WHAT WAS YOUR EARLIEST RECOLLECTION OF MUSIC 

I remember my dad playing his Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald records. My sister’s Elvis’s 40 Greatest Hits & chart songs played at family discos.

Singing in the choir at school.

WHEN DID YOU GET YOUR FIRST GUITAR AND HOW DID YOU GET IT?

My brother had a classical guitar which he didn’t play.  I pretended to play & dad bought me a guitar for my 20th birthday.

WHEN DID YOU START TO WRITE SONGS?

When I was 10 or 11, just singing & writing lyrics as I didn’t play guitar.

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR INFLUENCES?

The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors, Dylan,Van Morrison, Neil Young, Peter Green, Otis Redding, Steve Earle, Tony Joe White, Jimmy Reed, Gerry Rafferty, Mary Gauthier, Lucinda Williams

YOU’VE WRITTEN A PUNK SONG ON THE NEW ALBUM, WERE YOU INTO PUNK BEFORE AMERICANA?

I wrote that for a hard rock band I was in at the time, but we never put it out, so I thought I’d reinvent it for the Roots

IF THE ANSWER IS YES TO THE ABOVE I GUESS YOU ALSO GOT INTO REGGAE AND SKA AT THE SAME TIME AS PUNK?

Growing up in the 70s & 80s with Madness, The Specials & Bob Marley it was impossible to ignore it. To be honest ‘Rest Of My Days’ was really a country/rock number that Dave put a Reggae arrangement to, which I love!

CAN ANYTHING SPARK OFF AN IDEA FOR A SONG?

Pretty much, I set my subconscious tasks .

DO YOU FIND SONGS COME TO MORE IN CERTAIN PLACES THAN OTHERS?

It could be anywhere, at home, going to another solo/band’s gig, I can be inspired anywhere.

DO LYRICS COME FIRST?

Lyrics & melody at the same time, sometimes chords first but that’s rare. Any which way.

YOU ‘VE SUNG SOCIAL COMMENTARY ON QUITE A FEW PAST ALBUMS, DO YOU THINK THIS HELPS YOU PROCESS THE CRAZY TIMES WE ARE LIVING THROUGH 

Yes, it’s quite therapeutic, the main thing is love not hate.

DO YOU HAVE A MUSE?

Yes, Jenni, however the world is my muse, there are songs I wrote before I met Jen.

YOU SEEM TO HAVE A VAST MINE OF INFLUENCE IN YOUR SONGS, DO YOU THINK THIS IS WHY YOUR WRITING CROSSES GENRES, AS IN PUNK, FUNK, PSYCHEDELIC, REGGAE, AND EVEN WORLD MUSIC, AND OF COURSE ROCK N ROLL, ALT.COUNTRY AND BLUES. 

There are some songs that fit a certain genre, others take shape during the arrangement process.

DO YOU STILL ENJOY DISCOVERING NEW BANDS?

Yes, we’re still discovering & enjoying new acts.

WHO ARE YOU LISTENING TO AT THE MOMENT?

Dylan Le Blanc, saw him recently solo at Hot Box, our local independent venue.

WHAT GUITARS DO YOU USE AT THE MOMENT?

Telecaster, Dano Electric 12-string, Les Paul Junior (live) & Takamine Acoustic (live)

ARE YOU WORKING ON A SONG RIGHT NOW?

I’ve written a few songs recently, I never stop writing.

Thanks for you time Jamie, some great insight there into what shapes your songwriting. Good luck with the new album and your upcoming shows.

WHAT WAS YOUR EARLIEST RECOLLECTION OF MUSIC?

As a toddler, about 2 years old, playing my older brother’s singles on our 1964 Bush record player when he was out. I obviously couldn’t read but I knew which songs were on which record by the design on the label, or in the case of his Beatles records, how much writing was on the label.

I also vividly recall, at the age of about 4, leaning against the side of his Marshall halfstack as he was blasting out Cream and Purple licks at full chat, and thinking “THIS is what I’m gonna do when I grow up!”

WHEN DID YOU GET YOUR FIRST GUITAR AND HOW DID YOU GET IT?

The first guitar I tried to play was my big brother’s gorgeous 1960s SG, again while he was out, when I was about 3. My first “guitar” was a red and white plastic toy strat copy which sort of worked, then when I was about 10 my brother in law gave me his acoustic archtop. No idea what make it was but it was really hard to play.

