Invoking the musical spirit
Muirsical Conversation With Troy Redfern
Muirsical Conversation With Troy Redfern
Blues rock and sizzling slide musician Troy Redfern has been in prolific form since singing the pandemic and lockdown blues.
Invocation, Redfern’s eighth album in the last four years, follows in the southern-slanted slide and rollicking rhythm footsteps of previous releases …The Fire Cosmic! and Wings Of Salvation, but this time around he is working with a more expansive (and at times exploratory) palette.
Nor has the smart choice of bringing back the ‘Wings team done any harm – Dave Marks (who also features on bass, keys and percussion) once again brings a great production to the table (similarly Jo Webb’s mix) while Paul Stewart (The Feeling) is back behind the kit.
In a dovetailing support, Troy Redfern and his band will be out on the UK road in June for eleven headline dates to promote Invocation, which is also one of the best albums he has yet delivered.
Troy Redfern took time out shortly after band rehearsals for the tour to talk to FabricationsHQ in detail about Invocation and its broader scoped nature, working once again with producer Dave Marks and the upcoming tour/ performing live.
However the conversation started prior to Redfern and his team entering the studio, when the guitarist took himself into isolation to allow full concentration on writing songs and sketching song ideas...
Ross Muir: I’m intrigued by the fact you took yourself away on what was almost a sabbatical to musically meditate on ideas for what became Invocation. Given the results it was clearly a worthwhile exercise.
Was that isolation of the mind always going to be part of the thought/ songwriting process?
Troy Redfern: It was, yeah. I’ve always felt that most things start, creatively, in your head, or from your mind. With every art form, whether that be architecture, or music, or whatever it may be, thought is the driver.
I’ve done this a few times in the past, since way back about ten years ago with the Backdoor Hoodoo album and the song Salvation. That was a head, or thought, song.
Most of the time I pick up my guitar, and the guitar leads by inferring a melody. From there you can fall into patterns and familiar places because of the way you have programmed yourself over the years, or things you have done before.
But this time it was more a case of thinking ideas or imagining ideas; it’s the hardest thing to do because you sometimes only get fragments.
But if you sit and imagine, for example, the song you can see or hear yourself walking on stage to, what would it sound like? If you can visualise that, or hear that, then you have an almost fully formed idea before you even pick up the guitar.
That was the case with All Night Long; the opening vibe of that song was from imagining a fast, up-tempo, high-powered kind of number with that big lift chorus.
Invocation, Redfern’s eighth album in the last four years, follows in the southern-slanted slide and rollicking rhythm footsteps of previous releases …The Fire Cosmic! and Wings Of Salvation, but this time around he is working with a more expansive (and at times exploratory) palette.
Nor has the smart choice of bringing back the ‘Wings team done any harm – Dave Marks (who also features on bass, keys and percussion) once again brings a great production to the table (similarly Jo Webb’s mix) while Paul Stewart (The Feeling) is back behind the kit.
In a dovetailing support, Troy Redfern and his band will be out on the UK road in June for eleven headline dates to promote Invocation, which is also one of the best albums he has yet delivered.
Troy Redfern took time out shortly after band rehearsals for the tour to talk to FabricationsHQ in detail about Invocation and its broader scoped nature, working once again with producer Dave Marks and the upcoming tour/ performing live.
However the conversation started prior to Redfern and his team entering the studio, when the guitarist took himself into isolation to allow full concentration on writing songs and sketching song ideas...
Ross Muir: I’m intrigued by the fact you took yourself away on what was almost a sabbatical to musically meditate on ideas for what became Invocation. Given the results it was clearly a worthwhile exercise.
Was that isolation of the mind always going to be part of the thought/ songwriting process?
Troy Redfern: It was, yeah. I’ve always felt that most things start, creatively, in your head, or from your mind. With every art form, whether that be architecture, or music, or whatever it may be, thought is the driver.
I’ve done this a few times in the past, since way back about ten years ago with the Backdoor Hoodoo album and the song Salvation. That was a head, or thought, song.
Most of the time I pick up my guitar, and the guitar leads by inferring a melody. From there you can fall into patterns and familiar places because of the way you have programmed yourself over the years, or things you have done before.
But this time it was more a case of thinking ideas or imagining ideas; it’s the hardest thing to do because you sometimes only get fragments.
But if you sit and imagine, for example, the song you can see or hear yourself walking on stage to, what would it sound like? If you can visualise that, or hear that, then you have an almost fully formed idea before you even pick up the guitar.
