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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| An Interview With Phillip Hartley | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27th, 2009 12:49 am |
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1st Post |
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holleyhall Approved 
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Phillip Hartley EZ folk Profle Page: http://ezfolk.com/audio/Phillip_Hartley/ Radio Station: http://ezfolk.com/audio/index.php?mode=player&type=radio&id=806 I met Phillip a couple years ago here on EZfolk. He is from the UK and has a wonderful variety of Folk and Contemporary music posted here on EZfolk.com. He started out with traditional songs and later began to post more of his own original works. He has since put together 1 CD ans is in pricess of completing another! He has also recently been noted as artist of the month at the AF collect Acoustic Network in the UK website: http://afcollective.ning.com/. Although I really enjoy all his music some notable songs are: "The Game", a very funny fun song called "Folk Club Prima Donna". He plays all the instruments and orchestrates all the instrumentals in these recordings. He is also very clever writer and one awesome vocalist! He has also been very kind and encouraging to many artists here on EZfolk! Thank you Phil for this honor of this interview and the friendship. The recognition is certainly well deserved and you have also have encouraged me to really work towards finishing the songs I have posted here. (which I am slowly working on!) HOLLEY: What is your music background? (Who are you and your bandmembers? Tell your story.) PHILLIP HARTLEY: I didn't start to play music at all until I was in my mid-twenties. My first instrument was a Casio CZ1000 synthesizer. I've still got it. I bought it way back in 1986. It was, I think one of the first affordable digital synths. I was, at the time into electronica and such, you know, Kraftwerk, Numan, Ultravox, Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis etc. It wasn't until maybe three years later that I picked up a guitar. I grew up in a house where there was music. My older brother played guitar and sang. He was into Elvis, Rock'n'Roll, Roxy Music (so am I) and, yes, Gordon Lightfoot! He brought home the album "If You Could Read My Mind" way back in 1970. I was about nine at the time, but I loved the sound of it instantly. There was other fok music in the house too, records (yes, in those days they were records, black shiny things with labels on) The Dubliners The Spinners and others of a similar ilk. But really it was Gordon Lightfoor that captured my imagination. And so the only reason I picked up a guitar was to learn to play "If You Could Read My Mind", still my all time favourite song. In the early '90s someone started runnuing a Folk Session in my local pub. I went down and, after some encouragement, I borrowed a guitar and sang my first song in public, I can still remember it too. It was "The Jovial Collier" a song I'd heard on an Ian Campbell Folk Group album (I've still got that LP too). Shy though I am, I was hooked. I only knew about thrfee or four songs at the time, but that soon changed. Pretty soon I joned the band as Lead Vocalist and Guitarist. It was aroundthis time that I started to play the Mandolin, then soon after the Mandola. I stayed with the band until late in 2007. Things were no longer working for me on many levels. I was tired of playing the same songs over and over, so I decided to leave. Having dropped most of the old repertoir from my set, it was a case of starting afresh. So, in the past couple of years I stated to write, record and perform my own songs. I've never looked back. HOLLEY HALL: Do you prefer to play music as a profession or a hobby? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I'd love to do it professionally, but I know that's never going to happen. I left it too late I think. At the age of 48, I've only just found my real voice. HOLLEY: With the web as a medium to get your music out to the world, it can possibly open doors to many collaboration opportunities. Would you consider doing web collaborations? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I'm always open to suggestions on along those lines. I've only done one collaboration so far. I did "Chiarosuro" with my good friend Jasmine Tea. It's still an area I'm not very familiar with. I'm sure there are better ways to do it than the way I did it. But yes given that I have the time I'd love to. HOLLEY: When and how did you first become interested in music? How long have you been playing music? What instruments do you play? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I think I've always been interested in music on one level or another. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I discovered that I could hold a tune - vocally that is. I'm a self-taught musician. I can't read or write music. I play, in no particular order; 6and 12 string Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Mandola, Mandolin, Keyboards and percussion. HOLLEY: Does anyone in your family play music? PHILLIP HARTLEY: My Older brother was the first of us to play anything. He bought a guitar around, I think, 1974, possibly a couple of years earlier. He's been writing songs for a long time. I think to some degree that held me back a little, because I thought he was so good that I just couldn't compete at that level. Sad I know. He never taught me how to lay though, so I had to do that for myself. My Dad plays a little too. He just got a new guitar at the age of 82! He didn't start playing until he was in his 60s. My younger brother makes music too, but his is all put together from loops and samples. HOLLEY: What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?) PHILLIP HARTLEY: My songs are mostly about emotions. I'm a shy person at heart, so I often put into songs the thing I find hard to say otherwise. I tend to use metafore quite a bit too. That way I can say things in a way that, unless people really close to me take a deep analytical look at my lyrics I can often convey feelings about certain things in such a manner that they probably won't reallize that I'm singing about them. For instance, "A Long Way" is actually about how much I hate my job and how it can make me feel used and under-valued, but it can also be read as someone wanting to make a break from a ealtionship that has soured. HOLLEY: Do you write your own songs? Do you have any particular songs you consider your favorites? