Interview: TOM MORIARTY (June 2015)
Tom Moriarty releases his new album ‘The Road’ in August. GRTR! caught up with him for some insight into the songs on the album and this thoughts on the current state of the music scene and more…
What have you got planned for the next few months e.g. recording, touring, etc.
Over the next few months I’ll be doing some promotion for “The Road” and writing the next album. So I’ll be doing a bit of solitary and giving myself some time to think, contemplate, daydream and allow my creative mind to be free and start doing its thing. You need to create a space for that.
It takes a while but you get to that point where you’re almost writing subconsciously, the track playing in the background through the day and lyrics coming up whenever they want. I guess I’ve learned a bit about how I write over the years. I tend to decide on a track to write and then live and breath it.
I don’t play other songs; I hardly listen to any other music. I just think about that one song and do more conscious playing and writing at various times in the day. Sometimes it’s like your soul is trying to say something and I’m just trying to find the words, as if I’m saying “is that what you mean?” There’s one line I’m struggling to interpret at the moment but it’ll come. One of the most important things about songwriting is patience. Don’t chase the lyric. Some lyrics have taken years.
In terms of recording, am just finishing off a 4 track Dylan covers EP that I’d wanted to do for a while with Katey Brooks. We’ve shared the same stage a few times and on one occasion we got together at the end of the gig and did a version of “I Shall Be Released”. Really enjoyed it so we thought we’d do a little EP of Dylan covers. We’ve got a little more to do but I look forward to releasing in the Autumn I guess.
I’ll be touring later in the year I reckon as well as recording the album I’m working on at the moment.
Could you please take us through the songs on the new album ‘The Road’? (e.g. songwriting process, stories behind the songs etc.)
Wow man, where do I start with one? Well I guess firstly it’s a collection of songs from the journey maybe over the last 5 yrs I guess. That’s not to say the stories are all about things that happened in that time, some of the songs relate to experiences at other times.
“The Road”, as the name suggests is about the journey, life’s rich tapestry, and looking for your kindreds along the way. Sometimes it can be a hard and lonely road depending on which path you take and what you meet along the way. I’ve always preferred the road less trodden.
On another level, it seems to me these are crazy times and things need to change. There are too many people out there that want regression. I think some people would like to see an era of unenlightenment. You can see it everywhere and I’ve actually heard people say that regression is good. I think they’re the same people who say greed is good. I’m not sure they understand what regression means and what happens to attitudes in society. Just look at race relations in the US or increasing sexism and spreading nationalism, that’s where it leads, into the darkness.
It might be people who believe in that change for the better or just kindred spirits. I hope that I meet them on the road. I actually do meet them, and I’m grateful for that. I think that’s the secret right, meet and treasure cool people, avoid arseholes.
“Take Everything From Me” is a heartfelt love song. The main character is saying “whatever I am is because of you, whatever good there is in me, it’s because of you, you save me from myself.” It’s all in the lyrics. I was on holiday and it just came to me. This song has a sibling on the album in “Hurricane” which was written at the same time. They share some musical DNA even if it’s different stories. I was playing around and came up with the opening chords and melody and it started from there, then about a month later I was walking down the street and found myself singing “my love, you are my faith and my forgiver, you are the one that can deliver, me…from me.” And I thought, yeah, that captures it.
“Chasing Angels” was a 3am song. Woke up, couldn’t sleep and I just started hearing this 6/8 chord pattern. Didn’t have a name for it but got up and recorded various bits of it and went back to sleep. When I woke up I was wondering why my iphone was next to the sofa, then I remembered I’d recorded something, played it back and thought, yeah ok, that’s something. I could say more about it but I’d rather let listeners have it for themselves.
“Me and the Sun” started with that guitar part and it’s about me sitting down in the desert talking with the sun. The sun was telling me about what he’d seen over the years, the way in which we destroy ourselves and the planet. So the song is about that conversation. We talked about a lot of things. We even talked about the future.
“By My Side”, well musically this is where you can hear the Dylan/Martyn influences coming through in terms of picking the strings and moving through those chords. I’ve always like their style. I think John Martyn was an influence before I consciously knew he was, something in the ether. I love their style of playing, writing, story telling. I was always into those guys and then other storytellers like Thompson, Joni, and Christy Moore. I hope the lyrics tell this tale, it’s about love and loyalty. It draws the first side of the album to a close.