That was the case with All Night Long; the opening vibe of that song was from imagining a fast, up-tempo, high-powered kind of number with that big lift chorus.
So it was experimenting with that sort of idea and trying to formulate it in your head before you even get to the instrument, or singing it out loud. And once you have that idea, notebook it on your phone, and get it down.
It was all about taking a different approach, rather than just picking up the guitar and letting the hand, or guitar, lead.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, I still write that way, but this time I was looking for a different way to come up with initial ideas.
Obviously the heavy lifting was done when I started demoing the songs with Dave Marks, and I can’t take away from Dave’s contributions to the album.
The process of working with Dave, as we did on the last album, is super-fast and super-efficient. We got everything done in about five weeks – I wouldn’t have been able to work at that speed myself; I just couldn’t do that.
You need someone who is very methodical and very organised in their mind, and that’s Dave; he has a razor-sharp mind!
Also, while I’ve obviously written albums in the past and done other stuff, for better or worse, production wise and arrangement wise, I’ve never had to focus within a very specific window of time – Dave is a very busy guy and only had a limited window.
So, when you know you have that little slot of time within which to do the album, you get it done!
RM: That sounds like the best of both musical worlds. You started with that almost meditative state – song ideas from the mind as opposed to from the guitar – then you take those ideas to Dave and the team that worked on the Wings Of Salvation album, thus ensuring you are all on the same page from the get-go.
TR: It was, yes. Dave is a strong producer, a very clever guy and, like all of us who write or produce music, carries strong opinions! [laughs]
But that’s great because if you didn’t know someone’s opinion, or what they really thought, you wouldn’t get anywhere.
Dave is also a hands-on sort of guy; in fact, it’s really like working with a band member – he’ll talk about the arrangement for one song, then the drum pattern for another, that sort of thing.
And, of course, he plays bass and keyboards.
Also, I hadn’t really listened to the album properly until it went on to Spotify.
I’d obviously heard the completed tracks, and the singles multiple times, because as you’re putting the accompanying videos together you’re listening to those songs over and over again.
But I hadn’t listened to the whole thing properly until it was released – that’s when I was finally far enough away from the album to listen to it in an almost empathic way, as the listener hearing it for the first time.
I’m honestly very pleased with how it has turned out; how it runs together and how it sounds.
And, because of the short window we had, I was thinking "how the hell did we manage to do that in such a short time!"
RM: That’s what every artist hopes for; being able to take that step back – although no artist can ever detach themselves fully from their work – and say they are genuinely happy with the results.
Better that than the all-too-common post-release situation where an artist can only hear what they should have done, or wish they had mixed a particular song in a different way.
It was all about taking a different approach, rather than just picking up the guitar and letting the hand, or guitar, lead.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, I still write that way, but this time I was looking for a different way to come up with initial ideas.
Obviously the heavy lifting was done when I started demoing the songs with Dave Marks, and I can’t take away from Dave’s contributions to the album.
The process of working with Dave, as we did on the last album, is super-fast and super-efficient. We got everything done in about five weeks – I wouldn’t have been able to work at that speed myself; I just couldn’t do that.
You need someone who is very methodical and very organised in their mind, and that’s Dave; he has a razor-sharp mind!
Also, while I’ve obviously written albums in the past and done other stuff, for better or worse, production wise and arrangement wise, I’ve never had to focus within a very specific window of time – Dave is a very busy guy and only had a limited window.
So, when you know you have that little slot of time within which to do the album, you get it done!
RM: That sounds like the best of both musical worlds. You started with that almost meditative state – song ideas from the mind as opposed to from the guitar – then you take those ideas to Dave and the team that worked on the Wings Of Salvation album, thus ensuring you are all on the same page from the get-go.
TR: It was, yes. Dave is a strong producer, a very clever guy and, like all of us who write or produce music, carries strong opinions! [laughs]
But that’s great because if you didn’t know someone’s opinion, or what they really thought, you wouldn’t get anywhere.
Dave is also a hands-on sort of guy; in fact, it’s really like working with a band member – he’ll talk about the arrangement for one song, then the drum pattern for another, that sort of thing.
And, of course, he plays bass and keyboards.
Also, I hadn’t really listened to the album properly until it went on to Spotify.
I’d obviously heard the completed tracks, and the singles multiple times, because as you’re putting the accompanying videos together you’re listening to those songs over and over again.
But I hadn’t listened to the whole thing properly until it was released – that’s when I was finally far enough away from the album to listen to it in an almost empathic way, as the listener hearing it for the first time.
