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	Interview with Brian Josh (page 2)
	Pete: It strikes me that, although your stuff goes under the banner "classic rock", there's a lot of influences, very broad influences. Perhaps not punk rock, but there's some classical music influences coming in, a lot of traditional things. What do you listen to now? Bryan: Now, when I'm about, I do actually listen to a lot of classical music. I enjoy listening to Classic FM actually, because I drift off to it on a night, and it wakes me up at about six. I just like that whole feel. It's beautiful. Again it's quite organic sounding as well. The other music, some of the old favourites, the old Floyd stuff and that, Genesis, but Roger Hodgson. I was listening to him a lot recently, that's the guy out of Supertramp, you know. Some of his solo stuff, I've been into that. Jethro Tull. And the Black Manzania, I enjoy listening to that as well. That's a really nice sound. Pete: These guys are all still playing, aren't they. Bryan: Yeah, yeah. It varies really. Sometimes I pick up old mixed tapes that I've done and listen to them. Stuff like the "Twin Peaks" music, that's a really nice song. You know the music soundtrack to that, some really minimalistic beautiful arrangements of songs and tunes on there. That sort of thing. Pete: Do you listen to arrangements like that? Because I think one of the themes of your music is that it evokes a visual response in the mind, as it were, as much as the normal rhythmic ... but presumably you're not coming from that ... I suppose in a sense perhaps you are writing a soundtrack to a movie, because you're halfway up Helvellyn or wherever, and how do you transmit that feeling? Bryan: Well, that's exactly how it works actually. It's when I see something like that, and it's something that blows me away, it can be the sun or it can be an autumnnal day, in the mountains .... Helvellyn or Sca Fell, wherever ... up there somewhere, and it does make me want to put it to music. And that's where the birth of it starts. It's like trying to get that sort of connection. And it would be great, it looks like it's going to be happening, to get the projections, to add a third dimension to the concerts, to put the projections of what's behind the music as well. To give people a broad visual and audio experience. And that's something we're looking into now, with the lights and stuff. So I'm definitely trying to get that organic feeling of nature running alongside the music. ---------------- Pete: Developing the band, was that a straightforward process? How often were you gigging, for instance? Bryan: At first, it was every so often, sometimes two or three a week, but generally every week or two. And it was generally pubs or colleges, that sort of thing. Arts centres. Pete: Locally. Bryan: Yeah. Generally locally, around York, Scarborough, Leeds and wherever. There was nothing really further than that away. Pete: How did you sort out that? Who was booking the gigs? Bryan: I was booking them, generally, from probably the reputation I'd had before from other bands that I'd played in, and people I knew, and people who'd heard us at certain gigs. But everywhere it went it was always very successful. As soon as we started gigging we always filled places, people were always into it, and it rolled from there really. We never had a problem filling a venue up, like the arts centres, stuff like that. It was always a great turnout, we always put a good show on and got a decent PA, and it kind of just rolled itself. Pete: That's something that struck me about your outfit when I first saw you. The light show - a massive rig in a small room, and so on, you were obviously not cutting corners. Bryan: No, I don't think that will ever happen. Pete: Has that always been your philosophy? Bryan: Yeah, absolutely. Quality all the way down the line wherever possible. Just to get the whole thing across properly. You can cut corners and save money, but it doesn't do you any good in the long run. You want to put it out in the best state it can be at that time. Pete: The lights cost money, and so do 2K rigs and so on. How have you handled that? Bryan: Basically all the money we had, we just invested in the rigs, in hiring the rigs and good light shows. Jean has always been a help, putting her hand in her pocket and pulling us out of the shit, she's done that for a long time. But generally, no one has ever got paid, but they're all happy to do it I think. Pete: So that was band policy, was it? Bryan: It was, yeah . Pete: Did you say, "This is how I want to move forward," or was it a co-operative ...? Bryan: Yeah. I said if we cover our overheads, then maybe ... but it all went back into it really, all the money went back into it. Now they're actually