Metal Discovery: Interview with Jim Davies

DATE OF INTERVIEW:

JIM DAVIES

7th May 2009

METAL DISCOVERY: What would you place in your top three instrumental albums of all time, guitar based or otherwise?

JIM DAVIES: God, there’s not many to choose from, is there! Well, Vai would be first and then, er…you know what, this is one that I only got last week. I did an interview with this Russian woman last week and she said “obviously you’ve heard ‘Jeff’ by Jeff Beck”, and I was like, “I haven’t got a single record by Jeff Beck”. She said “you must have because he’s done that album that’s quite electronic”, and I was gutted when she told me! I thought that was only me who’d done that! And it turns out that he’s done quite an electronic based guitar album, but it was obviously not the same as mine, because mine’s all about the sounds. But it blew me away that album; I never realised that had happened, so I put that next. And then, erm…I’d have to go with…it’s hard to think of another one. Have you ever heard of a guitarist called Blues Saraceno?

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(Jim Davies on his second stint playing with The Prodigy)

"I headlined Reading for God's sake in front of sixty thousand people! But, at the same time, my head was in a completely different place."

PART 3 BELOW

PART 3 ABOVE

Jim Davies - uncredited promo shot, 2008

Photograph supplied by, and used with permission from, Karl Demata at Eleven PR

Interview by Mark Holmes

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

MD: The name rings a bell.

JD: He disappeared, but he did an album called ‘Plaid’ and Dimebag from Pantera used to have a little tattoo on his ankle, a little ‘Plaid’, and he was massively, massively into him. And he’s amazing. I used to have that album; I love that album. So I’ll put that in there as a bit of a weird one because I don’t know if people know it. But I don’t know what happened to him. Amazing guitarist.

MD: I’ll definitely check that out. Obviously you played in two big bands with The Prodigy and Pitchshifter - are there any Jim Davies fans out there that you know of, or do you find your following’s from fans of those two bands?

JD: How do you mean, like people influenced by me?

MD: Kind of people into The Prodigy and Pitchshifter, then following your career after that.

JD: Oh definitely. You mean people into what I’ve done in the past?

MD: Yeah.

JD: Yeah, definitely, and that’s really amazing; I don’t take that for granted. Like I said, I’m a very sort of down-to-earth person. I don’t really think about it too much, but it does blow me away when I’ve bumped into people who’ve said “I’ve got everything you’ve ever done”, and that’s amazing.

MD: Yeah, it must be a big compliment.

JD: Yeah, it is, yeah, and I think there are people who have followed the stuff, and other guitarists who have said they’re influenced by me which is pretty amazing as well because I just do me thing really and don’t really think about it. But it’s nice; very nice.

MD: You left The Prodigy after your second stint in 2004 - has there ever been an offer to rejoin, and is that something you’d ever revisit?

JD: No, no. When I first did it when I was twenty one, it was amazing. I’d come out of university and it was just like, wow, I can’t believe this has happened, like I‘ve joined this band and we’re touring all over the world, and I’m doing Glastonbury when I should’ve been at university. You know, that was amazing but, when I left that, it had obviously done me the world of good because I got to play on those big records and that’s how I joined the next band. When I came back to doing it again in 2002, obviously it was a case of the gigs were the biggest I’ve ever done in my life. I headlined Reading for God's sake in front of sixty thousand people! But, at the same time, my head was in a completely different place. I was thinking, well, hang on a minute, I’ve gone away and done all this stuff, but I’ve ended up being a live guitarist again - I don’t want to be a live guitarist again. And with The Prod, it’s always a glass ceiling - it’s always gonna be the three of them, and you’re gonna be the live guitarist. There’s not an amazing amount of room to record with them. I did my recording which I was cuffed with because I know what Liam’s like, and he’s very closed when it comes to who he lets into his music. So I was chuffed when he let me in as I don’t think many other guitarists have really played there. But when I came back to doing it I just thought, hang on a minute, I’m back to where I was when I was twenty one and live it’s all about the performance side of things, and not about what you’re actually playing. It’s more about jumping around and giving a good performance, which I understand is part of the whole thing but, for me, I just had so many ideas and I sort of felt like I’d done it the first time around. So, I don’t know, I think I’d done everything I could do with those guys and I don’t think I would do it again. I think they’re very happy with who they’ve got now; he’s a great lad and he’s a really good performance based guitarist which is what they need. I was always far more into the studio side of things more than the live side of things. I always felt a bit awkward on stage with them because I always felt I had all these ideas and I was up there playing a bar chord. But, you know, that’s what they needed; they need a performance based guitarist, not someone up there who can go “look, I’ve got this, and I can do this”. But I understand that now. When I was younger though, it was like “look, I can do this, and I can do that”…

MD: I guess it’s kind of a good way of learning restraint in performance…like for this album, I guess, ‘Electronic Guitar’, you said you had restraint in there.

JD: Yeah definitely. But it opened a million doors for me and it’s an amazing thing, but I’m far more proud of this album than the stuff I’ve done with Pitchshifter. But people are always gonna bring it up because it was a big thing.

MD: Yeah, a big band, and they’re back there now.

JD: Exactly, you know, it’s great they’ve had a massive resurgence. That’s amazing and I’m really, really chuffed how that panned out. I know because I’ve been around it, and I know how close it was to not happening, so it’s pretty cool.

MD: I read you did an album with Keith Flint a few years ago…2002...2003...?

JD: Yeah, that’s right.

MD: …and that was never released. What was the nature of that music, and are those recordings ever gonna be released, do you think?

