The Bobby Lee Interview
Are you originally from Sheffield ,UK? What was your childhood like growing up?
Yes, I was born and grew up in Sheffield. Suburban, blue collar, totally normal 90s childhood. I loved Robin Hood and Indiana Jones and (UK archaeology show) Time Team. A real little history geek.
When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the guitar? Were these things that were relevant growing up in your household? What would you and your friends do for fun growing up?
My folks had a few records and tapes (eventually CDs) around the house and in the car but they didn’t really factor in my life. Their interest in music mostly dropped off after they got married and settled down. I listened to the radio as a kid and probably knew the words to every pop hit of the mid-late 90s but that was still a passive experience. A few years later I couldn’t get excited about the nu-metal and pop-punk which a lot of my classmates were listening to (I was clearly an insufferable music snob even before I knew what I liked.) It was the garage rock revival of the early 00s which was the spark for me though. I was just the right age for Is This It and White Blood Cells. I devoured music magazines, making mental notes of every album referenced by bands I loved and spent what little money I had in Fopp’s cheap CD section. I was pretty open minded and by my mid-teens had devoured a good chunk of the post-punk, psychedelia, classic soul, folk, indie and classic rock canon. I had a few pals who were into similar things and we mostly conversed in an endless stream of band names and song titles. My early teens also coincided with home internet becoming accessible and I was an enthusiastic adopter of early mp3 blogs (and more clandestine file sharing methods.) I bought a guitar for my 14th birthday. I never had a guitar teacher but did spend most IT lessons at school printing out guitar tabs. That said, I wasn’t one of those kids who sat learning solos note for note. I was always more a music nerd than a guitar nerd.
Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realise you wanted to spend your time pursuing music and art?
I got into The Velvet Underground pretty early, probably due to some lazy Strokes comparison. That set the benchmark pretty high for what I wanted from a band. Forever Changes was a big one too. I was trying to play guitar like The Slits or Gang of Four mostly though. I really embraced the anti-rockist, scratchy punk-funk thing, mostly because I wasn't very good and couldn’t have done the guitar-god thing even if I'd wanted to. It was also a rejection of the macho GnR/RHCP/Metallica wannabes who had guitar lessons at school. I wanted to form a band as soon as I picked up a guitar, but the idea of dedicating my life to making music was a total pipe dream. I’d always done pretty well academically and the prospect of me “wasting” that, chasing some musical dream didn’t even seem worth considering. I think I realised from pretty early on that the music I liked, and wanted to make, was never going to be a fast track to fame and fortune. The first concert I went to was The Raveonettes at The Leadmill when I was about 15. They had one guitar player who just did feedback and we got positioned right in front of his amp. Ringing ears for weeks. I also The Rapture around the same which is still one of the greatest gigs I’ve ever been too.
When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to starting off as a solo musician?
I had a band at school when I was around 15-16 and we played a battle of the bands in the school hall. I can’t remember too much about it although the anticipation (in my head) in the days and weeks leading up to it was wild. I played in a load of bands and projects before starting to play under my own name, but always struggled to find people who were both into the same vibe and equally committed. Through the wonders of the internet, I ended up playing bass with Gospelbeach on their 2017 European tour. I was a big Beachwood Sparks fan and connected with Brent Rademaker through some mutual friends. The experience of playing in that band was a real thrill, especially given I’d been the driving force in most other bands I’d been in so it was great to be able to sit back and play someone else’s songs. That experience gave me the shot in the arm I needed to really focus in on my own music and try and get something going which really reflected where I was at.
2020 saw the release of “Shakedown in Slabtown”. Can you tell me about writing and recording this album as well as some background to songs such as “Join Me In LA Boogie”, “Listings” and “Hevvy Friendz”?
The album was recorded in the summer of 2019 at our practice room by my friend Brian Ellis on his 8 track reel to reel. Due to a few pandemic-related delays, it eventually landed late in the long, weird summer of 2020. I think perhaps the timing helped it resonate with people. Long form, woozy, instrumental guitar music seemed to hit the spot for people during that period. “Join Me In LA Boogie” is a deconstruction of the Warren Zevon song (based on the earlier demo from Preludes rather than the almost Steely Dan-esque version from his debut). I wanted to imagine the song going in more of a swampy, Gris-Gris, direction. We’d not worked out an ending which is why it ended up so long. “Hevvy Friendz” was the first song I wrote when I first started playing around with Open G tuning, basic drum machines and a phaser pedal. That song opened the door into what has become “my sound”, I guess. “Listings” was my attempt to write the sort of fuzzy, funky, folk rock song I always hope to find on sepia-tinted bargain bin digs.
That following year you released your follow up “Origin Myths”. How did you go about creating this record and especially during the pandemic that differs from your previous debut? How did the deal with Tompkins Square come about?
Origin Myths started out as a stop gap thing. I couldn’t get into the practice room or a studio with my band so started making basic solo recordings on a Tascam tape machine in my attic. Mostly afternoons during the first lockdown. I immediately set myself some parameters; “track, mix and mixdown in a day, no overdubs.” Most tracks were written, recorded and mixed within a couple of hours. I’d spent years making minor tweaks and finding fault with stuff I’d done in previous projects and I was keen to avoid that. Embracing the limitations and the spontaneity. After around 5 months, I had about 20 recordings, of which roughly half made the album. I put it up for pre-order in late December 2020, and within a week I woke up to a message from Josh at Tompkins Square offering to release it. Through some small miracle, he got it pressed up and in record stores by May 2021.
Most recently you released the very anticipated and highly received “Endless Skyways”. Tell me about writing and recording this record and what you ultimately wanted to express and explore with this wonderful material?
It was the first album we’ve made in a “proper” studio, my buddy David Glover’s Tesla Studios. I had a bunch of songs which were pretty much complete but I was also keen to see what happened in the studio with more improvised stuff. I’d played with Ian McCutcheon (Slowdive/Mojave 3/Loose Salute) in Gospelbeach and was keen to get him in on some songs. He’s a very different drummer to Guy Whittaker (who is the drummer in my live band) and I was interested to see what they could do together. Having Ian playing drums also freed up Guy to play piano on “Thunder Travelling…”, and his part absolutely makes the song. I was keen to try, and capture the sense of space which is there in our live shows. Tesla has a large live room and we tracked most things together with plenty of bleed between mics. I was really happy with the combination of the more freewheeling, ambient tunes and the chooglers.
What have you been up to more recently? Anything in the works for this summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Back in spring we did a tour with Jeffrey Silverstein and Joe Harvey-Whyte which we called the Cosmic Country Revue. That was a total blast. Guy, and Mark from my band learnt all Jeffrey’s songs and I felt like a proud dad every night watching them play them. Me and Joe are in the early stages of making a record together too. We’ve got a bunch of shows lined up for late summer and we’re going to do a full UK tour in Autumn.
