Joanne Shaw Taylor Gets Back To Basics On 'The Dirty Truth'
Friday, 26 September 2014
Written by Simon Ramsay
Photo: Rob Monk
Since being discovered by Eurythmics man Dave Stewart at the tender age of 16, Joanne Shaw Taylor's cracking guitar skills, husky vocals and impressive songwriting have marked her out as one of the best blues artists of the current generation.
Her 2009 debut album - 'White Sugar' - was a display of that talent, while follow up records and passionate live performances have highlighted her deep-rooted feel for the genre. We caught up with Taylor ahead of her November UK tour to discuss her superb new album, 'The Dirty Truth’.
'The Dirty Truth' is your fourth album, and I believe you wanted it to be a more ‘stripped down’ affair. Why was that?
I've always said I was going to do a different album every time. I didn't want people to get used to expecting a certain thing, or expect me to get more rocky, or even expect me to do 'White Sugar' or ‘Diamonds In The Dirt' again. The reason for going more stripped back was I just started listening to more of the stuff I was listening to when I recorded 'White Sugar' - a lot of blues and Ruf stuff. That said, I don't think it turned out like 'White Sugar' because that was five years ago and maybe I'm just writing different songs now. But certainly the vibe was more stripped down.
When you say you're stripping it down, what does that entail?
On the previous album - 'Almost Always Never' - we didn't worry too much about what the songs were going to sound like live, we just focused on the album. So there was a lot more freedom, a lot more complicated layering of keyboard parts and backing vocals, and some songs had up to three or four rhythm guitars on them. Whereas with this we went in and went: 'OK, let's make this sound as live as possible'. It's a rhythm guitar, a solo and a vocal. The most we put on was a couple of backing vocals
What struck me about ‘The Dirty Truth’ is how the songwriting is the star and all your guitar playing serves the songs.
It's certainly been a conscious effort on my part to improve the songwriting and I think that comes from Dave Stewart. When I was signed to him I'd been singing a little bit but mostly just playing a lot of solos. He said to me: ‘You can play the best guitar solo in the world, but if it's not in a good song no one's ever going to hear it.’
He got me listening to guys like Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac - amazing guitar on Big Love and his solo live on Oh Well is probably one of the best versions I've ever heard. But they are encased in fantastic songs and they only add to the songs. I love a big guitar solo but sometimes you just don't need it, particularly for an album which is kind of like a snapshot.
Why has it taken live favourite Shiver And Sigh so long to get on a studio album?
I always tend to do a few kind of souly ballads and I think there were always ones that just suited the albums more. Heavy Heart suited 'White Sugar' more than Shiver And Sigh did. It just seemed to fit this and I'm glad we waited because I think it really does belong on this album, and I think you'd miss it if it wasn't there.
There are some great lyrics on the new album, so can you tell us about the title track?
I'd actually been listening to a lot of country – Waylon Jennings and some newer stuff, Jason Isbell, Drive By Truckers – and the one thing I like about country is there's a lot of storytelling in the lyrics. I decided to try and write an acoustic country ballad and then I came up with The Dirty Truth. Apparently I'm better at writing rockier blues stuff than I am country (laughs). But I tried to keep the storytelling the same and it's one of my favourites on the album. A lot of people have actually asked me if it's autobiographical and I'm like: 'Yeah – I shot my boyfriend and then wrote a song about it' (laughs).
Mud Honey is another great story. I'm hoping that one isn't from personal experience?
No, Mud Honey was meant to be an instrumental. I wrote the riff and we got in the studio to record it and it sounded so big that it felt like it needed quite a catchy lyric to it. I'd always had Mud Honey and I just came up with the chorus quickly. It told me the verse had to be about some sort of shady character. For some reason, I ended up writing about what I envisioned to be a Tony Soprano sort of guy.
Are you interested in getting into the storytelling aspect a bit more?
The songwriting is what I probably enjoy the most because I find it the most challenging. I didn't think it would be something I was capable of doing and I'm quite surprised I've managed to continue to come up with original material every time. I'd be interested in, probably not in the next few years, but who knows down the line, writing for other people. I think it would probably free me up, because I tend to write within certain genres for myself.
