The concept of Musical Artistry
Q&A with Adam Norsworthy
Q&A with Adam Norsworthy
On June 28th multi-styled/ crossover British blues rock band The Mustangs will release Watertown, their second conceptually themed work in a row.
The album, which follows the beautifully crafted Just Passing Through (life as a train journey) lyrically tells an environmentally themed tale as conceived and written by The Mustangs singer, guitarist and primary songwriter Adam Norsworthy, after hearing drummer Jon Bartley (Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales) talk on such issues.
The multi-faceted front man (Norsworthy balances his role in The Mustangs with a singer-songwriter solo career and originally side project, now fully fledged recording and performing band, The Milk Men) sat in with FabricationsHQ to talk a little about Watertown and its theme, The Mustangs and The Milk Men, the wider exposure difficulties for even the most talented of singer-songwriters and the just-for-fun, lighter relief of his intentionally unpublicised Rock Records Reviewed YouTube channel…
Ross Muir: Watertown is the second conceptually themed release from The Mustangs in a row.
Just Passing Through was a beautifully conceived train-journey-through-life work while Watertown takes on the subject of the natural environment and the pollution of such…
Adam Norsworthy: I’ve always loved albums that have a theme, or tell a story so I think it was inevitable we’d get round to doing one eventually. All the guys were right behind the idea as well.
That Just Passing Through worked so convincingly gave us the confidence to do another.
With Just Passing Through the inspiration came from lyrics our blues harp player Derek Kingaby gave me on the first day of writing, and those songs bookend the album… and the whole concept just hit me immediately.
With Watertown it was a slower burn. We were all at Glastonbury in 2017 and we were staying up at the Green Fields; as our drummer Jon Bartley is Co-Leader of the Green Party he was being recognised everywhere, and giving talks, over the weekend.
I started forming this idea about an environmentally themed album, but it needed a context and that took longer to formulate. But once I had the idea of telling the story through the eyes of a young couple in love, it came together as a concept, and I knew the writing then needn’t be so literal.
It’s really interesting because when I think about this more, I realise that maybe adding a lyrical theme to our albums is also a way of getting away with incorporating so many different styles of music, which we have always done, but still having a constant so it doesn’t feel so disjointed.
If we have been accused of one thing in the past it’s perhaps that our albums flit about between styles too much, which I love, and the Beatles and Queen did it all the time, but obviously we are no Queen or the Beatles, so people are less forgiving with us perhaps!
RM: Playing Devil’s Advocate, this may turn out to be as hard a sell musically as it seems to be, sadly, politically or environmentally – is there a worry the message may get lost in the various iPlayer shuffles and streaming playlists…?
AN: No I’m not worried about that. It was important that each track stood up on its own as well, and I think they do. So by all means dip into it track by track if that’s what you want to do.
Certainly you will get much more from the album if you do have the time to take it all in at once, but such is the way music is consumed these days we are not so naïve that we think everyone will do that every time.
To say the album carries a message may also be over stating it… I’d hate for us to be seen as preaching or moralising anything, but I think there are unavoidable truths and realities about the world and the way things are going that I think people can now get away with talking or singing about, without being seen as pontificating nutballs.
At the end of the day, this is a story with a dark theme that happens to be relevant to us all.
The album, which follows the beautifully crafted Just Passing Through (life as a train journey) lyrically tells an environmentally themed tale as conceived and written by The Mustangs singer, guitarist and primary songwriter Adam Norsworthy, after hearing drummer Jon Bartley (Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales) talk on such issues.
The multi-faceted front man (Norsworthy balances his role in The Mustangs with a singer-songwriter solo career and originally side project, now fully fledged recording and performing band, The Milk Men) sat in with FabricationsHQ to talk a little about Watertown and its theme, The Mustangs and The Milk Men, the wider exposure difficulties for even the most talented of singer-songwriters and the just-for-fun, lighter relief of his intentionally unpublicised Rock Records Reviewed YouTube channel…
Ross Muir: Watertown is the second conceptually themed release from The Mustangs in a row.
