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Tailspin Interview with Simon Wood. Rockstar. You write your own songs and perform covers, what is your song writing process? How do you choose which songs to cover? We started out doing covers so people would hang around at the gigs, and then slip in one of our own, U2 always went down well and kept people interested. It's hard because you want to build a following of fans that like your music but they won’t stay at the venue for your set if it's all your own stuff and is mediocre quality. We all know that exposure to any music will result in you either liking it or accepting it. Normally you have one or two crowd pleasers and the rest are usually fillers. This is true for nearly everyone unless you have had decades of hits that you can fill a whole set or and the tunes are part of generations of music play. The covers we choose now are for our own personal enjoyment, we rarely do gigs and mainly record sessions now. It doesn't always work out, we tried to do the Thompson Twins song Hold Me Now ‐ what a great tune, and we murdered it and took all the life out of it. it was so depressing. If we can get a good match to the sound of a track we will give it a go. the next one is going to be Radiohead ‐ Just. stay tuned. The writing process is different every time. We try to keep it organic and one way is to jam out to a groove and something will catch our ear. I heard that U2 sometimes do it that way and then they merge all of their jams together in a structured song. Other times I will wake up with a "4am moment" and know exactly what to do. Once I have the bare bone skeleton of a song I will attempt to write some lyrics to go with it. Other times, we will come up with a line and it's so good we will get together and just
punch out a riff or beat until it fits. I received a call from my friend Kam and he said, "Hey I've got a great line for ya, "LONDON NEEDS A HERO AND ITS YOU" I said yeah let's use it. The song is now being considered for the 2012 Olympic song search by BBC radio London. Of course they're not going to choose it but I'm just throwin it out there. Rock on.
Tell us three of your musical heroes and what makes them so special to you. When my parents decided to separate they spent a week with me on Sark in the channel islands, I was left to myself to explore the island and I had borrowed my sisters' cassette tape, "Hue and Cry ‐ Remote" now very dated but captivating music. I played that tape on my walkman over and over and over for a full week day and night. I started to notice song structures, when to let the song breathe, when to punch it in and when to finish it. all because of that tape. I realised you could sing a different melody over the same chords, I realised simple tricks that could be applied to almost any song. So I choose, "Hue and cry" for my first musical hero, and that's why they are so special to me. The second music hero would be "Coyote Shivers". My song, Therapy Session" is an homage to the man. When he toured the London circuit, we were his band. If you have ever enjoyed the film, "Empire Records" with Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry, Renee Zellweger, (to name but a few) you will know that "Berko" is Coyote Shivers and they play their finale song "Sugarhigh" on the roof of the record store, where Renee sings. We were so lucky to have landed those London gigs with Coyote. his attitude still rings true when I jam and I remember being nervous about the sound check for the first gig and he said, "Plug in, get a sound and Go... F**k the soundcheck!" What a total guru.
He was right. It's about passion and delivery only. Nothing else. So he's my second choice. I heard an interesting comment saying that Liam was the sound of oasis yet possibly the most untalented of the group. His delivery and arrogance won the show. My third hero is my friend Tony Monk. Without whom, I would still be rattling around with a crap guitar and a crap amp with a crap sound and a crap technique. His pursuit for the ultimate sound is only matched by his persistent pursuit for scrutinising my work. The world is full of parents pushing their untalented kids on to X factor‐esque shows. The kids are crap but no one has told them, they've been polite. So they never develop or push themswelves. Tony monk is my anchor and he keeps me grounded musicaly. If it's good he'll say so and if it's bad I know he'll tell me. As a talented guitarist he pushes me each time I jam with him. He has a great mind for melodies and is always ready with a guitar solo if needed, Tony loves nothing more than to zap my time by doing take after take after take and then deciding the first one was the best. So I choose Tony Monk as my third, there are some examples of his work on my site, just go to the covers section or in the WHJ tab, that's where we record our jam sessions.
How do you describe your music to people? What image do you think your music conveys? It's not for everyone, infact it took me a long time to build up any fans at all. I remember I sent out a request for feedback to over 2000 songwriters, 777 people downloaded and listened to my music and only one person came back with a comment. It was a guy called Jörgen from Sweden and he is officially my first fan. We still talk to this day. I spent a lot of time singing about weird stuff and dark topics like, wife beating and
washing dishes. This turned out to only drag the music down further and I realised I didn’t really want to listen to it myself, so I tried some upbeat music with the dodgy lyrics and that worked better but it still wasn't what I wanted. check out Hey Amy on the website for an example. Now I aim for accessible punchy rock. My music conveys personal feelings and experiences.
When you were learning guitar and the other instruments that you play, did you learn theory first or did you just pick it up and play what you heard – then learn the theory later?
I quote Ferris Beuller, "Never had one lesson". The Wood family was always very musical, my Grandma ran the church choir, a piano was always being played when I was a kid, we had a lot of church time and west end musicals were frequently sung at home. So this permanent exposure to music rubbed off. I had three drum lessons in Roy Castles garage (by the way check out Ben Castle's site) www.bencastle.com. That gave me enough to understand the key principles of drums but apart from that I use the force. Feeling the rhythm is the only way to play drums, you plan about 4 beats ahead and go for it. As for guitar I am self taught using online tips and friends advice. I am also learning the piano using the same method. How much do you practice now
and what do you consider practice?
Never, I either jam around to find something new or I am recording or warming up. Practice is for pussies, go forth and rock. Listen to Simons music and see his videos at www.tailcast.com throw it out there!
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