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I've never really analysed my song writing process. I work in diferent ways at different times. Sometimes as in "My Town", "Digging" and "Just Another Song", I composed the lyrics in my head over several days, mostly while doing my day job. Hance thje line in "Words And Music": "I should be working right now but instead, I'm makling words rhyme in my head." Other songs, for instance, "The Game" grew out of a guitar riff. The same thing happened to me only today. I found a great riff, but a the time of this interview, I don't have a single word for it. Then there are songs like "Folk Club Prima Donna", that song grew out of a gig I did last year at a folk club in Sheffield. I'd been booked to do a solo night, all the publicity was out there with my name on it. However, when I got there, I was put on as support for someone else who was more well known to the folk club regulars. While they were very nice people, I thought that they were remarkably boring. They talked for about five minutes between every song, always some rambling anecdoite or other and all the songs were covers. It was this and several other local "characters" that gave birth to the idea of the Folk Club Prima Donna. The funniest thing, to me, about this song though is that the first time I did it live, one of the people I'd mostly based the song on actually entered the room just as I started singing it. Afterwards several people came to me and said, "You were singing about him weren't you?" So I'd have to say that this song is curently my favourite. Closely followed by "Just Another Song" on this track, I actually get the song to sound exactly as I'd heard it in my head before I'd picked up the guitar to start on the music. HOLLEY: Who are your musical influences? PHILLIP HARTLEY: Well, there's no getting away from it is there? I'd have to say Gordon Lightfoot or I'd be lying. "A Long Way" is in way of an homage to him musically. Other influences though would be Nick Drake, Charlie Dore, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, though I only realsied that recently. It's always the same when asked this question, mind goes blank. I have so many influences that I can't really say. I listen to so much music of so many different styled and I can't help these day from trying to figure out how they're put together. Which parts fit and how? Can I try to do something in similar vain and still sound like me? I think that's why I use so many different rhythms and tempos in my songs. What can I say? I'm just a musical tart really! HOLLEY: What live performance experience have you had? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I've played lots of different places since the early 90s. No big shows though. Strictly local stuff. I'm looking forward to poaying at the Spratton Folk Festival in Northampton in July though. That should be fun. I'm appearing as part of the AFCollective contingent. HOLLEY HALL: What are your musical goals? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I completed my first album of self-penned songs last summer "Words And Music". That was something I'd wanted to do for a long time. It would be nice if I could sell a few more copies of that. There's one goal ha ha. I'm busy writing and recording another album right now. I think though that now, more than anything, I'd like to be a song writer more than a performer. Don't get me wrong. I love to sing. When you get to my age though it's a bit too late to kid yourself that you're ever going to make it as performer. HOLLEY: Have you recorded any previous CDs or posted any audio files on the Internet? (What type of recording process did you use? Who produced your recording?) PHILLIP HARTLEY: I've done some recording over the years, but nothing to write home about. But, yes, I've posted lots of songs on the net. I'm on so many sites now that I've lost count. There's the tart in me again! All, my recording these days is digital. I record everything on my computer. I tend to work alone, so all my stuff is produced, engineered and mixed by yours truly. I work in different ways depending on the song I'm working on. For straight audio recording I use Adobe Audition 1.5, I find that to be a great mult-tracker. Sometimes though, if the song works that way. I'll record the whole thing in one take on one microphone, "Words And Music" for instance is an improvisation. It's just my voice and my 12 String. I always edit and mix down in Adobe Audition though. That way I tend to get a consistent sound in my tracks. Other songs though require instruments that I don't have or can't play. For these I tend to use VST synths. For this I tend to use Sony Acid Pro7 or Acoustica MixCraft. HOLLEY: Where do you have your music posted online? PHILLIP HARTLEY: Well, let me see. Here on EzFolk of course, MySpace, Facebook, AFColletive, Reverbnation, OurStage, Mixposure, Jitterwall, SongPlanet, Last.FM. I'm sure I've missed some. HOLLEY: Any Music Videos? If so what are they about? PHILLIP HARTLEY: No. No videos. I have the pefect face for radio remember. HOLLEY: Do you have CD’s/Audio files for sale? If so, where can they be purchased? PHILLIP HARTLEY: At the moment I have just the one album available. "Words And Music" is available from CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon MP3 and various other sites. It's also available from my MySpace page as a direct download at a price of £5.00. Some individual tracks can be purchasedf right here on EzFolk. HOLLEY: In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music? PHILLIP HARTLEY: I was born and raised in Sheffield, England where I still live. If you take a look at the cover art of "Words And Music" that's me aged about four outside the house where I was born. The whole row of houses was demolished the year after that photo was taken. I thought the picture summed up where I was coming from musically when I was writing the songs for that album. Of course, when I was writing them I didn't know it was going to be an album. That picture inspired the songs "Moments" and "My Town"I think though that my music has less of a British sound these days and owes more, stylistically speaking to American and Canadian music, though others may disagree. You'll have to let me know. I always like to get feed-back. HOLLEY: When I hear your music I think Moody Blues/Gordon Lightfoot combined because of how you orchestrate some of your songs such as "Folk Club Primadonna" though I also hear your own signature style. I have found them quite intriguing. What