WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Johnny Marr 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:10.320 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and Gentlemen. 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:19.120 What's up, Ladies and gentlemen? Fuck it, man, let's just 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.320 let's just start talking. Go no, I'll say that this 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:24.840 is another episode. I remember who I am. My name 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:25.520 is quest Love. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.800 This is Quest Love Supreme. We have the Supreme team 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:30.520 with us Sugar Steve. 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:35.440 On paid Bill. Why yeah, you look a little different today. Yeah, well, 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:41.640 you know, just don't say nothing. Don't say nothing the song. Now, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:44.360 we don't do theme songs on the zoom. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.879 Okay, okay, So, ladies and gentlemen, this is a special 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:54.080 Quest Love Supreme. This conversation, in my opinion, is probably 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.240 six to seven years overdue. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:02.200 I first met our guest of the show maybe like. 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.959 Two months after his memoir set The Boy Free was released, 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:11.160 and I distinctly remember my guitarists in the Roots, Captain 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:15.280 Kirk Douglas A say hello, Captain Kirk there, what's up? 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:17.360 He had asked me if I read the book at 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.000 the time, and at that time I didn't, and with 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.959 great intensity, you know, Kirk was like, dude, you gotta 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.000 get him on the show. 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.200 Like he's tailor made for a nerd. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:35.920 Haven like Quest Love Supreme, And I remember my response 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.960 to Kirk was, wait, you listened to Quest Love Supreme? 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.640 And actually he was right because around the pandemic when 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.040 I went on my book reading rabbit Hole, I'll say 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.440 that his book was probably one of the few non 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:58.560 self help books I used to escape whatever it was 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:03.000 that twenty twenty was. And Kurt couldn't have been more right. 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.480 The musicianship of our Guest has kind of been the 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:12.160 sonic lighthouse or north star to many guitarist or songwriter. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.519 You'll be pressed to find any band at least worth 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:18.480 their grain of salt that has been formed that at 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:23.240 least you know, doesn't name check our Guest as a 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.160 major influence on their creativity. Of course, he has most 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.080 notably co founded The Smiths, but he has played and 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:36.400 collaborated with such luminaries as of course Modest Mouse. I 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:38.680 have so many questions about you and Portland like my 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.960 all time favorite self right, the Pretenders, of course the Cribs, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:48.119 his supergroup with Bernard Summer and Pet Shop Boys. 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.720 Neil Tennant has worked with Beck, Crowded. 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:55.000 House, the Avalanches, even the The I Love Saying the 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:56.720 and of course. 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.560 Bragg Billy Bragg, Billy Bragg. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.120 And of course also just work with Don Zimmer and 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.760 Pharrell and the uh the scoring of inception. I will say, 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:14.840 like his his haunting, our pageo kind of guitar texture 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.240 pretty much is defined a generation, and we're giving the 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:26.600 honor to have a musician talk a musician rant. 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:27.760 If you will, with the rift. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.840 Yeah he's gone now he wait too long. 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.040 Intro was too long. He was like, fuck it, I'm 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:43.760 out my guitar collection. He's back. All right, We're good, No, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:45.520 for real, we're We're. 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:51.000 Happy to nerd out with iconic songwriter, author, guitarist, producer 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:53.120 Johnny mar The quest left supreme. 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.600 Thank you, it was so nice. Thank you very much, 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:58.880 really great to see you again. 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.600 Thank you What are you doing man? 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:02.920 Great? 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:07.200 Were you speaking to us? Now? Where is this? 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.600 Thank you for all that quest love. That was lovely 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.680 to hear all all those friends of mine being mentioned. 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.039 I'm in the studio that's in my house. I have 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.080 kind of a big main studio I've had for a 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.000 number of years. And then the funny thing. I don't 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.520 know whether you guys to relate to this as musicians, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.280 but I did this thing where after years of having 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:33.159 a pretty comprehensive home studio. When I moved out and 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.680 I moved into this kind of old factory building in 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.320 twenty sixteen, I ran around to everybody saying, I've seen 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.760 the light. Get out of your house in the morning, 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.920 drive to work, go and do your day's work. Drive home. 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.040 Don't you know, get out of the house, don't we'll 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.320 have a home studio. Well, now I have two studios. 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.800 I have one in the house and I have one 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.279 in a separate building. But this room was kind of 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.560 modeled on one of the rooms that I was working 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:05.480 with when I work with Hans In. I just had 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.000 a spare room in the househouse isn't particularly big, but 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.440 with technology being the way is these days, you can 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.920 have a pretty decent mixing room. So I spend all 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:16.440 the time that I'm supposed to be at home with 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.760 the family a sort of spending this room. 