Page 54 - The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

JP: Well, we’ve all done sessions
including Andy, but equally I
started playing in a band with my
mates at school, so the notion of
being in a band was kind of hard
wired into me. But if you want
to make a living in music, seeing
as 99% of bands don’t, you’re
probably more likely to earn
a living from playing for other
people. That’s what happens and
I think that’s true of everyone.
But at the same time if you’re
creatively inclined, when the
opportunity comes round as with Andy,
with great songs, great voice, it was like
‘yeah’, why not take a punt and see what
happens. I think one of the main things
with Mamas Gun, besides the music is that
we’ve kind of had international success
pretty much off our own backs, and as a
band we have achieved that, and in random
countries.
TL: With sessions, there is an obvious
divide but if I’m honest I enjoy doing both.
I love playing different kinds of music, and
it’s great to go and play with other artists
and adapt to whatever is thrown at you.
As with tonight, I’m playing with Lisa
Stanfield’s band and it’s cool, I really enjoy
both things. When you’re part of a band
it’s your thing, your music, you’re very
much a part of the process and nothing
can equal that. We work really hard,
we tour and travel not knowing if we’re
gonna make any money from it and that’s
the difference. You’re willing to take the
gamble on it, on pushing the band on.
The sessions, if somebody says I’m not
necessary going to pay you if we don’t do
well on the tour, it doesn’t quite rub the
same way. If you’re working for someone,
you’re working for someone, you want to
get paid.
The pop world’s mid-drift will
be awakened to a shift, not
necessarily shaken but stirred
with a consensus that equally
radiates from the band.
AP: This time round we really
took our time, to try to examine
every riff, every melody scrap,
every chord change and indeed
every song that any member may
have put on the table.
BM: How would you define
pop music today?
AP: Pop music today, when you say pop
music, are you speaking about mainstream
pop music?
BM: Is there a difference?
AP: Well, if you’re going to compare stuff
that’s in the charts today with say, thirty
years ago, there’s a big difference in the
song craft aspect. I mean obviously we’ve
had the great benefits of the evolution
of technology which has been the great
leveler in many ways, and out of that you
bitemusic