Tullworld.com Martin Barre Interview
What a great experience! It was such a
great pleasure to find out that the powerhouse guitar player behind Jethro
Tull was also a very kind person and willing to answer all of our
questions at great length... Thanks Martin!
Also, we were also given a photopass, so don't miss the full
new page of pictures on Tullworld.com from the June 5th concert at the
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts!
Question:
Obviously, you and Ian Anderson go back very far to the root of the group... Is there any real reason why you, personally have been such a mainstay in Jethro Tull amidst all of the personnel changes through the years?
Answer: I don't know...I really don't, I
mean I do a job, and if you look at Sony, or any company in America, you
can ask the same question to some of these people after the same amount of
years, that they wouldn't know either. If you put it in those terms, you
do a job, and well, you do it adequately. I mean it's probably down to
that, it's nothing special... I never analyzed what I do and think I
better not do that because you know, I don't want to upset the apple cart.
I just do what I do and if it's right, I'm there the next year, and if it's
wrong, I'll be the second to know. The first to know will be everyone
else. There's no mystery, I mean, musicians are traditionally difficult
people because they are immature 
and
they let the sort of things that wouldn't get a look in in another
person's job or business. I mean, you take another parallel in any other
industry, and the sort of partying, the drinking, all these things that musicians
feel obligated to do and make a part of their persona and their job.
Obviously, well, all you do is you do a job and you do it well. So most
musicians are really immature people and that's why they don't last so
long often in a group, it's very disruptive. The person can only get along
for so long because they are just very young and naive. They don't know
how to work with people, they've never had to have a proper job so they
have never figured out you know, I mustn't make that guy angry, because
I've got to work with him tonight. It's just logics really, it's just
being sensible and mature. And in the long run, you either learn the hard
way and you're out of a job or you learn the job as you go along and you
mature.
Q: You took your solo material on tour a few years back, have you ever taken into consideration the possibility of doing a “Martin Barre” tour in the U.S.
A: I have every year, but the economics are fairly difficult in America. Actually I can't afford to do it. I don't want to go on the road and loose money. I can't afford to loose money. And in America, most clubs, which have been the sort of venues I have been looking at...most of the bands play for nothing. And the record companies sponsor you if you like, they are paying for the on the road costs, and at the moment, unless you have a record company that is prepared to do that, you are nowhere. But you go into a club and you say 'i'd like to do a tour' and they say, oh yeah, we'd love to have you here, you'd sell it out, it'd be great. Umm, I'd like 'x' amount of dollars, but they don't have to pay that, because they have a list of people will do it for absolutely nothing. So the logistics don't work at all, and I would dearly like to do it. But the only way is to have outside help, and as soon as I could get that, I'd be in, or tour with another band they way that the Young Dubliners are on the road with us. It's incredibly hard work, you know, it's not an easy gig, but that's their way playing to 2 or 3 thousand people a night. It's really tricky... it's bad enough in Europe or England, but here it's just really hard, whoever you are.
Q: This is obviously something that you enjoy… taking all the aspects from writing to performing / recording into your own hands. Are we going to continue to see Martin Barre solo releases in the future?
A: Yeah, I've always got material. And I do
it in a very simple way, I mean I don't have a proper studio... computers,
everything, you know, a very high tech studio. I have two guys that run it
at the moment who are whiz kids, the do mix records, they do dance stuff,
they do everything. That's they way they have to do it if you want to make
money as a commercial studio. But I don't really go in there, I mean it's
mine and I own it, but I don't know how to work it. In fact, I went in
there one day and I didn't know how to switch the gear on, I couldn't even
find the plug. Honestly, I just said 'this is ridiculous', I never even
thought about it, but I don't even know where the plugs are. I just figure
that what I do, I'm
analog...24 track tape machine, analog, and a bunch of amps, bass
guitar, and I just do everything straight onto tape. And I figure that, I
go to work in the morning, take a cup of coffee and put it on the table,
machine on, disk on, plug the guitar in and tune it up. Really in 5
minutes, I'm recording, but the guys over there, you know they are loading
the computer their and it's a nightmare, I mean it's a total nightmare.
And I've recorded using computer technology, and I do in general find it
distracting, when there's a fault, it's a major fault. When you are doing
analog, the worst thing you can do is accidentally erase something, and
the downside is that it takes you a long time to shuffle through music to
find where you want to be. So it's quite pedantic, where it's, you know
it's there, it's safe. So I have my studio, and that's where I work, but
yes. I will do another album, and I would use both studios, but I will do
the major amounts of work straight to tape and then take it into the
digital studio get all the high tech sounds and production added to it.
Q: Oh so, you have recording ability
at your home as well?
A: Oh yeah, I've got two studios, actually
I've got three. There's a big studio, which is a popular working studio
where big acts come in and record there, a commercial studio. Then I have
my own studio just for me, and then I have a mixing room, which is hired
out.
Q: In the past, you have played some instrumental breaks of your own devising during Tull concerts. Do you think we’ll ever hear something with your own vocals in a Tull setting… say, “A Trick of Memory”?
A: I have tried to sing. The first German
tour, we rehearsed a couple of weeks and I sang for the whole two weeks.
But the first concert was a nightmare... I was using in ears and I
couldn't play my guitar, and I messed up so badly, it was just the worst
hell on earth I've ever experienced, and at the end of it I thought, well
look, I am either going to have to play guitar, or sing...because I sure
as hell can't do both at the same time. So the singing went bye bye, and
um, well I haven't got a good voice, and I think that a voice is something
you learn like an instrument. You can't expect it to sound like Joe
Satriani, and I don't think you can pick up a mic and expect it to sound
like Paul Rodgers. It's something you have to learn, pitch , breathing,
projecting. The problem is that the only way I can learn is doing it for
real, and it's alright if you can learn in private, but if you are
learning in front of an audience it's not so good. Yeah, so no.
Q: A lot of fans are surprised that the legendary Martin Barre has not ventured on the internet… do you plan on ever having a site, or is the Jethro Tull site’s “diary” too much for you to keep up with already?
A: I just bought it from the guy who ran it
as a hobby. They came to me and it was all second hand, but I wasn't
interested, however, Ian told me the day that the name was up for grabs so
I've got it and the guys who I mentioned are running my studio are doing a
website for the studio so I'll get them to set up a website for me so I
can have albums for sale, I really do intend to do it. Yeah, well it works
both ways, I suppose I don't have much time, but I'm not really involved
in the website. I don't even 
have
a computer...I've actually just bought one second hand from one of the
crew and I think once I start using it, you know I've bought one for my
wife and kids, but I have never actually used one myself, so I think once
I start using it that I will get into using it as a means for
communication, but when somebody else is doing it I just never think to do
it, a news page. I mean on the Jethro Tull website to me is more for Ian,
it's more information about Ian and 'official' band information rather
than personal stuff about the band as well. I mean I have not looked at it
for a long time, but I don't think it has much personal information. I'd
rather have my own and feel that it's more personal to me and you know I
could sort of blah on for pages and pages and bore people silly, and if
they don't like it they can log off.
Interview by Patrick Lydon,
June 5, 2002
Tullworld.com
Please feel free to e-mail me at patrick@tullworld.com
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