This week I had the pleasure of catching up with singer, songwriter, frontman from Welsh indie band The Immediate and BBC broadcaster Adam Walton to discuss music, bands and of course guitars.
GS: How did growing up in North Wales affect your musical influences?
AW: Being geographically removed meant that those of us who loved music had to make more of an effort to experience it and hear interesting things. This is all supposition on my behalf, of course, but I imagined that people who grew up in Manchester had easy and ready access to the music that was emanating from the city at the point when music was becoming very important to me (late 80’s).
We’d have to go on coaches and minibuses to see the bands we wanted to check out. Woofer— from Crocodile Records at the indoor market in Mold—would sort out the tickets and the transport, and we’d go off to Liverpool or Manchester to see The Primitives, The Bunnymen, The Stone Roses, whoever was touring at the time that we wanted to see. So we had to make an effort to check something out. We couldn’t take music, live music, especially—for granted.
Also, being from the countryside meant—I imagine, because I have no other real frame of reference—that there was no social pressure to like cool stuff. I really loved U2 when I was little. Boy sounds great regardless of their tax avoidance strategies.
I relied on friends sharing compilation tapes, or records (for me to tape) Geraint who ran our youth club in Nannerch let me borrow lots of his records (I may—accidentally—still have a couple?) Rich Holland who was a local journalist and writer, a few years older than me, would make the most fantastic, wide-ranging compilation tapes (definitely a long-term influence on my music philosophy); Gary—the Chicagoan who ran Back Alley Music in Mold, when it was a record shop, would turn me on to things. And my dad: his old rock ’n’ roll 7”s, Dylan albums, and his hi fi and tape recorder - where I’d make my own compilations or try to play along with whatever it was that Robbie Robertson was playing—were the key influences.
GS: Do you have any Welsh bands that have been a particular influence on you?
AW: Not really. Not back when I was a kid, anyway, because I wasn’t really aware of the nationality of the bands I was listening to, probably because there was only The Alarm who had any real profile, or success. I remember staying up late to watch them live from (I think) the Montreux Festival, on ITV. They came on and looked ridiculous, like Shetland ponies dressed as cowboys who’d been told what punk was by a practical joker.
When I was in my first bands—very early 90’s—much of what we tried to do was as a reaction against what other local bands were doing. That’s a sort of an influence, isn’t it?
Girohead sounded like a photocopy of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin; Baby Milkplant sounded like The Farm, and Wonderland were as close as we had to Bryan Adams. I’ve no idea what we sounded like, but we weren’t good enough to nail sounding like someone else, like our mates were, so we probably sounded bad, but interesting.
I started doing radio shows, properly in 1993 and my band finally gave up the ghost in 1997. I’ve been massively inspired by a huge amount of the Welsh music I’ve listened to and played since then, but as I wasn’t making music until very recently I hadn’t noticed the influence that those bands were having on me. I think I’m very much inspired by the excellence and
commitment of bands like Joy Formidable and Future of the Left, but you wouldn’t hear any particular musical influence, from them, I don’t think.
GS: Was becoming a radio DJ something you always wanted to do or was it more something you fell into?
AW: Something I fell into. I was drunk in Kings Wine Bar in Mold (now Y Delyn) and someone pointed out that a man at the bar worked for the local radio station, so I went up and hectored him about how shit the station (Radio Clwyd) was because it didn’t play any of the local bands. And they offered me a job. I’m still there.
GS: The first song you played on the radio was Indian Rope by the Charlatans. What made you choose this track above all others?
AW: I had just bought it, on 12”, from Crocodile Records in the indoor market in Mold. I must have liked it a lot because I was on the dole and didn’t have much money to spend on music. It wasn’t anything more than that, then: liking it, at the time… which is how things still work, now.
GS: Your radio show Revolution was instrumental in breaking some fantastic bands such as Gorky’s Zicotic Mynki, Catatonia, Stereophonics and 60ft Dolls. How involved were you in discovering the bands you featured?
AW: I don’t think radio presenters should get a credit for ‘discovering’ a band. By the time I hear them, and certainly by the time they’re good enough to be played on the radio, they’ve done all the discovering themselves. I used to hoot with laughter when Zane Lowe would claim to have discovered something that I knew, full well, had been handed to him by a radio plugger. I wonder if he annoys his next door neighbours by claiming he’s discovered them every time they open their front doors?