I’m honestly very pleased with how it has turned out; how it runs together and how it sounds.
And, because of the short window we had, I was thinking "how the hell did we manage to do that in such a short time!"
RM: That’s what every artist hopes for; being able to take that step back – although no artist can ever detach themselves fully from their work – and say they are genuinely happy with the results.
Better that than the all-too-common post-release situation where an artist can only hear what they should have done, or wish they had mixed a particular song in a different way.
TR: That’s so true, and I have to admit there was a lot of that at the mixing stage!
I do not enjoy that process because when it’s first mixed, there are so many things you hear that you think could be this, or should be that.
And that can be horrible, because you just can’t listen to it properly; you just can’t hear it anymore.
All you can hear are the things where you think "we need to push this up in the mix" or "the snare should probably sound more like that," and all the rest of it.
But Jo is amazing at mixing and did a great job with the final mix.
RM: Keeping to the sound of the album, I have to mention the great drum sound on Invocation, which complements the up-tempo, big-beat rock numbers perfectly.
TR: For the drums we went to the same place as the Wings Of Salvation album, which is Dulcitone Studios. That’s Lee Russell’s private studio, and he doesn’t normally let anyone else go in there, but Dave is really good mates with him so we were fine! [laughs].
Dulcitone is a converted chapel; it’s a gorgeous, huge room where we could multi-mike the drums and get the great reverb of that space.
Paul Stewart, who people might know from The Feeling, is an incredible drummer and very organic player.
He also has a machine-like memory; I remember Dave was talking to him about one particular bar in a song, and Dave said "I’d like you to go to that bar and do this." Paul would go for the take and nail it first time!
It was just insane how on it he was.
I think it was only a day and a half to do all the drum parts, but the entire group were so super-professional. They are also just really nice people; you couldn’t wish for a better situation and there was never any nonsense. That’s why those guys get so much work; great people who are bloody good at what they do.
RM: From the recording processes to the songs themselves.
As FabricationsHQ mentioned in review of the album, there is a broader scoped nature to Invocation, particularly on a song such as Native, which is built on a tribal drum pattern, tremolo guitar and bags of atmosphere.
Then there’s The Calling, which lyrically looks to escape from our over tech’d lives; more importantly, from a musical point of view, those songs add yet another colour, or texture, to the Troy Redfern palette.
TR: Thank you. Native was a weird one because it almost fell out, complete, as you hear it on the album.
That was one we had at pre-production demo stage; I just got my guitar, plugged it in, got the sound we wanted almost immediately, and then added some delay to my vocal.
So we did work with it but it all formed organically, and really quickly. It also has a vibe that I don’t think any of my other songs have.
The Calling was the sort of song that I’ve always wanted to do – that slow motion, epic-y type of thing.
I’ve kind of messed around with that sort of idea in the past, but never really been able to do it before.
I really do think The Calling is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I know other people might disagree, because it’s almost like a B-side, or would be if people still released singles with B-sides! [laughs]
But you know what I mean – it’s like a non-album track, or a deeper cut album track – but as far as structure, melody, and arrangement, it’s one of my favourite songs on the album.
And it doesn’t feel derivative of anything – it is rock, because of the guitar sound, but it’s definitely not metal, or blues, or any sort of pastiche.
I do not enjoy that process because when it’s first mixed, there are so many things you hear that you think could be this, or should be that.
And that can be horrible, because you just can’t listen to it properly; you just can’t hear it anymore.
All you can hear are the things where you think "we need to push this up in the mix" or "the snare should probably sound more like that," and all the rest of it.
But Jo is amazing at mixing and did a great job with the final mix.
RM: Keeping to the sound of the album, I have to mention the great drum sound on Invocation, which complements the up-tempo, big-beat rock numbers perfectly.
TR: For the drums we went to the same place as the Wings Of Salvation album, which is Dulcitone Studios. That’s Lee Russell’s private studio, and he doesn’t normally let anyone else go in there, but Dave is really good mates with him so we were fine! [laughs].
Dulcitone is a converted chapel; it’s a gorgeous, huge room where we could multi-mike the drums and get the great reverb of that space.
Paul Stewart, who people might know from The Feeling, is an incredible drummer and very organic player.
He also has a machine-like memory; I remember Dave was talking to him about one particular bar in a song, and Dave said "I’d like you to go to that bar and do this." Paul would go for the take and nail it first time!
It was just insane how on it he was.
I think it was only a day and a half to do all the drum parts, but the entire group were so super-professional. They are also just really nice people; you couldn’t wish for a better situation and there was never any nonsense. That’s why those guys get so much work; great people who are bloody good at what they do.
