Intervju s Billyem Butcherom!!!

Pred Vam je ekskluzivni intervju sa glazbenikom Peteom Parkerom aka Billy Butcherom, koji je prije samo nekoliko dana ''rasturio'' Klub kulture. Pa evo kako je to bilo...

Here you go Mike, hope it works for you. Have a Happy New Year!

1. When I first heard your music, what really stood out was the guitar

work...What do you remember about learning to play?

Kada sam prvi puta čuo tvoju glazbu ono što se stvarno isticalo bila je tvoja svirka ...Čega se možeš sjetiti o učenju sviranja gitare?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

I started out listening and pretended to play along with records. I would grab a broom or anything that would simulate a guitar and move my fingers along with the music because I didn't have a real instrument. When I finally did get a guitar, it was an old Kay cutaway acoustic with three strings on it - a neighbor of ours had given me. Later, a friend of my sisters showed me a twelve bar blues pattern on it. I was maybe 12 years old by then. I would say guitar playing didn't come easy for me. I just knew I wanted to sound like the guys I was listening to and it took a lot of practice to even come close. Still does, for that matter. I've been working on Alvin Lee's I'm Going Home for about thirty years now.

Počeo sam učiti gitaru uz slušanje ploča. Zgrabio bih metlu ili bilo što drugo slično gitari i pravio se kao da sviram jer tada nisam imao pravi instrument. Kada sam konačno dobio gitaru, bila je to stara Kay akustična gitara sa samo tri žice koju mi je dao naš tadašnji susjed. Kasnije, prijatelj moje sestre pokazao mi je osnovne bluz sheme na gitari sa dvanaest žica. Tada sam imao oko 12 godina. Želim kazati da učenje gitare za mene osobno nije bilo lako. Znao sam samo da želim zvučati kao ekipa koju sam slušao i trebalo mi je jako puno vježbanja samo da im se približim. I što se toga tiče, još uvijek mi treba. Radim na I'm Going Home Alvina Leeja već trideset godina.

2. Which artists would you say influenced you at the time you were learning?

Koji su umjetnici za vrijeme učenja utjecali na tebe?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

I was into a lot of different players and bands. My father had a huge record collection with everything from old blues to heavy rock. Sonhouse and Elmore James to Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones... One thing for sure, anything I'd listen to I'd always find myself digging the bluesiest track on the album the most. If I put on 'Machine Head' by Deep Purple, Lazy was my favorite. With Jimi Hendrix, Red House would get the most attention. Later on, Rose Tattoo and AC/DC also played a huge role in my musical world. With those bands I learned about tone.

Slušao sam mnogo različitih bendova i izvođača. Moj otac imao je veliku zbirku ploča od tradicionalnog bluza do teškog rocka. Slušajući od Sonhousea, preko Elmore Jamesa do Janis Joplin i the Rolling Stonesa uvijek su mi odgovarale pjesme koje su imale najviše bluz elemenata. Slušajući 'Machine Head' Deep Purple, Lazy mi je najdraža. Kod Jimi Hendrixa, Red House dobila bi najviše moje pozornosti. Kasnije, Rose Tattoo i AC/DC su također igrali važnu ulogu u mojem glazbenom svijetu. Uz te sam bendove spoznao zvuk.

3. What are your thoughts on the Croatian audiences and how they react to your music?

Što misliš o hrvatskoj publici i kako ona reagira na tvoju glazbu?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

I thought the people we played for totally got it. I mean, we felt appreciated. In Zagreb we finished a Johnny Winter version of Highway 61 and a guy from the crowd shouted out Bony Moronie. I talked to him later and discovered we both had the same 'Captured Live' album as a personal favorite. We were certainly treated very well by everyone we met and would come back anytime.

