James Blackshaw - Fingerpicking for dreamlike ecstasy

In just a handful of records, the young English musician has already reached the summit of today's fingerpicking scene. We spoke to him in an exclusive interview, on the occasion of the release of his sixth solo album, "The Cloud Of Unknowing".

Tell me about your beginnings. When (and why) did you start playing this kind of music?

Maybe the triggering event was "The Dance Of Death And Other Plantation Favorites" by John Fahey, which a friend played for me when I was around 16 or 17. At the time I was playing in a couple of bands, and I was truly fascinated by it. I also saw him perform, with Derek Bailey opening, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in 1999, and I was completely spellbound, since up to that point I'd only heard his early work. I fell in love with it. In 2002 I found myself without a band, so one day, on my own, I went back and listened again to the few Fahey records I owned. I loved that raw sound and the idea that so much could be drawn out of a guitar with no other instruments backing it up. It all made sense to me, and so I started playing acoustic guitar, using open tunings and focusing on fingerpicking, in a style I've been developing ever since. I found it truly rewarding to be able to build whole pieces on my own, even if they were bare-bones, minimal, and with little else to support them.

I started playing 12-string just a few months after picking up the 6-string. The first time I got my hands on one, it all felt so natural, and I knew it would suit perfectly the kind of compositions I had in mind to write. The instrument almost seems to play itself. The overtones and harmonics it produces guide the way I play, not the other way around. I wanted it to be exactly like that - I wanted to focus on right-hand technique far more than most guitarists do, and use open tunings, as if I were instead playing a grand piano in a huge hall or in a church. Later on I started getting into Indian music, drone composers and minimalists, who influenced me a great deal.

You're English. Do you think there's a different sensibility in playing this kind of music between the English and the Americans?

I think being English might mean being less interested, or rather, not being as directly influenced by American folk music, blues, country and so on, compared to American guitarists. I appreciate that kind of music, but I don't think I've ever felt fully in tune with it. In fact, European composers have had a far greater influence on me, and even more so, Asian and Middle Eastern music, to give an example.

What about pre-war folk blues? Do you think there's still a blues component in your music?

Haha... like I said above, I don't think so. Personally I don't draw much inspiration from the blues, though that doesn't mean I don't like it at all. Mississippi John Hurt is probably my favorite artist.

What can you tell me about the new fingerpicking era? About artists like Basho-Junghans, Harris Newman, Glenn Jones, Jack Rose? Is there anyone among them you feel you have a particular stylistic affinity with?

I have huge respect for the artists you just mentioned. In fact, I know Jack, and especially Glenn, quite well. They're good people. The way I see it, we almost certainly all got into solo guitar after listening to the same records, especially the Takoma ones, Robbie Basho and John Fahey in particular. Still, I think we're all trying to develop a personal style. Maybe I see the greatest similarities between my technique and Steffan Basho-Junghans'. I think he's great. But again, I also think we're quite different from one another, and this urge to lump us all together isn't always justified - for instance, can you really compare Charlemagne Palestine's piano music to, I don't know, Scott Joplin's piano rags, just because they both play the same instrument unaccompanied?

Fair enough - John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Charlemagne Palestine, Arvo Part, Krzysztof Penderecki - but there's a kind of ascetic religiosity in your music, along the lines of Hindustani classical music and artists like Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Pran Nath and so on. Do you like that kind of music?

Yes, and it influenced me a lot when I started recording, especially the Carnatic music of southern India - Veena music is one of my favorites - but much less so these days. Playing ragas requires truly rigorous discipline, and I have no idea how to play one, let alone the hundreds that exist. So the idea of being a "raga guitarist", as I've heard some people call me, is honestly ridiculous. I think those influences surface in an abstract way in my music. Lately, I've drawn much more inspiration from European composers, but my love for Asian music in general - not just Indian, but also Chinese guzheng music, Japanese and Korean court music, Indonesian gamelan and so on - will almost certainly always have a major influence on my approach to composition.

Do you think your music is psychedelic?

I think psychedelia is tied to a particular school and a specific era of music, and even though I listen to and love a lot of 60s and 70s psych, I don't think my music is especially retro or nostalgic. I can't deny the aesthetic effects that kind of music has had on me, but right now I think I'm heading in new directions. Psychedelia also implies being constantly under the influence of hallucinogens while I play, or imploring listeners to be in order to appreciate my music (ed. note: that's literally what he wrote: "...or I implore the listener to in order to appreciate my music"). And that's not my case! I'd rather describe my music as "ecstatic" - artificially induced mental states and naturally induced dreamlike ecstasy shouldn't be confused with one another!

What's the difference between playing a 6-string and a 12-string? Why do you prefer the twelve-string?

The first time I had the chance to play a 12-string, it felt very natural, and I knew it would suit perfectly the kind of compositions I wanted to write – the instrument almost plays itself... (and he repeats what he said at the end of the first question, ed.)

What role does improvisation play in your way of making music?

I'd say that 99% of my music is composed, so very little is left to improvisation, although that's initially where a lot of what I write starts to take shape. I don't think I'm an improvisation fanatic, and most of the music I love listening to also tends to be the result of composition. I'd say that before recording a piece, the structure can be fairly open to different interpretations – in terms of tempo, repetitions and sometimes melody – but once it's recorded, things tend not to change. It's important for me to rely on very precise structures; the fact that I might then decide to change them at some point is secondary.

Let's talk about your new album "The Cloud Of Unknowing" – why this title?

It's a literary reference to "The Cloud Of Unknowing", a 14th-century Christian mystical text, meant as a sort of "key" to the music itself. I want people to choose whatever meaning feels closest to them – it deals with the conflict between the physical and the metaphysical, with people's constant search for something transcendental or completely inexplicable, in order to make sense of the chaos and beauty our lives are made of.

It seems to me that "The Cloud Of Unknowing" is more optimistic and cheerful than "O True Believer".

Really? I don't think I've ever started working on an album with the intention of making it happy or sad, or dark or light in tone. But, to be honest, I got the opposite impression from you about "The Cloud Of Unknowing". Listening back to it now, it sounds "disturbed", though not necessarily in a negative sense. I don't know. I don't remember ever being particularly happy in my personal life while making an album – I think it's more a matter of personal interpretation! I think feelings like joy and melancholy are always very interrelated anyway, you can't have one without the other, and sometimes you feel both at once. It's a strange grey area of sorts.

It seems to me that the third track, "Clouds Collapse", is very desert-like and bluesy if you like, visionary even.

Actually, that was a studio experiment, an improvisation that I felt could work within the context of the album. I completely set aside my guitar and used a contact microphone, along with some pedals. The harp-like sound you hear over the top is from a kind of European instrument called a harpsichord, but tuned to a scale I'd previously heard in the music of Okinawa, Japan, and Java. I wanted it to sound like some strange, desolate gamelan orchestra, something unsettling, a little bit of chaos in the middle of beauty.

In "Stained Glass Window" you can hear violin arrangements and orchestral sounds. Could your music evolve in that direction?

Yes, I think it could... we'll see!

How has your music changed from "Celeste" to "The Cloud Of Unknowing"?

I think I've found a personal style, and I feel much more comfortable with the instrument. Now I have a very clear musical vision, though that's not necessarily a good or a bad thing in itself. It's hard to be objective, to be honest!

What are your favourite albums, and what have you been listening to lately?

Michael Gordon – “Decasia OST”, Toshi Ichiyanagi – “Opera From The Works of Tadanori Yokoo”, Jozef van Wissem – “A Rose By Any Other Name”, Morio Agata – “Otome no Roman”… And I could mention many more!

(05/07/2007)

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