Music / Interviews
Interview: Sam Whitlock
Anyone familiar with the local scene will be well aware of The Montgomerys; singer / guitar slinger Sam Whitlock has struck out from the band with a solo recording and will be previewing the material at The Golden Lion on October 8th (Thin Wire Fence are there too – so it’s gonna be a blast). You can get a taste of the tunes here and meanwhile let’s find out about the recordings, their birth and more.
Who produced the new songs?
A guy called Phil Davies who runs Room 4 Studios.
is needed now More than ever
Where did you record them?
At Room 4 Studios in East Bristol. It’s a place I’ve used to record a number of different projects over the years because I like how me and Phil work; drums, bass and guitars are recorded live and then a few extra takes for vocals and lead parts.
Who plays on the tunes?
I sing and play all guitars on the EP, there’s my brother in law Liam Smith from a band called Iran Iran playing on drums and Phil Davies played bass. I also brought in Tom and Philo from The Montgomerys to help with backing vocals, Dan Ashby plays banjo on the same track as them and then I wanted female vocals and fiddle on this one track at the end of the EP so Simon and Rebecca from The Rosellys very kindly agreed to lend their talents.
Which is your favourite and why?
There’s 4 tracks on this EP which I purposely intended to sound different from one another, I wanted them all to have their own personality and I think we’ve managed to do that. There’s a good balance between ‘jaunty’ and ‘desolate’ on this EP so my favourite can vary but I think the stand out track is Darker Shade of Blue.
What’s the release date?
Some point this autumn.
Are you going to have a physical product out or just digital?
I’ll keep it digital, however, there are plans for an exclusive behind the scenes making of due for release on VHS for late December.
Who are you biggest influences / inspirations as a songwriter?
I’ve always been so obsessed with playing guitar that I didn’t really start reading lyrics until I started listening to more acoustic music especially Townes Van Zandt. I like how he wrote some really dark & heavy stuff, some light hearted songs and whilst there could be some pretty obscure and ambiguous lyrics they’d all paint a picture in your mind and just fit the music. I’d also been listening to quite a bit of Jay Munly and Sixteen Horse Power around the time of writing these songs.
Do you have plans for a full length LP?
I’d like to at some point. I’d wanna make it bigger than this EP though so it might require me hiring a full gospel choir, dragging some washed up rock guitarist from the 80’s out of retirement and taking at least a decade to record it.
Pix by Mike Whitlock