thousand pounds too expensive and we were talking about this project. for where I was at, at the time. As my friend He said, ‘You should really hear Hares On as I was growing and I were driving up to Glasgow to do one The Mountain.’ He played me a couple of of the John Martyn gigs, I just stopped in different versions and I thought, ‘That’s just with the instrument at [the Fylde Guitar workshop in] Penrith. a great song.’ I found my way in very quickly, and being steered I looked up the address and I just stopped wrote that guitar lick straight away and I in. I introduced myself and Roger, sort of was singing the song within 10 minutes. by what I was warily, said, ‘Right, do you want a guitar?’ It felt like, ‘Oh, this is here; this is really in listening to” I said, ‘Yes, but I can’t help but notice that my hands here. I’ve got to record this.’ The you endorse a lot of older folk musicians. same thing happened with Unquiet Grave.” Why don’t you endorse someone younger? I’m out there opening for John Martyn, You’re playing Fylde guitars. How did you I think you should make me a guitar.’ He first encounter Roger Bucknall’s guitars? regarded me with some suspicion and then “The first time was back when there was he said, ‘Yes, all right.’ still Hank’s Guitar Shop on Denmark Street. “To his eternal credit, Roger built me an It was a Fylde Oberon and easily the best extraordinary guitar. Six months later I guitar that I’d ever played, but it was a was playing it at shows.”

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The ‘must-have’ spruce and Indian rosewood Falstaff that Roger Bucknall put into John’s hands one day during a brief visit to Fylde’s Penrith workshop

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John’s touring pedalboard includes the Strymon El Capistan tape echo delay – the “sound better” pedal – on the bottom left

That would be your Falstaff? L-R: Fylde Alexander, cedar “That was my first Falstaff, with cedar and Madagascar rosewood and Madagascan [rosewood]. Four years Falstaff, and spruce and after that, I was visiting him, bringing him Indian rosewood Falstaff a bottle of whisky, chatting. He said, ‘Try this,’ and he handed me this guitar that was similar to mine but with this really white piece of spruce on the top and Indian rosewood [back and sides]. I played it and then five minutes later I was giving him my credit card. That guitar has now turned completely yellow and it’s ageing wonderfully [pictured in its case opposite]. That’s the only time I’ve ever experienced that – played a guitar and gone, ‘I have to have this. There’s no other way.’ “He’s recently built me a banjo that is out of this world and an Alexander with a piece of Brazilian rosewood that Mike Waterson found in a joiner’s workshop. He’s built one for myself and one for Richard Hawley out of that wood – both incredible guitars. Because it’s a bit smaller and it goes in a slightly smaller case, I’ve been travelling with that one because it’s a bit easier to carry. I use Calton cases, which

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John’s Fylde Alexander is pictured left, with back and sides made from a block of Brazilian rosewood found in a joiner’s workshop

are really heavy. Indestructible but heavy, so anything I can do to get my rig a little bit smaller I will.”

Which onboard preamps do you use in your Fylde models? “I’ve recently moved to LR Baggs Dual Source, having experimented with the Anthem and realising that the mic side is too quiet on those for me. I asked them about the Dual Source having seen Clive Carroll use one and thinking he’s got the best sound on stage of anyone. I put that through a Raven Labs preamp; I buy them up on eBay whenever they come up because they’re rare as hen’s teeth, you know? If anyone’s buying one of those on eBay, it’s me or Clive, basically.”

What about your pedalboard? “On the travel ’board, I’ve got the [TC Electronic] Mini Flashback [delay], the [TC] that harmonic wobble thing, and I use that “I get paid for the Mini Hall Of Fame [reverb], the one that a bit for slide. Yes, that’s the rig. I’ve got my just says HOF on it. I’ve got an MXR Chorus eyes on a few other things, though…” travelling, doing and a mini tuner. On the main ’board, I’ve got my Lehle and then I use a Boss OC-3, Do you enjoy being on the road? the accounts and which gives me a bit of reinforcement for “I do, and again, to quote Danny Thompson, booking flights, but when I’m doing solo shows and I want a who is one of the wisest men in music, I get little bit of bass. The real magic pedal is the paid for the travelling, doing the accounts I do this bit for free. El Capistan, which is Strymon’s tape delay and booking flights, but I do this bit for free. That’s how I consider emulator, and that just makes everything That’s how I consider it. When I’m in a sound amazing. It’s the ‘sound better’ pedal. plane or in a car, I’m thinking, ‘This is what it… As soon as I’m I’ve got the Strymon BlueSky – that’s just a I’m getting my day rate for.’ As soon as I’m brilliant plate reverb. I don’t use the hall or up there on stage, it stops being a job.” up there on stage, the spring, I just use the plate. I’ve also got it stops being a job” a [Strymon] Flint on there for a bit of trem. John’s latest album, Hummingbird, is The Flint is the closest thing I’ve found to available now on Commoner Records a vintage Magnatone. You can really dial in www.johnsmithjohnsmith.com

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