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ARTIST INTERVIEW

UK band the 22-20s recently made their way through Australia having released their self-titled debut studio album earlier this year. With an obvious blues influence the band took their name from Delta bluesman Skip James' piano-led 22-20's Blues. Access All Areas.net.au sat down with founding member and bass player Glen Bartup, and drummer James Irving about their influences, album and how things are going.

Access All Areas.net.au: How do you describe your own music?
Glen: We don't really know how to answer that. We never really thought about it. For about four years me and Martin were in a band when we were about fourteen, and for about three or four years we just listened to blues and played blues and, by about 18 we'd got into [Bob] Dylan which lead us onto all sorts of music really and we realised the directness of blues that we first got into, you could find that in country, you could find that in Mo-town and three minute pop songs and [we] got into things like T-Rex and The [Rolling] Stones and The Clash and just anything that was direct and had a point to being written. It didn't matter if it was a three-minute pop song. Around about that age, about 18, Martin started writing songs; just because I s'pose he felt like he had stuff that he wanted to write about for the first time. And so we never actually had any conscious thought of kind of what we were trying to do although there we always used kind of blues songs and that sort of vibe and used them as a template and kind of just done sets with those sort of things and then Martin started writing songs after doing a few years of that and then had a period where he listened to quite a lot of new stuff. So we never actually once sat down and consciously thought what kind of a band it was going to be it was just a case of this is the first time we've ever written songs and this is kind of what we'll play in our set now, we'll play our own stuff and not their stuff. You could tell us what the sound is.

Access All Areas.net.au: Well, my first impression was that it's an older style of rock sound, would you agree with that?
James: I think the roots of it are more in the past but I don't think the sound of it is necessarily harking back to any kind of 60's revival.

Glen: I don't think it's necessarily in line with a lot of bands that are coming out at the moment. But it's almost seen as more advanced, as more progressive to be influenced by someone like Radiohead or Coldplay then you're being more progressive than if you're listening to Johnny Cash or Muddy Waters or The Clash or something. And I don't really see why that is. Obviously there's kind of today, if you've got sort of and 80's kind of meaning then you're described as very current but we have an opinion that you can't do anything new in music anymore, it's all been done. You're not going to invent a new guitar sound or invent a new style, really the only thing you can do is write songs if you have a reason to write them and write melodies and do what you do and try and write songs with a reason for them being written. And I think if it's a good song it's always going to be contemporary and if it's not a good song you can probably say well that's retro. All you can do these days is try and write songs that are true to yourself and express yourself in a way that you can understand the language and if we listen to a lot of blues first and then stuff like The Stones and T-Rex that was because we has a certain romantic view of that world, and the impact on the lifestyle in those groups, and if that's at the satisfaction of today looking back on that kind of stuff, well that's a comment on today in itself. We just write songs and hopefully if the second album's full of good songs then people will consider it contemporary. Good songs someone will always listen to in twenty years time and crap songs people will probably listen to it and say that sounds like it's about thirty years old.

Access All Areas.net.au: How do you see yourselves compared to you contemporaries?
Glen: I don't know. I don't think we really sound like anyone else that's around at the moment. But I think, in about '97 and that sort of time when we started playing in bands in Britain there wasn't a lot going on musically, and the radio was a bit crap really.

James: Pop had kind of filled in the void that Britpop had left.

Glen: We missed that kind of first thing when Oasis came out and that time. We just sort of missed that. And I think there was kind of a kind of slump after it, which, I suppose there always are on these kind of things. We were living in a little town in the middle of Lincolnshire and happened to get a Muddy Waters record and really like it and then got really into blues and stuff like that whereas I think maybe other people in Camden played old Clash records and they got into that. I think there's a lot of bands at the moment that have got some interesting influences and I think there's a lot of bands that would be into music that wasn't around just in the last five years. I suppose there's a certain similarity there. But a lot of people our age that started bands at our age are influenced by music that was around twenty years ago or more. In terms of direction I don't think we're too similar to anyone. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

Access All Areas.net.au: Would you deliberately try to avoid a direction similar to your contemporaries?
Glen: I guess the difference is if song writing is a conscious thing or a subconscious thing. If you start thinking we don't want to sound like that, we don't want to sound like that kind of taints the writing process; you're putting constraints on yourself that you don't really need. Writing songs is a purely creative thing and that comes through what you've been listening to or how you're feeling that day or whatever's around you, and that could be contemporary music or that could be old music. We're not going to say that we're not going to write like someone else, it's just what happens happens.

