OLD ENGLAND GROWN NEW: A brand new feature on Gregg Cave's latest studio album, "Old England Grown New"! Features exclusive interviews and a review!

 

Gregg Cave is one of the many talented singer-songwriters that are coming out of the UK's underground folk scene. Gregg very effectively combines old traditional tunes with his new contemporary compositions. He has recently released a studio album entitled "Old England Grown New" and continues to tour the UK, both as a solo artist and with a backing band.

 

We caught up with Gregg recently to have a chat about his music and his latest album, it can be read below. Also, be sure to check out our review of the album which is also in this feature.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

PART 1 - THE INTERVIEW

 

Hi Gregg, hope you're well. The first question we always ask acts that are new to the blog is what kind of records were on around the house when you were younger and who are your big influences?

 

Gregg: "I was brought up on a steady flow of folk rock and prog rock. Bands such as Lindisfarne, Jethro Tull, The Strawbs, Tom Petty and Aphrodites Child. One of the biggest influences from my childhood was Alan Hull, the frontman and songwriter for Lindisfarne."

 

As you know, we have only just discovered your music via your new studio album, "Old England Grown New". Can you give is a brief overview of your career to date?

 

Gregg: "I've been writing and singing in public since school days. I've fronted all manner of indie type bands through my teens. I gradually got more into folk rock and enjoying mixing old trad songs with electric instruments and mixing them with my stuff. I put together a band called CAVE and we played all over England and bits of Europe, playing festivals and toilet sized venues, one of our highlights being Sidmouth Folk Festival. I'm now finding that going by my own name as a solo artist is a lot less restrictive but I still enjoy playing and recording with musicians that I've been playing with most my adult life!"

 

Your new LP is a great folk rock album and sure to do very well. It has a very English feel to it. Would you say that is a fair assessment and was this what you were aiming for?

 

Gregg: "Like a lot of writers I didn't set out to make a particular thing but as the songs started being recorded there was definitely a theme that came out and I am quite happy with that. You're not the first person to say that it has an English feel to it so maybe you're right!"

 

The album features three traditional compositions. One thing that has always fascinated me is the vast array of traditional songs that are recorded by folk artists and they all seem to be as good as the last! Where do you discover these beautiful, old songs and how do you choose which traditional songs that you want to perform or record?

 

Gregg: "I read a lot of old books and note down anything interesting that I hear or read. I've picked up songs from my local town library and made the pilgrimage to the famous 'Cecil Sharp house'. My passion is giving the old songs a relevance to where we are now. That can be whether they have a good beat or melody to get a night started or the words still ring true today. The title track of the album I believe is a good example of the latter."

 

One of the traditional songs you recorded, "The Bonny Lass Of Anglesey", features a fine fiddle part from folk legend Dave Swarbrick. How did he get involved and what was it like recording with such a legendary figure?

 

Gregg: "I met Swarb by booking him to play a gig in my local town. I then crossed paths with him a year later when performing at the Cambridge Folk Festival. I mentioned the album and he was up for it. It was a pleasure and an honour to work with him."

 

It has to be said that the original tracks on the album are just as good, if not better, as the traditional ones. One of my favourites is "The Bunny Run". This track does have a very classic folk feel to it but still has a very fresh edge. What influenced the track and what is it about?

 

Gregg: "'The Bunny Run' is the nickname given to a main road that leads into Northampton town centre. These days it's an infamous pub crawl and back in the day young people would wear their best rags and 'court' down this road. My nan told me this so it must be true! That inspired the song and its evolved into a song that talks about landmarks in my hometown, some of which have been torn down and ruined forever by bad council planning but the people will always be linked by the river that flows through the town and our blood itself."

 

You say that you are organising a tour in support of the album. How is this coming and can you release any details to us?

 

Gregg: "Yes, we plan to be on the road throughout the end of this year and into 2015. I'm putting together a new year tour in Germany and we'll be hitting the folk clubs and festivals in England. Gigging is what we do all the time. So my advice is to keep an eye on the website as we are always announcing shows."

 

After finishing the tour what is up next for you? A new album?

 

Gregg: "Like I said the gigging doesn't really stop. I reckon by the tail end of next year I'll be looking at getting some more stuff onto record if not before. I am writing for an exciting project that's a bit secret at the moment so hopefully that'll get me out and about more too, any news will be on the website."

 

Final question, who would be in your dream super group?

 

Gregg: "Drums - Ginger Baker, bass - Dave Pegg, guitar - Jimi Hendrix, spoons - Miley Cyrus and lead vocal - Woody Guthrie."

