Talking To... Phil Harding
Welcome to the 7th of “Talking To” where FATEA editor, Neil King gets to chat to some of the artists that have impressed
him through their work and releases. This occasional series continues with an interview with Phil Harding
Phil Harding is best known as a producer/sound engineer that has worked with the likes of The Clash, T'Pau, Rick Astley and Depeche Mode, amongst so many others.
He was a sound engineer at PWL, working alongside Stock Aitken and Waterman before forming his own production team with Ian Curnow, a team that acquired themselves quite a reputation working with the multitude of boy bands emerging in the 90s.
With the possible exception of The Clash reference, not a lot there that you think would be of interest to Fatea, and you'ld be right, but Phil Harding has got out from behind the desk and gone mic side, from where he's produced two song laden albums for his own WB Records.
The first was "The 4th Way" with a group called Caro, partly built around Charlie Batchelor and more recently under his own name with "The Story Of Beginners"
Phil Harding seems to have had an interesting career and found an enthusiasm for songs and performance that seem in contrast with his work on the other side of the deck, so I grabbed an opportunity to talk to him about his new album and direction.
#P=Phil Harding #NK=Neil King
#NK You've been on a radio tour to promote your new album "The Story Of Beginners". What was it that tempted you from behind the desk to get in front of the mic?
#P About five years ago, I took on a lecturing job at a college here in Suffolk, Bury St. Edmunds, and I was teaching what I know, production, music technology and so on. I just found the enthusiasm of the students started to rub off on me, to the point where I started getting the music department involved in other aspects of the college.
We started getting involved in the drama shows. There was one student in particular, Charlie Batchelor, who is on the Caro CD you reviewed, we put a band together around her for the drama and that lead to us making the "The 4th Way" album
I guess it was that and working with new lyricist, Mila Bogen, who co-writes on both albums, all the songs on mine and half the songs on Charlie's.
Those two things came together at the same time really. A requirement for songs, which lead to a lot of songs being written.
#NK Which listening to the two albums, back to back, you hear the link as two album of very strong songs.
#P We also work in a sort of Elton John, Bernie Taupin way, in that she writes the lyrics and then sends them to me and I put the music to them. Which from a songwriting perspective is a new way for me to work, I've always sat at a keyboard and worked with a lyricist putting words to the music.
That lead to an enthusiasm for the music and after recording Charlie's album, it was obvious that we had a bunch of songs that weren't going to work with a girl singer. It didn't sound too bad at demo stage with me singing them and it just went on from there.
With the Caro album, Charlie and I had been out gigging to promote that and I was really enjoying that, backing her up on guitar and singing harmony.
#NK Was that the first time you'ld ever gone out as a performer>
#P I hadn't done it since I was a teenager. It was the first time I'd been in a band for a long time. Actually that reminds me, the other thing that lead to the enthusiasm was I joined a local church music group.
I'd traditionally been a keyboard player, but the leader of that group was already the keyboard player and they needed a guitarist. I dusted off one of my old acoustic guitars.
It's like a lot of things, when you start doing something regularly and there's people supporting you…I'd say those things combined to move me to where I am now. It gave me the confidence to move forward on guitar and move forward to where I am now