THE PROG INTERVIEW
Darryl Way was a founding member of Curved Air and wrote their biggest hit, Back Street Luv. In this month’s Prog Interview he recalls his time in the band, his own act Wolf, working with Tim Rice, Jethro Tull and Sting, and his more recent solo career.
Darryl Way’s lengthy career has certainly been diverse. He’s written an opera, worked with Sting, Eric Clapton and Marianne Faithfull, and also collaborated with Sir Tim Rice. Moreover, he’s composed music for movies, TV shows and even several adverts, for products including Jaguar and Whiskas cat food. Oh, and to add to his polymath CV, the man has even directed four videos for Verisma, the classical crossover band he formed in 1998 with the tenor Stephen Crook.
But as far as prog fans are concerned, the Taunton-born Way is best known as a founder member of Curved Air alongside keyboard player/guitarist Francis Monkman, playing a crucial role in the early 70s as the band established themselves as one of the genre’s preeminent names. He also co-wrote their surprise 1971 hit single, Back Street Luv.
A graduate of the Royal College Of Music, Way is regarded as one of the finest violinists on the progressive scene, as well as an accomplished keyboard player. Because of his virtuoso credentials, he’s been much in demand over the decades as a session musician. For instance, he was called in by Jethro Tull to augment their sound on 1978’s Heavy Horses album, and in the same year played on Pierre Moerlen’s Gong album, Expresso II.
He’s also released a number of strong solo records, starting with 1978’s Concerto For Electric Violin. The latest is Destinations 2, the follow-up to 2019’s Destinations.
So, even now at the age of 72 and with a distinguished reputation in both classical and progressive circles, Darryl Way shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.
Growing up, was there a lot of music in your house?
Not really. My mum used to sing a lot. She had a beautiful, operatic-style voice, although she was never trained. I suppose the radio must have been on in the house and I’d have heard music that way. But I was a child of the early television era. My parents got me a TV set because I was very ill with whooping cough, so that made more of an impression on me.
Were you particularly academic at school?
I was a little. I loved music, and saw that as a way of getting out of the place I was in and making a life for myself. But I was also good at art and English. Those were subjects I loved.
When did you first start to play the violin?
That was when I was eight years old. My brother was 10 years older than me, and my mother paid for him to have violin lessons with a very strict teacher, who was a former Royal Navy commander. Every time he got something wrong, my brother received a whack on the knuckles from this person. Being very canny, my mum got my brother to teach me, which saved on tuition fees. He adopted the same approach with me as his teacher, so I got a few whacks as well!
You studied under the great Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa at the Royal College Of Music. What did you learn from him?
Nothing at all. He was really into the technique of playing music, whereas I much preferred to see music as being an expressive art form. I was never into technique for its own sake, so Brosa had no impact on me at all.
Career-wise, when you left college what did you plan to do?
I was going to become the second violinist in a string quartet. I loved the way string quartets sounded, but didn’t want to be the lead violinist as that would bring too much pressure. The trouble was that there were dozens of
Every month, we get inside the mind of some of the biggest names in music. This issue, it’s Darryl Way. The violinist and founder member of Curved Air has enjoyed a varied career that’s seen him team up with Jethro Tull, Sting and Sir Tim Rice, as well as pen operas and tunes for cat food ads. With the release of his latest solo album, Destinations 2, Way considers his past, present and future and shares with Prog the secrets of his first novel as well as the chances of a Curved Air reunion.
“I’m still not ruling out being involved in some sort of Curved Air reunion. But none of us are getting younger, so we’ll have to put a plan in place shortly!”
violinists at the Royal College Of Music who had the same idea and practised a lot more than me. I soon realised that however much I practised I was probably not going to make my dream come true. I was more likely to be the second violinist in a provincial orchestra, and that didn’t appeal.
How did you meet Curved Air’s Francis Monkman?
I was going to form a band with this keyboard player and what we wanted to do was get an electric sound on the violin. So I went to the [music instrument] Orange shop in Denmark Street, central London and they had built a violin with electric pick ups and metal strings, which gave it the sort of sound I was after. I was playing this through a guitar amp, and marvelling at the wonderful noise it made when Francis came into the place. He took time out to listen to what I was doing, and then we just started chatting.
I found out he was also putting together a band. So we decided to amalgamate the two!
What was it about Monkman that made you want to form Sisyphus with him?
We had so much in common when it came to musical influences. Both of us loved the same prog bands, like Family and King Crimson. There just seemed a natural connection between us. Francis played the harpsichord, but also spent ages working out what Jimi Hendrix was doing. He’d begun to play the guitar, and would slow down the Hendrix records so he could copy what was being done. I was very impressed with his attention to detail.
How did that band transform into Curved Air?
I don’t know how, but we got the job as the pit band at the Mercury Theatre in London’s Notting Hill Gate area. It was for a play called Who The Murderer Was. One of the people associated with this production was Mark Hanau. He liked the band, but felt that what we needed to move forward was a female vocalist. The one Mark suggested was Sonja Kristina, who was in a production of Hair at the time in London. When she came into the line-up, we changed our name to Curved Air. Mark became our manager.
Did having a hit single with Back Street Luv change much for you ?
It was never our intention to have that level of commercial success.
What mattered to us was the quality of the music. In some ways, of course, it was so much fun to suddenly be on Top Of The Pops and have all this exposure. But from a personal viewpoint, I didn’t much enjoy that sort of attention. It was a very strange experience and one I’d rather not have gone through.
When you have a single in the charts, you also saw the dark side of the music business, which wasn’t at all pleasant. The band were under pressure to have more chart success. That was now expected of us, although it wasn’t what we wanted.
Curved Air toured so much in the 70s. Did you indulge in the rock’n’roll lifestyle while on the road?
No, we didn’t. We may have had the odd boozy night and did a few lairy things, but we avoided the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll circus. We were too caught up in making the best music we could. Creativity came before partying.
“Francis [Monkman] played the harpsichord, but also spent ages working out what Jimi Hendrix was doing. He’d begun to play the guitar, and would slow down the Hendrix records so he could copy what was being done.”