I got a Vitorro classical guitar when I was about 11 (I still have it). Then when I was about 13, in about 1979 my brother chose me a rather gorgeous Vantage Witch for my parents to buy me (a Japanese elecric guitar from the famous Matsomuko factory). All mahogony with a maple centre block, 2 humbuckers with coil tap. Still got that, dissasembled awaiting repair to a crack in the neck pocket. Still arguably the best neck I’ve ever played. I had it for well over a year before i got an amp (a Sound City 50 Plus and a 2×12 cab) which explains why, to this day, I have a heavy right hand technique.

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR INFLUENCES?

My older brother, Paul Milligan. Andy Partridge and Dave Gregory from XTC. Max Eider (RIP) from the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy. Smiths era Johnny Marr. Robyn Hitchcock. Peter Green. Dave Hill. Brian May. Rick Parfitt. Scott Gorham. Graham Coxon.

DO YOU HAVE A GUITAR HERO, OR HEROS?

See above :)

THERE IS A PUNK SONG ON THE NEW ALBUM, WERE YOU INTO PUNK BEFORE AMERICANA?

Very much so. I’m actually not into Americana at all. Don’t listen to it at home. I was a 6 year old Slade fan, then went through Quo, Lizzy, Rush and Genesis until my 6th form teacher played me the Ramones and the Undertones. Everything changed that day. Then I heard the Smiths’ This Charming Man when I was 18. Everything changed again and I became a huge jangly indie fan and a bit of a Cure / Cramps goth for a while.

However, the arrangement, production and sound of the song you’re thinking of (Peace Lives and Flowers) on our new album was very much based on Roger Taylor’s Queen track Sheer Heart Attack, which was him trying to out punk punk.

IF THE ANSWER IS YES TO THE ABOVE I GUESS YOU ALSO GOT INTO REGGAE AND SKA AT THE SAME TIME AS PUNK?

I got into reggae at about 15 thanks to a kid at school, and 2 Tone era 2nd generation ska via my younger brother Ian. Madness, Bad Manners, The Beat and The Specials, but in my 20s I worked near the Greensleeves Records shop in Shepherd’s Bush, and dove into proper old school dub, lovers rock, blue beat and ska.

I LOVE THE VERY AUTHENTIC CLAVINET ON REST OF MY DAYS WHICH I SEE YOU PLAY, IS THIS A ONE OFF OR HAVE YOU PLAYED ONE BEFORE. 

NOTE: I made a mistake in this question, it is actually a Yamaha Reface organ, but I left the question in as the answer is good.

There’s no Clavinet on the album…? There’s a Hammond style organ on Rest Of My Days, which I played using a Yamaha Reface YC keyboard. I can’t play keyboards live, but I can bluff my way through in the studio. The sound you might be mistaking for a clavinet might be my prototype Tanglewood Custom Telecaster, which has an incredibly cutty bridge pickup. On that track I play it in a very staccato ‘flakka’ style, which might be where you’re hearing Clavinet vibes?

DID YOU HAVE ANY MUSICAL LESSONS OR HAVE YOU JUST PICKED THINGS UP BY EAR AND WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE PLAY?

I had about 4 classical guitar lessons as a kid, which introduced me to the idea of finger picking, and probably explains my hybrid picking style and why I never strum chords. I couldn’t be arsed to learn to read the sheet music and used to memorise the piece at the lesson and pretend I was reading the music the following week to appease my teacher. When he realised that’s how I was working we agreed that it wasn’t gonna work out and instiooed going. To be honest I only took the lessons to convince my dad i was serious about playing guitar. He was not over the moon about having another guitarist in the family. He was all sports and would much rather we were out in a muddy field somewhere kicking or batting something. But I was self taught before then and ever since, not so much through watching people as just constantly having a guitar in my hands from an early age and playing it from the minute I got in from school till bedtime, just working stuff out and doing random things to see what happened. I used to play along to the advets when the family wwre trying to watch TV. It’s a wonder I made it to my teens. I must have been hugely annoying.

HOW DO APPROACH ENHANCING JAMIE’S SONGS, DOES HE HAVE THE IDEA FOR THE GROOVE AND GENRE OR DO YOU HAVE A SAY IN THAT?