James: I think we're not, I don't think we're going to stick our heads in the ground and say we're not going to write a song that'd be played on the radio, we'd love to write a song that'd be played on the radio, but I don't think there's anything deliberate about it.

Access All Areas.net.au: So, tell me about this album.
Glen: It was recorded down in Cornwall in England. And Brendan Lynch produced it and we got him because he'd worked with Primal Scream and that was what caught our ear when a few names were bandied around. We kind of thought as Primal Scream as their albums always sound pretty fresh and I think they all sound pretty individual and I think we didn't want an album that sound like it had been made, we didn't want an album that sounded like it'd been made in the 60s. I don't even know what microphones we used or anything like that all we wanted to hear it coming out of the speakers and sounding how we wanted it to sound. Brendan was good for that because he had the references we had but at the same time he could make it sound quite fresh.

James: There was no getting away from the fact that you were making the album, everyone was living in the same house. You couldn't escape. To get a boat to the mainland you were all. There was a common force to get it done.

Access All Areas.net.au: How does song writing happen for the 22-20s?
Glen: Martin writes the songs, he writes the lyrics. Some are different; some come more from playing together in rehearsal. I think we've always had the opinion that the better songs are where the lyrics come first and the crapper songs are where the music comes first and you sort of tag the lyrics on later. So, Martin writes the lyrics so he'll usually plan a melody and some chords in mind with the lyrics that he's written, and sometimes it changes quite a lot in the rehearsal room other times it is pretty much done in ten minutes from when he brings it to us and it doesn't change at all. But Martin writes the songs. And Charly, actually since Charly joined he's bringing a lot of stuff. So maybe Charly will get his grubby little fingerprints over it, but we'll wait and see.

Access All Areas.net.au: Having mentioned the Rolling Stones as a great influence, who else do you feel has influenced your music and style?
James: [Bob] Dylan's a big one.

Glen: Yeah Dylan, T-Rex, Primal Scream. Anything, The Clash, The Smiths. We were into the Blues when we were younger and me and Martin were really ignorant about it and just like oh, this is the only music and then hearing Dylan and kind of realised that Blues wasn't the only music that was direct, it wasn't the only music that had a kind of romance to it and had a songwriter behind it and there'd be songs that were written because the person who wrote them needed to write them, did that mean that it just had a catchy chorus or that they liked doing that or…?

Access All Areas.net.au: What about from the current crop?
Glen: I think The Strokes are a really good band, The White Stripes are a really good band, and the Sleepy Jackson, I think that album was brilliant. So stuff I've always though was pretty spiritual is good stuff. Bits and pieces. For fifty years albums have been made that have still got a pretty direct connection to music around today. I think it's more strange if a band quotes thirty albums that were around in the last two years. I hate music connoisseurs, there's a fairly narrow list of bands that we actually like, and a strong bond that's between them all I think. We don't listen to it because it's the style; it's just what we like.

Access All Areas.net.au: Where did the Blues influence originally come from?
Glen: Martin's uncle just used to bring down records at Christmas and he heard them. I think that we kind of came from a little town and there's no scene and there's no bands and stuff on the radio stuff that wasn't particularly great at that time. It wasn't like growing up in London where people would be able to throw loads of great records at you. So we found Blues and at first it was kind of just playing it and then as we got a bit older we got a bit more in love with the romance of it and all that sort of thing. Yeah, I think we just lived in a small town and kind of got ourselves in a little bubble and that was all we knew and the music we're drawn to now is still kind of bares out sort of things, that kind of romance, songwriters and touring and direct songs, and also gigs that are pretty exciting. So, we'd have always been drawn to that but that happened to be the thing that we heard and be our first love and there weren't load of people tapping us on the shoulder saying oh, by the way The Smiths are great as well, so it was only as we got older and got into Dylan that we found that for ourselves. So I think that was the main reason we walked around when we were fifteen and said all other music was shit, we just hadn't heard it all yet.

Access All Areas.net.au: Was that the original direction you were looking to go in?
Glen: We never really thought about that. We were just fourteen/fifteen booking gigs and that was what we liked playing and that was what we listened to, so we just did that. The only time we ever consciously thought of direction was when Martin wrote the first few songs at eighteen, we'd seen a Dylan thing from 1966, a documentary about when he came to England and first went electric and the band just looked great, they were all in suits and they all looked fantastic and Dylan looked fine up the front and the songs were brilliant and we were like, fuck, this is amazing, so I suppose we always had that kind of sound, like to do our kind of impersonation of that was what we were trying to do. And just sort of seeing festivals on TV and stuff that was going on, seeing bands and thinking that's just not exciting, that's not like watching Muddy Waters, that's not like watching Dylan so we always wanted to, the direction in those days was just, well lets not play blues anymore Martin had songs that he wanted to write and things he wanted to write about but lets make it exciting and lets make it kind of dark and try to make it a bit scary. So that was the sort of direction. We're not very scary though but that's what we tried to do.

