Chaotic Riffs Magazine - Issue 10
Cover |Pages
Credits
Contents
Talkback
Jamie
Mallender
David Reece
Writings On
The Wall
Tension Head
Ross The
Boss
KISS TRIBUTE
CD Reviews
Colby Veil's
Freakshow
An Interview with Ex-Black Sabbath Bassist Jamie Mallender
|
JROCK:
I understand that you're from Shetfield, England....What
was it like growing up there? |
 Jamie:
Sheffield
is one of the biggest cities in the UK.
It used to be a major player in many industries - particularly the
steel industry. Unfortunately, along
came Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government, who took on the
working classes and won! She destroyed
the unions, sold our nationalized industries and imported inferior
products instead of supporting our own industry.
So I grew up in a proud but struggling city of change.
That's the way of the world I guess, but it's sad to think
that our young people are commuting to the city centre to go work in
a call centre, rather than stamping "Made In Sheffield" on something
made of steel! A lot of great music has
come out of Sheffield over the years, and that was very inspiring to
be around. It made me feel that I could
make it too. |
|
JROCK:
Who were the bands/musicians
who had the greatest influence on you? |
| Jamie: Bands: Queen, Beatles, Mr Big, Living Colour, Van Halen, Slade, Sweet, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin. Musicians: John Deacon, Billy Sheehan, Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Bootsy Collins, Stu Hamm, Victor Wooten, Glenn Hughes, Paul McCartney, Phil Lynott, Jim Lea, Geezer Butler, Doug Wimbish, Neil Murray. |
|
JROCK:
Do you remember what was the point
in your life when you knew you wanted to become a professional
musician? |
|
JROCK:
Why did you choose the Bass
Guitar as your instrument of choice? |
| Jamie:
I
wanted to be in a band, so I joined a local band that needed a
singer + 2nd guitarist/keyboard player.
One day the bass player failed to show up for rehearsal, so I had a
go with his gear, which was in our practice room, mainly because I
had never tried it before - and I loved it!
I knew then what I wanted to play. |
|
JROCK:
Most people first came to know you
Jamie as the Bass Player in Ex Black Sabbath Singer Tony Martin's
solo band....Could you please tell the readers of Chaotic Riffs
Magazine how you first met Tony Martin and got the opportunity to
join his solo band? |
|
Jamie: I
played bass in a short-lived signed band called Bailey's Comet.
I was in 2 minds about joining until I heard that Tony Martin
was joining on vocals. When the band
disintegrated, Tony said he would like to work with Danny Needham
(drums) and myself again, when he set up his own solo band.
Sure enough, a year or two later, we both got the call. |
|
JROCK:
Tony Martin is a fantastic
Singer....Do you feel that a lot of the work he did while he was in
Black Sabbath has gone ignored and unappreciated by a lot of Rock
fans and critics? |
Jamie:
I
do. I think it's always incredibly hard
for a guy to join a very famous band as vocalist.
Tony did an excellent job with Sabbath and the material he
recorded with them is outstanding. When
Ozzy returned to Sabbath, Tony was disenchanted with the music
 business, so did not launch a solo career for many years - whereas
when Ronnie James Dio left them he immediately started Dio - which
kept him in the public eye, so that the material he recorded with
Sabbath was not so easily forgotten.
Also, the marketing machine has no reason to promote anything that
Tony did with Sabbath in the past. The
focus is on Ozzy era material only. I'm
not suggesting that there is anything sinister about this, it's just
the way things are. A band that gets
their original singer back are not going to spend any time promoting
sections of their back catalogue that had a different singer. |
|
JROCK:
Tony Martin recently canceled
a major tour he had planned which is why you decided to release your
debut solo release Return To Bass...My question is are you still
currently a member of Tony's band and is there any chance the tour
that was cancelled may get rescheduled? |
| Jamie:
I
have been asked to perform with Tony at Hammerfest in the UK this
year - so I guess I'm still in the band and I'm happy that that's
the case. The tour that was planned will
not be rescheduled. If we visit the USA
and Canada in the future, it will be a whole new tour with a
different promoter. Tony had no choice
but to cancel the tour, it wasn't his fault - but I can't say any
more about it than that. I'm not aware
of any other touring plans at the moment. |
|
JROCK:
Now let's talk a little bit
about your fantastic, new solo album Return To Bass.......Could you
please explain the title considering the fact that you played all
the instruments on the album as well as the Bass Guitar? |
Jamie:
At
the time of recording, I had been going through a bit of a loss of
direction. Whilst not on the road with
Tony, I found it difficult to find work back home.
I always thought that if you worked for a big name artist,
then everyone else would want to work
 with you.
But local acts would not work with me when I was off the road
because they didn't want me to abandon them as soon as another Tony
Martin tour took place. I needed to earn
money, so I was working solo in pubs and clubs - playing guitar and
keyboards and sometimes bass, and singing a variety of material.
I hated it. I also started
recording my own songs, because I had already decided I wanted to
record an album of my own. The bass
parts went down really quickly, as did most of the other
instruments, and then I spent weeks trying to get the vocals good
enough. When I did get offers to play in
bands - the job was always playing guitar - in fact, I played a few
gigs for 60's legend Dave Berry (Crying Game) on guitar.