Jamie sends acoustic guitar and vocal demos by phone, and I come up with  an arrangement. I’ll usually make a pretty detailed demo and play it to the band, or the band rehearse/record Beatles style live in the room till we have a basic track, which I take away and hang overdubs on like musical Buckaroo. Jake always redoes his bass parts at the very end, like Colin Moulding from XTC or Paul McCartney. James the drummer comes up with some useful arrangement ideas too, since his confidence grew when we made his DeStix album last year (it’s really good. You should hear it).

DO YOU EVER WRITE LYRICS?

Not for this band. I’ve run my own band (The Penguin Party) on and off since about 1986. I wrote the lyrics for our three albums, and the upcoming forth, and sung them. I enjoyed it, and took lyric writing very seriously, but my songs tended to be very lyrically dense, and I’ve got a terrible memory, which is why we stopped playing live… I can’t remember my own lyrics!

DO YOU HAVE AN ECLECTIC TASTE IN MUSIC?

Very much so. As well as the blues, ska reggae, punk and new wave stuff mentioned earlier there’s a lot of IDM, ambient, industrial, avant garde, 60s soul, psyche and garage rock, 70s glam, 80s synth pop, 90s brit pop, 00s American independent alternative music, 40s big band swing, trad jazz…. I have a very large collection of vinyl, CDs, minidiscs, cassettes and 78s, and harddrives full of unsigned acts which I play on my radio show Round At Milligan’s, which has been going for about 15 years.

It’s easier to say what I don’t like: Modern Soul, Rap and Hip Hop (except early Daisy Age stuff), snobby jazz, metal in all its forms, rock music generally, country music…

WHAT BANDS HAVE YOU BEEN IN BEFORE?

In order :

Sphericals (1984)

Plug In Drug (1984-85) (Steevi Bacon the drummer is now in Cats In Space)

Reno and Rome (became NME darlings Animals That Swim after I left, annoyingly)

The Penguin Party (1986 on)

Heads Full Of Noise (on midi guitar playing samples)

Introversion (industrial mega drama)

The Jon Burt Experience

Fancy A Shag

Kissy Suzuki (those three were party bands we put together when I was a BBC sound technician. We played old school Rhythm and Blues and Soul stuff at parties. Big horn sections and keyboard players and all that.)

The Heaters (blues band with my big brother Paul) (2001 – 2014 when I joined the Roots Collective)

arco (all lowercase, 1999 on) (slowcore band, big in South Korea of all places. Got some songs on American  and South Korean TV shows and adverts)

DO YOU STILL ENJOY DISCOVERING NEW BANDS?

Hugely. That’s what Round At Milligan’s is all about www.milligans.biz

WHO ARE YOU LISTENING TO AT THE MOMENT?

Been a stressful few months, so a lot of ambient stuff by 36 (1st three albums are by far the best) & Warmth.

WHAT GUITARS, AMPS AND PEDALS DO YOU USE AT THE MOMENT?

The main Roots Collective live guitars are  my 2020 Rivolta Mondatta (by Dennis Fano) 6 string, a cheapy 40 quid Wesley Cabronita style guitar that’s covered in red sparkle sticky back plastic and strung in high-strung nashville tuning, a modified  1990s Hohner T Style guitar with that I hand covered in white polkadots and converted to my own secret 9 string tuning (!) and a mark one Backlund Rockerbox which is my spare live 6 string. There’s also a 3 string cigar box guitar and a cheap as chips Maestro by Gibson Les Paul Junior both set up for slide.

There are a bunch of other guitars on the record: My 1966 Guild Starfire IV, my Tanglewood prototype Custom T style, my Bass VI, Fender California Acoustic, Taylor nylon string, Fender surf Strat but with the lipstick pickups I bought it for swapped out for a more traditional set, Guild Starfire electric 12 string…

Pedals, in order:

Boss TU3 tuner

Hellbabe Wah

Source compressor

EHX Soul Food

EHX Canyon with external tap tempo pedal

VP1 Phaser

MXR Tremolo with external expression pedal

Afterglow chorus

Hand made Rangemaster clone

The live amp is my trusty solid state Roland Blues Cube Stage (500 gigs and counting) always on the clean channel

I use that for recording, plus lately a Vox AC4 TV valve head and 1×12 cab wirh the back baffle removed to open the sound up.

I also used a Spark Go tiny amp and some Positive Grid amp plugin stuff on a couple of parts that were demo placeholders that made it all the way through to the finished album.

Thanks very much Dave, really interesting answers there. Good luck with the album and your up coming shows.