JD: It’s a very long story, but basically we recorded an album with Youth from Killing Joke. I’d just literally finished playing with Pitchshifter, we’d done our last gig…well, what I though was gonna be the last gig…and then went straight into the studio with Keith and we did a whole album’s worth of stuff. But it was all just a bit of a mess really. I think we went in there with Youth and all very closed off, you know, we didn’t have any contact with the record label - they were Polydor, so they weren't quite a very sort of cutting edge label; they just wanted commercial kind of stuff. So they just left us to our own devices, and we just spent three months making a really raw punk album. And it was a really raw punk album! It just got to the point where the A&R man came in after three months and went “uh…what the hell am I gonna do with this…”. He was expecting something that he could put on CD:UK next to Rachel Stevens. It just all went a little bit, “just hang one a minute, what are we trying to do here?” There were too many people involved and it all just sort of combusted. It won’t ever be released, but it’s out there to get. It could’ve been so good. It could’ve been an absolutely amazing album but it just wasn’t done right and it’s a shame.

MD: That sounds cool; that's a shame. Victory Pill - quick question…is that band now defunct or will you be doing more stuff with Victory Pill?

JD: Nah, nah! Victory Pill is just very much my baby now. After all the stuff I’ve done in the past, I just can’t go back to doing…when I did that first Victory Pill album, I just wanted to be really cool with it and say, look, yeah, I’ll go back and do some pub gigs. I don’t need to be playing massive gigs all the time. So I’d done it at really ground level; almost too ground level. We funded it ourselves and it was really, really hard work doing it all yourself. There’s only so much you can do without a big label because you need that; you need someone backing you for tour support and stuff like that. But it was just nice to put out those songs, and we put it out ourselves and I’m really proud of that album, so I’m definitely gonna do another one. We’ve got about half…actually, we’ve got about eight tracks now.

MD: Right, brilliant.

JD: I don’t feel like there’s any rush to do it. It’s not something that’s ever gonna be big. It’s hard for us to play live because it’s all self-funded. You know, it’s frustrating sometimes because I do interviews with people like I have done today from Spain, and they’ve heard about it. I’m not sure it’s even out in Spain! So it’s frustrating because I think it’s a really good album, but I’d rather it was one of those albums that people discover and go “oh, that’s good”.

MD: And is that the first time you’ve sung when you sung for Victory Pill?

JD: Yeah, it is actually. That was a bit of a strange one because I spent a long time trying to find a singer and I couldn’t find a singer and went, what are we looking for? Rowdy English bloke…and I thought, right, I can do that! I did really enjoy it but, at the same time, I found myself really limited because I was trying to do all this guitar stuff and do vocals, and that’s pretty hard work. So, yeah, I’m gonna do it but I’ll do it in my own time. It was a frustrating time because it was a really good album and we just had to deal with a load of absolutely useless record labels, and agents, and managers who were promising you the world and then nothing comes of it. I just got so fed up with it I thought, you know, I don’t want anything to do with this, I’m just gonna do it myself and put it out when I wanna put it out. I’m happy with what I’ve done in the past, and I just wanna put out an album of stuff I like.

MD: Definitely. I heard there’s a remix of the Victory Pill album?

JD: Yeah, we’ve done a little remix EP. There’s about four tracks on there. That’s just like remixes of ‘Freefall’ and ‘King and Country’, stuff like that. I think the new stuff’s gonna be far more electronic so it’s just trying to push it that way a little bit so it’s not too much of a shock! [laughs]

MD: Would you incorporate the ’Electronic Guitar’ sort of stuff in there as well?

JD: No, I think I’ll keep that separate. I think, if anything, it’ll be sparser guitar on the next VP album and more electronic, and just back it off a little bit because I feel like I’ve got a lot of that out my system now.

MD: Cool. You’ve kind of answered my final question then - do you have any plans to record further instrumental albums?

JD: Yes! It’s really inspired me, this album, having the backing from Mascot and people’s responses to it and I’ve done about eight tracks now for the second album.

MD: Brilliant.

JD: And I’ve upped my game a little bit with that. Even though on this first one I held back a little bit, on this one I’m sort of playing a bit more than I did on the last one. A similar sort of thing but pulling out a few more bits of lead. Not shreddy, fast stuff but a little bit more than I did before. So it’s sounding really interesting; it’s sounding really good.

MD: I’ll look forward to hearing that one!

JD: Yeah, yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’m on a bit of a roll at the moment so I just want to keep going really.

MD: Keep going and release more good shit.

JD: Yeah, exactly, I just like writing stuff and if I’ve got the chance to put it out…like I said, with the Victory Pill thing, it was such a mission to find someone to put it out, I was getting so much bollocks from A&R people going “oh yeah, it’s really good; it’s not really what’s going on at the moment though; it’s all about doing this and doing that”. I just thought I don’t want anything to do with any of that and put it out myself…

MD: Good on ya!

JD: …and, obviously, having Mascot pop up and go “this is really good; we’ll put it out”…

MD: Good on them as well!

JD: Yeah, exactly, and I’m really chuffed about that so I hope this album does well because I want them to do another one.

MD: Definitely, I hope so to. Well, thank you very much for your time.

JD: Nah, nah, it’s a pleasure. Sorry I’ve been sort of out and about, it’s just I had to…

MD: No problem! I wouldn’t have even known if you hadn’t said you were at a cash point at one point!

JD: Shit, I know, I’ve just been wandering about!

MD: It’s been very interesting so thank you very much indeed.

JD: Thank you sir!

www.myspace.com/jimdaviesmusic