“They Sing for You” was written with someone in mind who was going through a bad time. It was one of those ones that just came to me walking down the street, that first line and melody, “she tries to hold it back but she gives it all away by her walking”. Anyway, so the story is about someone going through a bad when it seems no one cares and no one’s listening but that when they cross the park the birds see them and they know, and they sing for them. It always reminds me of Sydney. I went there to see some friends a few years ago and would write lyrics as I was sitting on the harbour ferries. Travelling is good for writing: driving, trains, planes, boats, walks. I was sitting on a plane when I came up with the line “fire in the doll’s house”.
“Wake me up”. Again this started as a line “if this is dreaming then won’t someone wake me up”. Musically I guess it reflects my Irish roots and spending summers visiting my grandparents in Dingle Bay in Kerry. In terms of messages, it’s directed at bankers and their accomplices. I still find it unbelievable that they’ve got away with the biggest crime against humanity outside of war. Millions have suffered because of their reckless gambling. In the UK we are just about to have to endure another 5 yrs of austerity because of them and yet there is no justice, no payback. In fact austerity is great for banks. They benefit from everybody else’s increased poverty and the need for loans. They were given a lot of taxpayer money in the bail out so now it turns out that they’re lending us our money. It’s not right.
And if you control people’s money, you control the people. Austerity is also a very effective way of transferring money from the poor to the wealthy. The more you look at it the more you realise it’s part of a much bigger political doctrine which essentially views a new kind of feudalism as the way forward in the 21st Century and democracy is an inconvenient distraction. There are a lot of people out there who think they should rule the world and the world is better run that way and fuck democracy. So the system is corrupt like a file on a computer is corrupt and doesn’t work. This last election was about money and money won. This is a protest song about bankers, their puppet politicians and austerity. It’s about the people standing up and saying “we will not remain silent”.
“Wheel of Fortune” are the philosophical reflections of a beaten up weary soul who’s seen the tough side of life, who’s paid the price, who’s viewed the world and who’s eyes have been dulled by the harsh realities. I can relate to this guy.
I could hear that story as soon as I played those opening chords, that laid back lazy bluesy vibe, the minor key. I could see the dust on his shoes. It was just a question of waiting for the words. It’s another one that is a little close to home. It’s about not knowing what’s round the corner, hence that line, “just when you think you’ve got it all”. When I had my accident I was weeks away from leaving London and making my escape for an easier (and much cheaper) life in the Lakes. Next thing, I fell over, had to stay in London for another year and used up pretty much all my savings, “another day, the wheel of fortune spins another way”…
As an aside, from my experience of serious injury, if you go down you need some help. I was lucky some people were around to help me and I had some savings to get through it but I still had to fight my way out of hell. I know about torment man. The way things are going politically with the destruction of welfare and healthcare, if you haven’t got your own back up, you’re gone man.
“Hurricane”. Musically it’s the sibling to “Take Everything From Me.” I was picturing a homeless young girl in this song, going from one bad situation to the next, putting her life in the wrong hands. I guess it’s about how it’s easy for people to maybe fall into that cycle, never having a chance to address problems, and find some peace. There are always gonna be others who take advantage of that. I’ve met some, they’re bad news, bring humanity down.
“Rise Again”. This is about a father talking to his son. It’s about triumph over adversity, these days we call it austerity.
You have had high praise from fellow musicians like David Crosby. How did he get to hear your music?
Comes down to this brave new networked world I guess. We met on Twitter and we were talking about conservation so I sent him a song saying this is how I feel about it this. He listened and came back with some cool words. I was honoured. I am honoured.
Twitter can be a crazy troll world but I can be good too. I use twitter to surf the news as well, it’s great for that although weirdly Deborah Orr of the Guardian made some snotty comment one time when I said something about the mainstream media, like I had insulted her tribe. Like informed people read the press but “…you appear to be reading twitter!”. Yeah Deborah, that’s right…..
Anyway I follow some people just for news. Some I follow to see what’s going on with some of the issues I care about and write about. Others I follow just to see what the crazies are going to come up with next. I unfollowed a bunch of people after the election that were doing my head in and are basically psychopaths.
How do you try and get your music known ahead of the many fellow singer songwriters out there?
By smoking harder, drinking harder and trying harder.
I dunno man, to be honest I don’t see it as a race, I don’t really think about what others are doing. I just try and write the best songs I can and sing the best I can. It you deliver the goods word will get around. Just be good. Like everyone else I talk with people on social networks, gig around the place and write, record and release, I hope, good material that means something to people. I’ve had some great messages from fans where my music has just helped them get through the day or a difficult time in their life.
