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musician.ie -
Ian Whitty interview
Interview by Ivan O‘Donoghue
This article was a long time in the making, due entirely to delays at the
musician.ie end. We‘d like to thank Ian for his patience.
Your Lyrics seem to be constructed as poetry, and then put to music.
Indeed, the last track on the album is an unaccompanied recitation. Do you
draw the distinction between Ian the poet and Ian the songwriter?
I write them all as songs rather than poems. They start of life as lyrics in
my head rather then poems. Even the last track on the record was written as
a song, I just never found the right chords for it so I started saying it at
gigs. So I suppose I consider myself a songwriter first and foremost and not
really a poet at all.
The influence of your English studies is apparent in your songs. I‘m
reminded of Hopkins at times. Do you give consideration to iambic
pentameter, alliteration and obscure rhyming schemes when crafting a verse?
Does your song writing incorporate a little science as well as art?
My songwriting tends to be quite haphazard. I tend to scribble random things
down a lot. When I have an idea I tend to sometimes give consideration to
what would be an interesting way of presenting it. Sometimes I write many
verses that I don‘t use. Some songs evolve over a long period of time and
other times they slip out almost fully formed. There doesn‘t seem to be any
rhyme or reason to alot of it. It really depends on the song. Often the
music will dictate the form of the verse as in how many words or syllables
each line will need. I do tend to try to keep the rhyming as interesting as
possible ‘cos I think people have become a little tired of the same old
schemes. I don‘t intentionally bring any science to the table but that said
I do enjoy playing with words. I really like some of the older songs of the
20‘s 30‘s 40‘s and 50‘s because there is a great playfullness of words
apparant in some of them that we seem to have lost in modern songwriting. In
my own songwriting that playing with words or the science of the whole thing
always seems to be secondary to the themes of my songs or my reason for
writing them. I wouldn‘t like for the songs to be driven by style over
content or to be overly clever because thats not really where they come
from.
The last time we saw you perform it was in a small venue and there was an
impressive silence when you sang. It helped to create a very intimate
atmosphere. Do you find that it‘s more difficult to create this sense of
intimacy with a larger audience?
I think that really depends on the venue and the audience. There doesn‘t
tend to be any rule with gigs. I have done some gigs to large audiences that
could as well have been in someone‘s living room because they seemed so
intimate. On the down side of that if for some reason the venue or the
audience or the sound isn‘t lending itself to a good vibe then it can be a
lonely place in a big venue. But this can also be true of smaller gigs.
Maybe it boils down to good rooms and bad rooms. Sometimes as soon as you
walk into a place you‘ll either get a great or uneasy feeling about the gig
to come.
Do you see yourself as strictly a solo artist or would you form a band if
given the opportunity? If so what line up would work best for you? Would you
continue to play guitar?
I think the next record will be a more up tempo affair so maybe it will make
sense to put together a little band around that time. I played with a couple
of people on this last tour and really enjoyed it. I really like the idea of
a jazz combo, a small kit with brushes and an upright bass maybe with some
brass and strings as well. I think what ever the band would be it would have
to be pretty versatile. I don‘t see myself as strictly a solo performer at
all but it is very important to me to be able to do solo gigs and that the
songs stand up wth just me and my guitar. I really enjoy playing guitar so I
don‘t think I‘d give it up and besides my dance routine‘s are a little
rusty.
Will o the wisp has some interesting instrumentation. Voice and guitar
are paramount, but added touches include a rather raspy fiddle, seascape
samples and some very synthetic keyboard lines. Tell us why you selected
such interesting sounds for what is primarily an acoustic folk album?
I wanted to make a folk record but I wanted to differentiate it from other
similar records by using some sounds that are perhaps a little
unconventional. I co-produced it with Steve Fanagan who is a really good man
to think outside of the box. We were both really anxious to make a record
that would stand up to multiple listens that's why we added all the bits and
pieces. When it came to choosing instruments we tended to throw a whole lot
of sounds at the songs and then choose the one‘s that seemed to be working.
On the whole I think it all sits pretty well, we wanted to avoid overdoing
it and really wanted the songs to remain uncluttered.
You are another graduate of the music, management and sound course at
Cork‘s C.S.N. What does the syllabus offer to a nascent performer
songwriter?
I had a really great time at c.s.n. The course gives a really solid
grounding in recording, theory, management and performance. It‘s a very
practical course which I really liked about it. Being immersed in so much
music of all kinds of style‘s was very inspirational. I wrote a lot of songs
whilst I was there. I think anyone starting out would benefit greatly from
the course.
You have lived all over Ireland as well as in Chicago. What factors led
to your decision to base yourself in Cork?
There is a really great music scene in Cork at the moment I think it‘s
experiencing some sort of golden age. Not just for songwriters, the band
scene is really interesting as well. There seems to be great will amongst
musicians in Cork too, a kind of honour amongst thieves. I also really like
the city. It‘s a very true place if that makes any sense.
‘Will o the wisp‘ was a year in the making. It was a home recording. How
did you go about it? Can you tell the gear sluts amongst us about the
equipment you used to make the recording?
It was made over a year in a really relaxed kind of way. Whenever I had some
time off or the inclination I would drive to Steve‘s house in Dublin and we
would potter away at it. I think if you were to add all the days together it
was recorded in around three weeks or something like that. I did one of the
guitar voice takes in Cork with Ray Barron and another two tracks with a
good friend of mine Ruairi O Flaherty in Killarney. I‘m not so adept with
the technical side of things but for the benefit of the gear fetishists I do
know that at different points we used; Cakewalk, Protools, Nuendo and a
portable Roland 8 track (a great toy that one!). Two tracks were recorded to
tape (ADAT) and the rest were recorded to hard drive on various computers.
In terms of microphones I know we used a couple of Neumanns, an AKG C414, an
AKG C1000, an amazing hand made Audiolux and one or two others that I can‘t
recall. We mixed as we went and did the final mixes in Verdi studios in
Killarney with some Protools nymphery. All the guitar voice takes were done
live as we really wanted it to have a cohesive and natural atmosphere.
Most home recordings, including yours, are sent to a professional
mastering house. Why do you think that this remains the one step that cannot
be done outside of a professional facility?
Mastering is such an important part of the record making process, I had
completely underestimated its importance until we mastered Will o the wisp.
It‘s the final step that pulls all the strands together, you can really make
or break a record at the mastering stage. I guess people don‘t want to take
any chances with it so they use established people with good track records
to do it for them. I think as time goes on people working from home studios
will become more able at mastering. It‘s quite a precise thing you kind of
really have to know what you‘re at with it but its fair enough to assume
that it will become less specialised in years to come like all other aspects
of recording.
How are you promoting the album? How has it been received?
I did a tour thing before Christmas to launch the record which went really
well. I‘ve been doing a bunch of press too and have a bit more lined up for
January with another tour in the pipeline for February and March. I think
the gigs are the best promotion really if you‘re doing good shows word of
mouth tends to do a lot of the work. Promotion isn‘t an exact science when
you‘re an independent artist but it seems once you get the ball rolling
things tend to follow on and take on some sort of momentum. I‘m just kind of
really happy that the record is out there now learning how to walk and talk
for its self. I‘m really happy with the way it has been received, people
have been very encouraging about it.
Am I the first person to compare your voice to that of Dean Friedman?
You are indeed. I‘m not aware of the said gentleman's music. I‘ve been
compared to everyone from an adolescent Neil Young to Cindi Lauper!!
It was unfortunate that somebody beat you to the ianwhitty.com domain.
What do you think of your namesake‘s website?
I visited ianwhitty.com
once and was never the same..... |
