It’s a Friday and that can only mean two things here at The Little Guitar Shop- #1 Rob’s 4-day weekend is already underway and #2 it’s time for another Brum strummer to give up the goods on the cutlery they use when dining at the table of rock.
Anyone who’s more than a passing ghost in the Birmingham muso world will have undoubtedly have been serenaded by JP at some point- he is not only an infinitely supportive champion of local up and coming bands as part of promoters This Is Tmrw, but has also been pulling on the strings of our blackened hearts for nearly a decade now with the much-lauded Victories At Sea. They’re cinematic, panoramic, gothic, fantastique! Fittingly, JP’s sound is a dense, swirling, modulated mass of arpeggios and ocean-sized chords- a beautiful union of the shoegaze and post-punk influences that have stirred him since those halcyon days of the 90’s. And it’s clearly hitting the mark both at home and abroad- the band have toured Europe with the likes of Editors and recently released their 2nd LP through Gentleman Records to deserved acclaim. Lose yourself in ‘Follow You’ below and then dive in with us.
Talk us through your guitar history from your first to your most recent.
“Around 11 years old I was lucky enough to be bought my first guitar, a Tanglewood acoustic- nothing fancy but it’s still a treasured possession that fires out a heavy output of my ideas, guess it’s my ‘go to guitar’ still for getting what’s in my head late at night onto paper. Couple years later I made the classic purchase of a Rockwood Strat copy in glorious sunburst with a Laney amp. No idea why I bought a Strat copy as I’ve always hated the shape (take that Clapton), but it was cheapish and I could pay it off monthly like a positive debt. That did me much good service in my first couple of college bands before I smashed it up at a gig in Aberystwyth in my wannabe JJ72 days- pretty sad I did that now. After that I went through a many terrible purchases (Epiphone Riviera, couple of Epi Les Pauls) but I’ll cut to the king: The Fender Telecaster Custom ’72ri, all black and absolutely my favourite guitar ever! That did me good for a few years until it was stolen in London after a soundcheck, which I’m still mourning. I’ve never been one for replacing like for like- it was like losing a cat and replacing the poor sod with another- the personality was lost. It was also uninsured, but luckily in the preceding months I’d acquired a white Fender Telecaster Deluxe as a back up. I never took to it much until VAS began in 2010 when it really fitted and has since become my number one (though on occasion it does get bullied out the way by my Gretsch G5420T, which is a lovely problem to have). Other than that, there’s a Fender Jaguar Special HH which is pretty spikey when it wants to behave, and an Olympic White Fender Mustang.”
Who inspired you to pick up guitar, and who inspires you to keep on playing today?
“I’ve no shame in admitting watching a video of Def Leppard live and seeing Steve Clark rock out ‘Switch 625‘ pretty much sealed my wish to play guitar before I owned one or knew how to play. Him and Angus Young- guess that’s what happens when you’re 9 years old. After the Nirvana years, and Oasis phase, 1997 was probably my key year in developing some real direction to build a style of my own. Radiohead/Blur/The Verve is my kinda gig- those three bands that year meant a lot. Been a few years since all that but Greenwood/Coxon/McCabe are my primary triangle of magical influences, add in Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant, and more recently Bill Ryder-Jones.”
Tell us about your music, and how you approach your guitar playing within the context of it.
“I suppose it’s ‘hopeful misery at the smalltown disco’ soundscapes we make- the odd pop song, odd Mogwai moment, odd acoustic moment of brittle anxiety. I have a terrible live-guitarist-ability dampener which is having to sing at the same time. It’s been an ongoing battle for years- repeatedly it’s challenged whether I actually enjoy playing guitar live as I’m simply not proficient enough to play blind. It pulls me in directions of absolute hit-and-miss, as I’m equally precious of delivering the songs vocally. But I like to think there’s an edge in bending the truth and sometimes it can be very rewarding just to hammer the thing and not worry about precision, after all no one I’ve really ever admired played perfectly. So I approach live playing as a release, and no one’s significantly told me off yet. “Flukey” is probably a better word but, there’s heart there. Recording though- sit me down, let me explore, get it right, take time, try it out, then fall in love with it. The last album writing/recording cycle was so so good for that- I fell in love with playing guitar again.”
What setup are you currently running, amp and pedal wise?
“In VAS at the start I was ridiculously blasting a stereo signal out via a Marshall JCM900 4×12 and Fender DeVille in front of 20 people- what a pain to commute those were in days without being in a van! But now I am perfectly happy just with the DeVille- when it heats up and the Tele goes in it’s the warmest brick I’ve used, heavy when it needs to be and tidy as much as it needs in the gentle times. Recording the record though, we threw a load of amps together, albeit mainly our producer’s not my own! Blackstar, Ampeg bass amp, Fender Twin- that was a glorious week. Pedal-wise I admit I’m not hugely adventurous. I reckon there’s guitarists out there who would grimace at my simplicity but I seriously have no qualms with mainly using BOSS- they are solid and in the chain are as fun as anything (though I do have a shopping list for Death By Audio and EHX when I get the finance together). It’s all about reverbs and delays and fuzz, the RV5, DD3, DD6, BD2 and (though borrowed) CE5. There’s an EHX Holy Stain in there for extra reverb out of the delays for the ‘Exit’ moments and a tremelo option and a RAT which has made a return after years of neglect to boost the choruses. I’d love an original silver/black EHX Micro Synth in there if I could find one that was functioning at less than half a grand- that would probably see a return of the Marshall though, for dynamics.”
What’s the one pedal that you couldn’t live without?
“I don’t believe anyone who says otherwise but it’s the TU3 or equivalent digital tuner. I’m the worst ‘by ear’ tuner’ going- I shiver to think about early bands when I didn’t have one! I can probably at worst cope doing a show with the minimum of a TU3, DD3 and RV5 if some baggage handler decided to chuck my board onto the wrong flight.”
What’s your current main guitar, and why so?
“Fender Telecaster Deluxe- it survives being thrown at the ground for the most part, great tone and loud, it’s a joy to play and looks kinda nice.”
Are there any other local guitarists you particularly admire?
“Stuart Tovey of MATTERS, James Brown of Mutes is a brutal guitarist, Ben and Mike of Boat To Row interplay really well, Thomas Edward of God Damn, and Thomas Hewson of Hoopla Blue.”
Where can we find your music and see you play next?
“We released our second album Everybody’s Lost And All I Want Is To Leave six months ago on Netherlands’ based Gentlemen Records, pre-that there’s our debut album and two EPs out on Static Caravan. There’s a few vinyl knocking about out there but all pretty much gone, so Spotify it, YouTube, all the rest! As for playing live, in these times who knows! Our Euro shows have all been postponed until at very least Spring next year ,which would be effectively a year since the album came out! It’s all crazy but it’s important we get through this time together in well and working order- so for now it’s writing and writing at home remotely, maybe a gig before the end of this year if the pandemic allows, it’s hard to plan but we’ll do something somewhere sometime and we sure won’t take any of it for granted ever again.”
The Little Guitar Blog 