SjW
This week I speak with Simon James White – front-man and namesake of the UK prog-pop band SjW.
Simon’s greatest asset is his voice – a pure but meaty tenor that sounds like a hybrid of Jon Anderson and Jack Bruce. He’s a good bass player too, though unlike many bass-fronted bands his songs are balanced and guitar-driven rockers. The Rush similarity here is obviously to early and late era albums.
Ben Sommer: Hi, this is Ben Sommer at BandsLikeRush.com. I’m here with Simon James White from UK – of many different musical projects including his eponymous band SjW. Simon, welcome, won’t you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself in music and the band.
Simon James White: Thanks Ben, it’s great to be here. I’m a musician from West London originally. I’m very much influenced and inspired by all the great kind of rock bands and progressive rock bands of the 70′s and in some cases the 80′s and somewhat the late bands as well, and I like music hopefully in the spells and traditions of the bands that I very much grew up loving and admiring.
Ben: Great, and I also noticed the website linked at your email bassface.co.uk.
Simon: Yeah.
Ben: You seem to have a lot of other projects. I see you’ve got this Traffic Experiment, that you are involved in, of course, then there’s SJW, but then you’ve got bass lessons and guitar lessons. What’s your main kind of musical activity do you think?
Simon: Well, I mean my main musical activity, of course, is writing music, original rock-based music but as you’ve probably know, Ben, it’s very difficult at the moment for musicians to exist without having lots of different arms to what they do, so to speak. So I spend my time doing things that are music related. I’m very open about these things and part of that, a part of the thing that I do is I teach. I like to work with people in another musical collaborations and I already like to keep myself busy if I possible can.
Ben: I hear you. Your latest album with SjW was this year or am I reading this wrong. It’s going to be released this year?
Simon: Well, the new album which is originally titled Heavy Cargo and we are not necessarily set on that title, but at best it’s the working title. That’s due for release this year and the previous album The State of Delirium was released in 2008 and we had an album in 2006 called Talk on Corners as well.
Ben: Right, you have some notes and the kind of the pre-release PR that you are taking a more progressive experimental turn from what I see published on iTunes and iSound and Spotify. So is that true, and if so, what’s the reason for that?
Simon: Well, for me, the State of Delirium album, they are a little from the new album the Heavy Cargo album. I mean there has been a sort of a steady growth throughout the albums in terms of opening up musical jammers in the progressive side, I guess. The first album wasn’t a progressive record particularly, but it was never intended be a progressive record. I already had a very healthy and progressive music at that point, but I just made a conscious decision being the first release. I didn’t want to make it too progressively leaning further for lots of reasons, but my own reasons mainly, and certainly the State of Delirium album was a step in the more progressive elements of what I do. And then of course, the new album, yes, I kind of decided to let it all hang out really and it’s a slightly heavier record than the State of Delirium album. It’s certainly a slightly more progressive record as well as serviced.
Ben: Well, cool. So quantifying musical terms, what do you mean by heavy or progressive?
Simon: Well, in terms of heavy, I suppose I speak about it in production really. We certainly went for heavy production sound on the new record. Certainly, the guitars are much heavier in terms of their head tones and in terms of voice quality and when you combine that all together too, what you would come up is a much thicker and much denser album. The writing is quite different on the new record. In the State of Delirium album, which I don’t have any chance to listen it, it’s quite an impression kind of airy-sounding really and it was specifically written like that. But this new record is structured in a very different way to that record and lots of those elements to come to the fore really.
Ben: So the arrangements and the texture is more of what you’re referring to. I hear what you are saying with texture. State of Delirium is pretty well balanced and not over-engineered. I don’t hear a million different things going on. It’s very straight ahead. Is that what you meant?
Simon: Well, certainly, in terms of the production effects on that record, yeah. It certainly, textually these records are a lot bigger. And with the guitars they play a much more kind of predominant to the role in the new record as well. It’s just got a lot more depth to it. Just in terms of the actual production really, it’s absolutely yeah. I mean, we tend to use a lot of technology in terms of what we were doing as well, so there are lots of sequences happening. And that again, didn’t happen on the State of Delirium album, but it was probably a little more subtle. Certainly, this time we’ve really brought back a lot of things to the forefront of the record as well.