I guess one thing I do is photography. I got into last year when I was recovering from my accident, photography helped me get through that time. I’ve sold a few prints recently and I’m currently holding a little exhibition at a café in Wandsworth. So I guess I have people who ‘follow’ me for my music and the photography. I take photos of nature and people have said they really appreciate it when a post comes in and it makes their day a little easier as they’re sat at their desks.
What have been your favourite live shows to date and in an ideal world who would you like to tour with and why?
Such a difficult question. Well the last gig I went to was Tom Baxter at the Union Chapel which is one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen there. Steven Stills at the Shepherds Bush Empire was pretty special, which makes you realise what an astonishing contribution he and the boys made to music. I saw Dylan in Munich some years back which had an effect on me way more than I knew at the time. I’m really glad I got to see Ray Charles before he left us. As a singer, he’s had a great influence on me as well as Joe Cocker. Shame I didn’t get to see him live, I was really sad when I heard the news of his passing. Man there’s so many I would have loved to see live, John Martyn, John Lennon, a long list….
I would love to tour with any of the tribe, some my influences I guess, Ben Harper, Vedder, La Montagne, Jack Johnson. I had a chat with Sting once at Abbey Road, he was cool. I think he’s one of those people who it’s cool to hate but he was cool with me man and that’s all I care about, and he’s a great songwriter. Would be good to tour with him.
What made you want to play and write music? Who have been your main musical influences?
Nothing. Playing and writing is like breathing to me, it’s autonomic. I can be doing something and then become aware that I’m “playing” a track in my head, maybe an old one or maybe totally new, or a new lyric. I just consciously listen to it now and then. It happened almost immediately as soon as a piano arrived in the house and when I started playing guitar at 6. I just made up stuff.
Musical influences well I guess people can probably hear Dylan, Martyn, Vedder and LaMontagne. They get mentioned quite a bit. Then there’s so many, Ben Harper, Thompson, Drake, Cash, the Wainwrights, the Buckleys, Ryan Adams, Joni, Cocker, Ray Charles, Waits, Clapton, BB, Muddy, Jimi, Stevie Ray, John Lee, CSN&Y and Zep, and a load of people in between. You can probably hear them all in there in places. Some of my most important influences aren’t musical but influence what I am.
Is the live scene in the UK currently in a healthy state and how easy/hard is it to get gigs?
I dunno man, I worry about it. Right now we’re moving more and more to a society ruled by money not people and every week we hear about a venue that’s gone because some developer sees an opportunity to build flats for oligarchs which is deemed more important than a place for musical expression and social gathering and cohesion. I played at the 12 Bar for years and I was one of the last people in it after it closed but before the police moved in. It was a great shame to see that go. Places like that belong to a lot of people, a community, so it was the end of a place with a lot of memories for so many of us. It was sad. So many places like that are being deleted.
As long as we have people in power who value their friendship with money over their friendship with the people then that will continue to happen. People will play in London but the music won’t come from there anymore, but then again the likes of Boris Johnson won’t care about that. London’s soul is being disintegrated and discarded like a pair of old shoes. in fact we could say that about society but that’s a whole other story.
Anyway, money doesn’t appreciate art, it just buys it to reproduce itself. Guess that’s why the current education minister keeps telling kids that the arts is a bad career choice. There’s a much bigger thing going on here do with economics, politics, dogma, doctrine, money, way to much to go into here but the bottom line is that the arts are less of a priority to those minds.
Weirdly one thing that does surprise me about the music scene in general is how little it reflects the hard times we’re living in and what people are going through. I find that kind of weird. It’s like it’s not cool to talk about these things or sing about these things. I think something’s coming round the corner to re-establish love not money at the centre of our existence and when people aren’t on that vibe they’re gonna get angry.
I was asked once if I felt uncomfortable about being called a protest singer. I don’t, but it makes me feel uncomfortable that he had to ask.
In terms of getting gigs, I know a few good people, other musicians, who run nights where I can go and play. I like playing those gigs. I ran one myself called the Driftwood Sessions but I had to cancel some nights because of my accident so the venue cancelled the night for good. The thing about kicking a man when he’s down is that you’re fucked when he gets up again.
Were you pleased with the reaction to your debut album ‘Fire In The Doll’s House’?
Yeah was really pleased and grateful. I put it out there, people said some cool things and I really appreciated it. I had been in the desert for a long time attending to some life situations so it was great to get out, put the album out there and make a contribution. To get that reaction was great.
What do you enjoy doing outside of music?
Walking my dog, walking through forests, hanging out next to rivers and the sea, and taking photos, smoking, drinking and thinking…
Message for your fans…
You’re cool and beautiful people and I massively appreciate your support. Thank you for listening, thank you for hearing.
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