getting paid, you know, money, it's quite strange really. Although we have been paid money before, but it's always gone back into paying for other things. We self-financed the first two albums, then licensed them on to record companies. Pete: Even initial gigs require promoting - you say, "We filled places," but that doesn't happen by magic, does it? How did you do that? There's legwork isn't there? Bryan: Yeah, there is. We obviously put posters up here and there but I think it was more word of mouth. We started up, very early on we started a mailing list system - well actually it wasn't early on, it was after the first album we started taking people's names and addresses down. Pete: You used the album in a sense, did you, to focus that? Bryan: Yeah, when it was out things started moving forward rapidly, we just had to get organised. We needed a new record and people were interested in more information on the band, so we started a mailing list system at concerts and stuff like that, and then we opened our website shortly after that. But that as well was word of mouth..... Pete: You self-financed ... tell us a little bit about recording the first album. How long did it take you? Bryan: We had ten days at Fairview studios actually. We borrowed a few thousand quid off Jean, and we just basically had to go in and rush it. It was a very high pressure time. I had to compromise on a lot of takes. I think some of the vocals still are probably a bit dodgy. There's parts that could have been ... we could have had more time mixing ... but we had to do that job in that space of time, and that's how it happened. But there's still a lot of highs in that album. I love that album, I think it's great. Pete: Yeah, absolutely. You have to make compromises. That people don't know about, but you as an artist ... Bryan: Yeah, I mean you've got to draw the line at some point, whatever you're doing .... because you can do a take and you don't know whether you're going to do it differently, or better, or with more and more ... you've kind of just got to say, "Right, that's it, I'm happy with that," to an extent. Which goes with any song, anything you're putting together, you have to compromise. Pete: And that was roughly, what, a year and a half, two years, prior to the last album? Bryan: Well, the second album came after that, "The Spirit of Autumn Past", and then ... yeah, the first two were more or less a year apart. And then the one after that was about a year and a half. Pete: On your first two, what sort of sales did you achieve? Were they all done through gigs? Initially? Bryan: Initially, it was, yeah, it was just gigs, and we sold a thousand in a few months, which amazed me. Because I thought, "I'm never going to shift five hundred of these," ....the first pressing. But they sold really well. Pete: So you covered your costs. Bryan: Oh yeah, it paid for itself straight away, that first one. And then the other ones just kept selling. I don't know how many albums we've sold to be honest, I should find out sometime. But it's definitely thousands now. Pete: How did you do it at gigs, did you have someone bottling? I know Jean is very supportive, was she always ...? Bryan: She was always doing the merchandise, yeah. And if she wasn't there, it was always someone's girlfriend or boyfriend or someone we know doing it. And that's how we did that. Pete: Again like, on the infrastructure of the gig itself, each time I've seen you you've always used the same sound team, the same lighting people. Bryan: Recently we have. The last couple of years. Before that we were messing about with different sound teams. I mean we shall probably have to change it now actually, with the new record deal, it's out of my hands really what we use, they have their own ideas. Pete: One thing that seemed quite significant in the early progress was getting noticed by the Classic Rock Society. --------------------- Bryan: What, the "Wondrous Stories" magazine? Pete: Yeah, how did that happen? Bryan: That was Troy, actually. You know I mentioned Troy earlier on, he's been a friend and quite an influence actually, for the last twelve, thirteen years. And when we recorded the first album, he introduced me to this society, and passed on one of our albums to Martin Hudson, who runs the society, with a note saying, "Listen to this," basically. Martin took notice of it, then he did a review of it, and it got a lot of interest from that, from people who ... because he sells the CDs through his magazine as well. A lot of people bought it due to the review. Then he asked us to do some concerts. We did one and it went down an absolute storm. Pete: At Rotherham? Bryan: Yeah, it was in the Oakwood Centre. Then we did a support for ... it was at the awards night one year. That kind of arena