Access All Areas.net.au: Do you prefer studio work to performing live?
James: We were all brought up as live musicians really. As you say, when you were fourteen…

Glen: When you're fourteen doing gigs you're still only doing probably one a week, it's not like going on tour.

James: I think for us it's always been a balance. We like touring a lot and we like playing live but we don't want to be sat on our arse doing nothing, we want to be in the studio and writing and creating new stuff.

Glen: I think it's just, if you're on tour for a while you've usually got a few new songs, and think oh, we really want to go and record these songs and then you've been in the studio for a month you think, oh, we really want to go play these songs live. I think we've been better so far live than in the studio, I think it's just because that's what we knew better so we feel more comfortable with that. But, depends how it goes really. Maybe we will get sick of it in a year and say we're just a studio band.

Access All Areas.net.au: Where are you looking to move in the future?
Glen: We started off with songs like Such A Fool and that was in the early days when it was just me and Martin and then James, that was the sort of sound we wanted and when we first got Charly, and Charly had listened to a lot of different stuff to us but we kind of came together in the middle with the Stones. For quite a while when we first got Charly all we did was jam a lot of Rolling Stones stuff and things like that because that was the middle ground that we all knew and was what worked. And then when we did the album we put down Such A Fool and things like that to start, so you go oh, hang on this is what excited us at the start and then sort of followed that path for the album, but I think we'd spent six months jamming songs with good choruses and catchy hooks and I think if we could somehow do what we were trying to do in the first place, which was make direct songs and dark songs, and if we could give them a few poppy choruses and things like that we'd be very happy, give it a bit of a twist and not be so earnest and not be so direct. I think that's what we'd like to do. Just write some good choruses, that'd be good.

Access All Areas.net.au: Is there a song that you feel stands alone as a representation of the 22-20s?
Glen: I think Such A Fool is the one, but that was the first one we'd written so maybe we look at that with rose tinted glasses. I think that's the one that consciously in our minds for the second album that we might be trying to better. That's the point where we'd be quite excited about a new song when we kind of think, oh it's even better than that. I think that sums up what we were about when we first started and the kind of music we were wanting to make.

Access All Areas.net.au: Do you feel you have achieved what you wanted to from this first album?
Glen: Ummm, yeah, I think we're pretty happy with it.

James: The thing about a debut album is you go in there with a collection of songs and for the first time you're trying to record definitive versions of those songs that are there forever, they're going to be your debut album. And we did that. We made an album that sounds like an album.

Glen: In England when we first got spotted there was loads of hype and this big record company and things like that…from putting down songs that we didn't think anyone would ever hear, we had sort of fifteen opinions on every demo…and it wasn't just us being selfish and just writing songs anymore and we were thrown off by that. I think, since then we've been trying to reclaim it, and I think the first album did that a bit and I think we made an album that we're pretty happy with, so I think we're happy to kind of, the main thing with that is that we got an album out and got that pressure that we'd put onto our own heads, kind of exorcised that a bit by getting an album out and being pretty happy with it and I think now we can write songs for the second one with a bit more freedom and a bit more confidence. But it might mean that the second album's actually crap. It might be that the first album was alright because it was quite fragile because we were quite worried about it, maybe if we get confident we'll end up with fifteen minute guitar solos and all that kind of shit so I don't know, it might go wrong.

Access All Areas.net.au: How do you choose what goes onto a debut album?
James: The first things that we laid down when we went into the studio were 22 Days, Such A Fool, Devil In Me and Shoot Your Gun with the mindset that from a career point it was the obvious place to get started. From that the sound of the album developed directly between the band and the producer, Brendan [Lynch]…a darkish theme to the album. There was only a couple of things that we laid down that we thought really didn't fit with that.

Glen: It was a lot of the Stones-y sort of jams that sounded great in rehearsal…but then putting them down and sitting them along side Such A Fool you think, well actually that's got a lot more point than that has, that's just us having a good time in rehearsal whereas that was written for a proper reason and has a reason to be there. But we throw away too much, and we've been on tour this year and you get loads of ideas that you're really excited about but you can't go in the studio for the next three months because you're on tour and by the time you get to the studio you say, no it's shit, because you've picked holes in it. I think we cull way too much. I think it was a case of squeezing out ten that we didn't hate rather than sitting down sixteen and thinking, oh, which ones are we going to get rid of because we're the most stupid band in the world, we get rid of it all before we put it down, we get an idea, think that's great then the next day we say no, it's shit, that's shit, we won't bother with that, and never really give it a chance. Even Such A Fool, three months after we put that down we weren't doing that in a set at that point in time, we thought that was shit as well, it was only when other people came along and said it was good we finally dared sit in front of a speaker and listen to it and actually thought, oh no no, that's alright.

