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09 October 2010
Jeff Jepson is a British singer songwriter whose work has previously been featured on Americana UK. On a trip home to London, after a gig, he met our Features Editor Barry Jones heading to the metropolis. The realisation that there was some musical common ground was immediately apparent, and before the trip was over this interview had been arranged. Interview date: 15th December 2004
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Jeff, tell us a bit about your background, where you were born, where you live, what have you been doing, any "real" jobs, any significant travelling which might influence your songwriting etc? What is your musical background? Do you play any other instruments, or do you stay mainly with the guitar? I hear some David Sylvian in your voice range, what have been your main musical influences? I understand that you tend to record at home. What type of set up do you have? How do you get other musicians involved? David Adamick is name-checked on at least two of your albums, what’s his role, how did you end up collaborating with him? Your CD’s, available from jeffjepson.co.uk have some very nice rural photographs on them, have you taken those yourself? Is photography an interest of yours? Are there any musicians, alive or dead, that you would have particularly liked to work with, and why? Life as a singer songwriter can be a tough existence, have you any memories of any really good gigs, and any bad gigs, that you’re prepared to share with us? What are your plans for 2005? What have you been listening to recently? Any recommendations? Many thanks.
I was born in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, and was mainly brought up in the beautiful Isle of Man. However I spent many summers sunning myself in Bootle, followed by a tropical spell in North Wales, and have now endured many a smoky year in London Town. I haven’t done nearly enough “real” jobs for my mother’s liking, but in my time I’ve been a bookseller, shelf stacker, shoe seller, page numberer, customer counter, fridge carrier, chief cook and bottle washer. Everything influences my songwriting, but I’ve travelled significantly to Arizona & Texas (where I saw a snake farm and a swimming pig, neither of which have yet to be immortalised in verse), New York (played a gig in a blizzard), Holland (planning a blizzard gig in New Year), Bulgaria (pre-Glasnost), Italy (ate well).
I don’t have a musical family really, but I heard mountains of pop music, particularly oldies on a Sunday afternoon. I started making music seriously on an electronic Yamaha keyboard when that was what the kids did. When my Ultravox phase waned I discovered the acoustic guitar, The Smiths, John Peel, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, in roughly that order. I’m now rediscovering my shabby keyboard skills, and currently have the technology to make myself sound remotely competent.
I must admit my Ultravox phase coincided with my Japan phase, but I wouldn’t say I ever tried to sound like him, nor anyone else but myself. The first artists whose songs I learnt will have been those listed above; I wanted to play guitar like Johnny Marr, and write lyrics like Leonard Cohen & Bob Dylan. Later I discovered Pixies, Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Neil Young, REM (the mumbly early albums –Reckoning, Murmur, Fables of the Reconstruction), re-discovered the Beatles, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Gillian Welch. In terms of my most recent sound I think the kind of edgy accessibility you find in Elliott Smith and Aimee Mann is what I’m aiming at.
I do indeed record at home. I’ve changed systems so I’ve progressed from the lounge to the bedroom! I now have Pro Tools LE, with an Mbox, a good microphone, a keyboard and a Mac. This is all you need, technophobes, I was once like you! I was in a band called Henry with Dave some years ago, along with his fellow Canadian Scott Lupasko, and my fellow Manxman Martyn Thomas. After Henry, Dave & I collaborated for some time, Dave playing the beautiful fiddly guitar and banjo parts on my CDs. I’m now thoroughly solo but planning a new band in Liverpool (looking for musicians – plug plug); on my latest recordings Martyn plays some lovely drums. Check my website soon for new songs.
Yes I have taken them myself, they are of the beautiful Isle of Man in its various guises. I have an old Pentax camera which is now sadly dying slowly in the cupboard. I’ve been taking photos for years now, and my metier is definitely flowers in close-up. I’m pretty rubbish at anything else.
I’d loved to have been in Studio 2 when Revolver was getting made, to hear magic happening in front of me. And to have been in the Basement with Bob & the Band, to feel that similar camaraderie. And I’d like to have been in the studio when “Simply the Best” was going down, so I could stop it happening.
My first gig with Henry was in a pub called The Holloway Castle in north London. It’s opposite Holloway prison (I think it might be an annexe!), and felt like the bar in Mos Eisley spaceport on the night we “entertained” the broken-nosed locals with our edgy country-rock. The dodgy wiring had fried our PA the first time we tried to play, and it remained dodgy the second time as our gear was plugged in so high up you had to step (or trip) over the cables. This didn’t go down well. It was suggested at one point that we “turn it down or fuck off”, though by the end of the night the same locals hijacked the mics and were singing to us of the hearts they lost in San Francisco. It’s a learning curve.
As I mentioned, I’m trying to get a band together in Liverpool and will probably be there more than in London in the new year; I’m still recording and I’ll be selling my wares at gigs, online and touting it to big men with cigars. As long as I can buy cheese and not live like a tramp I’ll be happy.
Both Streets albums, I think, are masterpieces of urban wit and visual comedy. The new Lambchop double, “Awcmon/Noyoucmon” is more of the same, but we want more don’t we? The Kings of Convenience “Riot on an Empty Street” is very sweet in a Simon & Garfunkel kind of way. Alasdair Roberts’ “Farewell Sorrow” is a melancholy slice of olde worlde intellectual folk. And I listen to Resonance FM, 104.4 – complete strangeness, highly recommended.