progressive rock band. That's when a lot of people wrote into Cyclops, which is the first record company we signed to, and said, "You've got to listen to these." Apparently he was inundated with people saying, "Get these signed up." Pete: Were these business people or fans? Bryan: Just fans, and people who listen to or buy a lot of Cyclops records. So then I got a phone call from there, and that was our first record deal, which was just great. Their distribution was fantastic, we got albums all over the world, absolutely everywhere. We sold thousands. Pete: They're serious aren't they, they're not beginners. Bryan: Yeah, Cyclops, yeah. The "Wondrous Stories" zine is a fantastic zine. They've had some great concerts over the years as well. Pete: Martin's obviously been supportive, but having said that, it's a tribute to the band, I think. He sent me a copy of the magazine and I was astonished by the number of young bands who are playing, quotation marks, "classic rock". You know, it was reams of reviews ..... It must have been a great thing you were given the award for guitarist, and Heather too, for female vocals ........ ..... Bryan: "Best new band" and something like that ..... yeah, it was, it was fantastic, because people were voting there ..... it's an international magazine as well. It's a great compliment when people who are seriously into music, who listen to music and digest it properly for what it is, found something in 'Mostly Autumn' that they can relate to. It's great. Pete: You've never chased record companies, have you? Bryan: We've never sent one CD to anyone, ever. Pete: Have you ever bothered, ever thought about that, or did you know the score too well? Bryan: I just felt that basically we'd just plough on and put ourselves around, and play wherever we could make new contacts, which we do at concerts anyway, festivals and stuff. It kind of grows. I always felt that if somebody was interested it would come to us, which it has. Pete: How did that happen? Tell us about it. Bryan: With the Cyclops record deal, as I say, that was due to the Classic Rock. We'd been gigging a lot before then, and we did an awards night concert. As I say, everybody phoned in and wrote in, and the guy from the record company got one of our albums. He was very interested and he wanted to sign us up, basically. That was for the first three albums. Then, from there, we were just running forward, we were doing a lot more in Europe and England, going much further afield. When we were signed to Cyclops, their distribution was worldwide. Absolutely. And it went to a lot of magazines, a lot of promoters as well were interested and bought it. It all came through the e-mail to be honest, it was all e-mails. Once we'd got the website and our own e-mail up, that's where all the connections started coming through. We went from there. People enjoyed the music and wanted the band. As simple as that. Pete: Did you do it on a wing and a prayer? Kipping in the trannie? Bryan: God yeah, we did some of that. Long journeys through the night. We had some horrendous driving, with a van and a car, a van and two cars, and backs of trannies, all of us squashed up. Yeah, we've done enough of that. It's different now, it's great, because we get tour buses and everything now. It's completely different. But yeah, we've done all that slog, definitely. Pete: Was the work that you did with Ritchie Blackmore .... you did a few supports didn't you? Bryan: Yeah, we did the full English tour, the first time Blackmore's lot came over here. Pete: Which was last year? Bryan: Last year. And he asked us to do it again this year, and the European stuff. And Scandinavia as well. Pete: Did that help the whole thing move forward, apart from just the experience of it? Bryan: Absolutely. Apart from thousands of people, and selling thousands of CDs, which we have done, we sold bloody loads with him ....that was where Bob Caruthers, who owns the Classic Rock Legend, the record company that we're signed to now - he actually saw us supporting Ritchie in Marlborough down south last year, and he bought the CD. It's his daughters actually, who bought the CD, and he listened to it and he was blown away. Then he started e-mailing me earlier on this year, saying - and I didn't know who he was - just saying, "Do you fancy doing a gig at Shepherds Bush with Uriah Heep and Brian May?" or something like that. And I said, "Well yeah, that would be nice," and then I sent him the third album, and we kept talking, you know ... e-mail, and he was just completely sold on it. He offered, basically to organise us a great gig in the Mean Fiddler, do a DVD, and a record deal. With a lot of money. And he's completely behind it. It's a powerful company, it's great. Pete: It's a fairly new company, isn't