Just Passing Through was a beautifully conceived train-journey-through-life work while Watertown takes on the subject of the natural environment and the pollution of such…
Adam Norsworthy: I’ve always loved albums that have a theme, or tell a story so I think it was inevitable we’d get round to doing one eventually. All the guys were right behind the idea as well.
That Just Passing Through worked so convincingly gave us the confidence to do another.
With Just Passing Through the inspiration came from lyrics our blues harp player Derek Kingaby gave me on the first day of writing, and those songs bookend the album… and the whole concept just hit me immediately.
With Watertown it was a slower burn. We were all at Glastonbury in 2017 and we were staying up at the Green Fields; as our drummer Jon Bartley is Co-Leader of the Green Party he was being recognised everywhere, and giving talks, over the weekend.
I started forming this idea about an environmentally themed album, but it needed a context and that took longer to formulate. But once I had the idea of telling the story through the eyes of a young couple in love, it came together as a concept, and I knew the writing then needn’t be so literal.
It’s really interesting because when I think about this more, I realise that maybe adding a lyrical theme to our albums is also a way of getting away with incorporating so many different styles of music, which we have always done, but still having a constant so it doesn’t feel so disjointed.
If we have been accused of one thing in the past it’s perhaps that our albums flit about between styles too much, which I love, and the Beatles and Queen did it all the time, but obviously we are no Queen or the Beatles, so people are less forgiving with us perhaps!
RM: Playing Devil’s Advocate, this may turn out to be as hard a sell musically as it seems to be, sadly, politically or environmentally – is there a worry the message may get lost in the various iPlayer shuffles and streaming playlists…?
AN: No I’m not worried about that. It was important that each track stood up on its own as well, and I think they do. So by all means dip into it track by track if that’s what you want to do.
Certainly you will get much more from the album if you do have the time to take it all in at once, but such is the way music is consumed these days we are not so naïve that we think everyone will do that every time.
To say the album carries a message may also be over stating it… I’d hate for us to be seen as preaching or moralising anything, but I think there are unavoidable truths and realities about the world and the way things are going that I think people can now get away with talking or singing about, without being seen as pontificating nutballs.
At the end of the day, this is a story with a dark theme that happens to be relevant to us all.
RM: Beyond the story-telling nature of Watertown we have, musically, an album that is certainly not your run of the mill blues album -- but then The Mustangs aren’t your run of the mill 12 bar and a slow blues band…
AN: Well The Mustangs very much started as a pure blues band. We made two garage recordings in the early days, which a few people even bought copies of, that were absolutely all classic blues songs that were in our set at the time.
Our first two proper albums, Let it Roll and Rocking Horse, are unquestionably blues records, and you could even argue the next two are... it was around our middle period that things shifted but I don’t think we ever consciously decided to branch out, it just happened naturally in the songwriting.
I’ve always worn my influences on my record sleeve and I have soaked up a lot of music, not just blues; that comes out in what I write.
RM: You are not only the front man and primary songwriter of The Mustangs, you are a solo artist in the mould of the stripped back/ semi-acoustic singer-songwriter troubadour, as heard to great effect on your last solo release The Circus Moon…
AN: Yes, and that goes with what I was just saying about writing… sometimes you write something and it’s musically clearly not going to fit the Mustangs, as diverse as they are, or lyrically it’s something you want to say on your own.
My solo stuff is lyrically sometimes very, very honest and raw – I think it would feel awkward for me to perform or record it with the guys.
The Circus Moon is no different; I know almost immediately if a song will be a solo song or a Mustangs song.
I was so pleased with The Circus Moon and it got amazing reviews, just like the previous album, Rainbird, did, so I was pretty disappointed when it failed to set the world alight.
I can’t put my finger on it. Either the world just doesn’t want or need any of my solo albums or something, somewhere, is going wrong in the process. Or both!
But it won’t stop me making them, I can tell you that, so take that, world! [laughs]
RM: That latter comment is very good news but as you have just hinted at, the singer-songwriter tag also has its problems – to wit, in this must have a ‘sound’ or ‘gimmick’ or ‘look’ day and age, It’s a harder nut to crack.