RM: From the recording processes to the songs themselves.
As FabricationsHQ mentioned in review of the album, there is a broader scoped nature to Invocation, particularly on a song such as Native, which is built on a tribal drum pattern, tremolo guitar and bags of atmosphere.
Then there’s The Calling, which lyrically looks to escape from our over tech’d lives; more importantly, from a musical point of view, those songs add yet another colour, or texture, to the Troy Redfern palette.
TR: Thank you. Native was a weird one because it almost fell out, complete, as you hear it on the album.
That was one we had at pre-production demo stage; I just got my guitar, plugged it in, got the sound we wanted almost immediately, and then added some delay to my vocal.
So we did work with it but it all formed organically, and really quickly. It also has a vibe that I don’t think any of my other songs have.
The Calling was the sort of song that I’ve always wanted to do – that slow motion, epic-y type of thing.
I’ve kind of messed around with that sort of idea in the past, but never really been able to do it before.
I really do think The Calling is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I know other people might disagree, because it’s almost like a B-side, or would be if people still released singles with B-sides! [laughs]
But you know what I mean – it’s like a non-album track, or a deeper cut album track – but as far as structure, melody, and arrangement, it’s one of my favourite songs on the album.
And it doesn’t feel derivative of anything – it is rock, because of the guitar sound, but it’s definitely not metal, or blues, or any sort of pastiche.
RM: Another that come slightly out of left field is Blind Me. That’s probably best described as a dark country-blues, with a self realisation, didn’t-see-the-truth lyric. A very interesting song, tonally.
TR: Back in the day I was a big fan of Sheryl Crow’s early stuff, like The Globe Sessions.
I remember when we first demoed that song, way before we even put the lyrics in, it had a working title of The Globe, because it was kind of in the ballpark of the type of music on The Globe Sessions.
I like early/ roots music like Appalachian music but I’m not a fan of country music, or country and western music, but it was really interesting to so something like Blind Me.
And, again, like Native, Blind Me pretty much fell out at demo stage with its melody and chord progressions in place. But I didn’t think "Oh god, that‘s too country, let’s scrap it" [laughs]; instead we stored it in a folder of ideas we had for the songs we were going to develop later.
I’ve got a catalogue of things in my head that will always come out because of what I’ve been listening to, but this time it was a bit more like a kaleidoscope, where you turn it a little and the things you’ve got in there suddenly look, or sound different.
It’s a very random process, but that’s why a song like Blind Me came out. And, again, because it’s not quite the same as anything else, it worked for the album.
I don’t think I’d have ever written that song if we had worked in a different way – we were simply catching things in that little block of time we had.
And this all goes back to what I said earlier – once I listened to the album properly, when I could take a step back and listen more objectively, I could hear and enjoy all the different things we did, like Native, The Calling, and Blind Me.
Again, there are going to be people who perhaps don’t like those songs, or the ones that are perceived as being glam – the double snare hits and the claps, all that stuff.
But those are all choices we decided to put in.
RM: Those glam influences you mentioned are apparent on The Strange; even more so on Getaway.
TR: I’m not a huge glam fan at all, to be honest, but I was influenced by a band called Spacehog, who were big in the nineties. They were definitely influenced by Bowie and T-Rex, so a lot of my glam influences, or that sort of style, actually come from Spacehog.
RM: That’s interesting, because Getaway has a real Bolan/ T-Rex vibe to it, as many a reviewer made comment on, myself included.
But we tend to forget there is sometimes a connecting, next generational dot. As Spacehog were influenced by 70s era Bowie and T-Rex, they in turn influenced you.
TR: Great band. A bunch of us went to see them on The Chinese Album tour in 1998 at the Varsity in Wolverhampton. It was a little room above the pub with an aggressive, loud PA, but I’ll tell you what, they were the best band I’ve ever seen live. They were crazily good.
I’m also a fan of Royston Langdon, the singer in Spacehog. He’s one of the vocalists that truly resonates with me, and a definite influence. He was amazing.
Obviously, I know Bowie’s stuff, and T-Rex – and as you said, there is definitely a vibe of T-Rex on Getaway, that "g'ank g'ank" sound on the high strings – but it was influenced more by Spacehog and Royston Langdon.
But, again, all those ideas came too quick to even think about influences. It wasn’t a case of sitting down with the guitar and going "right, I’ll write an up-tempo glam song now;" there wasn’t time to even think that way.