Access All Areas.net.au: So, do you feel you're overly critical of yourselves?
Glen: Completely.

James: Bands are really. You kind of get self-involved and always think the grass is always greener on the other side.

Glen: Martin said, in an interview that made me laugh, I wooed myself into writing songs and now I've wooed myself out of it, I think that sort of sums it up really.

Access All Areas.net.au: How are things for you in the UK?
James: Okay.

Glen: It's good. The first album got pretty good reviews and the gigs, the last tour went really well, so I think it's all really good there.

James: It's building nicely, isn't it?

Glen: Yeah, I don't think we really think about it too much. I think we were really happy that we're no longer the band that got loads of hype and an anticipated first album, but we're actually just a band that's in existence and actual people come to our gigs because they like us rather than because they've read something and are going to stand at the back with their arms folded and say, come on then, if you're great, impress us. People come to our gigs now because they've heard our album and they like it, so I think that's a way healthier position to be in as a band. We're a lot happier being like that.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Perhaps you’ve heard it before, but it’s a story that bears repeating. It’s about early promise being fulfilled. About capturing the moment, and great songs. It’s about not knowing the destination, but wanting to get started on the journey anyway. It is, of course, the story of the great debut album – and it’s one that’s currently being told about Lincoln’s 22-20s.

Recorded with Brendan Lynch (Paul Weller, Primal Scream), at Sawmills, Cornwall and in Wembley, North London, the band’s ‘22-20s’ is a debut album that captures a young trio approaching the raw materials of classic rock ‘n’ roll – to name a choice few, love, lust and frustration – and making them their own. Their first release, last year’s live EP ‘05/03’ showed a group in love with the spirit of the blues. The full-length ‘22-20s’, meanwhile, sees that spirit loving them right back.

“We wanted to make a rock’n’roll record that wasn’t about wearing Converse and becoming junkies,” says the band’s 21-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist, Martin Trimble. “And I think we did that. There’s a lot of bands coming out today who look like they’re made to be on a Gap advert, which is all quite unnecessary to us. I think what we do is pretty pure, really.”

Begun in November last year, ‘22-20s’ is on fire with that purity of purpose: to make a record that would do justice to Martin’s songs, and best convey the rawness of the interplay between himself and Glen Bartup (21, bass), James Irving (20, drums) and new member Charly Coombes (keyboards) who joined as a full-time member during recording. But though there’s plenty here to evidence the influence of some of the band’s favourite records – namely Buddy Guy’s stripped-down ‘Live At The Checkerboard Lounge’ – and to bear favourable comparison with other classy debuts, like the first album by The Rolling Stones, the group are not hell-bent on the pursuit of some luddite dream of authenticity.

“If the Stones had been recording now, I think they’d have gone for the best possible sound,” says Martin. “And like the Stones, I hope we go away and find a style that’s totally our own, and go and write an album as good as Exile On Main Street.”

It’s not a far-fetched an idea. The 22-20s, after all, have got being totally on their own pretty much in the blood. Formed three years ago and named after the Delta bluesman Skip James’s piano-led ‘22-20 Blues’, this was a group that from the start was reading from its own fairly eccentric map. Having grown up in admiration of the blues records brought round by his Uncle at Christmas, Martin and Glen had played for several years on the domestic and European blues scene as a duo, backed by session drummers. When one departed for a more profitable soul gig elsewhere, a position was left vacant for newcomer James to fill.

It was a fortuitous moment in a promising time. Though still with little in the way of a musical peer group around, there were still inklings that the times were, for them at least, beginning to change.

“We weren’t bluesy enough for the blues scene,” says Martin. “We did these festivals in Germany where we played songs we’d written like ‘Devil In Me’ and ‘22 Days’. One time a bloke came up to us, and said ‘I Like what you do, but it’s rock ‘n’ roll not blues, so I can’t listen to it.’ That kind of attitude.

“But on that tour we played our old drummer this tape we had of the White Stripes doing a Peel session. He said, ‘Christ, it’s a fucking racket!’ But for a guitar band, you can’t underestimate the impact that had. They’re an important band.”