Both The Circus Moon and Rainbird could, and frankly, should, have been featured as songs, or albums, of the week on BBC Radio 2…
AN: I thought so too, and so did many other people who said very kind things… Rainbird in particular has some huge fans who have been very supportive of it – it’s just a shame none of them were head of Radio 2!
I doubt any people in that position of influence or power ever heard either album though and therein lies one of the problems… getting your music heard by the people who have the key to the door.
I know that quite a few of my songs would have worked well on Radio 2, for example, but I just don’t seem to have the industry muscle behind me to push on that door.
I suspect another of the problems is that many acts feel the same about their music’s suitability for mainstream radio and it’s a very crowded field.
There is a lot of great music and talent out there but the windows of opportunity are getting smaller.
RM: Those ever diminishing windows of opportunity is a major problem for so many talented or hard working artists, who don’t get promotion, coverage or wider audiences they deserve.
Continuing that wider audience theme I’d go as far to say, in all seriousness, that Let Your Red Hair Fall from The Circus Moon would have been a perfect fit for the end of a Game of Thrones episode…
AN: I’d have loved that! I was a big Game Of Thrones fan and I can just see Let Your Red Hair Fall being used for some chilling scene involving Sansa and, dare I say it, Ramsay Bolton...
AN: Well The Mustangs very much started as a pure blues band. We made two garage recordings in the early days, which a few people even bought copies of, that were absolutely all classic blues songs that were in our set at the time.
Our first two proper albums, Let it Roll and Rocking Horse, are unquestionably blues records, and you could even argue the next two are... it was around our middle period that things shifted but I don’t think we ever consciously decided to branch out, it just happened naturally in the songwriting.
I’ve always worn my influences on my record sleeve and I have soaked up a lot of music, not just blues; that comes out in what I write.
RM: You are not only the front man and primary songwriter of The Mustangs, you are a solo artist in the mould of the stripped back/ semi-acoustic singer-songwriter troubadour, as heard to great effect on your last solo release The Circus Moon…
AN: Yes, and that goes with what I was just saying about writing… sometimes you write something and it’s musically clearly not going to fit the Mustangs, as diverse as they are, or lyrically it’s something you want to say on your own.
My solo stuff is lyrically sometimes very, very honest and raw – I think it would feel awkward for me to perform or record it with the guys.
The Circus Moon is no different; I know almost immediately if a song will be a solo song or a Mustangs song.
I was so pleased with The Circus Moon and it got amazing reviews, just like the previous album, Rainbird, did, so I was pretty disappointed when it failed to set the world alight.
I can’t put my finger on it. Either the world just doesn’t want or need any of my solo albums or something, somewhere, is going wrong in the process. Or both!
But it won’t stop me making them, I can tell you that, so take that, world! [laughs]
RM: That latter comment is very good news but as you have just hinted at, the singer-songwriter tag also has its problems – to wit, in this must have a ‘sound’ or ‘gimmick’ or ‘look’ day and age, It’s a harder nut to crack.
Both The Circus Moon and Rainbird could, and frankly, should, have been featured as songs, or albums, of the week on BBC Radio 2…
AN: I thought so too, and so did many other people who said very kind things… Rainbird in particular has some huge fans who have been very supportive of it – it’s just a shame none of them were head of Radio 2!
I doubt any people in that position of influence or power ever heard either album though and therein lies one of the problems… getting your music heard by the people who have the key to the door.
I know that quite a few of my songs would have worked well on Radio 2, for example, but I just don’t seem to have the industry muscle behind me to push on that door.
I suspect another of the problems is that many acts feel the same about their music’s suitability for mainstream radio and it’s a very crowded field.
There is a lot of great music and talent out there but the windows of opportunity are getting smaller.
RM: Those ever diminishing windows of opportunity is a major problem for so many talented or hard working artists, who don’t get promotion, coverage or wider audiences they deserve.
