Allan Holdsworth Interview at Big Mama (Rome 2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duUgsohjbU4
Here is the complete transcript from the interview, formatted with spell-checked and punctuated original quotes, alongside speaker identification and exact timestamps.
---
- Allan Holdsworth Interview at Big Mama (Rome 2000)
Interviewer: Allan, please describe yourself as a man and as a musician.
Allan Holdsworth: As a matter of [fact], visually at all, I don't seem to be very good at either. I try. It's just like... I try to be, you know, I try to be a good guy, and I try to be a good musician. But you know, music is so huge that, man, any man who says he knows everything about music is not telling the truth. And I know I've made... I came to the conclusion a long time ago that I will never ever know anything about music. You just have to use what knowledge you have at any given moment and use it and use myself to express it as best I can at any given time. Sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's not. So it's just like life, you know.
Interviewer: Here at Big Mama, you play lots of concerts on your tour. Where have you been playing during the past weeks?
Allan Holdsworth: Oh, we started in Japan. We did a week in Japan at Pit Inn, which is a very special place for me because the same promoter and the same people have been bringing us there for 10–15 years to the same club. And we always go in Golden Week, which is a holiday in Japan. And last year was the only year that we skipped a year, but usually we go every year. And we're very proud to go back to that place because the people have taken such great care of us, and they bring us back no matter what, so there's no reason to change, you know. So I always look forward to it; it's a pleasure to go back there.
We flew directly from Japan to Cologne, and we did two days in Cologne. And I don't actually have the itinerary in front of me, so I can't remember exactly where we went, but we did a few gigs in Germany and then we went to... We had the only day off we had in the whole tour: a five-hour drive to Nice. And we played in this nice little club just a little outside Nice, and it was great. The audience was great, they were very receptive to the music, and we had a good time.
Interviewer: Your career started a long time ago. You had a lot of bands. Which one is the first that comes to mind, and why?
Allan Holdsworth: Well, I think the first one I think of... There were a couple before that, but I think the first one that I really think of that had any significance for me was playing with Tempest, when I got the opportunity to work with John Hiseman. And it was a great opportunity for me because it was the first time that I ever got to travel, one of the first times I'd been on an airplane.
I moved from... I was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, and I just did day jobs, you know, regular day jobs. I worked in a bicycle shop, and then I did an apprenticeship for basket weaving, which was a kind of a strange occupation, but you use your hands, so it was good. And then after that, I had the opportunity to move to London through a saxophonist called Ray Warleigh, who was on tour with the Musicians' Union doing clinics. The Musicians' Union used to send out vans to do tours in England, and they came to the town I was working in, which was Sunderland—well, actually, Sunderland is very close to Newcastle, so the thing was in Newcastle. And they had two days, and I went to the first one. Then they invite people the next day if anybody wanted to bring their instruments and jam or sit in with the musicians. So I thought, "Oh, this might be a good opportunity for me," so I did. When I played with the musicians, a few of those people remembered me, including this particular saxophonist, Ray Warleigh. He asked me if I ever wanted the opportunity to move to London, that he had a spare room that I could use.
Interviewer: Is it true the title of the CD comes from a bottle of whisky?
Allan Holdsworth: Well, usually every album that I've done, like *Wardenclyffe Tower* or *Hard Hat Area*, I just take one piece of music and the title for that music... I just pick one of the tunes and use that title for the title of the album. And I usually try to pick the one that has the most interesting qualities, I guess, as a title for an album.
With *The Sixteen Men of Tain*, I'd written this piece of music that was very... I felt it was very festive, and it had this kind of jolly thing, which is unusual for me because usually most of my things are pretty dark, you know, a little more sad or something. But this had a happy, jolly thing to it. And every time I think of jolly, I think of like huge consumptions of alcohol! And a favorite of mine is this very special single malt whisky. On every bottle of Glenmorangie, it says "Handcrafted by the Sixteen Men of Tain." So I just liked the way that that sounded, and it fit that piece of music. So I called that one piece of music "The Sixteen Men of Tain." So when it came to title the album, I could have used any one of the titles of any one of the other tunes, but that one seemed like the best one to use, so I used it. Unfortunately, all the titles of my albums are almost unpronounceable, especially if you go to other countries, but I liked it, so I used it.
