America: Difference between revisions
From Allan Holdsworth Information Center
Created page with "Reference missing Are you more enchanted with the music environment in America?
Absolutely. It's a much more happening place. The struggle is everywhere -- no matt..." |
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[[ | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitar Player 1982)]]== | ||
Are you more enchanted with the music environment in America?
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]== | ||
Why did you leave the UK. to go to America? | Why did you leave the UK. to go to America?
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)]]== | Basically, it was because I thought I had tried as hard as I could to play what I wanted to play in England, and couldn't really get anywhere. It had actually got to a point where I decided that I wasn't going to be a musician any more. I was just going to get a job, like my father had, in a factory or a music store or something and just play for my own amusement. I'd never stop playing, because I would always have the interest to play, but I don't want to play pop music and I don't want to be a session player; selfishly, I just want to play what I want.
I really didn't expect anything to happen though which is why, before I left England, I was quite prepared to drop out of music completely. Luckily, the bass player in the band at that time, Paul Carmichael, went over to the States and met a girl there who said she could get us some gigs, because people knew who we were. We went over there and were absolutely astounded at the response. Basically, I've never looked back.
It was like a last chance for me, because I definitely knew what would happen to me if I stayed here, which was absolutely zero, so why not try. I did, and this is our third album since we left, so I'm really quite pleased. I love England, I always will, but for me it's just not the place to be for music. It's great for certain people and certain kinds of pop music, but for me it was just impossible. | ||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)]]== | |||
In 1977 I joined Gong which was a potentially interesting writing situation, but they could never stop arguing long enough to orgnaise (sic) anything. We toured a little and then I left. Later that year I played on an album with Jean-Luc Ponty - 'Enigmatic Ocean. In 1978 I played on Bill Bruford's solo albums 'Feels Good To Me' and 'One Of A Kind'. I joined U.K. in '78 which consisted of Bill, John Wetton, Eddie Jobson and myself, one album there. In 1979 I went to Paris with the new trio, and here we are two years later about to make another album. Ultimately I'd like the band to do a couple of albums and establish in the USA: I'm sure we'll have more success over there. | In 1977 I joined Gong which was a potentially interesting writing situation, but they could never stop arguing long enough to orgnaise (sic) anything. We toured a little and then I left. Later that year I played on an album with Jean-Luc Ponty - 'Enigmatic Ocean. In 1978 I played on Bill Bruford's solo albums 'Feels Good To Me' and 'One Of A Kind'. I joined U.K. in '78 which consisted of Bill, John Wetton, Eddie Jobson and myself, one album there. In 1979 I went to Paris with the new trio, and here we are two years later about to make another album. Ultimately I'd like the band to do a couple of albums and establish in the USA: I'm sure we'll have more success over there. | ||
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Despite Allan's success abroad in Japan, America and Europe things are beginning to happen again in the UK, but this hasn't changed his view of the music scene on this side of the Atlantic. "Well there's a huge contrast. I love England and obviously I was born here and my roots are here. A lot of music is very geographical and I always feel that my music still comes from Bradford even though I live in California. So there's that but at the same time there are things that I really don't like about England. The blinker thing and also like things that have happened millions and millions of times it seems like people always have to leave to come back, including anybody you can imagine. So many great things have been invented and thought of in England, like radar, and the guy can't get arrested! And he has to go somewhere else. I mean that's a very typical thing to happen to someone in England and it's a sad thing, I don't really know whose fault it is." | Despite Allan's success abroad in Japan, America and Europe things are beginning to happen again in the UK, but this hasn't changed his view of the music scene on this side of the Atlantic. "Well there's a huge contrast. I love England and obviously I was born here and my roots are here. A lot of music is very geographical and I always feel that my music still comes from Bradford even though I live in California. So there's that but at the same time there are things that I really don't like about England. The blinker thing and also like things that have happened millions and millions of times it seems like people always have to leave to come back, including anybody you can imagine. So many great things have been invented and thought of in England, like radar, and the guy can't get arrested! And he has to go somewhere else. I mean that's a very typical thing to happen to someone in England and it's a sad thing, I don't really know whose fault it is." | ||
==[[Guitarist's Guitarist (Jazz Times 1989)]]== | ==[[Guitarist's Guitarist (Jazz Times 1989)]]== | ||
Holdsworth moved to the sates in 1982, after commuting back and forth briefly. It was a move largely driven by desperation, after he found it almost impossible to work in a great Britain obsessed with punk rock. | Holdsworth moved to the sates in 1982, after commuting back and forth briefly. It was a move largely driven by desperation, after he found it almost impossible to work in a great Britain obsessed with punk rock. | ||
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He’s clearly made the right decision as far as his own career is concerned, because he's remained in exile for almost decade and a half now: “There’s a very different attitude towards musicians that I've noticed from living in both places. And that is - in England - if you want to get anything together with anyone unless there's some money involved almost immediately, you can never get anyone to do anything. They don't seem to have the same commitment to music - they have a commitment to making a living, which everyone has to do, but there are very few musicians that I worked with in London that seemed willing to work together to get something first. Whereas that happens all the time in America, and think that's an important difference. | He’s clearly made the right decision as far as his own career is concerned, because he's remained in exile for almost decade and a half now: “There’s a very different attitude towards musicians that I've noticed from living in both places. And that is - in England - if you want to get anything together with anyone unless there's some money involved almost immediately, you can never get anyone to do anything. They don't seem to have the same commitment to music - they have a commitment to making a living, which everyone has to do, but there are very few musicians that I worked with in London that seemed willing to work together to get something first. Whereas that happens all the time in America, and think that's an important difference. | ||
==[[The Allan Holdsworth Interview! (Jazz Houston 2006)]]== | ==[[The Allan Holdsworth Interview! (Jazz Houston 2006)]]== | ||
MM: Why do you think fusion jazz struggles for an audience in the US but seems to be thriving in Europe and Japan?