Continuing that wider audience theme I’d go as far to say, in all seriousness, that Let Your Red Hair Fall from The Circus Moon would have been a perfect fit for the end of a Game of Thrones episode…
AN: I’d have loved that! I was a big Game Of Thrones fan and I can just see Let Your Red Hair Fall being used for some chilling scene involving Sansa and, dare I say it, Ramsay Bolton...
RM: Recent Mustangs and solo releases have seen a partnership with, or contribution from, Wayne Proctor and House of Tone.
There seems to be a genuine simpatico between you and Wayne in terms of the music and what that music needs, sound-wise and mix-wise…
AN: Wayne and I have done four albums now, two solo albums and two Mustangs albums; we’ve reached a nice groove I think, with me producing the albums and he mixing and mastering.
He really adds that ‘fairy dust’ over everything I give him, giving it space and breathing more life into it.
All the things you want from a fresh pair of ears and a mix really.
Like all creative partnerships it isn’t always a smooth ride, he will tell you that as well, but we both love what we do together and it’s always worth it!
I’d like to think he respects me as a songwriter and arranger and when he works on my music he is working on things he doesn’t normally get a chance to play with, sonically or arrangement wise.
Certainly from my point of view it’s no coincidence that the four albums of ours / mine he has worked on are the four favourite albums I’ve done solo or with the Mustangs.
We’ve been talking about some exciting ideas for the next solo one.
RM: A third string to your bow, or more accurately guitar, is side project The Milk Men featuring singer Jamie Smy, ex Pirate drummer Mike Roberts and bassist Lloyd Green, son of the late and legendary Pirate guitarist Mick Green.
That all sounds like R&B ‘Feelgood’ – band name pun intended – fun; a release from the day job of The Mustangs and the perfect contrast to the more intimate nature of the solo work.
AN: To say it’s a fun release from the day job would be belittling it a bit – I love the Milk Men and I think we’ve done some seriously good work – but I get what you mean.
Certainly the band began as a side project and Jamie and I never intended for it to become so serious, but we fell in with a couple of great players and such is my nature to keep pushing things and do more stuff and before long we were writing songs and recording an album!
Our debut Full Phat was a little corker, and spurred us on to do another one, Gold Top; I think that is a very, very fine record.
RM: The content is, undeniably, 'gold' top quality.
FabricationsHQ reviewed both albums very favourably.
AN: Actually we were blown away by all the reviews we received and the feedback, but we knew Gold Top in particular was a good one.
We nailed what we were going for – that retro vibe – one reviewer said that if it had come out in 1972 it would be considered a classic. I love that!
With The Milk Men either Jamie and I write everything together, or Lloyd chips in with a song or two, so the process is very different to the solo/ Mustangs work.
But it’s a very good band indeed and it’s a lot of fun to play shotgun on guitar for a whole show instead of having to carry it vocally – Jamie has developed into a really fine front man with his own style and presence.
I’m excited to see where the band can go with our next album.
RM: Interesting you mentioned Queen earlier because another project of yours is the recently launched Rock Records Reviewed on YouTube, where you undertake album by album ratings of some of the greatest ever rock bands; Queen and Led Zeppelin were the first two you covered.
What I really like about RRR is you have done this under the radar "as a fan," with absolutely no publicity…
AN: Yes, and the almost total lack of subscribers is very real evidence of that lack of publicity! [laughs]
I think the truth is that, when you love the sound of your own voice and opinion as much as I do, it was inevitable that I’d eventually succumb to the evil lure of You Tube blogging!
But yes, you’re right, I do it totally as fan, with no mention of any of my bands or records; it’s just a bit of a laugh on the very rare occasions I have the time to do it.
I was hoping I’d have a few more videos up by now but it’s been tricky squeezing it in; I’m hoping to do more over time and hopefully I’ll get to one hundred subscribers, which was always my only aim with it.
It really is just a bit of fun. For me, if no one else!
