Well, it's that time of the year again and I thought another Q & A feature with Tymon now would make not only a great addition to the site, but also shed some light on upcoming releases, live shows, book appearances & magazine features, etc. which I hope my questions and Tymon's answers cover quite satisfactorily. My thanks to Tymon for kindly agreeing to take part in yet another Q & A feature, and of course to Susan de Muth for again passing on my messages to her husband for me - as always it is very much appreciated. The following questions to Tymon I submitted via email. If such questions seem badly worded, that is due to the fact that I am no writer, or have had any real experience in such interview-type sessions (even if only via email).
TYMONDOGGNET: To begin with, I was wondering how the recording for your planned new full-length album is going, and will we see a release of the album some time this year? Will various members from your stage band The Quikening still be playing on this release? Also, any indication as to what songs you will possibly be recording for this album?
TYMON DOGG: "I will update you on this in the near future but some recording work has started. I will be doing some solo songs and some with the Quikening. I will let the music and the songs dictate the instrumentation, go with what feels and sounds right at the time. On the EP for example, 'Cold Wind Blows' had just a guitar whereas 'Guantanamo' had many instruments..."
TDNET: Filmmaker Merrill Aldighieri has apparently just now completed work on her documentary feature dedicated to your music, titled "9 Lives of Tymon Dogg", with a definite release some time hopefully this year. What are your thoughts on this project, and the lady behind the film, Merrill Aldighieri?
TYMON: "I was really surprised and pleased to see the footage from 1980 in the Hurrah Club in NYC...I had never seen that before and didn't know it existed. Merrill is a brilliant camera person, very easy to work with. She did the filming over a few days and whatever happened - whether it was the 'Mindsweeper' being burnt down the night before we were meant to be filming there or a derelict yard round the back of our flats being suddenly covered in bright red virginia creeper and making a fantastic location - we went along with what happened. The shoot was quite spontaneous with no fixed schedule. As time went on it seemed there was some kind of synchronicity going on - fire on the boat, then the fire brigade gig in Acton and just walking into perfect locations like when we suddenly realized the Stock Exchange prices were being digitalized down the side of a building by a forest of clocks in Docklands when Merrill was filming 'Conscience Money'..."
TDNET: In an August 2007 Q & A piece for the fan site, you said you were planning to do a possible tour of Europe, and that you had also been offered some gigs in Japan; is the European tour or Japanese gigs still on the cards for 2008? Also, are there any specific upcoming festivals you wish to play this year?
TYMON: "I am waiting with a tour until I've got the new material recorded."
TDNET: So far this year, you have played the following three live shows in London (one solo, two with the Quikening):
March 20th, 2008 – Filthy MacNasty's Whiskey Café, London
- (One-off solo session featuring songs from the period 1970 - 1977. Set list included: "Confessions of an English Tea drinker" (1974), "I caught you dancing" (1973), "Johnny is a Wanderer" (1970), "Too small to lead, too big to follow" (1973), "Lose This Skin" (1977), and "Locks and Bolts and Hinges" (1977)).
February 1st, 2008 – Carbon Casino 3, Portobello Green, London - (Tymon and the Quikening played a guest set at Mick Jones's club night - Carbon Casino 3. Tymon himself also played three songs (Junco Partner, Really The Blues, and The Networks Going Down) as the encore with Jones's band Carbon Silicon).
January 25th, 2008 – Half Moon Pub, London
I was wondering what your thoughts were on playing these three past shows?
TYMON: "I enjoyed Filthy's where I did a show that was more or less like I would have done back in 1974 when I was living in Chippenham Road. Most of the people there were totally unaware of those songs; most of them had never been recorded or even performed for a really long time. It was interesting to play them thirty-four years on. Carbon Casino was good fun - Jasper and Muz and Alex T all played great. It was quite eerie to be back in the area where I used to live from 1973 - 1981. Again, it was an off-the-cuff gig really because Mick [Jones] had asked me to take part in the series of gigs he was running there. Half Moon was great because the sound is so good there and the venue has an interesting history - loads of well known people played there over the years - and in the last year because of the energy and vision of the new owner some of that legacy is coming through. He's got a great PA and good attitude. The promoter who organized the night, Klarita, did a good job too...she finds a lot of interesting acts - like Glass Glue, a band she also manages..."
TDNET: You were recently interview by two US writers - Kristofer Engelhardt and Stefan Granados - with regards to two different projects in some way featuring your music. Kristofer Engelhardt interviewed you for a revised 2008 edition of his book 'Beatles Undercover', while Stefan Granados talked to you for his new (or possibly revised) book about The Beatles' Apple Records years (and a planned Shingdig music magazine article feature). Can you tell me a bit more about both interviews?
TYMON: "They were interested in the recordings I did with Apple, who played on them (Paul McCartney and James Taylor, for example) and the story behind why they weren't released..."
TDNET: Have you ever thought about professionally recording and releasing a live album some day?
