I'm sat with Howie Payne, former frontman of The Stands, playing alongide Jet and Paul Weller and slots at Glastonbury, as well as forging himself a solo career under his full name of Howard Eliott Payne, supporting the likes of Oasis.
In case anyone missed it, I did a part one some months ago, available here: 'A Little Payne Never Hurt Anyone': The Musical Guide to Howard Eliott Payne http://rockndolestar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/a-little-payne-never-hurt-anyone.html
Howie explains that the coffee shop was once called Coffee Union some years ago, and it was the centre of Liverpool music.
"Everything happened here, literally this is where everything happens, I met my girlfriend here, when it was the coffee union, or the Onion as Edgar used to call it, it all started here like.."
And with that, we begin...
CP: Did you always want to be a musician? was
there a turning point? Was it always the guitar?
HP: I guess there was, when I was little I wanted
to be a long distance lorry driver, and I wanted to be a farmer. Down the line it's always been something independent like.
We had a guitar in our house when I was little, I was
about seven, I think me Dad or someone who worked with me Dad had a guitar that
he’d made himself and a little amplifier that he’d made himself and it was the weight
of a van and me and me mate used to tug it around when were about eight and saying we were gonna start a band. So he got me that but I never learned it and I totally
went off it and we were back and forth to America a lot like.
When I was 14, I started playing the drums on
pots and pans and that and we had a snare drum in our house, don’t know how we
came about it, I think we found it in a skip and someone had left or we’d found
some sticks and were playing on pots and pans and that’s around the same time
Sean started playing the drums, I think I put him onto the drums as I went onto
the guitar so I’d always have a drummer! And there was like a cheap guitar in a
shop window so like when I got my giro like I bought it like an impulse
purchase kind of thing.
I think of the melody and the drums first, I play the
guitar like a drum like.
CP: What was your first ever gig, any fond memories?
HP: The first one! that was with a band called the Magic Clock. I had been playing the guitar for about three months and came back from America and I knew about three chords and met a few lads who wanted to start band like.
When I came back I found that The Farm who were like #1 at the time in the charts, I found their rehearsal rooms and just went and knocked on the door like with ‘how do you get a gig?’ ‘cause I didn't know how bands were formed and stuff, I think they thought I was a bit cheeky like as I was young but I was a bit forward and that, I guess I was - but we got a gig at the Cosmos just down the road, I think it was supporting The Stairs if memory serves and we went and did that and The Farm came down and we ended up getting the support slot for their Spartacus tour, so like my third ever gig was playing places like The Warrington Parr Hall and The Royal Court and stuff and then with another band who were like the Southern Happy Mondays and Stone Roses, that was a mad tour, I was on that as a youngster. Google it!
CP: Do you have a proudest moment as a
musician?
HP: I’m proud of the first gig I did, but
with that first one there’s a bit of arrogance about you cause your young and it's a gig but glad I got up and did it and you think everyone should shut up and listen like haha!
There’s some like, going on infront of an
Oasis crowd with an acoustic guitar was a big ask like, but they took it well,
y’know they are into music like, and they are into tunes, and all I can do is put my
tune over, but it doesn't mean that they’ll stand there in silence – cause they
don’t! (laughs)
CP: Is there any part of your past body of work you still look back on and are still pleased with it so to speak?
HP: all of them like, it’s like, ‘I’m glad I got out of bed on that day’ there’s songs that you write that are connected in some ways, some on like a crest of waves and a swelling pool, some are just if’s and and’s...that makes no sense does it? haha!
CP: Do you have a specific sound in mind for a record before you start recording or play it as it comes?
HP: Both really, there’s an idea of how you want something to sound and as it goes on it’s like trying to remember a dream and trying to explain it to someone, and the more distorted it becomes, you start with a sound and it grows from there and then you get into the studio and the songs take over on it’s own, music’s like a living thing to me, you only own it while it’s inside you, and when you let it out and play it to people, you've got to let it go where it goes and that’s the purpose of it.
CP: Are you currently working with anyone? (producer
etc)
HP: I’m kind of mainly working on my own at
the moment, there’s some things that are gonna be amazing lined up though. I’ve
had a year of like working with Ren Harvieu and Jake Bugg and I did a year of
playing other people’s music, and so decided I wanted to start playing my own
like.
CP: Have you ever wanted to get a band back
together or do you prefer playing solo?
HP: Playing with a band always is better,
cause y’know there’s things you can’t do on your own and a song and stuff will
run away and you can bring it back and I’ve always liked that and there's only so much control you can have when playing.
I’ve always seen myself as a lead guitarist
in the band, I wasn’t out to be the frontman, same with Telefone and The Windmills years
ago, I always fancied myself as Jeff Beck, and ended up being the guy at the
front, I should have tried being the bass player and I’d have ended up as the lead
guitarist!
CP: You released your solo album, Bright
Light Ballads, on your own label, Move City Records, would you do it again for
future releases?
HP: I haven’t really thought about it,
probably though, with Bright Light Ballads, Move City Records was just a name
for facilitating releasing the album like. There were people saying that they
couldn’t play this or that track because it had a banjo on it as it was unheard
of!