We radio / media people are sent lots of music. We (should) listen to it and then play what we like. It’s not difficult, and it’s certainly not anything we deserve extra brownie points for.
GS: Is discovering new talent an important part of your career? What is it about it that you enjoy?
AW: Playing the best new sounds that come my way is what I enjoy the most. It’s never felt like a career. It’s just sharing a joy and a curiosity about new music. And a passionate belief in infinite potential and the absolute joy of creativity.
GS: You have also been busy with your three piece indie band The Immediate this year with the release of your EP. How well do you think it has been recieved by the industry?
AW: I still have 200 copies—at least—of our comeback album (still technically a debut album) in my bedroom, so - despite the fact that I think it’s a good album - it hasn’t gone great, from an industry point of view. Which is absolutely fine. This band gives Richard, Duncan, and me a way to make a noise and enjoy ourselves massively. It’s one of the most precious things in my life. Now I’ve learnt that the industry isn’t much interested in what a bunch of past-it 40-somethings from Mold are doing, I can enjoy it all the more.
We’re in the studio, currently, making a new EP. The songs are a lot less poppy than they were on Manbuoy. One of them genuinely unsettles me. I think it will be the best thing we’ve done, and I’m more or less certain it will sell far fewer copies.
GS: When making a record, how involved in the production side of things are you when working on a new record? Do you get involved in the mixing and mastering process?
AW: All of it. Every aspect because it’s fun. Production—when you’re self—releasing and have a very limited budget is just about decisions, especially when you’re a three—piece. Do we want to make something that we can replicate live, between the three of us, or do we want to layer things and focus on the recording, first and foremost, and then compromise a little to be able to perform those songs live?
Our current philosophy is much closer to the former. There will be minimal overdubs on our new recordings… mostly just double tracks of the guitars to make things sound bigger, when they need to sound bigger.
When you record like that the performance (that you record) is the most important part of the process. If you record it wrong, if there are fumbles / dropped beats / missed notes, everyone can hear them. Hopefully the performances are good and that will mean that the mix should be simple, just a case of knitting things together so they sound cohesive and exciting.
It helps - massively - that we record with an excellent engineer in an excellent room. Russ Hayes (Orange Sound Studio in Penmaenmawr) has great ears and a really positive, can-do philosophy that makes recording with him an absolute pleasure. Highly recommended!
GS: Moving on to guitars, how old were you when you began learning?
AW: I went to Glan Llyn when I was in my first year of secondary school. One of the kids in our year, Graham Devine, took his classical guitar and played it one day. The utterly beautiful sound that he made changed my life, completely. He’s a world famous classical guitarist, now. He’s incredible.
GS: Do you have a favourite guitar and amp combo?
AW: Fender Strat + Vox AC 15. I’ve tried a few things over the last 30 years, but this is the combination I like the most, that gives me 'my sound'. My relatively cheap Mexican Fender Strat has just the right amount of bite in the pickups for me. And I love the AC 15. It works so well with a three-piece, because it has power and presence, so that it cuts through the bass and the drums, but doesn’t obscure them.
GS: What made you choose guitar as your chosen instrument?
AW: I didn’t really have a choice! It’s what I heard that moved me. I did try clarinet (I was awful) and flute (I loved the flute). I also play a bit of keyboards.
GS: Are you a self—taught musician or have you had lessons?
AW: When I started out, I was learning classical guitar with one of Wales’ finest teachers: Sarah Jones. I stopped those lessons after a year, or so, because I wanted to sound like The Edge and Link Wray. I was self—taught from then on, but started classical guitar again 3 years ago under the excellent tutelage of Jonathan Richards (Colwyn Bay). He’s not ‘just’ a teacher, he’s also a composer and a concert performer. I had to stop those lessons, too, to be able to afford rehearsals etc. When the band reformed, but what I learnt from Jonathan—and from the pieces he encouraged me to play—has been massively inspirational.
GS: What advice would you give to young musicians wanting to get their music heard on radio?
AW: Be good. Be yourselves. Be your own worst critics.
GS: Adam, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to guitarschool22.co.uk today. It’s been really interesting talking with you. We wish you all the very best for the rest of 2018 and for the future!