Then a record label who listened to my demos, suggested that
I should make an instrumental record for them, and asked if I had
ever thought about making that kind of music.
It had never occurred to me - I never really considered
myself to be in that sort of league. But
I had a go at it and loved it. I never
looked back. I was back to really
focusing on the bass, and really enjoying playing.
I realized that whilst it's good to play other things, and it
can make you a better musician, it's also important to play to your
strengths! I love being the bass player,
it's nice to have a sing now and then, and I really enjoy playing
guitar - but it felt great to pick up the bass properly again.
So the album title marks a moment of clarity for me, as well
as lending itself to the loose sci-fi theme of the album. |
|
JROCK:
What was it like for you to
play all the instruments on the album? |
|
Jamie:
Very
rewarding, because it was quite a challenge.
All along I kept thinking I was going to have to bring a
guitarist in to take care of the solos, but whilst none of the solos
are quite Steve Vai, I'm pretty happy with what I played.
I studied Buddy Whittington's style and learned an awful lot
from that. In a sense, playing
everything myself kept the record very individual.
Nobody diluted my ideas or tried to change my direction. |
|
JROCK:
What would you say was the
most difficult part about the recording of the album? |
|
Jamie:
The
music was all very enjoyable to record.
I was just making a record that I liked, not trying to fit into any
category, just being creative and loving it.
I'm pretty competent at the recording process, but I wish I'd
had help with the mixing and mastering.
I'm learning as I go, but I feel that I still have a lot to learn.
I kept ringing my friend, James Jayawardena at Steelworks
studio in Sheffield for advice, who was very patient with me! |
|
JROCK:
Another thing I really loved
about your album is the song titles...I mean how did you come up
with such interesting titles as "The Amazing Adventures of an
Interstellar Glam Hippy"? |
| Jamie: Well, when I was a kid I was mad on science fiction and super hero stuff and I still am! Whilst recording that track, the overall sound of it made me very nostalgic and put me in mind of the dreams I had when I was young. I used to dream of being like Luke Skywalker, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon - you know, adventuring through the universe rescuing Princesses and saving the galaxy from evil. I've always been a bit of a hippy, and I also used to really, really want to be a glam rock mega star - but of course I was born at the wrong time for that, so that title was influenced by those things. |
|
JROCK:
Do you have any plans to tour
behind the new CD? |
| Jamie: That would be great, but I don't really think it's possible for me to tour properly with it at the moment. I need more publicity first, to let everyone know about the album. If the bass guitar magazines give me good reviews and maybe get behind me with a few articles, it may become possible. But for an independent artist, all you can do is keep asking them and hope that they listen. |
|
JROCK:
If you were to tour behind
the album, would you put together a band and do a full concert or
would you instead maybe hold clinic type events? |
|
Jamie:
If
I could put together a dream band, I'd have Steve Stevens, Richie
Kotzen, Roger Taylor and Spike Edney, but that's me dreaming again!
Clinic events would be perfect, and might be a great stepping
stone to doing bigger events. I endorse
Hartke amps, Rotosound strings, Danelectro pedals and Ernie Ball
Musicman. I could promote all of those
things and also push my album. But
whilst those companies have all been very good to me, it's unlikely
they will consider me famous enough to work with on such a scale at
this point. |
|
JROCK:
What has been the reaction to
the new CD from fans so far? |
|
Jamie:
I've
had absolutely rave reviews from the people who have bought it.
The e-mails I'm getting about it are most flattering.
People particularly like the diversity of styles - which is
one of the things I thought would hold the album back. |
|
JROCK:
What do you remember most
about the recording sessions for Return To Bass? |
|
Jamie:
The
excitement of it. Exploring new
territories musically and learning a lot of new things.
It was an adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed. |
|
JROCK:
Were all the songs on Return To Bass
written specifically for this album or were there any that were old
riffs that had been laying around for a few years? |
|
Jamie:
There
is the odd lick that is old, but other than that - everything is
new. |
|
Jamie:
I
think so, I enjoyed it very much, so I would very much like to do it
again, there's a lot of new ideas in my head that need recording. |
|
JROCK:
What should fans expect from Jamie
Mallendar in the year 2010 and the year to come? |
 Jamie:
I'll
be appearing at Hammerfest in the UK with Tony Martin on 12th March.
At this point, that's the only show I can confirm with Tony.
I will be playing up and down the UK with an absolutely
fabulous covers band called Eaglesque.
We perform a lot of Eagles classics, and a lot of other southern
country rock mixed in. We also do an
Eagles tribute show and a 60's show. I
will be doing some more recording work, some session work, and
looking to continue trying to gain publicity for Return To Bass
without the benefit of having a management team or record company
helping me in any capacity. |
|
JROCK:
Anything else that you'd like
to say to your fans Jamie? |
| Jamie:
Yes.
I'd just like to say thank you to all the people who have
taken a chance on a nobody and bought my album.
Thank you for all the wonderful feedback and thank you to the
magazines, websites and radio stations who have been kind enough to
review it and play it. This has been a
very positive experience so far, and it has been the fans that have
made it possible, I've done this without any help from the
"industry" at all. Which is the way I
wanted it. Can you imagine what a big
label would do with my album? I doesn't
bear thinking about. www.myspace.com/jamiemallendersoloartist |
>