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.720 Yeah, so I always wondered about that because I'm currently 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.320 you know, I waited three decades to do my first 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.880 real purchase. If you will, I guess the only idiom 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.360 I can use is I'm debating on whether or not 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.640 I should ship where I eat, and I know the 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.680 home studio is sort of a factor in many a 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.080 creative's live but part of me is also has the 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.919 option to put the studio outside of the house, so 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.720 that way, my house is my house and my studio 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:52.400 is my studio. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.120 Yeah. I think the rule of thumb really is if 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:59.279 I don't know now, I like the discipline of getting 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.080 out and got work and there are a fewer distractions. 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.599 This might sound obvious, but I think if you've got 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:09.240 the choice of having your main proper workplace away from 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.320 the house, I think that's better for the work I do. 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.360 If you can do that, if you're fortunate enough, because 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.400 I think it gives you that kind of window of 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.919 time when you want to because look, we're all human, 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.000 as inspired as we may be, you know, I know 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.680 sometimes you get into these crazy deadlines and twelve hour, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.679 fourteen hour whatever days. I've in that window of time 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.880 when your subconsciousness is saying I need to make these 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.000 decisions now because I'm going to get in the car 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.520 and drive home at nine o'clock, nine pm or whatever 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.400 it is, and try and be like a human being. 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:43.000 I think that's good for the work. 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.400 All right, I'm pandering it. It's not silence. I keep 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.000 forgetting this a podcast, So I have to. 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.720 The sound of thinking. It's the sound of thinking. I'm like, hmmm, 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:54.840 I don't know. 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:56.600 I just I think I have a concern and a 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.919 fear that if I put my studio on the scene 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.920 place that I live. Then you know, I have boundary 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:09.039 issues when it comes to personal life versus work, and 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.760 I kind of enjoy this thing where they're far apart. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.080 But you know, I don't know. 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.120 That's what I'm that is what I'm saying. I think 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.240 it's better to work away from your house. Yeah, as 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.600 a real as a rule of thumb, but I think 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:24.000 that thing. Don't mean to be presumptuous, but that thing 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:29.680 of what you you know, your term boundary issues. Has 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.920 just been a musician, been a musician of a certain type. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.240 I've been very fortunate in my personal life in that 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.240 my family. I've been with my wife since we were kids, 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.920 and you know, my family and the way they just 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.520 kind of get on board. They wouldn't have it any 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:48.960 other way. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.400 Sometimeline. Yeah, they got. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.600 To just in case they might be listening to this. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.040 I mean, you mentioned Portland earlier, but that's a good example. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.400 When I when I joined that was a whole surprising 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.760 episode and the way that went down. But that was 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:10.360 me following a musical hunch and when Isaac brought from 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.880 the band inviting me over there, and you know, I 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.000 did what I did. I did the grown up version 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.520 of what I did when I was a teenager, which 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.680 was falling with a bunch of people who were strangers. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.040 But it sort of felt like there's got nothing to 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.520 do with the fact that they were a big band 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.440 and I was known that managers weren't involved or any 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:31.400 of that. I was studying a room with a bunch 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.000 of strangers three thousand miles away, and we found myself 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:39.960 making music that felt really good that I couldn't identify 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.559 the one band. You know, It's like when you're a musician, 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.440 you can hear you can hear bands, and you can 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.040 hear their influences. You know, you can hear a certain 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.120 band and you go, you go, Okay, well, the singer's 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.320 doing Tom York or she's doing Shaka Khan, or the 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.880 bass players doing Flea or why you know whatever. You 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.240 can hear these influences and it's all good. But with 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.800 Modest Mouse, I had no idea where they were coming from, 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.280 and I got the invitation from Isaac and it was 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:09.320 enigmatic and kind of a funny kind of invitation, and 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.559 I said, okay, well we'll go. I'll go over there 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.400 as an experiment for ten days and it was a 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.560 whole of the story. But it went really gangbusters straight 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:21.800 out the gate when we started writing, and it was 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.479 inspired and I've got enough about me and know when 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.240 it's really happening. But to get back to the point, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.520 I found myself just really loving what we were doing musically. 