It was literally formulating an idea, then playing it on guitar so I could notebook on the phone; Dave and I would go back later to see what was there and start building that idea up to demo stage.
Before you know it, you’re sitting back listening to something that’s almost fully formed, but had started out as a fragment!
It was a strange way of doing things, but also a good way of doing things, because it was never overthought. And that was the main thing for me, not to overthink things.
TR: Back in the day I was a big fan of Sheryl Crow’s early stuff, like The Globe Sessions.
I remember when we first demoed that song, way before we even put the lyrics in, it had a working title of The Globe, because it was kind of in the ballpark of the type of music on The Globe Sessions.
I like early/ roots music like Appalachian music but I’m not a fan of country music, or country and western music, but it was really interesting to so something like Blind Me.
And, again, like Native, Blind Me pretty much fell out at demo stage with its melody and chord progressions in place. But I didn’t think "Oh god, that‘s too country, let’s scrap it" [laughs]; instead we stored it in a folder of ideas we had for the songs we were going to develop later.
I’ve got a catalogue of things in my head that will always come out because of what I’ve been listening to, but this time it was a bit more like a kaleidoscope, where you turn it a little and the things you’ve got in there suddenly look, or sound different.
It’s a very random process, but that’s why a song like Blind Me came out. And, again, because it’s not quite the same as anything else, it worked for the album.
I don’t think I’d have ever written that song if we had worked in a different way – we were simply catching things in that little block of time we had.
And this all goes back to what I said earlier – once I listened to the album properly, when I could take a step back and listen more objectively, I could hear and enjoy all the different things we did, like Native, The Calling, and Blind Me.
Again, there are going to be people who perhaps don’t like those songs, or the ones that are perceived as being glam – the double snare hits and the claps, all that stuff.
But those are all choices we decided to put in.
RM: Those glam influences you mentioned are apparent on The Strange; even more so on Getaway.
TR: I’m not a huge glam fan at all, to be honest, but I was influenced by a band called Spacehog, who were big in the nineties. They were definitely influenced by Bowie and T-Rex, so a lot of my glam influences, or that sort of style, actually come from Spacehog.
RM: That’s interesting, because Getaway has a real Bolan/ T-Rex vibe to it, as many a reviewer made comment on, myself included.
But we tend to forget there is sometimes a connecting, next generational dot. As Spacehog were influenced by 70s era Bowie and T-Rex, they in turn influenced you.
TR: Great band. A bunch of us went to see them on The Chinese Album tour in 1998 at the Varsity in Wolverhampton. It was a little room above the pub with an aggressive, loud PA, but I’ll tell you what, they were the best band I’ve ever seen live. They were crazily good.
I’m also a fan of Royston Langdon, the singer in Spacehog. He’s one of the vocalists that truly resonates with me, and a definite influence. He was amazing.
Obviously, I know Bowie’s stuff, and T-Rex – and as you said, there is definitely a vibe of T-Rex on Getaway, that "g'ank g'ank" sound on the high strings – but it was influenced more by Spacehog and Royston Langdon.
But, again, all those ideas came too quick to even think about influences. It wasn’t a case of sitting down with the guitar and going "right, I’ll write an up-tempo glam song now;" there wasn’t time to even think that way.
It was literally formulating an idea, then playing it on guitar so I could notebook on the phone; Dave and I would go back later to see what was there and start building that idea up to demo stage.
Before you know it, you’re sitting back listening to something that’s almost fully formed, but had started out as a fragment!
It was a strange way of doing things, but also a good way of doing things, because it was never overthought. And that was the main thing for me, not to overthink things.
RM: From all you have said, it sounds very much like the album started as blank canvas, if you will; one you had to fill in pretty quickly, but with a lot of different, and some new, musical colours.
TR: Yeah, pretty much. Right from the outset, there were only a couple of things that I knew I wanted – a slightly brighter mix than we had on Wings Of Salvation, and to try and keep the songs short, trimming away any fat.
For example, after a chorus we might have a musical section before the next verse, but we would chop that away; anything that didn’t need to be there, went.
Now, generally, and as you know, I like longer or more complex pieces; things that are perhaps more intricate. But when we decided to make this record, there was a Mission Statement, and that was to have concise songs. Also, if there was going to be a guitar solo it was going to be melodic, and short, not extended.
And, now, having done that with this record, I’d like to go back at some point and do something more adventurous, which I’ve enjoyed doing in the past, and let my imagination run free! [laughs].
But at this stage of my career it’s about staying true to what I feel I should sound like – taking all my component parts and distilling it all into a format that I can get out there to as many people as possible, and who will come to our shows.