Encouraged, if still pretty much alone, after a six month break the group spent the money they earned from their unrewarding blues gigs on going into the studio to record. Sending the resultant tape to venues, rather than record companies, word quickly spread of the group’s formidable live reputation, and having made an immediate convert in the form of Heavenly records boss Jeff Barrett, the group signed with his label to release a limited-edition single ‘Such A Fool’, which was followed up swiftly by ‘05/03’.

Since then the group have retreated from the publicity that surrounded their deal, to concentrate on their songwriting, and, developing at their own pace, on making ‘22-20s’ the most representative album possible.

It’s been worth the wait. Mixed in the US by Rich Costey, songs like’ Devil In Me’, ‘Hold On’, ‘Such A Fool ‘previous single ‘Why Don’t You Do It For Me’ and dark, thunderous Top 30 single ‘Shoot Your Gun’ show a group confident in their abilities, but also anxious to move things on, to show what else they can do besides.

“We wanted it to sound intense and quite dark” smiles Martin. “Most of the songs are about insecurity, but I think there’s a fine line between that and self-pity. ‘Shoot Your Gun’ is the kind of place we’re headed next. It’s got those psychedelic, run-down chords, and it’s not quite so bluesy.

“We wouldn’t like to be tagged as just being a blues band,” he continues. “In blues, everything after a certain point became fixated on the guitar, when before it had been about the voice, the heart and the soul of it. When you listen to ‘Dirt’ by Iggy Pop you can really relate to that primal thing. What we do is personal, and it has that same thread running through it – it’s just more honest that way.”

Heart. Soul. Honesty. These are all key issues when you’re thinking about ‘22-20s’ and the band that made it. As such, while Martin’s keen to stress he thinks ‘22-20s’ is pretty good, as something of a restless spirit, he says it’s the idea of staying on the road and playing the music live that he remains happiest with.

“I’ve not got people I have to stay at home for,” he says, smiling.

“But it’s not all doom and gloom…”

It certainly isn’t. The blues might still get a seat at Martin’s table – but here it’s the 22-20s who run the game.

www.22-20s.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Mental As Anything
It's a pretty horrible one actually. On the Australian Made Tour in, it was about 87' - 88'. There was us, there was Barnsey (Jimmy Barnes), The Models, The Divinyls. You know it was a really fun tour actually, and we were sharing a brass section with The Models and the guy... One of the brass players he was fairly frail, he was quite young and he had a pacemaker and he actually collapsed and died during our set which was rather disturbing. It would be the most memorable but, only because it was so unpleasant. I would have to say that one sticks out for me.

What's your ideal festival line-up?
Gee, that's a hard one. It's pretty good these day's they have guys like Neil Young coming out, and it's good. It shouldn't be a real generational thing. There are still a lot of good musicians that have inspired a lot of the younger bands and I think that it's nice that they put these guys on the bill. It's an economic thing, obviously a lot of people want to see them but, I think it's also good for the younger people to see where a lot of this kinda stuff came from in the first place. I think the bills are pretty good actually.

Also, with the older bands and artists playing at shows it's a big thing for the younger ones because they have been inspired by that performer and seeing them play and being able to play along aside them is a big kick.
Yeah, I think it's great and as long as they can still cut the mustard, I've heard that on some occasions they have been a bit disappointing but, they really have got there acts together these guys if they are still doing it. It's pretty obvious when they aren't. I sort of jokingly say "I'm getting the hang of it now", because I sort of am really, It's taken awhile but, you kinda have to be a bit more professional as you get older about doing it because, you need to be. It's amusing to see the 20yr old guys staggering around drunk on stage, that's kinda entertaining. But, when you get older it's not such a good look. You need to start thinking about being a bit more professional and getting your act together a bit.

The fall of the aging rock star.
Haha Yeah, that's your job. If you want to keep doing it you need to stay reasonably healthy. I swim, I try and swim some laps everyday. That's how I occupy myself on tour. I've got to find out where the pool is otherwise I get a bit twitchy if I don't get to do my laps every day. You start to realize if you don't have your health you don't have anything. It's true of anybody but, particularly for entertainers if you let yourself go, your in trouble.

What's your most favourite artist you have seen at a festival?
I would have to say Roy Orbison. I saw him only a couple of year's before he died. I couldn't believe it. He had already had the open heart surgery and, he had a shocking life the poor guy. He's always been a hero of mine. I actually got to see him, which was a big thrill.

What are your tips for attending a festival?
I don't know. My kids are going to them kind of regularly and they seem to have a good time. I think the main thing is you need to get in early if you want to get ticket's to these things, because they seem to sell out really fast. They are really popular and just enjoy them.