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.079 I've had no idea what to call this music or 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.520 any frame of reference. It just made me feel good 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.120 in the way that when you're fifteen you kind of go, 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.600 I don't know what it is we're doing, but it 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.880 feels good. It really was like that. But my family 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.319 were getting off on my enthusiasm. You know. My wife 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.520 was like, well, Johnny's buzzing. He's calling me from Portland 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.640 and you know, he's digging the place, and I'm hearing 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.679 about all this music they're making. And I was sending over. 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:02.640 My son was a fan of the band, and they 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.480 heard my enthusiasm and they were kind of like, Okay, 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.480 this is what we're doing for now. Then, so my 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.839 life sort of, I guess because the people that I'm 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.200 involved with and because it's my living. You know this, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.640 when we get back to this idea work life boundaries, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.400 I try to live, you know, as an older person 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.880 a little bit more humanely now and you know, not 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.240 be too crazy. I mean, you know, not be too 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.760 sleep deprived. But everything we do is led by the 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.000 music and what I'm doing really by by what Dad 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.880 is doing and he's doing. So I'm very, very fortunate 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.120 that I don't really the work life balance thing. Work 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:39.920 is my life. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.480 So since you brought it up so to hear you 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:48.000 explain it, you were just to do a limited maybe 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:49.520 a week and a little bit a week and a 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:54.200 half of work with Modest Mouse, and you liked it 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.760 so much you became a permanent couch guest in there 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.880 proverbial a matter of work all house and join the band. 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.600 An easier way to answer that question is that it 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.679 was so intense by the time we'd written nineteen tracks 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:14.120 and gone to Mississippi, made an album and we've become 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:16.200 like this tight gang, it just would have been too 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.280 weird to quit. There was a brotherhood, you know, you 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.680 go through this project so a ten days turned into 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:28.160 months because I knew it was happening. I was like, well, 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.000 this is a really interesting collection of people. The guys 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.200 in the band and the people around the band were 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.080 making a really good noise. We all like each other 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.680 straight off, and this brotherhood happened. And this is What's 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.959 happened in a few bands that I've been in that 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.360 there was exactly the same. And from the outside it 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.440 may look like I you know, I've I've joined the band, 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.000 I've quitted band. But I'm more of a serial joiner 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.719 than I am a serial quitter because those projects, when 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.480 you get involved with people in your an album, you 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.680 get so invested and you talk about it so much, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:06.800 and you're on the phone talking about the tracks, and 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.880 you're getting together and you're caring about it so much. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.280 By the time we finished recording The Modest Mouse album, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:15.959 I was still a guy from England, but it just 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.480 would have been too weird to bail. I just wanted 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.800 to see it through and I cared about the songs. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.640 I cared about the guys, I cared about about the record, 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:27.439 and I cared about how it was going to go. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.679 When I was in you guys started in Mississippi and 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.400 then you ended up in Portland or. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.360 No, we got started in Portland, and it was it 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.560 got off to such a good start from the very 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:44.560 first night with writing songs and jamming, which is something 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.680 I don't really do with a lot of people. I 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.800 always make it made a conscious decision when I was 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:54.600 maybe fifteen in nineteen seventy nine. Jamming for me was 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.920 standing in a really damp cellar with a bunch of 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.400 dudes who would smoke too much trash stuck on the 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:06.920 one chord and like for like twenty five minutes. That 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.959 helped my songwriting because I then sort of said, Okay, 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.800 note to self, when you come to practice tomorrow, bring 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.200 a couple of riffs, or bring some chord changes, or 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.800 bring a direction. And then that sort of fell on 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:20.959 me then too, and it helped me out as a songwriter. 