Painting © 2004 Loz
Arkle
Website
© Copyright 2000-2011 Alan White - All
Rights Reserved
Site optimised for Microsoft Internet Explorer
John Peel OBE, 1939 - 2004
Early Blues Interview
|
|
Formed in 2008 the duo Sisters in Grease were launched at the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival. The duo, comprising Mike and Andy, are named after a song title, play an original brand of acoustic bottleneck blues. "If
Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson were still around today they'd probably
sound like these guys"
_________________________________________________________________________ Alan: Where did you grow up and what are your first musical memories? Mike: Plastic guitars (?), The Beatles, Shadows, the Kinks and the Who, I guess the early birth of what is now ‘Brit Pop’. I recall listening to dreadfully distorted speakers at a fairground but at the time it was exciting and wonderful. Andy: Being at home with my dad playing guitar and drums (some of the time ironically with Mike!). Both of us are originally from roughly in the same part of the South West Midlands, although of course Mike is now partly based in Liverpool. Alan: Did you come from a musical family – Is there a long musical heritage? Mike: Yes I have a vague recollection of my grandfather being asked to sing an old classic in a relative’s pub. He was a much respected choral tenor in his day.
Andy: As I said there were always instruments in the house and my father was the drummer of eighties rock band Ayto. Alan: Did you always want to become a musician? Mike: Very much so, I had been fascinated by the guitar since early childhood. My first job had been in a music shop and on the first day I left college I applied to go and play with a soul & funk band in Germany and left the country. Andy: Yes very much the same. When it came to select my path into further education it was a very easy choice. I enrolled in a music technology and sound engineering course and have never looked back.
Alan: How did you get started in Music? Mike: The very traditional route of a school friend showing me some chords on an old acoustic guitar. Then there were early bands and even the occasional bit of writing! Andy: Having a guitar and mini keyboard at home and just picking up ideas from what I heard on the radio. I also did get encouragement and help from family members. Alan: What kind of material were you playing in the early days and who were your heroes? Mike: Started off by playing a varied mix of American Folk and British 70’s pop classics. Then along came the likes of Eric Clapton and some incredible Welsh rock bands that regularly played tour dates in the area where I lived. I remember seeing Dai Shell with Sassafras and being completely blown away.
Alan: What first attracted you to the blues and what does the blues mean to you? Mike: My first inroads were playing simple 12 bar sequences in my early bands. Then I began to investigate the sounds of early Rolling Stones, Cream and eventually American artists like Son Seals and Muddy Waters. Later on I went through a fairly major Robert Cray period too. For me blues is a very personal and emotional musical genre. Whether blasted out at high volume or played totally ‘unplugged’ acoustically, it seems to convey an amazing energy. Andy: As I began to learn guitar properly I started going to the British Rhythm and Blues Festival at Colne in Lancashire. That in turn made me aware of the roots of what I had been brought up on. The history was fascinating and very quickly I became completely hooked. Alan: I believe ‘Sisters in Grease’ started at the Colne Great British R&B Festival in 2008, how did that come about?
Both: Very simple really; Just “Woke up one
morning” (to coin a popular phrase), and decided that we had both stood
on the touchline at Colne Festival far too long. We knew that there were
spots available at Jim’s Acoustic Café (that incidentally is where the
early days of the event had begun). I still had the rights to a 90’s
band name so we formed the duo specifically to play the event. At the
time of that festival we had only played one warm up gig together before
but things have mushroomed from there really. Three years later we
returned to headline the Sunday acoustic stage at Colne.
Alan: Who has influenced you most in your music writing and playing? Mike: That’s an incredibly strange one; It honestly is pretty well almost the same as Andy. We both have a great admiration for Tony McPhee (Electric and Acoustic) and Roger Chapman as well as some guys we’ve been lucky enough to play some dates with like Matt Andersen, Larry Miller, Kent DuChaine, Eddie Martin and Paul Jones. We swap albums and when we are in rehearsals if Andy picks out a new favourite guitar lick, I usually identify it straight away. When we went to Tenby Blues Festival recently it was also Andy that was very keen not to miss one of the legends of my youth, Deke Leonard. Andy: Yes, I’d go along with that…. Alan: Looking back on your career so far, what are your fondest memories? Mike: For me personally probably playing to thousands at a festival at Ally Pally and some great European gigs in the 70’s. However to be honest that first year at Colne was pretty special. We had no idea how we would be received and after playing an encore we left the venue buzzing. We walked up the hill into a local Olympic cyclist’s homecoming ceremony. It was both pretty surreal and euphoric.