TYMON: "'Relentless' (Tymon's 1989 LP) was live in that it had no overdubs on it, I recorded it at home and just played the songs, they were all violin and vocals. But yes, that's a good idea to record a stage performance because with a live audience something else is happening and they affect your performance very much. It would be good in the right venue - one that lent itself to good live recording - I don't know where at the moment. You don't want it too sterile and then again you don't want people talking or making too much noise, moving round, getting drinks and stuff. Probably more of a concert-type environment would be best."
TDNET: fRoots magazine editor Ian Anderson interviewed you for October 2007 issue of his magazine. In this article it was mentioned, among other things, that you involved with the following musical projects. I was hoping you would be able to elaborate on these particular moments/events in your life/career. First, working with Malcolm McClaren in the '80's (around the time of Duck Rock)…
TYMON: "Malcolm came looking for me in the early 80s because he wanted to get a new folk band together - about a year or two before the Pogues appeared and Dexy's Midnight Runners were still playing sax. Malcolm's interest in working with me at that time would have sent a message to the music industry that Folk was cool again after no-one daring to go near it. Malcolm liked taking something that wasn't hip and making it hip, but most things disintegrated on the way!"
TDNET: - living in Spain and subsequently working with Enrique Morente -
TYMON: "I lived in Granada for three years from 1996 - 1999. Jose Sanchez was putting together a record to mark the centenary of Garcia Lorca's [Spanish poet] birth. I recorded a track in Enrique Morente's house. I was playing violin and producing Lagartija Nick's contribution. Enrique was meant to be singing on the track and wanted me to teach him how to pronounce the words of a Lorca poem translated into English - when I sang them for him he decided that my version was pretty good and left my voice on it!"
TDNET: - playing a gig (on violin) with Compay Segundo -
TYMON: "This was also due to the double album. It was before 'Buena vista social club' came out so I didn't know who he was. I played the violin on stage in Madrid at his gig there and Robert Wyatt was present - he's a massive Compay Segundo fan - and kept telling me after 'Wow! You've played with Compay Segundo' but I wasn't aware at the time of his stature in Cuban music only that he was an amazing musical talent, to be playing and singing like that in his 80s!"
TDNET: - and prior to 1999, working with Irish singer songwriter Sean Miller -
TYMON: "Sean asked me to produce his first album, I said I'd do it if we could do it in three days and with two electric guitars - a telecaster and an stratocaster. He played telecaster and Jim Walker played stratocaster. We recorded 'The Bitter Lie' in Dublin and it was nominated for several awards the next year along with Van Morrison, Gavin Friday and Paul Brady. It was well received because of Sean's excellent songwriting - we had a brilliant time doing the record. It all came together really well. The engineer, Katherine, everyone worked really well together and we did it in three days, mixed it later, in another studio. Sean and I played some very strange gigs together - like some up the Swiss mountains about ten years ago. I hope we work together again - we had a lot of fun."
TDNET: I don't ever recall reading what model violin/s you own or prefer to use, have you just the two (the wooden one, and the blue electric), or do you use several – I am not a violinist, therefore do not know whether several are needed for someone who plays them in the way you do on stage, or is it more the fact that you need to replace the strings often, and not the violin itself?
TYMON: "My violin is a French one from 1890, so it has survived quite well! It's been very loyal and very strong. It withstood being put in a bonfire when they were filming for 'The Future is Unwritten' in Granada and being bashed about a bit on stage. The blue one is just something I picked up in a shop - a standard electric violin. I like the colour of it...
TDNET: I understand that you are someone who prefers to concentrate on the here and now, rather than the dwelling on one's past. I was wondering therefore, what you future goals might be in terms of playing/recording/writing music? Also, are there any musician/s working today that you like to work with one day, or any musician/s that you would liked to have worked with from the past?
TYMON: "I appreciate musicians in their own right and if I met someone and we worked together it would be to form something different from what either of us had ever done before. So you can't predict or guess who you'll work well with. Sometimes working with people from a very different musical sphere creates something of great value..."
TDNET: Out of the hundred-odd songs you have written so far (that I know of…), which ones are your personal favourites - either to play live to an audience; in terms of sheer song writing; or the songs that mean the most to you in some personal way?
TYMON: "When you write a song it's your personal favourite at the time you're writing it. It's difficult to tie yourself down to one because they are all written to reflect an aspect of your life or feelings at any one time...but a song that you can sing in the moment over a long period of time shows that it has its own universal soul – for example, I am still singing 'Beyond this Frontier' thirty years on because it still seems so relevant to me."
TDNET: Finally, I read on some Internet site (I forget which) over a year or so ago, that Charlie Drake was apparently your second cousin. I've been meaning to ask you for ages now whether this was true or not. So, to clear up this curiosity, was Charlie Drake indeed your second cousin?
TYMON: "Not that I know of! But I'll ask my family..."