RM: It’s a fun segment yes, but it’s also intelligent appraisal delivered as objectively as possible within a concise, not unnecessarily long time-frame – frankly Adam that will never catch on, especially on YouTube…
AN: [laughs] I try to keep the videos down to around ten minutes as even I get bored of myself sometimes, and if they were any longer I’d be blabbering on like an idiot trying to fill the time and then it would be decidedly unintelligent, I can tell you!
RM: I have to say though that we will be going to the Thunderdome over Queen II not making the Top 5…
AN: My controversial omission of Queen II from their Top 5 albums is such a debatable issue I believe even Donald Trump took it up with the other Queen when he was in the UK recently! [laughter]
But that’s the fun of doing it, you can say that and then argue with people in the comments underneath.
Well, you could if anyone actually made any comments! [laughs]
There seems to be a genuine simpatico between you and Wayne in terms of the music and what that music needs, sound-wise and mix-wise…
AN: Wayne and I have done four albums now, two solo albums and two Mustangs albums; we’ve reached a nice groove I think, with me producing the albums and he mixing and mastering.
He really adds that ‘fairy dust’ over everything I give him, giving it space and breathing more life into it.
All the things you want from a fresh pair of ears and a mix really.
Like all creative partnerships it isn’t always a smooth ride, he will tell you that as well, but we both love what we do together and it’s always worth it!
I’d like to think he respects me as a songwriter and arranger and when he works on my music he is working on things he doesn’t normally get a chance to play with, sonically or arrangement wise.
Certainly from my point of view it’s no coincidence that the four albums of ours / mine he has worked on are the four favourite albums I’ve done solo or with the Mustangs.
We’ve been talking about some exciting ideas for the next solo one.
RM: A third string to your bow, or more accurately guitar, is side project The Milk Men featuring singer Jamie Smy, ex Pirate drummer Mike Roberts and bassist Lloyd Green, son of the late and legendary Pirate guitarist Mick Green.
That all sounds like R&B ‘Feelgood’ – band name pun intended – fun; a release from the day job of The Mustangs and the perfect contrast to the more intimate nature of the solo work.
AN: To say it’s a fun release from the day job would be belittling it a bit – I love the Milk Men and I think we’ve done some seriously good work – but I get what you mean.
Certainly the band began as a side project and Jamie and I never intended for it to become so serious, but we fell in with a couple of great players and such is my nature to keep pushing things and do more stuff and before long we were writing songs and recording an album!
Our debut Full Phat was a little corker, and spurred us on to do another one, Gold Top; I think that is a very, very fine record.
RM: The content is, undeniably, 'gold' top quality.
FabricationsHQ reviewed both albums very favourably.
AN: Actually we were blown away by all the reviews we received and the feedback, but we knew Gold Top in particular was a good one.
We nailed what we were going for – that retro vibe – one reviewer said that if it had come out in 1972 it would be considered a classic. I love that!
With The Milk Men either Jamie and I write everything together, or Lloyd chips in with a song or two, so the process is very different to the solo/ Mustangs work.
But it’s a very good band indeed and it’s a lot of fun to play shotgun on guitar for a whole show instead of having to carry it vocally – Jamie has developed into a really fine front man with his own style and presence.
I’m excited to see where the band can go with our next album.
RM: Interesting you mentioned Queen earlier because another project of yours is the recently launched Rock Records Reviewed on YouTube, where you undertake album by album ratings of some of the greatest ever rock bands; Queen and Led Zeppelin were the first two you covered.
What I really like about RRR is you have done this under the radar "as a fan," with absolutely no publicity…
AN: Yes, and the almost total lack of subscribers is very real evidence of that lack of publicity! [laughs]
I think the truth is that, when you love the sound of your own voice and opinion as much as I do, it was inevitable that I’d eventually succumb to the evil lure of You Tube blogging!
But yes, you’re right, I do it totally as fan, with no mention of any of my bands or records; it’s just a bit of a laugh on the very rare occasions I have the time to do it.
I was hoping I’d have a few more videos up by now but it’s been tricky squeezing it in; I’m hoping to do more over time and hopefully I’ll get to one hundred subscribers, which was always my only aim with it.
