A few months ago, myself and Katie were lucky enough to
interview John Waugh on behalf of Newcastle Gig
Guide and hear all about his newly released EP, Flight. You can read
the interview below, and download the EP here.
During Gig Guide’s second meeting
with John, there’s an air of excitement and a genuine sense of passion behind
every sentiment expressed by the Newcastle based musician. He meets us to
discuss the upcoming release of his debut EP, Flight, the first solo endeavour
to be produced by the talented saxophonist. We’re dying to hear all about it,
and dive right in talking about timing, inspiration and exciting plans for the
future.
You’ve spent time touring with
The 1975 and working with The New Standard, how have you found the time to put
together this EP?
With touring, a very small
percentage of that time is actually spent playing music so you get a lot of
time in dressing rooms, or on flights or on a train. I had a lot of spare time
even though the schedule was really busy so I was able to write bits and pieces
while being on tour. Since being at home in January I’ve had a lot more time to
kind of refine those ideas and work with musicians, because up until then all
the ideas I had either existed in my head or just on my laptop. So really, for
the most part it was just working on it here and there and then piecing those
ideas together while I was at home.
If you could describe the EP in
three words what would they be?
Naturally it’s quite eclectic and
there are parts of it that are decadent as well, so really quite
lavish and over the top. There’s a little bit of self-indulgence but not to the
extent where it’s really arrogant or anything like that. So I think eclectic,
decadent, but hopefully it still remains quite humble. I think I can stand by
those three words.
So where do you get the
inspiration for composing from?
One of the tunes I wrote for
Stu’s band, called Fillmore, was inspired by San Francisco and specifically a
venue. That often is the case – travelling is quite a big influence and that
makes sense as well with the timing of writing a lot of this. I was travelling
around the world, which is a very inspiring thing to do regardless, so to kind
of feed that in to this EP was really cool and quite natural. The name was
really influenced by the timing of everything, and the experiences I had and
the people I met travelling.
How would you say your time
specifically touring with The 1975 influenced this EP?
Just being around them really
influenced it, obviously they’re musicians too and they love music just as much
as I do so we’re always sharing music. There’s a lot of common ground there in
terms of the stuff we listen to and all draw an influence from. I think if
anything, it just heightened everything I love about music and it just
distilled a little bit more self-belief in me as well because they have so much
belief in what they do and they’re so ambitious. You see it work for them so
much so naturally that inspires me to have enough faith so that if it does all
fall apart or someone doesn’t really embrace it the way you’d expected it
doesn’t really matter because you’ve got so much out of it yourself. It also
made perfect sense with the exposure of touring to do the EP now when I had
about 6 months away from working with the band and to have something with my
name on it when I start touring again just makes a lot of sense.
Where did most of the production
happen?
A friend of mine who I used to
work with in Leeds, Lee Roy, did a lot of front of house and studio
engineering for the bands I was playing in, and I moved up to Newcastle around
the time he’d just got a job in Newcastle College so I was able to get access
to a studio through him. A lot of the tracking and recording was done there –
most of it happened in Newcastle. Most of the guys I’ve got playing on the EP
have their own recording facilities at home so they’ve been able to record it
and send stuff through. That’s all happened in the North of England; if it
hasn’t been in Newcastle it’s been in Leeds or Huddersfield so it’s been quite
local.
You’ve mentioned that you’d
describe your EP as eclectic, so what different kinds of music would you say
influences you?
A lot of old soul and RnB and
that kind of music scene inspires me in terms of harmony and how chord
progressions are pieced together, and how the fundamentals of groove are built.
The thing that I really wanted to do with this EP was to have a core live band
but then embellish that with live electronics and ambience. One of the people
me and the guys on tour listened to a lot is a guy called John Hopkins, we got
his new album and when we were on tour in Europe we listened to him a lot in
the dressing room. He’s amazing at orchestrating electronic sounds and making
them sound extremely musical, for example he could sample someone sitting on a
chair, and take that audio apart and make that into a percussive kind of
groove. It’s not that my EP sounds like that, but there are definitely elements
of embellishing the live band, and I suppose it’s eclectic in that regard.
What do you find are the main
differences performing your own songs or playing with another band?
I think if you’re playing with
another band and you’re working collectively as a unit then you have a kind of
pack mentality. I don’t really get nervous when I play with The 1975 because
it’s not just about me obviously. You’re confronting the crowd and playing for
them as a unit, whereas when you’re playing your own music and you’re the face
of something there’s a different kind of responsibility there. As much as I
still kind of feel responsible playing with other people, I’d be way more
nervous playing a tiny gig with my own music than playing in front of 20,000
people with the 1975.
Do you have any plans for the
future? Maybe another EP or more work with The 1975?
Yeah, I’d love to release an EP
of my own music on a yearly basis. I’ve started working on a new EP already!
The first one is written and I’m halfway through recording it and now I’ve got
some draft ideas that I want to finish working on and get recorded next year.
I’m not really sure if I’m allowed to say much so I probably shouldn’t, but my
calendar is pretty full next year and I’m meeting up with the guys over summer
to play on some of their tracks which I’m excited about.
When do you reckon the EP is going
to be ready?
That’s a really good question; I
keep pushing it further ahead. Ideally I want to have it finished before I go
away, so towards the end of July and if not, then September – it’ll definitely
be released this year, which I know is a huge space of time. I haven’t got any
management and I’m not signed to a label so I’m the only one pushing it, and
there’s 19 people who are creatively involved so there’s lots of people I’m
trying to get in a certain place at a certain time. For the most part, the
other guys are involved in other projects and some even have a wife and kids,
so it’s hard to fit in a studio session. It’s definitely getting there though
and starting to take shape, and it’s really grown a lot since being a
collection of ideas on my laptop. It’s amazing, when you bring an idea to life
and give it a live energy it’s so satisfying, regardless of how many people
hear it.
