ROBERT PLANT
In a UK exclusive, guitarists Justin Adams and Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson discuss the recording of Robert Plant’s new album, Carry Fire, plus we have a quick chinwag with Mr Plant himself about embracing new sounds and influences
LED ZEP LEGEND TALKS GUITARS & NEW BAND
Since the days of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant has remained a highly creative and prolific musician having recorded some 11 studio solo albums to date, as well as a succession of essential collaborative releases with the likes of Alison Krauss and his old bandmate Jimmy Page.
His latest album, this year’s Carry Fire, was received with instant critical acclaim and is the product of an expanse of ideas that sprang forth collectively from the current line-up of his band, Sensational Space Shifters. Guitarist dropped by their final rehearsal, prior to the band heading out on a sold-out tour, to have a chat with Robert and guitarists Justin Adams and Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson. Justin, how did you develop your unique style of guitar playing?
Justin: “I partly grew up in the Middle East and so I heard that music when I was quite young, but I wasn’t seriously into music until I was living in England and listening to punk in the 70s. I couldn’t work out how to sound like Pink Floyd or any of those bands, so punk (particularly The Clash) made a lot more sense to me and was very liberating. I really loved bands like Television – Marquee Moon is an album I know note for note. I like the economy of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s playing on that album and the way they work together. Hearing how bands like Talking Heads were mixing things up with elements of dub, I started thinking ‘What about all those sounds I used to hear in the Middle East? I can fit all of that in,’ and so I started to do it.
“I loved that whole Hendrix/Clapton/ Page style of playing, but after punk I realised I couldn’t out-do it and that I needed to find my own way. The irony is that people used to say to me, ‘You’re never going to get anywhere playing that weird music; you should learn how to play some proper rock,’ but then I ended up playing with Robert Plant, because that was exactly what he wanted!” Skin, what got you interested in playing guitar for the first time?
Skin: “The Wicker Man! The scene in the pub. You know when they start playing guitar and they’re playing this minor riff? That’s when I said, ‘I wanna get a guitar!’ This was when I was six years old.” That’s an early age to start… Are you self-taught?
Skin:“I’m self-taught, yeah. I did try music college when I was about 18 but I lasted about three months. My Nan and Grandad had a record player and they used to encourage me to play Bert Weedon’s greatest hits and stuff like The Shadows and it went on from there. I got into Crosby, Stills & Nash, Led Zeppelin, The Who and then, later, bands like The Church. They’re a great two-guitarist band. Their music is really out there with amazing guitar sounds going on, but it’s about songs as well.” How long have you known each other? Skin: “We met in 2002.”
Justin: “Yeah, about 15 years. When I first joined Robert’s band there was another guitarist called Porl Thompson [also known as Pearl Thompson] who was in The Cure. We’d recorded an album that was mostly covers called Dreamland and we’d been on tour. Porl left the band and we really wanted to keep going, so we looked around
for another guitarist and Charlie Jones, the bass player, recommended Skin.”
Skin: “I was recording an album with Cast when Robert and Charlie were in the same studio.”
Justin: “Robert heard Skin’s sound and he thought about him joining the band because it needed to be somebody with a different approach to me, with a very psychedelic leaning and a lot of different sides to their playing. It was good straight away. We already had an arrangement of Hey Joe and I was playing a very hypnotic rhythm on an African lute (the ngoni). It was a very dry, tight sound and it needed this huge psychedelic explosion and Skin was able to make it happen.” Have you developed a strong connection after playing together for so long?
Justin: “Yeah, as a band. Robert is a great listener when it comes to the guitar. When you’re playing a solo he’s listening and he’ll make you change direction with a vocal.”
Skin: “Or he’ll bring you in with a vocal thing. He often catches something to build you up. That’s the most exciting thing about being in the band – y’know, when it starts really going!”
Justin: “He’s not scared of bum notes or a few bars of total chaos. He actually quite likes that, because that’s what this kind of music is all about. It’s about being creative in the moment. It’s not about set pieces. It’s a genuinely exciting exploration.”
How did Carry Fire come together?
Skin: “It’s been a different process with this album. We had hundreds of songs and ideas.”
Justin:“There was tons of stuff. I had about 30 separate ideas of which there are two or three that made it onto the record.”
Skin:“Robert tried to make sure all the songs that ended up on the album related to each other. There are some great songs left over that we can use another time. We’ve already got a start for the next album.”
Justin: “Nobody in the band is a songwriter like Elvis Costello or Bob Dylan – we don’t have that in the band. There’s nobody with a little notebook and a chord sheet that says ‘Okay, this is a song I’ve written, let’s play this.' All of the players in the band come up with little ideas and play them to Robert and he’ll respond. Skin’s got his own studio up in Wales and records with drums and bass – more or less complete songs without vocals.”
