The Bob Theil Interview
What was growing up like for you? Are you originally from Scotland? When did you first begin playing music and was this something that was relevant in your household while you were growing up? Do you have any siblings?
Yes, I was born in Dundee, Scotland and spent my growing up years on the East coast of Scotland, near the town of Montrose. I was the middle child in our family, with an older sister and younger brother. My mother played piano, so there was music in the family. In that time the radio provided the music of the day. Radio Luxembourg and the pirate stations, Radio Caroline, were playing a range of new sounds and artists. It wasn’t until my sister started piano lessons and I saw a band at one of my schools, playing Beatles songs that I thought of getting a guitar. I did enjoy singing in both the the school choir or at Sunday school. However, my father did not approve of me talking of buying a guitar. I managed to keep the guitar a secret for around six months, with my mothers blessing, and thankfully my father resigned himself to my learning the guitar. Armed with a tutor book I started learning to play and sing.
Where would you go to see live concerts and who were some of the first bands you saw? Who, or what left a heavy impression on you in those early days and made you think to yourself ‘this is what I want to do!’? When did you make your live performance debut?
In those early days I never saw any live gigs. My early impressions of music were as I’ve said, through the radio. Amongst the many artists that caught my interest were the Byrds, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the many British bands coming through in the latter part of the sixties; The Who, Stones, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Cream etc. My live debut performance was at a Montrose Academy end of year concert, where I remember playing Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower. What else I played, I cannot recall. I do remember, whilst preparing for the event doodling Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive riff, whilst a teacher was giving instructions to us re organising the event, and being told to stop! This was probably in May of 1969. The following year I left Scotland to work in London and that really was the start of seeing live gigs and expanding my listening horizons. Obviously with limited funds as a youngster, I only bought LP’s when I could. My first purchases were by necessity compilation albums, from the Byrds, Beatles, the Transatlantic Guitar Sampler and a Bert Jansch sampler. I remember discovering Rory Gallagher’s Taste, which I believe was the first LP I bought in London. Discovering folk clubs led me to Michael Chapman, John Renbourne, Pentangle, Sandy Denny/Fairport Convention, Al Stewart, Roy Harper and a host of others.
Prior to your debut record, you recorded a single, “Another Flight” on the label Ellie Jay Records. Can you tell me about how this all came to be? What was that experience like writing and recording that single?
The Another Flight EP, came about as I had written a few songs by the end of the 70’s, not many really, but enough material that I began to believe in. The EP was really my first proper recordings and was all very DIY. I went into a small studio with a guitarist, Kim Burgess, with whom I had played with in the folk clubs during the seventies. We were joined by Bill Power on bass and Paul Martin on drums. It was all completed in twenty hours and was basically me playing live and singing with the rhythm section.
The acoustic and electric guitars were added by Kim Burgess, once the live take seemed ok. The recording of the EP was very basic and straight forward. I then took the tape to Ellie Jay who pressed it.
Did you participate in any groups prior to going out on your own as a singer songwriter? Tell me about writing and recording your debut masterpiece “So Far”. You worked with engineer Steve Hall on that record, correct? When and where did recording begin in ‘82? What was the overall vision for the record?
Prior to this time, Kim and I had been an acoustic duo and had played in various folk clubs. Kim also started to play electric guitar, hence I recall our twenty minutes version of All Along the Watchtower at some theatre in Crouch End, North London. That I believe was the last time we played live together. He became involved with another project and I started thinking about recording some of my songs for an LP. I did not participate in any other groups. I remember clearly after playing in Bunjies folk club, a poster advertising Steve Hall’s Hallmark Studio, which was in Carnaby Street in the centre of London. The relative success of recording the Another Flight EP made me feel it was now time to put an album of material together. I picked from the songs that I had written during the seventies, that I felt fitted together well and I still enjoyed playing and had stood the test of time a little. Looking at the selection retrospectively, I think that maybe I got it right. Having met Steve Hall and seen his studio, I believe we started recording sometime late in 1981, or early 1982. Steve had a number of session musicians he could bring in whenever they were needed. Recording sessions were arranged sporadically over a period of time, whenever I took time of work. I think much of 1981 was taken up with me rehearsing the songs on my own and then playing them with Bill Power on bass.
I don’t know if I can say there was an overall vision for the record.