AH: I think it turns around. It’ll be good there and bad here and then it’ll switch. When I first came to the US in 1980 we worked a lot in the US but couldn’t get work in the UK. Now it’s switched really. A lot is radio, too. Media doesn’t support it and so there’s no place for people to go and listen to it. There are a few radio stations that play cool stuff, but not many. We fall thru the cracks and holes because what we do isn’t jazz and it’s not rock. But a lot of clubs have closed and that’s had an effect, too. That part shriveled up. | MM: Why do you think fusion jazz struggles for an audience in the US but seems to be thriving in Europe and Japan?
AH: I think it turns around. It’ll be good there and bad here and then it’ll switch. When I first came to the US in 1980 we worked a lot in the US but couldn’t get work in the UK. Now it’s switched really. A lot is radio, too. Media doesn’t support it and so there’s no place for people to go and listen to it. There are a few radio stations that play cool stuff, but not many. We fall thru the cracks and holes because what we do isn’t jazz and it’s not rock. But a lot of clubs have closed and that’s had an effect, too. That part shriveled up. | ||
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==[[The Sixteen Men Of Tain (musired.com 2000, Spanish language)]]== | ==[[The Sixteen Men Of Tain (musired.com 2000, Spanish language)]]== | ||
And also you have a long solo career. Have you had any facilities to record your projects?
It is very difficult to keep record contracts with the type of music that I like. Record companies want to sell millions and, well, with this music it is not probable they will do it.
However, you have always tried to play what you want without letting yourself be influenced by the demands of the record companies ...
Yes, I've played in many groups where people told me what to do and I decided I wanted to do this. Economically, it was a disastrous decision. When I formed my first group with Gary Husband I almost left the music [business] because I did not make enough money and then I met Matt Valy [Mike Varney? Ed.] , who had a column in Guitar Magazine, he found me and showed me all these magazines in which my name appeared and which I had no idea of. So I got a few gigs in California. It was amazing to play in front of ten people in a pub in England, to clubs in California with six or seven hundred people and always full. So I thought it was time to move. That's why I went to the US, for work ... and it's better to avoid rain. It's not that I'm very fond of the beach or any of this, but I like to see the blue sky and the sun from time to time. | And also you have a long solo career. Have you had any facilities to record your projects? | ||
It is very difficult to keep record contracts with the type of music that I like. Record companies want to sell millions and, well, with this music it is not probable they will do it.
However, you have always tried to play what you want without letting yourself be influenced by the demands of the record companies ...
Yes, I've played in many groups where people told me what to do and I decided I wanted to do this. Economically, it was a disastrous decision. When I formed my first group with Gary Husband I almost left the music [business] because I did not make enough money and then I met Matt Valy [Mike Varney? Ed.] , who had a column in Guitar Magazine, he found me and showed me all these magazines in which my name appeared and which I had no idea of. So I got a few gigs in California. It was amazing to play in front of ten people in a pub in England, to clubs in California with six or seven hundred people and always full. So I thought it was time to move. That's why I went to the US, for work ... and it's better to avoid rain. It's not that I'm very fond of the beach or any of this, but I like to see the blue sky and the sun from time to time. | |||
[[Category:Themes]] | [[Category:Themes]] | ||