RM: Absolutely. You have to be true to yourself as an artist but, at the same time, you obviously have to have an audience.
I love the eclectic, multi-styled instrumental nature of your Thunder Moon album, and the fully improvised adventurism of long-form piece Carpe Diem – but very few folks are going to come to see you play a thirty minute improvisation on your Resonator.
TR: [laughs] No, you’re absolutely right, but there is always room for a little improvisation in the live set; I love to extend the guitar solos, and have Nicky (Waters) let loose on the drums.
Obviously Nicky plays the songs the way they should be played, but I hate the idea of having him as just a backing drummer. In fact, I hate the whole idea of hiring backing musicians to be just that.
I want everyone to be able to really play, and enjoy themselves – I want Nicky to be able to play his arse off; I want Keira (Kenworthy) to be able to show everybody what she can do on bass. I want everyone – the band and the audience – to enjoy the gig.
If I went to see a band, I’d want to see what I’d be doing myself, if I was on that stage.
I want to see musicians showing their chops and playing solos – but by that I don’t mean standing there and widdling on guitar for five minutes, I mean tuly interacting with the rest of the band; weaving in and out.
RM: Playing off of each other. Not so much extending the song as expanding the song, and the musicians’ roles.
TR: Yeah, exactly. That’s the sort of thing I’ve always loved; it’s that whole seventies, fusion thing.
If I’m listening to music in the car, it’s Gong, Alan Holdsworth, Tony Williams, George Duke, all those guys.
I love that music. That’s the sort of thing I’d like to do next, even if it’s more of a soft, Bandcamp release and slightly more experimental, just for myself, really.
When I put Thunder Moon, which you mentioned, on Bandcamp I was really worried – I thought it might be too far away from what I’ve been doing for people to get it.
They might think "hang on, what’s he doing now?" or "what the hell is this!" [laughs]
But it got streamed, and bought, more than any other album I had on Bandcamp!
And that showed me there’s no point in mentally putting yourself in a corner and worrying about doing something left-field, because you just never know; you really don’t.
I’m not a big artist, in the great scheme of things, so I’m still at that level, I think, where I can get away with doing that sort of thing without rocking the boat too much.
RM: Another case of best of both musical worlds – freedom to experiment with albums such as Thunder Moon while also receiving critical acclaim for the likes of Wings Of Salvation, and now Invocation.
Talking of which, you’ll be supporting Invocation in the second half of June with a headline UK tour.
All eleven dates of the tour are consecutive, no days off – just the way the tour was routed, or do you like to keep up gigging momentum and hit the stage every night?
TR: When the tour was being put together I was asked if I wanted to do it straight through, or with breaks.
The problem with a break is while it means a day off, you’re obviously not being paid for a gig but you’re still paying for being on the road. So, the most financially viable option is to play straight through.
But, to be honest with you, that can be hard for me, vocally. I could play for a full month of dates in a row if I was just on guitar, but vocally it’s a different story.
Luckily, there’s some stuff called Sanderson’s Throat Mixture, which some theatre performers were using.
I first tried it about three years ago and it was amazing – it was like having a vocal warm-up with just a tiny little sip. But then they stopped making it! I think they ran out of one of the ingredients and it was off the market for about three years.
However I found some of it just last week, so I’ve ordered two bottles, because that stuff is a life saver!
And now that I have it again I’m thinking "OK, great; I can get through those dates one hundred percent; no problem." It is that good!
TR: Yeah, pretty much. Right from the outset, there were only a couple of things that I knew I wanted – a slightly brighter mix than we had on Wings Of Salvation, and to try and keep the songs short, trimming away any fat.
For example, after a chorus we might have a musical section before the next verse, but we would chop that away; anything that didn’t need to be there, went.
Now, generally, and as you know, I like longer or more complex pieces; things that are perhaps more intricate. But when we decided to make this record, there was a Mission Statement, and that was to have concise songs. Also, if there was going to be a guitar solo it was going to be melodic, and short, not extended.
And, now, having done that with this record, I’d like to go back at some point and do something more adventurous, which I’ve enjoyed doing in the past, and let my imagination run free! [laughs].
But at this stage of my career it’s about staying true to what I feel I should sound like – taking all my component parts and distilling it all into a format that I can get out there to as many people as possible, and who will come to our shows.
RM: Absolutely. You have to be true to yourself as an artist but, at the same time, you obviously have to have an audience.