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:25.120 Was I mean, I love writing songs, but it was 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.160 kind of a bit of a practical thing too. So 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.280 I can jam with people, but as I said, in 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.640 my career, haven't really been called on to do that 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.000 too much. But in modest Mouse, where it's collective, like 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.319 six people happened to be six guys in that band 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.880 with really different influences. Each member of the band would 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.720 thought they were doing and thought the band was something 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:50.000 different and so inspired. 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.080 And that's a good thing because in my mind that's 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.880 like my worst nightmare because you mentioned that if the 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.200 bass player thinks that, Okay, I'm Larry Graham or Flee 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.840 and I don't speak guitar language, and I know that 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.960 your your texture and your tone is like probably like 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.960 the most respected in the game. So I you know, 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:12.800 that's kind of why I wanted Kirk to be on 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:17.440 this episode, because you know, I I didn't even know 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.760 it to your book that gretch made guitars, you know 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:21.160 what I mean. 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:26.080 Quest That is such a drummist thing to say. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.640 Are you saying Gretz was a guitar first before it 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.240 is a drum Pretty sure it was. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:36.320 I think it's where I'm finding that out. 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:41.280 That's really funny. Hey. Also, yeah, I hate to break 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.560 it to you, but Zilchin made Banjos. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.520 I'm joking episode over, that's. 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.280 Pretty cheap, Yabahavi speed both. 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.400 I assume that if you're in the room that you're 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.760 kind of the the alpha only because you know the 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:08.760 band that you're you're most loved in your journey. Yeah, 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.480 sort of never used like you were anti Well I 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.000 don't know if you guys were anti synthesizer or whatever, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.960 but a lot of the weight fell on you as 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.840 far as melodic and texture and tone. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.000 Do you often feel as though you have to be the. 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.200 Alpha in terms of like determining where the melody goes 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:27.680 or the musical direction. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.600 Well, it's interesting to use that term. Well, as you'll know, 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:36.960 the chemistry of bands is both musical and personal, and 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.960 i'd almost say, particularly in high pressure situations or bands 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:47.440 a were big, maybe the personal chemistry is maybe even 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:51.720 as important as the musical chemistry. So my role in 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.120 all the bands have been in has usually been the 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.720 same and in a way I think, on the one hand, 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:02.320 alpha is an interesting way describing it, but my role 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.840 is to let the singers think that they're off about 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:06.840 really I'm running it. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.720 Real leaders are Jedi mind triggers, listen. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.240 I learned that from all the women in my life 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:15.400 very early on. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.120 Where they make you feel like you're the leader. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.000 And I saw it with all the older women in 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.200 my life, these great, absolutely great women, and the guys 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.560 knew it. By that, I mean I have a very 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:29.640 I really care a lot. I mean, I don't try 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.400 to train myself as a saint, but I bring a 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.600 lot of enthusiasm, enthusiasm to it and a lot of 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.360 energy to it, and you know, and I really do 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.920 give a shit. And obviously The Smiths is the most 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.640 notable because I formed that band, and you know, we've 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.600 gone on to be very well, well loved and everything, 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.160 which is obviously amazing. But I'm happy with my role 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.160 in all the bands that I have been in, which 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.000 is in a way, is that the great enabler if 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.320 I can be. And I have such respect for the 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.440 craft and the talent of the front men and women 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.880 that I've been involved because I learned so much from 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.000 being in the Pretenders with Chrissy Hind. It was a 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:13.280 short stint between eighty eight and ninety one, but I 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.399 learned so much about front in a band from Chrissy. 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.000 But the singers that I've worked with, you know, also 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.160 I grew up in the time in the mid seventies. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:24.160 I was getting a lot of my ideas together about 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.560 what a guitarist was. And you learned so much from 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.320 there was an archetype, if you like. I mean, I 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.080 know in the States there's the archetype to say, Joe 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.000 Perry and Steven Tyler, or there's you know over here 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.520 there's like maybe Jimmy Page or and Robert plant in 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.720 the rock vibe. Right, It's the same the world over 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:47.199 with guitarists, you know, without getting too cliched, a lot 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.240 of musicians are a type. It suits. A lot of 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:53.959 the bass players I know are very similar. A lot 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:57.080 of the drummers I know have quite similar personalities. They 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.320 go crazy if they've got nothing to do. You know, 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.239 if you give a guitar player, like a you know, 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.119 a couple of days off with a movie camera, suddenly 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.840 he's making his arty movie, you know. So I was 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.680 very typical of that, and I just worked very well 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:18.920 with certain kind of singers, obviously Morrissey being one, Matt Johnson, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.320 Isaac Brock. I mean, there must be something in it 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.000 because I've done it with so many of them, and 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:29.400 I learned so much about them. But I was so serious. 