Mislim da smo se jako svidjeli ljudima pred kojima smo nastupali. Osjetili smo da nas publika jako dobro prihvaća. U Zagrebu smo završili pjesmom Highway 61 Johnnyja Wintera, a netko iz publike viknuo je Bony Moronie. Kasnije sam razgovarao s njim, te sam otkrio da nam je obojici album 'Captured Live' osobno najdraži. Svakako su nas svi jako dobro prihvatili i stoga bi se uvijek rado vratili.

4. Can you tell us something more about your last CD 'Penny Dreadful'?

Možeš li nam reći nešto više o tvojem zadnjem CD-u 'Penny Dreadful'?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

There is a lot of life experience in the music on that album. The songs

come from the heart and I am proud of the way we presented them. We went through a pretty tough time recording the album and at one point had to scrap a large portion of the tracks due to a studio technical failure. I've never been so frustrated than when I was told all of my just completed guitar efforts had an irreparable phantom noise present. It actually ended up being a speaker cabinet handle rattling near the guitar mic that somehow was missed during playback: I had to redo the entire thing. In a studio, I find that trying to keep it simple can be much more laborious than layering and glossing where you can hide things. It's much harder to make one track of guitar sound fat than it is to take multiple guitar tracks and make a fat guitar sound. In the end though, it pretty much sounds like us when we're playing live and that's what we wanted from the start.

Glazba na tom albumu puna je životnih iskustava. Pjesme su došle iz srca i ponosan sam na način na koji ih prezentiramo. Prošli smo prilično teško razdoblje tijekom snimanja albuma jer smo morali puno toga izbaciti iz pjesama zbog tehničkih problema. Nikad nisam bio tako frustriran kao kad su mi rekli da su moje netom snimljene gitarske dionice bile prepune nekih šumova koje nije bilo moguće ispraviti. Kasnije se ispostavilo da je uzrok tome bio lupkanje kućišta zvučnika koji je bio blizu mikrofona za gitaru. Trebao sam snimiti kompletno sve iz početka. Na kraju, spoznao sam da u studiju jednostavnost iziskuje puno više rada i da je teško sakriti greške. Puno je teže snimiti jednu gitarsku liniju i učiniti da zvuči moćno nego snimiti više gitarskih dionica i dobiti isti efekt. Na kraju je zvuk ispao onakav kakav je kad sviramo uživo, a to je uostalom i bila naša želja od početka.

5. The Billy Butcher, musicians are:

The Billy Butcher glazbenici su:

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

I've played with the bassist Rick (The Kid) Thulin since the beginning. That's almost fifteen years now. He's a real bass player. Not some guitarist with a bass, you know? I can't imagine not playing with him. He's a big John Paul Jones fan and has a great blues instinct and flow. Our drummer is Rafe Haines - very heavy hitter with great feel and an ear for the pocket. I've got the best band in the world.

Sa basistom Rickom (The Kid) Thuliom sviram od samog početka. Sada je to već petnaest godina. On je pravi basist, ne neki gitarist na basu, znate. Ne mogu zamisliti da sviram bez njega. Veliki je obožavatelj John Paul Jonesa i ima odličan bluz instinkt i protok. Naš bubnjar je Rafe Haines – vrlo jaki udarač sa odličnim osjećajem i uhom. Imam najbolji bend na svijetu.

6. Tell us little about your favorite tracks on the new album.

Reci nam malo o tebi najdražim pjesmama na novom albumu.

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

Of course I like them all or they wouldn't be on there. The slinky groove of Cocaine Blues is equally exciting to me as is the intensity of Sally Suicide Slide. There's a variety of tempos and rhythms on there. Keeps it interesting end to end I think. I'm very proud of track 13 - 44 Blooze,which is a cover of an old Roosevelt Sykes version of the same song.

Naravno, volim ih sve, jer inače ne bi bile na albumu. Podmukli prizvuk na Cocaine Blues mi je podjednako uzbudljiv kao i žestina Sally Suicide Slide. Tempo i ritmovi se često mijenjaju. Mislim da ih to ih čini zanimljivima od početka do kraja. Posebno sam ponosan na trinaestu stvar 44 Blooze koja je obrada stare verzije iste pjesme u izvedbi Roosevelta Sykesa.