I love the eclectic, multi-styled instrumental nature of your Thunder Moon album, and the fully improvised adventurism of long-form piece Carpe Diem – but very few folks are going to come to see you play a thirty minute improvisation on your Resonator.
TR: [laughs] No, you’re absolutely right, but there is always room for a little improvisation in the live set; I love to extend the guitar solos, and have Nicky (Waters) let loose on the drums.
Obviously Nicky plays the songs the way they should be played, but I hate the idea of having him as just a backing drummer. In fact, I hate the whole idea of hiring backing musicians to be just that.
I want everyone to be able to really play, and enjoy themselves – I want Nicky to be able to play his arse off; I want Keira (Kenworthy) to be able to show everybody what she can do on bass. I want everyone – the band and the audience – to enjoy the gig.
If I went to see a band, I’d want to see what I’d be doing myself, if I was on that stage.
I want to see musicians showing their chops and playing solos – but by that I don’t mean standing there and widdling on guitar for five minutes, I mean tuly interacting with the rest of the band; weaving in and out.
RM: Playing off of each other. Not so much extending the song as expanding the song, and the musicians’ roles.
TR: Yeah, exactly. That’s the sort of thing I’ve always loved; it’s that whole seventies, fusion thing.
If I’m listening to music in the car, it’s Gong, Alan Holdsworth, Tony Williams, George Duke, all those guys.
I love that music. That’s the sort of thing I’d like to do next, even if it’s more of a soft, Bandcamp release and slightly more experimental, just for myself, really.
When I put Thunder Moon, which you mentioned, on Bandcamp I was really worried – I thought it might be too far away from what I’ve been doing for people to get it.
They might think "hang on, what’s he doing now?" or "what the hell is this!" [laughs]
But it got streamed, and bought, more than any other album I had on Bandcamp!
And that showed me there’s no point in mentally putting yourself in a corner and worrying about doing something left-field, because you just never know; you really don’t.
I’m not a big artist, in the great scheme of things, so I’m still at that level, I think, where I can get away with doing that sort of thing without rocking the boat too much.
RM: Another case of best of both musical worlds – freedom to experiment with albums such as Thunder Moon while also receiving critical acclaim for the likes of Wings Of Salvation, and now Invocation.
Talking of which, you’ll be supporting Invocation in the second half of June with a headline UK tour.
All eleven dates of the tour are consecutive, no days off – just the way the tour was routed, or do you like to keep up gigging momentum and hit the stage every night?
TR: When the tour was being put together I was asked if I wanted to do it straight through, or with breaks.
The problem with a break is while it means a day off, you’re obviously not being paid for a gig but you’re still paying for being on the road. So, the most financially viable option is to play straight through.
But, to be honest with you, that can be hard for me, vocally. I could play for a full month of dates in a row if I was just on guitar, but vocally it’s a different story.
Luckily, there’s some stuff called Sanderson’s Throat Mixture, which some theatre performers were using.
I first tried it about three years ago and it was amazing – it was like having a vocal warm-up with just a tiny little sip. But then they stopped making it! I think they ran out of one of the ingredients and it was off the market for about three years.
However I found some of it just last week, so I’ve ordered two bottles, because that stuff is a life saver!
And now that I have it again I’m thinking "OK, great; I can get through those dates one hundred percent; no problem." It is that good!
RM: Keeping on the subject of singing voice, do you do anything specific to keep in vocal shape, or any rehearsal techniques before a gig?
TR: Well, first of all, I probably smoke too much! I usually have two or three cigarettes before I go on, which, if I’m only doing a half-hour support slot, doesn’t really matter; I can go and blast the voice.
For those shorter sets I’d maybe do a little two minute warm-up before I go on stage, something like that.
But, an hour-and-a-half set for, in this case, eleven straight nights, is a bit different.
What I will do though is get myself one of those little singing straws for warm-ups – you sing through the straw, and it creates back pressure on your vocal chords; I’ll us that technique as a warm-up each night.
RM: Straw singing is a simple, but beneficial exercise; but the smoking beforehand, Troy, that’s not the greatest preparation.
TR: [laughs] Yeah, the smoke can be hard on the voice so I’ll be taking the singing very seriously on this tour.
I actually gave the smoking up for fifteen years but, when I went out on a tour in Russia, the young band I had hired as my backing musicians were smoking after a show.
It was about minus eighteen and snowing outside, I had had a few vodkas, they offered me a cigarette and stupidly I took it – and that was it. Straight back on!
And yes, if I gave it up before I know I should do again, especially to help the voice – but then that’s probably why the voice has got rougher over the years, which is part of my sound, I guess.