It really is just a bit of fun. For me, if no one else!
RM: It’s a fun segment yes, but it’s also intelligent appraisal delivered as objectively as possible within a concise, not unnecessarily long time-frame – frankly Adam that will never catch on, especially on YouTube…
AN: [laughs] I try to keep the videos down to around ten minutes as even I get bored of myself sometimes, and if they were any longer I’d be blabbering on like an idiot trying to fill the time and then it would be decidedly unintelligent, I can tell you!
RM: I have to say though that we will be going to the Thunderdome over Queen II not making the Top 5…
AN: My controversial omission of Queen II from their Top 5 albums is such a debatable issue I believe even Donald Trump took it up with the other Queen when he was in the UK recently! [laughter]
But that’s the fun of doing it, you can say that and then argue with people in the comments underneath.
Well, you could if anyone actually made any comments! [laughs]
RM: In closing, what’s the Adam Norsworthy future beyond Watertown…
AN: Just so much. I’m very fired up and excited. Watertown is released later this month and we are all extremely happy with it; The Mustangs will then be doing quite a few festivals over the Summer – Strawberry Hill, Cambridge, Phoenix, Richmond, Swanage, Northampton and others.
We’ve also decided that our next album is going to be a real ‘back to our roots’ blues album… no concepts, no tricky chords, no wordy lyrics! Just a good old fashioned blues record.
Writing has started for that and I think we’d like to get it out sooner rather than later so keep watching the skies in 2020 as it may even drop then.
Writing has more or less finished on the new Milk Men album, and we are looking to go into the studio towards the end of this year.
We’re playing the 100 Club later this month and we have some great festivals lined up – Margate, Upton, Swanage – and we are already slipping new material into the set which is always fun.
The next solo album is written too, and I’m super keen to crack on with that.
I’m demoing songs at the moment and then Wayne and I are going to sit down and discuss the best way of doing the record, and also about how we can best get it out to the public.
As we’ve just talked about, we feel there’s a wider audience for the solo stuff that it hasn’t really reached yet; we want to try and sort that out.
So there’s a lot to crack on with. So much music to make, so little time… hey, there may be a song in there somewhere…!
Ross Muir
Q&A with Adam Norsworthy
June 2019
Click here for FabricationsHQ’s feature length interview with Adam Norsworthy from 2017
https://www.adamnorsworthy.co.uk/ https://www.themustangs.co.uk/ http://www.themilkmenmusic.com/
AN: Just so much. I’m very fired up and excited. Watertown is released later this month and we are all extremely happy with it; The Mustangs will then be doing quite a few festivals over the Summer – Strawberry Hill, Cambridge, Phoenix, Richmond, Swanage, Northampton and others.
We’ve also decided that our next album is going to be a real ‘back to our roots’ blues album… no concepts, no tricky chords, no wordy lyrics! Just a good old fashioned blues record.
Writing has started for that and I think we’d like to get it out sooner rather than later so keep watching the skies in 2020 as it may even drop then.
Writing has more or less finished on the new Milk Men album, and we are looking to go into the studio towards the end of this year.
We’re playing the 100 Club later this month and we have some great festivals lined up – Margate, Upton, Swanage – and we are already slipping new material into the set which is always fun.
The next solo album is written too, and I’m super keen to crack on with that.
I’m demoing songs at the moment and then Wayne and I are going to sit down and discuss the best way of doing the record, and also about how we can best get it out to the public.
As we’ve just talked about, we feel there’s a wider audience for the solo stuff that it hasn’t really reached yet; we want to try and sort that out.
So there’s a lot to crack on with. So much music to make, so little time… hey, there may be a song in there somewhere…!
Ross Muir
Q&A with Adam Norsworthy
June 2019
Click here for FabricationsHQ’s feature length interview with Adam Norsworthy from 2017
https://www.adamnorsworthy.co.uk/ https://www.themustangs.co.uk/ http://www.themilkmenmusic.com/