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.440 I took it. I took the business of my apprenticeship 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.680 trying to form a rock band or be in little bands. 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.520 When I was a kid fourteen fifteen, sixteen seventeen, I mean, 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.840 I left school, I left high school early to be 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.600 in a band with adults when I was fifteen. I 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.560 took it so seriously that a lot of the lessons 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:50.480 I was trying to learn when I was a teenager 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.439 proved to be correct. You know, a lot of stuff 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.119 that I said that I was learning before this, myths, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:02.359 you know, I was studying, like, serve the song, the 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.200 sing is the most important thing. Lock in as a 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.800 rhythm player with the drummer, and make the bass player 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.360 fit in, don't sit on top. These are all things 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.199 that served me. I was right to study that stuff, 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:14.439 you know. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.040 I want to ask you about that. Can you recall 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.320 from me what your very first musical memory was? 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.640 I can, yeah, it was. So. My parents were very 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.320 young when I was born, at seventeen. My mother was seventeen, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.760 I think eighteen maybe, and they came over from Ireland 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.760 in the early sixties, and they are absolute music freaks, 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:40.720 record freaks. They were teenage record freaks from Ireland and 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.680 they loved rock and roll music. And my mother comes 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.480 from a family of fourteen and nearly all of them 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.800 moved over to the city for work, to Manchester. So 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:57.159 I was around a lot of very passionate, highly spirited, 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:02.439 hard living, you know, young music freaks. Well, certainly my 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.720 earliest musical memory is watching my mother and my dad's 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:13.080 sister play a forty five like fifteen times over and 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.400 over again, and luckily for me, I had guitar on it. 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:20.720 It was the Everly Brothers record. But watching these two 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.240 young women stand at a record player and just play 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.600 it with this joy and I was sat on the 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.399 floor with his joy and then play it again and 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:31.639 then again. And then I kind of grew up with that. 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.680 And my mother and father are still still around now. 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:36.199 If I go around to the house now, I have 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.119 to build in an extra forty minutes because I know 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.760 my mother's going to be showing me these songwriters on 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.119 YouTube that she's really into. So I grew up in 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:50.080 I grew up around that kind of musical obsession. 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:52.520 Really, what did your record collection like? 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:54.480 Oh? It was pretty good, you know. So. The thing 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.600 is the great thing about the household record collection was 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:03.280 that my friends, who were from more same middle class 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:08.199 English families, they had kind of books. I realized this 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.919 when I put out my You mentioned Myles guitars before, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.439 I remember that I had got my friend's houses and 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.159 then they would have these the Great Big Book of 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:22.480 Mercedes and English country gardens and architecture. Well, in my 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.639 house we had records. So my parents were into They 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.639 were into a lot of country music. They're into like 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:30.920 people like George Jones, a lot of the Nashville thing. 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.639 But then there was the pop music, like bands like 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.639 the British bands like the Hollies, and they liked they 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.600 liked Elvis Presley and that was a real Irish thing, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.520 you know, from the country, So there was a lot 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.520 of that kind of It was all American except for 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.720 some of the pop music that was coming out of Manchester. 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:51.399 So it was all about buying records, which was a 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:55.199 real working class thing, and then I got into buying 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.040 forty five's when in the UK what we call glam 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.760 rock is a little different from what the Americans are 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:04.199 called glam rock. That's kind of hair metal and the 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:06.439 la scene. But in the UK it was all the 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.600 early ce Rex yeah, exactly, t Rex Bowie, Sparks, not 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:12.120 the whop all of that. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:14.400 Why was Manchester such a hot bed? I just got 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:16.920 back from there two days ago and it's a very 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.480 funny and interesting city. But why was Manchester such a nexus? 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:25.879 Well, the Industrial Revolution happened here in the eighteen nineties 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.280 and that made it a very industrial city. So you 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.399