Interview: Rising Stars – TRISTAN MACKAY

February 17th, 2015 by jason

Tristan Mackay releases his second album ‘Wire & Wood’, a follow-up to ‘Out Along The Wire’ and here we hear about the new album, his musical influences and more…

Can you take us through your new album ‘Wire & Wood’? e.g. recording and writing process, stories behind the songs

‘Wire & Wood’ is an album of old and new songs – some dating right back to my first home recorded demos when I started busking in 2007. I wanted to make an album that got to the very core of my songwriting, that was intimate and sparing instrumentally but emotionally as genuine as possible. it still very much draws on my influences from blues, folk and soul music, with the guitar playing that I see as central to my music, but it is much more of a singer-songwriter record than my first album.

It was perhaps most strongly influenced by all the support touring I have been doing since the release of my first album. I really enjoyed playing on my own, and over hundreds of gigs gained a greater understandings of where my strengths lie as a performer and writer. For that reason, many of the songs on ‘Wire & Wood’ were recorded completely live – guitar and vocals in one take. It allowed us to capture the intimacy of those best live moments.

The practicalities of support work also forced me to get back to doing all my lead guitar on acoustics. It’s quite a unique sound and I decided early on that we would leave the electrics to one side for this album. I think this has given the album a really consistent sound and mood – like the title says: Wire and Wood!

What have you got planned for 2015?

I am touring as UK support for Graham Parker throughout April and then I will be doing an intimate headline tour around the country in June, including Manchester, Leeds, London, Sheffield and the South West. After that. who knows…

You exceeded your crowdfunding target by a large margin! How important are these funding schemes for artists like you? What sort of extras did you offer those fans who made larger donations?

It was an amazing, nerve racking, exhilarating month watching that campaign run its course. In the end I exceeded my goal thanks to the generosity and belief of fans. They have had to wait two years for the record, and I hope they won’t be disappointed, I put my heart and soul into every beat and bar.

I had a variety of funding levels, but I saw the foundation level as £25 for a signed CD with their name in the credits. That to me seemed like a great level to come in as a patron and be a special part of the process for a bit more than buying the CD post release at a gig.

Beyond that I offered free launch show tickets, signed lyrics and private house gigs.

Crowd funding, when done right, represents a real opportunity for artists to have a closer relationship with their fan base. Recording and releasing on my own label has given me complete artistic freedom, and I think that has helped the record immensely.

Your debut album ‘Out Along The Wire’ won major plaudits. Did you expect such a reaction and did this put pressure on your follow-up, such as high expectations from critics and fans alike?

Well I was very fortunate to have teamed up with a great producer in Martin Levan and an incredible room of musicians, so musically my only concern was whether I could keep up and raise my game. At the point we started that album I was busking full-time, certainly not an experienced studio musician. The learning curve was steep, and it was a very challenging, but rewarding couple of years. I simply worked as hard as I could at it to make it the best piece of work I could and I am delighted people took to it. It has changed my life.

What made you take up playing and singing? Who are your main musical influences and why?

I fell in love with guitar playing long before singing. I heard Eric Clapton ‘Unplugged’ and it blew my musical world wide open. I started going back to early blues music and 60’s blues revival music and trying to recreate those sounds. Singing and writing came later – singing is quite a frightening prospect and it has taken a long time to clear my voice of all its affectations and be true to it.

My formative musical influences were Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Dire Straits and Bob Dylan. More recently I have really been enjoying Randy Newman’s back catalogue and Damien Rice’s new album. I love story songs and confessional songs – real emotions set to music.

How did you get Deep Purple’s Don Airey to guest on the album?

Don had worked with Martin on some early Lloyd Webber recordings in the 70’s I think, and they were catching-up on the phone when Don mentioned he really liked my first album. I was delighted and asked if he would do something on the new record. A few months later he very kindly laid down Hammond for ‘If I Told You’ and did an incredible job getting under the skin of that track.

Ricky Peterson is the other Hammond player, who I met while touring with Robben Ford. He had an incredible back catalogue having played on Johnny Lang’s ‘Lie to Me’ and John Mayer’s ‘Continuum’, which are two of my favourite albums, and I loved his playing every night. We were chatting in the bar on the last night of the tour and laughing about how I’d love him to guest but couldn’t afford him! I cannot thank him enough for putting his very special playing on ‘This Old Heart’ and ‘I’ll be Yours Tonight.’

Message for your fans

Thank you for all of your support. To all of you who have come and said Hi right back from the busking days to the bigger shows. It is absolutely true to say I couldn’t have made this album without you, and I hope to see you all on the road over spring and on my tour in June.

www.tristanmackay.com/

@tristanmackay

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