7. The Blues...you say you're not a Blues artist in the truest sensebut it's a significant element. Which Blues/Rock artists have been most influential to you and your music?

Bluz... Kažeš da nisi blues umjetnik u pravom smislu, ali je bluz vrlo važan element tvoje glazbe. Koji su bluz/rock muzičari najviše utjecali na tvoju glazbu?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

Angus Young, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pete Wells, Johnny Winter and Billy Gibbons are at the top of the list. With many, many old school artists like Muddy Waters and Albert King, here are just lots. I love them all. I hate questions like this because I feel like I'm being disrespectful if I don't mention them all. There's just so many. For instance, I've seen Angus Young live at least ten times. Every time I see him it's like a revelation. I walk out empowered. I hope I can do that for people one day. That to me is influence.

Angus Young, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pete Wells, Johnny Winter i Billy Gibbons su pri samom vrhu liste. Tu su naravno i mnogi umjetnici ''stare škole'' kao Muddy Waters i Albert King, i još mnogi drugi. Sve ih volim. Mrzim ovakva pitanja jer se osjećam kao da nemam dovoljno poštovanja ako ih sve ne spomenem. Jednostavno ih je mnogo. Na primjer, vidio sam Angusa Younga uživo barem deset puta. Svaki put ga doživim kao otkrivenje. Izađem osnažen. Nadam se da ću i ja to jednog dana moći učiniti ljudima. To je za mene utjecaj.

8. How do you feel you have incorporated the Blues into your own music?

Kako misliš da si ti ukomponirao blues u svoju glazbu?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

An obvious example is Nobody Loves Me. It's a BB King line and one of my favorites. I just wrote a whole song around his one line because to me it felt like an unfinished story and I knew the ending. Anyway, if what you're playing or saying projects the same feeling you have along to the listener, then you've accomplished what blues is meant to do. Make the listener relate to the story you tell. Playing blues is basically opening your diary for a roomful of people to read.

Očit primjer je Nobody Loves Me. To je B.B. Kingova dionica i meni je jedna od najdražih. Cijelu sam pjesmu napisao oko te dionice jer mi se učinila kao nedovršena priča kojoj ja znam završetak. Kako god, ako ono što sviraš ili govoriš proizvodi isti osjećaj kod tebe i slušatelja, onda si uspio napraviti ono što bi i trebao napraviti. Učiniti da se slušatelj poistovjeti sa pričom koju pokušavaš ispričati. Svirati bluz u osnovi znači otvoriti svoj dnevnik sobi prepunoj ljudi i dopustiti im da ga čitaju.

9. What's ahead for Billy Butcher?

Što je pred Billyem Butcherom?

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

We just perform whenever and wherever we can. This band loves to play for an audience and the goal has always been the big show. In the meantime we'll just take our time and write the next album. When we do have a full album of what we think are great songs we'll put it out. Until then we'll be around playing our guts out.

Mi samo nastupamo gdje god i kad god možemo. Ovaj bend voli svirati za publiku i cilj nam je uvijek bio veliki show. U međuvremenu, uzet ćemo vremena koliko nam treba i napraviti novi album. Kada ćemo imati cijeli album ili pjesme koje će se nama činiti odlične, snimit ćemo ih. Do tada bit ćemo uokolo i svirati dok ne ''krepamo''.

10. At the end say anything you want...

I za kraj, reci što god želiš...

Pete Parker aka Billy Butcher:

Thanks for talking with me. We look forward to playing in Croatia again soon.
Thanks a lot.
Pete

Hvala što ste razgovarali sa mnom. Jedva čekamo da zasviramo u Hrvatskoj ponovo.
Hvala vam puno.
Pete.

Yours bluesy,
Mladen Lončar – Mike