Ben: So do you, on your site, you have bass lessons, you have guitar lessons. Your site is called Bass Face, so you seemed to be a bassist at heart. Are you playing a guitar as well on all these tracks?
Simon: Well, the way I work, Ben, is that I pretty much write the majority of the music. So for the last record, I wrote 25 to 30 new tunes for this record. I very luckily have the types of guys in the band I worked with. Mitch Gasser is a fantastic guitarist and Tom Price is a really good drummer as well. So I then take my works to those guys. And we will then make our own decision in terms of the materials that we use. So the last or the new record has 12 new songs on it, although it has 25 songs, and that would be a band kind of decision and a management decision in terms of what of those songs are used. But certainly at the additional section, I pretty much seemed will have them put everything together absolutely.
Ben: Oh cool. So do you record demo tracks on guitar or all those things or is it in the end, are you just bass and then there will be supporting guitar tracks. And if so, who’s your guitarist?
Simon: No, now, I would tend to write and record everything and put out the initial arrangements at home on a small Mac-based studio system and I will program jams. I will play guitars. I’ll play bass. I’ll sing them and do those kind of things, and then at a later date when those tunes are ready in their entirety, I will then involve the rest of the band in terms of passing slight modifications, rearrangements, and just how the song is going to appear on the formal record really.
Ben: Cool, cool. How long has this been going on in this solo work? Well, it’s solo, but collaborative, which is a nice mix, by the way. I’ve been talking recently with several, and I have another site like BandsLikeZappa.com for solo or impresario-type guys where I’m in the same camp as a musician. Its easy to get your vision cooked up in the mad laboratory of the studio but not so easy to find likeminded fellows who would support you. I don’t know where I was going with that, but let me just circle back and ask: is that the way you’ve arranged it? You mean the band is named for you, but is it collaborative? Do you have guys who are on the payroll? Are you successful enough to support these guys in the band, or are they just you know mates and support you morally and then as you try to get your solo career going?
Simon: Well, I think in terms of the concept of the solo sort of identity, that’s not so much that paint it. The fact of the matter is that is that as you probably well know, the existence of a band is a very, very tricky state of affairs really, and if you’re someone that has an idea, if you’re someone that has a vision for the kind of thing that you want to do, then really the onus is on you to take responsibility to enable that really and that’s the only way I see it. I don’t see this as a solo one-man band-type deal. What I see this is me just being the person in the band that takes the decision to primarily drive this thing forward, and I’m person that takes that responsibility on my shoulders and I’m the person that enables that to happen.
But in terms of the band-side of things, I’m very lucky. I have two guys that I work with who play with me because they enjoy what we do, and also I play with them because I very much enjoy what they do and respects what they do and what might be as well and so there is a nice balance between the two. It’s not quite a solo if you put it into that perspective. Certainly, it was never intended to be that way. It’s very much a band when the band can exist and when the band can do the things that it needs to do. But what I am about intend to do when it is in a situation because the guys are based in other countries and things like that. What I’m trying not to do is have a situation where we’ve got too much big time, so I will physically take responsibility for ensuring that this things moves forward regardless of any other circumstances.
Ben: Right, it makes sense. It sounds like a great arrangement. Your influence – I can’t quite place it. I mean, you’re playing bass and you are singing slightly progressive, at least with the stuff you have published is rock in a very high tenor range. And that immediately says, “Oh, Geddy Lee with Rush template.” But there’s something else about your voice I can’t quite place and I haven’t just do a long enough, and there are some other mix of influences I hear, at least in the vocal quality. Has anyone compared your voice to anyone else?
Simon: No, not particularly. I understand that there is a guy who’s name I can’t remember his name. There is a gentleman who is in a band by the name of Soga who shortly people have kind of pointed out that my voice is quite similar to. I mean, I was really born with a voice and that voice has the timbre quality that your voice has and I certainly wouldn’t ever kind of say I would put what I do with the likes of Geddy Lee or Robert Plant or with whomever it happens to be really. I certainly have a wide range of things with voice is I like in the way that I’ve developed my voice in that regard is simply by trying to add a little bit of all the great vocalists that I enjoyed growing up and that could be Geddy Lee. It could be Phil Collins. It could be Jack Bruce. It could be any number of people.