RM: Cigarette smoke; signature sound; there is an element of truth to that.
And better that than having a cold or virus that hits the throat and the air passages when you’re out on the road. That is not pleasant.
TR: When I went out with The Commoners last year, a ten-in-a-row run, I got a serious cold or flu-bug half-way through the tour. But interestingly, I still managed – I think the pressure of having to perform, or maybe the adrenalin that pumps through you when you get in front of an audience, gets you through.
As soon as you get on that stage, any bunged up nose, or any bug you might have seems to clear; in fact I think it must be the adrenalin, because when you come off stage and get to the dressing room, that’s when you feel like crap! [laughs]
RM: Adrenalin can be a wonderful thing, along with a singing straw and a throat tincture, obviously [laughter]
All of which will be put to good use when you hit the road to support Invocation.
Thanks for sitting in with FabricationsHQ and discussing the album in such detail Troy, and here’s to every success for the album and tour.
TR: Thanks so much Ross, this has been brilliant – see you on the road!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation With Troy Redfern
May 2024
Photo Credits: Haluk Gurer (live image); Jason Bridges (all other images)
TR: Well, first of all, I probably smoke too much! I usually have two or three cigarettes before I go on, which, if I’m only doing a half-hour support slot, doesn’t really matter; I can go and blast the voice.
For those shorter sets I’d maybe do a little two minute warm-up before I go on stage, something like that.
But, an hour-and-a-half set for, in this case, eleven straight nights, is a bit different.
What I will do though is get myself one of those little singing straws for warm-ups – you sing through the straw, and it creates back pressure on your vocal chords; I’ll us that technique as a warm-up each night.
RM: Straw singing is a simple, but beneficial exercise; but the smoking beforehand, Troy, that’s not the greatest preparation.
TR: [laughs] Yeah, the smoke can be hard on the voice so I’ll be taking the singing very seriously on this tour.
I actually gave the smoking up for fifteen years but, when I went out on a tour in Russia, the young band I had hired as my backing musicians were smoking after a show.
It was about minus eighteen and snowing outside, I had had a few vodkas, they offered me a cigarette and stupidly I took it – and that was it. Straight back on!
And yes, if I gave it up before I know I should do again, especially to help the voice – but then that’s probably why the voice has got rougher over the years, which is part of my sound, I guess.
RM: Cigarette smoke; signature sound; there is an element of truth to that.
And better that than having a cold or virus that hits the throat and the air passages when you’re out on the road. That is not pleasant.
TR: When I went out with The Commoners last year, a ten-in-a-row run, I got a serious cold or flu-bug half-way through the tour. But interestingly, I still managed – I think the pressure of having to perform, or maybe the adrenalin that pumps through you when you get in front of an audience, gets you through.
As soon as you get on that stage, any bunged up nose, or any bug you might have seems to clear; in fact I think it must be the adrenalin, because when you come off stage and get to the dressing room, that’s when you feel like crap! [laughs]
RM: Adrenalin can be a wonderful thing, along with a singing straw and a throat tincture, obviously [laughter]
All of which will be put to good use when you hit the road to support Invocation.
Thanks for sitting in with FabricationsHQ and discussing the album in such detail Troy, and here’s to every success for the album and tour.
TR: Thanks so much Ross, this has been brilliant – see you on the road!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation With Troy Redfern
May 2024
Photo Credits: Haluk Gurer (live image); Jason Bridges (all other images)
Troy Redfern - Invocation UK Tour
Tickets: https://troyredfern.com/dates/
June 17th - Treehouse, Frome
June 18th - Retro, Manchester
June 19th - Classic Grand, Glasgow
June 20th - Bannermans, Edinburgh
June 21st - Live Rooms, Chester
June 22nd - Asylum 2, Birmingham
June 23rd - Boiler Room, Guildford
June 24th - The Junction, Cambridge
June 25th - The Joiner, Southampton
June 26th - New Cross Inn, London
June 27th - The Forum, Tunbridge Wells
Other 2024 shows:
September 8th - Nene Valley Rock Festival, Grimsthorpe Castle
Special Guest to Philip Sayce:
November 21st – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
November 22nd – Glasshouse, Gateshead
November 23rd – Oran Mor, Glasgow
November 25th – BOTW, Manchester
November 26th - Metronome, Nottingham
November 28th – Fleece, Bristol
November 30th – 1865, Southampton
December 3rd – Arts Centre, Colchester
December 4th – Islington Academy, London