influences you when you put together your orchestration mixes with your songs? PHIL HARTLEY: To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure. It just sort of developed as I was working. As I said, I'm no virtuoso musician, but sometimes my ideas just seem to get a bit bigger than my guitar playing can cope with. I suppose that when it gets down to it I'm a bit of a musical sponge, if you know what I mean. I've listened to so much music over the years of so many different genres that bits of it creep into my writing and arrangements almost unconsciously. The bit on Folk Club Prima Donna with the "mellotron" patch was quite deliberate though. Occasionally I'll use certain instruments on several song so that they fit together less jarringly. In that way when I put the tracks together in an album there is more of a flow between tracks that may be stylistically quite different. HOLLEY: When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it? PHILLIP HARTLEY: The last song I wrote was "Spaces 2". It's probably the saddest song I've written for a long time. It's a re-visiting of emotions I felt many years ago when I was going through a bad time. I'd just split from the person I thought was goin g to be the love of my life. It's only now though that I feel I have the skills to be able to write a song of this kind. Spaces is an instrumental track and it's the closest thing I've ever done to a classical peice. Spaces 2 is the song that grew out of it. I've left them bith on my EzFolk player so that thos ewho may want to can listen to both. I don't think that either of them will be featured on my next album though as they are both too different stylistically from the other songs that I've written. I like songs that contrast, but I think these are just too big a leap from the others. As I say, let me know what you think. Sometimes I think we can be a little too close to our own projects to see them subjectively. HOLLEY: What inspires you to write music? How do you go about composing songs? PHILLIP HARTLEY: Inspiration can come from many places in many different ways. I can be listening to the radio, or reading. Maybe I'll just poever-hear someone talking. Or I may be having a converstation with a friend. As say different songs come in different ways. Sometimes it's the words that come first, sometimes the music. Sometimes if I'm realy lucky, they both come at the same time. It's nice when that happens. HOLLEY: Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? PHILLIP HARTLEY: Lately, though this is prone to change, I've been listening to a lot of 70s and 80s stuff. At the moment I'm not listening much to anything that is that close to my own style. I'm not one to listen to much music based radio because, frankly I find most of the stuff that gets played is mediocre at best and downright insulting to the intelligence at worst. O.K. you can call me a curmugeon if you like. I've been called worse. I just can't stand cliched songs and that's what most of them are these days. HOLLEY: Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this band/musician? PHILLIP HARTLEY: Gordon Lightfoot. I'd say, take a listen the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and tell me that it's not one superb piece of song writing! HOLLEY: Do you have any advice/experience you would like to share with fellow artists you think would be helpful? PHILLIP HARTLEY: Don't sing anything that you can't believe in. Never play anything to long or too miserable. Always take spare strings. Oh. And always make sure you know where the exits are! HOLLEY: LOL sounds like very good advice!! Phil, thanks again!! HOLLEY: When is your next live performance? PHILLIP HARTLEY: My next gig is May 23rd at Rudis Blues Cafe, Corporation SDtreet, Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Start time: 19:00. Admission £4 Last edited on Sat May 16th, 2009 11:06 pm by holleyhall ____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/holleyhall |
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27th, 2009 04:28 am |
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2nd Post |
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mikelewis Approved 
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Great interview Holley! Phillip's music is outstanding, I enjoyed listening to his music while reading the interview. Great stuff Phillip, I really liked "A Long Way". Great songwriting and performances all around.
____________________ Michael David Lewis - ezFolk.com site Michael David Lewis - Official Website Michael David Lewis on MySpace |
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27th, 2009 01:23 pm |
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3rd Post |
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steve adams Approved 
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Nice one Phillip, Great work! Good to see original music is alive and well in South Yorkshire, my birthplace.  Another interesting interview Holley, thankyou! All the best, Steve.
____________________ SteveA. Peace, Love, Truth & Harmony. http://ezfolk.com/audio/Steve_Adams http://www.youtube.com/steveadamsvideo http://www.acousticmagazine.com/acousticlife/Steve_Adams http://members.soundclick.com/Steve+Adams |
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| Posted: Mon Apr 27th, 2009 05:06 pm |
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4th Post |
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Robin Thompson Approved
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Holley & Phillip, I enjoyed the interview. Phillip mentioned he's had only web collaboration-- with my friend Jasmine Tea-- and it's fine work.  More collaborative work coming?a' good wishes, Robin Last edited on Mon Apr 27th, 2009 05:09 pm by Robin Thompson |
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| Posted: Tue Apr 28th, 2009 01:16 am |
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5th Post |
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holleyhall Approved
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Thanks Mike, Steve & Robin! Phil's music is awesome! Yep I managed to talk him into doing a collaboration on one of my songs. Looking forward to it! Perhaps I can get a few other people interested in doing some music collaborations in the near future? I am almost set up to where I can offer to do back up vocals, instrumental parts once I get a decent microphone.
____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/holleyhall |
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