Skin: “Sometimes I’ll do a whole demo. It’s basically a live room with drums, guitars and bass set up with Pro Tools. I’ve recorded a few projects in there. Cast did the last album in there with a few days at Real World.”
Justin: “My studio is in my garage at home and it’s a very simple set-up. I like percussion – I’ve got an amazing collection of percussion. I love my studio. It’s full of drums from all different parts of the world and all kinds of instruments. It’s very inspiring; it’s the perfect little shed. I get in there and make up loops of percussion and record guitar sounds over the top.” How would you emphasise the importance of equipment with regards to making good music?
Justin: “I’ve got this thing about what ‘quality’ means. What is this thing they call ‘better’? When it comes down to it, if you see Son House doing Death Letter Blues on YouTube and you say, ‘How could you make that better with gear?’ the answer is you couldn’t make it better with gear. It’s not about that. I’ve got a bit of a highfalutin
“Bum notes and a few bars of total chaos are what this kind of music is all about” Justin AdAms
concept that what we’re doing here is poetry, by which I mean we’re just trying to give people feelings. That’s what it’s all about – making people feel something.”
Skin: “A lot of the guitars that made it to the records weren’t top of the range guitars.”
Justin: “Jimmy Page used a Danelectro and recorded Stairway To Heaven on a Harmony acoustic!”
Skin: “If you think about 60s psychedelic music, the gear they used back then was part of what made it psychedelic and the producer was often as experimental as the band. People did things with effects outside of playing the music and that’s what helped make that sound. Producers like Norman Smith and George Martin did some really radical, psychedelic things, especially with acoustic guitars. We used to love listening to backwards sounds on the old 4-track cassette tape recorders. Even the guys that didn’t play music. It was instant psychedelia. For free.” How did you go about actually recording
Carry Fire?
Justin: “We did most of the recording sessions at [Producer/Engineer] Tim Oliver’s little mixing room at Real World in Box. You wouldn’t believe the size of the place, but that’s where we recorded
“Seeing the pub scene from The Wicker Man when I was six made we want to play guitar” LiAm ‘skin’ tyson
most of the album, apart from the stuff people recorded in their own studios at home. A lot of ideas came from band members’ home studios. Everything was recorded using Pro Tools and edited later. Bluebirds Over the Mountain came together from a loop that John Baggott made. John comes from a trip hop background and makes up loops in his home studio – that’s a big feature of the sound of our band. He made up a loop that we’d been using live and one day Robert started singing this old 1950s rockabilly song over the top and it worked really well. When we were recording the album we decided that that was an idea we wanted to develop.
“Robert’s really good at being in the moment during recording and working with ad lib stuff. I was struggling to control the feedback when I was using my D’Angelico to record the melodies for Bluebirds Over the Mountain, so I asked for another take and Robert said, ‘No, we’ve
got it!’ I’m glad he said that because when I listen back to it I can hear I’m playing right on the edge. I would never have captured that on my own – I would have just decided to go back and do another take.” How long did Carry Fire take to complete?
Justin:“The album was being thought about for probably almost two years, but when it comes to actual days in the studio it’s not really that many.”
Skin:“It was an unusual way to make an album.” It seems very much like the album was a collaborative effort...
Justin: “One of the great things about it is that we all get lots of input, because Robert likes everybody to play in their most individual way. We never quite know how it might pan out.”
Skin: “When we rehearsed today there were already some new songs taking shape – some new ideas turning into new songs.”
Justin: “Things always change. One night somebody will do something differently in rehearsal and the next night everyone remembers what they’ve done and will get ready to respond to that new thing. Then all of a sudden we’ve got some amazing new arrangement without anyone actually saying anything, because we’ve all just been listening to each other.”
Skin: “It happens on tour as well. Playing live and on the seat of your pants – that’s where the excitement is. And it’s encouraged!” Do you often improvise when performing?
Justin: “Robert loves that. Sometimes he’ll start singing something completely different or start singing another song. We’ll be thinking he’s going to sing one thing but he’ll sing something completely unexpected and we’ll decide what to do in the moment.” Are you looking forward to touring the new album?
Skin: “The adventures of touring. Playing the music – that’s what the excitement is. It’s all about the live gig. And then the adventures of travelling around the world. It’s a bonus that we get to go to some amazing places and we meet some great people.”
Justin: “We’re going to be playing at the The Royal Albert Hall. I’ve played there a few times and every time I do I think it’s brilliant. It’s such an exciting place to play. I think we’re very, very lucky.” What drives Robert to keep on making music after all these years?
Justin: “I don’t think there are many other people of his generation with quite the same drive – y’know, doing really new and exciting stuff. To me it makes total sense. I mean I can’t understand why somebody wouldn’t want to remain creative. I think he’s probably got the same creative feelings about music that he had in 1969.”