Andy Parker
Turn On, Tune in, Drop Off…
Andy Parker started learning guitar in his teens, playing in bands in the pubs and clubs of London. As his interest grew in music, so did his appreciation of the musical process and after gaining some experience in live sound mixing, he set out to become a recording engineer and producer.
Starting at Regent Sounds Studio and TPA Studios in Denmark St, he tape-opped with Martin Moss (engineer responsible for Stewart Copeland’s great drum sound on the first two Police albums), before moving on to Dalston, east London. Here, he recorded reggae bands and learned to mix dubs, before he began to receive the attentions of the next wave of guitar bands to break through – he later toured Europe, surfing the soundboard for several of them, including The Cannibals, The Corndollies and The Popguns, among others.
His own recordings
as guitarist and producer in The Relatives, with Steve Lake (ex-Zounds) were particularly fruitful, with the band achieving deserved recognition in Europe.
However, ill health and exhaustion caused him to leave recording studios:
‘I was burned out after ten years,’ he said recently. “I really needed to catch my breath and decide on the next step…’
For him that took two forms – to return to playing more and to develop a burgeoning interest in painting.
‘The art came out of the latter studio days,’ he laughed, ‘I started off drawing the near-field monitors in the quiet moments, first in outline and then in tone. Big breakthrough!
Andy revived
his musical relationship with Steve Lake and they gigged acoustically, before a motorbike crash in the late ’90s left him with a bad hand injury and no band. He took this as his cue to put his own electric band together playing a bubblegum pop set, under the name Coolwater.
By this time, with his art not only making demands on his time, but also providing him with a regular income, Andy decided to concentrate his music on recording and releasing music on his label, Into The Red Records – London, rather than performing live.
After Coolwater had run its course, he used a set of demos he’d first recorded as rehabilitation after the crash to form his debut CD of guitar instrumentals: Listening at the Keyhole. He recalls:
‘The original idea was to make a very relaxed, laidback album of reggae influenced blues-guitar playing. Instrumental, though – if sax players can make records without vocals, I didn’t see why blues guitarists couldn’t.
It’s funny how all those dub and reggae studio influences, which were never part of my live performance repertoire, came to the surface when they did – how deeply ingrained they had become.
The first album gave me a chance to get back in touch with the incomparable Dawna Lee, who I had first recorded as a teenager and also with Paul ‘Kojak’ Joseph, all-round wonder kid of reggae and his excellent band The Nazarites. The Nazarites drummer, the fabulous Rim Bim I rather under-utilised along with Kojak, on that CD, but at least I can say that they are there. [The second album Tranquille, featured Nazarites sax player, Alex Thomas, as well as future Internationale, Andy Duncan] I hope they’ll give me a second chance!’
After the release
of Tranquille, and a number of personal setbacks, it was another three years before the Englandland project surfaced – a collection of spoken word-with-band recordings.
‘They were very much a mid-point for me between full songs and the previous instrumental releases and followed in the footsteps of many disparate artists that I liked, but never checked in my other recordings: The Bonzos, Hawkwind, Ian Dury and John Cooper Clarke, amongst them.’
However, this enforced break was followed by the double album Midas Touch, the next in the series of his instrumental works.
‘I’ve always written instrumentals,’ he said. ‘So writing and recording a new set is something that has become very natural to me. They aren’t songs-without-vocals, either. They are instrumentals. Midas Touch, has allowed me to develop the ideas that were contained in the first two CDs but also expand my sound away from the format that I used to define those works – I’ve tried to introduce more thematic, soundscape ideas, too.’
2016
For his latest CD, Burn With A Brighter Flame, released as Andy Parker and The Internationales, he teamed up again with reggae master Andy Duncan on bass and with Chris Bihlmaier on keyboards, Pedro Ortiz on percussion and the wonderful Julie Janet Chauffier on vocals set out to make the album.
‘Working in a band again is a whole weight off my mind, I can tell you. Someone else can help with the lifting! Since we first played together, in another project a few years ago, we knew we worked well together and amassed a large body on work that could knit into a great set. That’s obviously when the hard work starts, sorting out the ideas as composer engineer and producer while still trying to give a good performance on the guitar – not just a rendition. Sometimes a tune won’t sit right and when I finally go back to the first ‘outline’ recording, it has so much more swing than where I’ve sat it squarely on the beat. Start again…’
‘Being back again with Andy Duncan (also on Tranquille) has been great – we go back from time, to my early studio. Him and Chris click together really well and generate so many ideas between them. For the album we rowed in Julie Janet to help with some vocals and the ever wonderful Pedro Ortiz on percussion to enhance my efforts.’
Two of the standout tracks
are long. All are over 5m, but Skipping Over Damaged Areas clocks in at nearly 9m 30s and Duncan’s Blues strolls off past 11m 30s. Phew! Why so long?
‘They took a bit of time to settle!. Actually they always were long but we shortened them. It’s been an experience trying to develop the longer work, as it has mostly taken a different route from the other tracks. We can approach the palette differently, if you like. They take you on a journey, that’s the idea: an element of soundscape, riding along on a progression…
‘We’ve kept that cool, bluesy feel but with a latin groove alongside it – it’s still a mood music, stuff that you listen to when you come home and kick your shoes off, but it repays closer listening. It’s probably not march-about-in-boots music, other people do that better! ‘Stoner’ would be one of the categories I’d put it under, but CDBaby doesn’t have that! Play it loud, Play it Proud and Play it through something with a bottom end, not crappy computer speakers!’