Alan: What is your favourite instrument? Andy: Guitar. Mike: You mean there are other instruments!? Sorry Andy, of course, the harmonica… Alan: Are there any particular songs that you play that have special meaning to you? Mike: I honestly have to say it’s probably the theme song/anthem ‘Sisters in Grease’. We started to dedicate it to people that were ‘no longer with us’ and for that reason I suppose it’s just gone on from there. One night we were playing at a festival after a particularly busy week in the town of Wotton Basset due to the war in Afghanistan. When we did the dedication I suddenly realised that some of the dead were younger than Andy.... Andy: There’s also a new number which Mike has just written and started playing called ‘Elias’. That is also very deep and atmospheric. Alan: Tell me more about the making of the album ‘Sisters in Grease’ and the writing of the songs; are they self-penned numbers? Andy: We recorded the album during the red hot summer of 2010 just outside Birmingham. It was started the weekend we played the Acoustic Festival of Britain and it was mixed just in time to release at Colne Blues Festival 2010. We had a great engineer and despite using latest recording techniques we managed to keep the process very organic. Mike: It is self-penned indeed (with the odd Trad. Arr. thrown in for good measure). The main objective was to come away with a collection of recordings that conveyed the style and themes of former times but to appeal to a modern audience. I guess that’s where we picked up the comment from Rolling Stones Sessionographer Martin Elliot that if “Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson were alive today…… etc” There may not be many slaves in middle England any more but I guess you get the drift. A large bulk of the album was actually written on a trip to Croatia the year before. For some reason during that whole week everything just kept coming into my head and the pen rarely left my hand. Alan: You recorded a studio version of the Jagger/Richards track ‘Back of My Hand’, are we likely to see it released?
Alan: How do you see the future of blues music? Mike: There has been a huge boost in overall awareness over the last 20 years, especially within the festival circuit and specialist sites like Early Blues. However we have had events cancelled this year. Sisters in Grease and the much travelled Peter Price were billed in for a unique completely acoustic blues event in Manchester. For whatever reason (recession, timing, who knows?), it was called off. (I do understand however that it is by no means the end and that ‘MABS 2013’ will in fact go ahead as planned). Andy: Yes I feel it is good and we are very lucky in the UK to have a pretty vibrant blues scene. The only possible negative is that some artists on that scene have enjoyed an element of success and then for some reason move away from the music style that gave them the break. Also to fill out the program some blues events have become ‘Rock & Blues’ of late. Alan: What are your future plans/gigs/ tours/albums? Both: The future looks very bright if you’re a Sister in Grease... We have most of the material ready for a new album. Over the last few months we have started playing some major venues in the capital and to be honest the exposure in the latest Rolling Stones publication has done us no harm at all. We already have some festival confirmations coming through for summer 2013 and we plan to undertake our most unusual tour schedule yet (watch this space and think outside the box), and of course good ole Colne Blues Festival again (if they’ll have us!?). There are also a few more radio sessions on the agenda. Mike: Must admit it was disappointing that Andy so narrowly missed a 2012 British Blues award nomination for Harmonica – we even appeared on the awards radio show… Maybe this coming year, who knows? Both: So from the ‘Sisters’ we look forward to seeing you all again soon. (Actually we are related – thus the press article earlier this year “When an uncle and nephew became sisters”). And remember, as the song says.... Your mother’s insane and your Sisters in Grease! Alan: Mike and Andy, thank you very much. _________________________________________________________________________
Album available from : _________________________________________________________________________
Return to
Blues Interviews List
|
Andy:
The very beginning was all about simple rock riffs. I suppose initially
heavy metal stuff like AC/DC progressing on to Santana. Then as I
started going to blues gigs and the influence soon rubbed off. 
Andy:
Yes, probably that one for me too. The ‘unplugged’ evenings that we do,
especially on home soil are pretty special. There’s a kind of unique
connection that we achieve by doing those that doesn’t seem to happen as
much when you play real roots blues through a PA system. It is
adventurous to do and but if you work on it and take the gamble it can
be tremendously rewarding. 
Mike:
In a word no, pretty unlikely at this present time. To be quite honest
the commercial implications and licensing would be immense. It has
appeared on a promo sampler and of course the YouTube film on our
channel. Since its existence was mentioned in the latest Rolling Stones
book it has created a massive amount of interest but for now it remains
a ‘Live Only’ possibility.