 

 

PART 2 - THE QUICKFIRE ROUND

 

Favourite Beatle?

 

Gregg: "George."

 

Favourite band or singer?

 

Gregg: "Wilco."

 

Favourite new band or singer?

 

Gregg: "Temples."

 

Favourite song?

 

Gregg: "Over The Hill by John Martyn."

 

Favourite album?

 

Gregg: "First Utterance by Comus."

 

Vinyl, CD or download?

 

Gregg: "CD."

 

When you press shuffle on your iPod, what is the first track that comes on?

 

Gregg: "What's an iPod?"

 

Style icon?

 

Gregg: "Lovejoy."

 

Favourite film?

 

Gregg: "Excalibur, the 80's version."

 

Favourite TV show?

 

Gregg: "In The Night Garden."

 

Who would play you in a film of your life?

 

Gregg: "Ian McShane."

 

Favourite food?

 

Gregg: "Indian."

 

Football team?

 

Gregg: "The Hammers."

 

 

PART 3 - THE REVIEW

 

Gregg Cave's brand new studio album is sure to become a classic English folk album. Entitled "Old England Grown New" it blends contemporary folk sounds with the more traditional approach as well. There is an array of different approaches to the tracks; "Aida's Lullaby" is a solo instrumental, "Last Day" (featuring words taken from a John Clare poem) is just a duet with fiddle and melodeon and tracks such as "The Bunny Run" are brilliant folk rock songs with a full electric band.

 

It certainly starts with a bang with a fine rendition of the traditional ballad "The Bonny Lass Of Anglesey". This track also features some fine fiddle work from none other than Mr Dave Swarbrick who gives the track a very traditional feel. The percussion and thumping bass also adds to this and bring the recording to life, giving it a very live feel.

 

There are a further two traditional tracks featured on the album; the title track and "An Atheist's Grave". Both of which are pure and brilliant, however Gregg Cave also has the talent of being able to write great folk songs in his own right. "Born Of This Land" perhaps demonstrates this best and is a song that Richard Thompson would've been proud of writing. Again, this track features a great fiddle part. "The Bunny Run" and "Ancient Hymn" also provide highlights amongst the original compositions, as does album closer "William Morris-Wat Tyler"; a beautiful ballad.

 

Cave is not however purely limiting himself to the folk genre and the Americana / country and western influence is evident on "Down By The Lake" and "Ancient Hymn", both original compositions from the Northamptonshire singer-songwriter. These tracks are comparable to modern alternative country artists such as Ryan Adams and Eric Church, so there's definitely variety in this album.

 

The lead vocal throughout is also exceptional and deserves a mention. It sounds as if it has been lifted from an early Fairport Convention album, which is no bad thing!

 

Overall, this album is as good as it gets in modern folk rock. It has a solid footing in old, traditional approaches but Cave brings a very nice and fresh original take on the folk music genre.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this feature on Gregg Cave, be sure to check out previous feature on Crash Club!

 

You can check Gregg Cave out at the following link - http://www.greggcave.com/

 

Keep up to date with future interviews and reviews at the following link - https://www.facebook.com/aldorabritainrecords

 

AB RECORDS

OLD ROSIE: An interview with folk band The Tin Pigeons!

 

PART 1: THE INTERVIEW

 

1 - What was your earliest musical memory and what inspired you towards persuing a career in music?

 

"There comes a point in every musician's life at which one must confess, 'I doubt there's a future for me in sport' and subsequently, buy a guitar."

 

2 - Had you been involved with any other bands prior to The Tin Pigeons?

 

"There was a band which consisted of 3/4 of the Tin Pigeons - George, Douglas, Thomas plus another fella and an irregular drummer. Unfortunately, the band's tenure culminated in a rather ugly spectacle at the Uppingham Flower and Produce Show, during which a moody suicide song and a desperate rendition of Stayin' Alive by the Bee-Gees spelt the end for Tawny And The Owls."

 

3 - How did The Tin Pigeons begin?

 

"After aforesaid disastrous gig, two of us, George and Douglas, went to France. We quickly found that we still wanted to do band stuff, decided Thomas would be a danger unto himself if we didn't keep him and his groovy bass lines and also realised that George had a perfectly good brother at home, from whom we could extract some vocals and a rhythm guitar."

 

4 - Where did the name The Tin Pigeons come from?