If it had come out a year later it would have
had the recognition it deserved, don't get me wrong - people loved the record at the radio and stuff but they thought it was country and too American and maybe it is, but it was more
about “it’s got a banjo on it and a pedal steel guitar on it so we can’t play it”.
Then a few years down the line it’s all the range and with the digital world and stuff and like I tried getting the record into HMV and they want money for that and now it’s a completely different playing field this time around.
Then a few years down the line it’s all the range and with the digital world and stuff and like I tried getting the record into HMV and they want money for that and now it’s a completely different playing field this time around.
CP: have you ever considered putting a band
together consisting of siblings Sean and Candie?
HP: No, haha! Me and Candie do a lot of
work together, me and Sean do as well, seperately. I think with me being the eldest I’d
be the de facto in charge and they won’t have that without a fight like! I really
do want to do a record with Candie, and Sean would probably play on it like but
we’ve never thought of putting a band together and touring, I think we all have
different music tastes and we’re all into our own thing like, I’ve got a gig in
London soon, maybe Candie will get up like, maybe Sean too! Haha! but they've got their own things going on. (Sean Payne recently drummed on Miles Kane's new album)
CP: Are there any newer tracks you're
particularly excited about playing and releasing?
HP: All of them yeah, can’t wait to play them
with a band, with everyone bringing their own sensibilities to them. I will get
a band together for this record and there’s some songs I’m looking forward to
playing a lot of The Stands stuff I haven’t played in years like ‘The Way She
Does’ and ‘All Years Leaving’ with a full band as well as the stuff off of Bright
Light Ballads ‘cause I’ve only ever played them on my own and I’m looking
forward to a band getting on it.
CP: Is it true that The Stairs were going to
reform - and you and Sean we’re going to be 2/3rds of it?
HP: Nah that's true, I was never in The Stairs, neither
was Sean. Though he was in The Isrites. When The Stairs split they kind of
became The Isrites and then I think Russell (Pritchard, Zutons bassist) joined
and then that formed into The Big Kids.
I think The Big Kids was just a
continuation of The Stairs, as were The Joneses, we played some Stairs and Isrites songs, y’know but that’s Edgar’s thing
and it’s the same with me and The Stands and Bright Light Ballads, it’s all one
continuation, just different sensibilities amongst players with the material under a different
moniker or with a different label on it, that’s how I see it...
CP: A few people wanted me to ask - have you still got the Gretsch Country Gent? (used in promo videos for 'I Need You' & 'Here She Comes Again')
HP: Yeah I still have it! it's been for sale for about six years haha! Jake Bugg came closest to buying it like! It's a great guitar and it's expensive and hasn't come out the case for two years but I'll probably use it when I go on tour with the band, I want to get a few Gibson's as well.
The question leads off into a story.
"Y'know people have asked me if I'm ever going to get The Stands back together, and like it's hard 'cause there was that many people in The Stands, I just became the frontman of that 'cause that I needed to put a group together.
Stevie (Pilgrim, Stands drummer) was only in the band for a year to the day, it was in his contract and he said he'd do it for a year and he did. He plays on Horse Fabulous because he'd left by then and we needed a session drummer so we just hired Stevie back to to play the parts, so he's on Horse Fabulous and he's off doing whatever he wants to be with whoever like (Pilgrim is currently Paul Weller's live drummer)
I don't know what Luke (Thomson, Stands guitarist) is up to these day, I know Deano (Ravera, Stands bassist) is in a Jazz band called Marley Chingus which is what he wanted to do originally after his rock n' roll years and he did it for a year and a half, then there's Graeme (Robinson, 2nd Stands drummer) who everyone forgets about haha! then there's Paul Molloy and Martyn Campbell who could have been in The Stands, but he was playing bass with Richard Ashcroft at the time and to be honest he was the only one who ever really contributed to The Stands like, with 'why not try it this way?' to be honest, the closest I've come to a band making an album was Bright Light Ballads, 'cause Deano was coming up with his own basslines on the stand up bass and I'm not gonna tell a steel lap guitarist how to play it!"
With that concluded, I tell him that when I first set out interviewing people, my main three were Lee Mavers, Edgar Jones and Howie himself, and that now I'd done all three and I joke about now being able to retire at 21.
"pick another three man!"
We pack up and head down Bold Street as Howie is off to meet sister Candie and says to catch him at his next gigs and to keep in touch as I was off home with 'Horse Fabulous' in my ears.
"pick another three man!"
We pack up and head down Bold Street as Howie is off to meet sister Candie and says to catch him at his next gigs and to keep in touch as I was off home with 'Horse Fabulous' in my ears.
Nice one, Howie.
@rocknrollparksy
Part One: 'A Little Payne Never Hurt Anyone': The Musical Guide to Howard Eliott Payne http://rockndolestar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/a-little-payne-never-hurt-anyone.html
You can keep up with Howie online on sites below:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HowiePayneMusic
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HowiePayneMusic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/howiepaynemusic
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/howiepayne
Thanks for reading!
@rocknrollparksy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HowiePayneMusic
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HowiePayneMusic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/howiepaynemusic
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/howiepayne
Thanks for reading!
@rocknrollparksy