it? Bryan: As far as the music side of it, yeah, I think it's only been going a few years maybe, I don't exactly know. But it's a big company, it's a film company as well, part of a huge film company. That's still going on, but he's split it into the record company as well. But he used to do a lot of music years ago, filming bands and stuff. I think he was involved in that. Yeah, a lot of big bands. But it was through the Ritchie Blackmore thing that all that came about. This company is willing to invest half a million over the next couple of years in order to put us on the map. They think it's the best thing they've heard for over twenty years, which is really great for us. Pete: I think that the way that you've handled business aspects of things, on a whole lot of levels, has been really quite extraordinary, because as you know, a lot of musicians just want to play, just want to rock, and they don't realise it's a business as well. And you've kept your head together. How do you manage that? Bryan: I think it's just ignoring everything that goes on around in a way, doing the music naturally. We've never been in fashion particularly, or I suppose out of fashion, whatever, whichever way you look at it. It's always happened naturally with the music, and that's the way it always will happen. And we've just carried on, because it's something I see doing for the rest of my life, I always have. I see a line there, with it progressing, and that's all I've focussed on really. Pete: Do you think the chemistry of the band is pretty good? Bryan: Yeah. It's great, it's very good. It's really, really good now. Very strong line-up, very strong indeed. There's a great group of people, and lots of different characters there. It's like a family in a way - it's great. Pete: There were lots of gigs, from little pub gigs at wherever, the north-east, to big stadiums - tell us a little bit about .... what are your memorable gigs? For whatever reason? Bryan: Some of the most memorable actually are gigs like up here at Blakey, they're really fantastic. ------------------------------ There's some big festivals we've done with big light shows, huge productions, and, after all, we've done some big stuff with thousands and thousands of people. It's hard to pick them out, really. Memorable ones ... they've all been pretty memorable in their own sort of special way. There was an amazing one we did in France last year, it was right on the clifftops overlooking Bordeaux, overlooking the sea, and we had this big stage, huge PA and light show, there was a thousand people there and it was amazing. I think we opened with "The Night Sky", and you could see the stars above the stage ... that was a magic in that. That's the sort of scene I'm well into. That was pretty good. I guess it's the areas you're playing in. There was an amazing one in Ostend actually, in this huge square, where there was just people everywhere, the night was coming down and it was all medieval looking, and it was just a beautiful atmosphere. They've all been great - some of the Blackmore gigs were really fantastic as well. Pete: How's that working - I mean Ritchie Blackmore, one of the great guitarists, how's it work as support to a band like that? Bryan: Well, it's great. Our main function there is to basically warm the atmosphere up for Blackmore's Night to come on ..... using our songs, in a slightly unplugged fashion. We'll do a nice set to get things going, you know, with "Evergreen" and "Eyes of a Forest" and "Steal Away" and some of the Celtic influenced stuff. But it was like, you were all together in it. There was no feeling of, "We're support, get off," ....... It was like a family. We'd go on and play tambourine and stuff, and we'd just have a great time. Because he's well into the medieval sort of ideas. It's a wonderful escape, it's fantastic. The whole atmosphere was like that, and our set was designed ..... it was taking that element of Mostly Autumn and putting it on there. And it worked really well. It was a really great combination, actually. We really enjoyed it. Pete: Are you not inhibited when you do acoustic stuff? Because the full band is like that broad sound, isn't it, it's a big sound. Bryan: Well, obviously you can't wind it on, as it were. No, we took a more organic acoustic angle on it. It's really refreshing to do, as a balance with the other one. Obviously we couldn't get across the size of the sound, but it worked, and I think the fact that it's from the heart ..... it's Mostly Autumn, it's really very heartfelt, very natural. It's not contrived in any way. It still comes across, does that, to the people ..... and apparently it did. People compliment us on it. We still sold hundreds of CDs every night.
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