Interviewer: Okay, now a little game. Allan, your house is burning. You have time to take out of the fire just three records from your collection. What is your choice?
Allan Holdsworth: My house is on fire? I think my house is on fire anyway! I would take Bartók String Quartets—String Quartet No. 2—Debussy String Quartet, and maybe *Clair de Lune* or the Debussy piece *Canope*, and John Coltrane's *Coltrane's Sound*. Jazz and classical music—a very special kind of jazz, though, John Coltrane.
Interviewer: In 1994, you won a Grammy Award... After that, you moved from a big company to a smaller label, and you are still working with them. Is it so difficult to feel free in your musical choices working with a big company?
Allan Holdsworth: Usually, because the big companies always want to dictate to you what they want you to play. So when I first got signed to Warner Bros., when we did the *Road Games* record, it was really kind of sad because I thought, "Oh, this is a golden opportunity. It's a big label, I can maybe reach a few more people," because they have, obviously, excellent distribution, Warner Bros. But they really didn't want me to do what I wanted to do, so there was no point.
So I had to go back to a smaller label to allow me to do what I wanted to do, because that's the reason I do what I do—because I believe in it, you know? It's what I love. A lot of musicians make choices to play different kinds of music so that they can survive or make money. Luckily for me, I came from a family that didn't really have any money, so I never really had any big desire to earn a lot of money. I mean, probably now as I'm old, you know, I'd like to be rich, but it's never going to happen! But I made that decision a long time ago, you know, that I just wanted to follow my heart. And everything I do is based on that, you know. I just follow my heart—if something feels like that's the right thing to do, that's what I do.
Interviewer: Do you think the internet could be a good way to increase the popularity of your music, or do you have any project involving your music on the web?
Allan Holdsworth: Well, I think it's in the beginning, but I think it could, yeah. I think it's going to help a lot of people, a lot of musicians. Because I know, for example, Gary Husband—who's a drummer that I've worked with for many, many years and is one of the greatest musicians I've ever had the pleasure of working with—is involving himself in that now. He's kind of inspiring me to look in the same direction, you know, to maybe do a little bit more. I'm not very good at self-promotion. I've never been very good at blowing my own trumpet, as they say! So I think the internet could be very good. It's in the beginning, but maybe over the next three or five years, it could be good. Keep my fingers crossed.
Interviewer: Did you ever play in a blues band?
Allan Holdsworth: Not really, but I was interested in the blues in the beginning, you know, because it was one of the simplest forms. I had some leanings into the jazz thing. But yeah, I did for a while, but they weren't really blues bands; they were bands I played in that included blues in the program, you know. But I got fed up with it very quick, because it was just very confining, you know. It's just too simple. I mean, it's not really a put-down, you know, because there are some really great artists that do that, but for me it wasn't enough. I couldn't let it stop there; I felt like I needed to grow.
Interviewer: Is there any other art, except music, you are interested in?
Allan Holdsworth: Yeah, there's quite a few, actually! Brewing is an art.
Interviewer: Brewing?
Allan Holdsworth: Brewing beer is an interesting art form, just because I like it, yeah!
Interviewer: Is it correct to say that if you weren't a musician, you probably would be a pub owner?
Allan Holdsworth: I don't think I'd be a pub owner because I've never earned enough money to own a pub! I could probably be a brewer, you know... I'd like to own a pub, it'd be great, you know. The only thing is that I'd rather be on this side of the bar than the other side!
Interviewer: Allan, thank you very much for the interview.
Allan Holdsworth: Thank you, my pleasure.
