CAT On
The Prowl
Jim: Yeah, I think that the whole idea of it…I made it cause I when I played the Club Tent [at Cambridge] before I had an EP out called I am Jim Moray, it was six tracks and after I’d done that the next step I thought was…the idea of folk-rock, like kinda Fairport or Steeleye, I just thought that there are loads of folk-rock bands around but there wasn’t a single one I could go and see where the rock felt like rock to me, because I was just the right age for Brit-pop and me and my friends were proper Brit-pop kids, just the right age. When I was getting into music it Blur versus Oasis and in retrospect it was a really good time to be a kid learning to play the guitar and it inspired loads of people to form bands, that era. And all the folk-rock bands out there still sounded like my dad’s Albion Band records, they hadn’t progressed and so I just thought ‘I’ve got to have something to add to this’ because I consider myself to be a rock fan who likes folk music on the side.
CAT: It’s a shame then that
you didn’t perform Gypsies today.
Jim: I’ll do it tomorrow. Well we had a lot of gear break down and
Gypsies is the one I do when they try to fix the computer. Do you know
what I mean? If the computer breaks I play Gypsies while they’re fiddling
around. So, yeah, there was too much to fit in, unfortunately, today.
CAT: So
where did all this folk influence come from? I hear that you were a
regular visitor at Sidmouth Festival as a child.
Jim: Yeah, I went there every year of my
life, just about. I think there’s one year I haven’t been, or two
maybe. My mum went even when she was eight months pregnant with me, yeah
Sidmouth was a family holiday every year and my dad’s record collection is
basically Pink Floyd and Tubular Bells and pro-rock and The Albion Band, Eliza
Carthy and so on. So, in a way, that’s what I do: prog-rock, art-rock, and
folk.
CAT: So were you never tempted to
go down the’ pop’ route after your Brit-pop experience?
Jim: I did that for a long time, not so much ‘pop’ but
playing in guitar bands with school friends. Me and my best friend from
school were in a band for lots of years, which never had success, and he’s now
my guitar tech, used to be the lead singer in the band and I was the drummer.
And now I’m the singer and he’s just my guitar tech. [laughs]
CAT: It’s great though, to
have friends around you in such a temperamental industry?
Jim: Yeah, I wanna take my mates with
me.
CAT: Does
the darker, more cut-throat side of the industry worry you?
Jim: No, no, cause I’ve got used to it
now, you have to hold your own. I mean, much as it pains me to say it, you
just have to stick up for yourself and have to be a bit cut-throat yourself to
cope with it. But…the pop thing I did for a long time, I’ve been writing
song for a very long time with people and on my own and the folk thing was a
detour at the time but I don’t image leaving…..but I mean just stories-wise,
until I can write a song as good as any of the tracks I do, I’m just going to
sing traditional stuff. When I write a song that’s good enough to go along
side them, I’ll play it. And it still hasn’t happened really! [laughs] I
mean I played some new songs that I’d written today but in my mind they’re set
fillers. It’s still the ballads that get me and it’s still the folk stuff
that gets me excited.
CAT: So,
where do you want to go from here?
Jim: Hmm, dunno, we’ll see. I mean, y’know? There’s always
the thing of…I want to go on doing what I’m doing, I want to get better at doing
what I’m doing. Umm, I want to get better at playing live basically, I like
playing live but it’s very stressful, at the moment.
CAT: It
must be! Do you get nervous before a gig?
Jim: No, I get nervous while I’m
on! I think part of my problem at the moment is that I don’t get nervous
enough and I don’t put enough preparation in, then I hit the stage and then the
fear hits. It’s kinda; ‘oh my God, I don’t know the next verse cause I
never bothered to learn it and I’m coming towards it very, very fast, what am I
going to do!’ I wanna do…I mean, prediction…in a year’s time I wanna do enough
touring between now and next summer that I don’t have to think about it any
more. I’ve got enough stuff behind me to go; ‘right I’m gonna take a year
out, I’m gonna play every day, anybody that’ll have me’. I quite like that
idea of going…I want to get better at what I do and the only way of doing that
will be to play for anybody that will have me. I just wanna play and come
to festivals next year with a bit more of a ‘coping mechanism’ behind
me.
CAT: Are
you looking at another album?
Jim: Yeah, eventually. It’s something I’ve started but I
don’t want to force it out. There’s still lots of stuff inside me and I
don’t want to make another album until it’s worth making because I have to do
something that’s worth doing. I don’t want to do things that I don’t
believe in or that I’m not committed to 100%.
CAT: So do you think the next
album will be more traditional stuff or Jim Moray original?
Jim: The last time was about 80:20
split, I’d say a 60:40 split next time - 60% traditional, 40% own written.
But then again, the own-written songs, I’d like to think will become more
traditional, become more timeless, become more artistic. I want to be a
better singer, a better guitarist, a better writer, a better person all round!
That’s what I want to do for the next year.
CAT: Brilliant. I hope you achieve it. Thank you very much for your time.