The structure and arrangements were dictated to by whatever I was doing on the guitar. I had a fairly strong idea of what each song needed, so it was down to me to do a decent live version in the studio. Too much time has elapsed for me to accurately recall when I finished putting down the skeleton tracks for each song. Suffice to say once that was done to my satisfaction, Steve arranged for his session musicians to come in over a period of time in early 1982. Bill Power had been recording the bass with me. He brought in Jed Marchant to do some electric guitar on Yesterdays and also piano on December 1918. Steve Hall then brought in guitarist Jimmy Litherland to play on One Day, Today or Tomorrow and December 1918. Another session man Jim Covington was brought in to add electric guitar to So Far and to do the acoustic lead guitar on Reflections. Apart from Steve Hall doing his sterling work engineering, he introduced me to his Moog Synthesiser and some other keyboards he had in his studio. Together we worked on the keyboard/synth arrangements for Lady and December 1918. We also added synth to Who Are We Now? and December 1918. I then had fun playing the synth on the instrumental track, Wind in the Wires. The curious thing with the production of the album, is that the drums and percussion were added on last by Mark Brzezicki who was just about to embark on his time with Big Country, as I recall. Not the usual way of doing things! The whole recording process was a learning curve which proved to be very enjoyable with Steve Hall at the engineering helm.
Would you mind walking me through some of the back story of each of the songs featured on the album? Tell me about some of the gigs you played around this What shows still stand out in your mind to this day and why? What was the first order of business once the album was released?
I attempted to tell the story to each of the songs on the album, on the back of the LP sleeve. I am not sure that I can add much to what I wrote about them then. Date, place and circumstances are very hard to remember, except for a few of the songs. Anyway, I will try to expand on these ancient notes. Yesterdays (March 1975) : Referring to my liner notes, I mentioned Jenny, someone I used to work with. Looking at the lyrics today, they are a mixture of personal experience and a kind of imagined narrative based on an accumulation of thoughts and feelings, some of which were inspired by conversations with the aforementioned Jenny and others. The music idea came about spontaneously ( as most of my music ideas do) whilst playing guitar with Kim Burgess in a flat in Knightsbridge, a little before we both left our employment and took the Magic Bus to Sitges in Spain, via Amsterdam and Paris. Lady (March 1972): Young love and the parting of ways! I vaguely remember discovering the finger picking motive, whilst overlooking Barnes Green in South West London. One Day, Today or Tomorrow (February 1974) : The inspiration for this one came from my first trip into Europe with a friend, to visit a friend of his in Switzerland, in December 1973. On the way back we stopped off in Beauvais, which is a small town North of Paris. Wandering around at 3 in the morning gave me the setting one Saturday in February, for this little story based upon a waitress we had met in Switzerland. The music idea just sprang out, along with the lyrics and was complete in thirty minutes. Not all songs arrive this easily, I assure you! Kind of out of the blue moment. Moments Lost (July 1974):
A song for hesitant romantic young fools. A simple guitar picking song, reflecting my early 12 string playing. So Far (May 1977): The album title track was the only song where Steve Hall suggested recording with a click track. I was a little uncomfortable playing against the click track but did my part by the third run through. Bill Power added bass to the take and then later Jim Covington played the superb electric guitar part. Later still Mark Brezezicki added the drums. An unconventional way of putting a track together but I think it worked out well. Westway (April 1972): Watching the cars from a flat window; found a draft of this on a tape I had forgotten about. Reflections (November 1971): This is my earliest surviving song! A melancholy wistful remembrance of schooldays on Montrose beach, in the North East of Scotland set against the inevitable moving on of people and time. I remember dropping the high E strings to D on my 12 string, discovering the arpeggio beginning and before I knew it the song arrived. Wind in the Wires (March 1976): I can’t recall the creative process, but I think it developed over a period of time, until I felt it was finished. Who are we Now? (March 1975): This has become my favourite song from the album and is one that I can carry off solo, even now. The plectrum picking guitar sounds so effortless to me now, when I consider how much I had to work to get it right in more recent times. No such problem recording this in 1982. December 1918 (December 1975): The introductory guitar arpeggio was exciting to create when eventually I worked out in 1975 how to join that with the song chording. Similarly the long outro was a deliberate attempt to musically illustrate the last line, “And the emptiness sings of the future.”
What eventually happened after the release in ‘82? It would be nearly 10 years till your next release, “Bridging The Silence”. What were your activities during that period of time? What have you been up to in more recent years? When you reflect back on the early days of what do you find yourself most proud of?
What eventually happened after the release of So Far, was that it didn’t gain any interest from the record companies I approached. It seemed too anachronistic, as one person put it some time after. I did however keep doing recording sessions and playing some folk club spots. I was never “folk” or “blues” enough for the times and singer/songwriters had had there day according to the music business, if you weren’t already through certain doors. As they say, life got in the way so it wasn’t to be until 1993 that Bridging the Silence was released. The other project that I recorded at that time, Songs from the Margin, would eventually appear in 2016 as a very limited edition on both LP and CD. I have continued to write songs through the years, so I have a big backlog of material I would wish to record. A few projects are in the pipeline. When I reflect on the early days, it is the struggle to be heard that pervades my thoughts. Though I lost faith in this LP as a result of the negative feedback, I have since accepted it as a much improved effort, compared to the EP. I have certainly enjoyed playing some of these songs live in recent years.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Lastly, thanks to those who have discovered my music and continue to support many barely known artists in their endeavours.
All the best,
Bob Theil