Ben: Right. Right, now I hear. I used to call it Geddy. Well, he’s still is kind of a lore, a lot harder and actually he was younger, but you definitely not aware of him yet of the rounded tone. Even though the pitch you register is quite the size. It’s like Geddy’s or Stings or any of these guys you mentioned that you are playing.
Simon: I mean, it’s absolutely not a clever thing. It’s where I’m comfortable seeing actually my speaking voice is relatively low and so it comes quite surprising when I can kind of hit some of the notes that I can hit, but it’s that where I thought naturally. I’m very distinctive about these things and I believe that this should be a very intensive process, and it just so happens that both of the melodies and notes were the ideas that I chose to sing for those particular types of songs.
Ben: Well, I mean it’s true it’s great. You don’t have a high speaking voice and it’s a blessing to be able to wail up to sing that high because just rock music is traditionally is a high tenor voice is rule of the roost. Probably just because it naturally cuts through the thick rock texture and the frequency, that where it’s suits best and so those are the reason that people would rather playing to Sting because those guys just stand out.
Simon: Absolutely yeah, you’re quite right now.
Ben: Tell me about this Traffic Experiment. Your kind of other project seems interesting.
Simon: Yeah, I mean Traffic Experiment is very much born of the real old school whatever you would call it, a very old school kind of progressive records really where the idea of a record is that it’s very much an entertaining itself. So if you are listening to the likes of Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd or something along those lines, it has long jaw mouthed passages that the album itself is incredibly long. It’s 17 minutes or something like that, an intriguing album which we put together a way to enable that sort of expression. So it’s a really nice harp back to kind of albums that you just don’t tend to hear. And from a basic point of view, I played bass on that record almost entirely and I tried a lot of the other backing vocals and harmonies and some of the highest stuff as well, so it was a very nice thing to do that record, and I’m actually very pleased with the end results.
Ben: Yeah, cool. How do you approach composing? Well, first of all, how do you approach composing in the first place songs? It sounds like you cobble them together in rough cuts and like you said in your home studio. Do you do it differently between your solo stuff and this track experimental album?
Simon: Well, luckily for me, I’m not responsible for them on writing all the arrangements on the track experiment album. One of things that I really enjoyed doing with that album is playing the role of a section musician really. I was probably responsible for providing the bass lines. I was responsible for making the album jolt together in that regard, but actually Stuart Chalmers who wrote the album worked in a very, very similar way to me. He has a very small studio where he is and he would send me the first kind of templates of the tunes through and I could then make a valued decision with the parts that I like and with parts I didn’t like and the parts that I thought I could probably improve a little bit and I can then bring more to the album.
Ben: Cool, that’s a good helping mix of the lead man and a session manager and that sounds interesting.
Simon: Yeah, it’s nice to be able to do both and they both really present different challenges and we have to really approach it in a different way which I believe is the key to encourage the musicians to be really unique to be able to exist within any given situation.
Ben: Great, so what news do you want to plug, your website or the release if anything for the listeners?
Simon: Well, I’d like to let everyone know that we do have out albums already and all are available all over the Web and over the Net. They are like at places like iTunes and all your regular kinds of online digital distributors. I’d like to sort of thank everyone out there that actually takes the time to listen to the music, not only produced by myself or any band out there that’s trying to do the kind of thing we do, and all those people that supported, buy it and physically paying for the music as well, so you really have to understand I think at this point in time it’s really important the band to receive that kind of support from the people that enjoy listening to their music.
The new record is out. If anyone would like to, there are going to be ton of information on www.bassface.co.uk and there are lots of videos out on YouTube. Before we end the keeper and get away with your videos from the State of Delirium album and we’re contactable. I’m contactable if anyone would like any further information and then please feel free to say hi.
Ben: Cool. Great. Well, it’s been great talking to you. Thank you so much.
Simon: It’s been my pleasure. Thank you very much, Ben.
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