 

"We apologise for the sheer dullness of this story: In France, I [Douglas] bought my brother a souvenir tin panda. The name, The Tin Pandas, was floated, but we felt a panda didn't quite suit our rural English aesthetic, so thought an animal from closer to home might do nicely. Pigeons seemed the best choice and here we are, enthralling readers and listeners alike with the exquisitely fascinating story of our band name."

 

5 - How would you describe the sound of The Tin Pigeons?

 

"The sound seems to come from a combination of three things. Firstly, the banjo riffs, along with the strumming guitar and mandolin make for quite a skiffly/scrappy/folky-dokey sound akin to that one might expect to hear on the back step of a moonshine distillery, or at a barn dance. Under that, there's Thomas' one man rhythm section of kick drum and bass, which is no doubt owing to his aptitude for various strains of electronic music - incredibly tight, creating a rather nice contrast with our scrappier instruments and tying it all down to a slightly more poppy groove. Added to the broth and to top it off, I think there's a certain soulful sound that comes from our vocals - particularly the harmonies - which tend to be rather soft, in comparison with what one might expect from a rag-tag acoustic band. We've also got the delightful range between Fraser's rather gruff, yet lovely vocals and George's softer, more melodic ones."

 

6 - You recently shot a video for your song 'Old Rosie'. What is this song about and who influenced it?

 

"I [Fraser] wrote the song after we played at a beer festival around a year ago where we (some of us more than others) sampled an awfully strong cider by the same name, the inspiration really came from the almost romanticised idea of good old "dutch courage"."

 

7 - Who would be your dream collaboration?

 

"We often get heckled by awfully witty folks saying 'One Direction!', so that's probably a sign that we should team up."

 

8 - Any new songs in the pipeline?

 

"Individually, we always have new songs of some kind in the pipeline, which are then worked on and when experimented together, can take a form of some kind! A case in point is that we're still kind of working on/working out the latest addition to our set-list, which is rather a foot stomping tune called All's Spent."

 

9 - When can fans be expecting a new single, EP or album?

 

"Alas, we're being ripped asunder by university and school terms, but we should no doubt be getting back into the groove of things in time for a hit Christmas single..."

 

10 - Any live dates coming up?

 

"We are very close to finishing up all bookings we have taken for this summer. Our next planned dates will be Christmas time, however it's Summer that we love to fill up with gigs! The last on the books is Saturday 14th of September at the Little Bytham beer festival, which is coincidently where we played our very first gig nearly two years ago."

 

11 - Who would be in your dream supergroup?

 

"Thomas Quemby. The group would just be him. Maybe George Waite from the Crookes too. Essentially, the group would be two handsome bass players, which would be super."

 

PART 2: THE QUICKFIRE ROUND

 

1 - Favourite Beatle?

 

Douglas: "I'll say George, although if I'm honest, it's probably John."

 

Thomas: "Harry Styles."

 

2 - Favourite band?

 

Douglas: "(At the moment) Pere Ubu, or Magazine."

 

3 - Favourite new band?

 

Douglas: "We all love the Crookes!"

 

4 - Favourite song?

 

Douglas: "Definitive Gaze by Magazine."

 

5 - Favourite album?

 

Douglas: "London Calling."

 

6 - Vinyl, CD or download?

 

Douglas: "Usually settle for a CD. Vinyl's great. Download is annoying. George would probably say vinyl. Fraser can often be heard listening to downloaded stuff on his iphone while he's on the loo, singing along...Thomas walks with music wherever he may be and therefore, does not require any means of audio storage."

 

7 - Style icon?

 

Douglas: "The Fantastic Mr. Fox."

 

8 - Favourite clothing brand?

 

Douglas: "I like a good freeze brand. Less painful. Why's it just me answering all of these anyway?"

 

9 - Favourite film?

 

Douglas: "The Fantastic Mr. Fox, again."

 

10 - Favourite TV show?

 

Douglas: "People are probably bored with just hearing what my favourite things are. We should hear from someone else..."

 

11 - Who would play you in a film of your life?

 

Douglas: "Looks-wise, Steve Buscemi."

 

12 - Favourite food?

 

Fraser: "Grapes."

 

Thomas: "Harry Styles."

 

Douglas: "Oh, hi guys. Just in time."

 

13 - Football team?

 

Douglas: "Miami Dolphins."

 

Hope you enjoyed this feature on The Tin Pigeons! Check out our previous feature on Last Of The Light Brigade!

 

Watch the video for "Old Rosie" here -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDP43ZkpwZo

 

You can also like our Facebook page to keep up to date with all future interviews at the following link - https://www.facebook.com/aldorabritainrecords

 

AB Records