Homepage Site Map Chronicle Front Page Shed Index Interview July 2001 Interview March 2002 david hughes in conversation yet again with nick skeens October 2003 ____________________________________________________________________________________________
1. So, a new album. Haven’t I asked this question before? Have you been sitting on your arse a lot? I"ve been sitting in my shed a lot, I've been "working". That's what I do in the shed, work. I try to concentrate. Just for a few seconds between games of spider solitaire and checking emails and making coffee and going to the toilet and making another coffee while I'm there. Keeping the concentration level high while you're hanging up the washing, starting dinner, taking out milk bottles or remembering dental appointments is a hard job. It's like two planets, me and the page, converging once in a thousand days. All you can hope is that when you swing past, you can pick up the thread of what you were thinking, that you're in the right frame of mind to come up with the answer to the question, what's the next line? You've got to have it at the front of your mind quick enough to write it down because you've got to go and pick up the kids. That's how hard I work. Yes, you asked me that question about eighteen months ago. That was when we were bringing out the compilation of songs called 'Recognised'. Songs taken from the four albums. I was supposed to have written another album for the last two years. Somehow, the planets did not converge. From recording the last one to recording this was probably a thousand days. The problem is momentum. Once you've got it you can do anything. I wrote twelve songs in three months. It's a fragile thing, as they say. 2. Tell us more about this album. Does it have a theme? What’s it called? And why? The album is called 'I Can Explain'. It's recorded but the mixes have taken time. Mark Tucker is incredibly thorough. It will be finished by the end of the month. Acoustic guitar and vocal, Gerry Conway on drums and percussion. Martin Brunsden plays double bass and bowed saw. And there's wonderful backing vocals from Jacqui McShee, Helen Watson, Chris While and Julie Matthews. It's very simple really and all in the best acoustic taste. It's a cross between Led Zeppelin and Tom Lehrer. Does it have a theme? I expect so. It can take a while for me to see it. But if you write all the songs over a short period there must be a some repeated preoccupations. That might be the threme. The title song is about trying to explain to one's partner why you're not rich yet. There's another song called 'No Amount Of Money' in which a man again explains how he's going to stick to his principles even though it means jumping from one crisis to another. Being stupid and vulnerable, it's the common theme of everything I write probably. There's a celebration of my home, a picture of my daughter, a song about 'Friends Reunited' which I dipped my toe into quite successfully last year, a car song and, as usual, a song about something that gets up my nose. They're the same themes I always write about. 3. What’s the best song on it? What’s so good about it? How do I know. The song about my daughter, 'Ruby Does' seems to produce a favourable response. I don't know. From my own viewpoint, the good ones are the ones you write without knowing where you're going. It's something new. One of the songs on the album that does that for me is 'Two Stroke'. It's a song about the river, it's the nearest I think I've ever got to just talking over an intricate guitar part. It's more like a conversation than I've managed before even though I've always liked lyrics to be that way. There's a theatrical element to it. It's also a good feeling if you think you're being honest, knowing that a truth is coming out. You don't need to know what it is, just happy it's there. I grew up by the river. The thing that most evokes it, wherever I am, is the smell of two stroke. 4. What’s happening this Christmas then? Doing any gigs? St Agnes Fountain. We're doing our annual Xmas tour. Most of December up till the 21st. There's a new album again, recorded live by Steve Brookfield on the tour last year. It'll be on sale during the tour and on the St. Agnes web site. 5. Who in the current pantheon of musical hitsters do you admire and listen to? Richard Thompson has just brought out an album, 'A Thousand Years Of Popular Music'. I've not got a copy yet but the coverage was interesting. I've heard a snippet of the Britney Spears and it's very good. So is the early music. I don't know his work that well, I should do, but when I do hear him there's always a conspiratorial quality to his music that brings a smile to my face. I'll not talk about Randy Newman or Loudon Wainwright again. I loved 'Teenage Dirt Bag'. It keeps me close to my kids songs like that. I sometimes watch TOTP and generally, the ones that I like are the one's that Ruby buys. We like Busted and their song that goes, "I asked you to dance at the disco but you said no". Good song. Ruby's been downloading mp3s. She's just got Dudley Moore singing 'Jump, You Fucker, Jump'. Tickles her pink which I'm quite pleased about. And for the second year running, the Glastonbury TV weekend was thoroughly enjoyable. Groove Armada, The Darkness and more I can't remember their names. I really don't hear enough. Most of other people's music I hear is in passing; in adverts or when it's used as a backing track on Football Focus. But, just now, the person I have watched and listened to with the greatest pleasure is Helen Watson. That's pure class. I love what she does. I hope we are going to do a couple of gigs together this year. We've been talking about learning a few favourite songs. We're building up lists.		6. What’s it like now to be a non-smoker? I remember you giving up on your 50th birthday. Being a non-smoker is pretty easy really. I'm still on half and ounce a day. It's tempered by the fact that if I don't stop soon I'm going to die but generally speaking, things are fine. I said I'd give up when I was fifty so I did, on the eve of my 51st birthday. But I wasn't ready for such a big commitment. 8. You’ve been toying with the idea of buying another guitar, haven’t you? Isn’t two enough? What have you got your eye on? Why? Bit of an indulgence perhaps but it has a practical application. My songs are generally in three tunings: normal, DADGAD and CGDGAD although I've started writing in a fourth, DGDDAD (I think the new album has three songs in that tuning). When I'm performing I don't like to spend ages re-tuning (I can't really talk while I'm doing it). I try to tune quickly and there's the temptation to begin a song when the dynamic demands it rather than because it's really in tune. Another guitar would mean I'd waste less time and that it would be in perfect tune. As for what kind of guitar, well, a pre-1974 Martin would do very nicely, like the one I use now. But to have a different feel I'd love to have an Epiphone Texan, probably made in the sixties or a bit earlier. Wonderful tone and a great feel to it for fingerstyle. Wizz Jones has one. So does a friend of mine, Jan Leman, who directed the BBC2 film of Bert Jansch 'Acoustic Routes'. He bought it off G.T.Moore. A lovely guitar. He won't sell it though. Anyway, I can't afford a guitar. 10. Imagine the album is finished, the decorating done and Christmas has come and gone. What next? I'm hoping to do a few concerts to promote the album in early January. The 'official' launch is being organised still, more news on that soon. I hope to do one in Maldon too. I'll be playing with all the people on the album plus P.J.Wright on slide. Then there's the idea of working with Helen Watson on some songs. There's also another book in my head. That might keep me busy. I must get that done. And after that, Pinky, the world. BACK TO THE TOP