You've said you don't write happy songs, but is your life as tumultuous as it sounds?
No, most of my songs aren't autobiographical. There are a couple that are, but I think that for me maybe it's growing up in that blues world where there were a lot of songs about heartbreak. I mean, Fool In Love and Wrecking Ball are positive songs, but I guess I do enjoy the darker stuff a bit more.
Do you find that you have a different feel for lyrics to male blue artists? It's often said that women are more in touch with their feelings than men.
That's an interesting point that I've never really thought about in terms of songwriting. Somebody brought it up once about guitar playing, a guitar player called Sue Foley. She said to me when I was young: 'It's bullshit if they try and tell you that females can't play as well as men because we're far more irrational and have far more emotions going on, so it works in our favour.’ I suppose I probably do sing different songs to my male counterparts. Maybe I get away with being a bit more emotional on the basis that maybe it's a bit less taboo for a female to be emotional than a guy. It means I can bridge that gap between shooting someone and leaving them.
Have you faced any outside pressure to use the fact you're a female guitarist to turn you into a more commercial property?
In the early days, when I finished with the Dave Stewart label and got pushed around a few majors. One wanted me to be the Avril Lavigne of the blues, dress funky and jump up and down, and one wanted me to be Norah Jones of the blues and be very, very easy listening, which really influenced my decision to sign to Ruf. I'd rather do what I wanna do and scrape by than do something I hate.
Since you've been on the scene there have been more female guitarists playing the blues. Do you feel like you've paved the way?
I don't think I've paved the way, but I think we do tend to get compared a lot because it's still a very male-dominated genre. And I think sometimes it's a bit bizarre because, for instance Sam Fish is a really good friend of mine, but within the genre we're like opposite spectrums. She's like North, Mississippi hill country kind of blues stuff and I'm...not. If we were guys you wouldn't compare us at all.
Do you get ever tired of people like me asking about being a woman playing the blues?
No, it's obvious at the end of the day. Not to say the elephant in the room, but it is still a huge novelty. And I'm sure it has brought me a lot of attention and brought me a foot in the door when I wouldn't have had one. But that said, it's made it harder to get through the door because I think people come for the novelty but they're only going to stay if you're good. I still think females do have to work twice as hard to be thought half as good.
Do you almost feel like you're taking it on the chin now so that in future female blues guitarists won't get asked the question?
That would be nice. I've always said I think there will be a female that comes along that is like another Hendrix, who just completely rips open the doors and puts everyone to shame. And I think it's going to need that female to be so good and so innovative in their own right regardless of gender. I think that will be a game changer.
You've talked about being influenced by Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. You have the chance to jam with one of them – who do you choose?
I'd probably run away scared from either. I would pick Stevie. Not to say I could hold my own against Stevie, but Hendrix is a different monster altogether. Did you ever hear that famous story about when Hendrix first came to London? Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards all got together and met in a dark cinema to talk about what the hell they were gonna do to compete with him.
Why does Hendrix continue to exert such a powerful influence on young guitarists?
There were new sounds he was going for. He could play for days and never repeat himself and that's about getting into the songwriting and the rhythm parts. You listen to Castles Made Of Sand or Manic Depression or Bold As Love and they're almost like a really good cross between a lead part and a rhythm part, they're very melodic. He just had so many tricks up his sleeve, he was just an innovator and pretty untouchable.
When you play live you always have a smile on your face. Can you put into words how you feel when you're up there?
Gee, that's hard. There's a quote by Miles Davis: 'Learn your instrument inside out, forget it all and play.' If we do a two hour gig it's an accumulation of 15 years of hard work and writing songs and making albums, and then it's sort of get on stage, forget it all and try and do well. So it's very satisfactory and also it's the best therapy in the world. I basically turn up loud and play whatever I want to play and then shout in a microphone for two hours. It's quite an exciting atmosphere.
Joanne Shaw Taylor Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat November 01 2014 - NORWICH Epic Studios
Sun November 02 2014 - SHEFFIELD City Hall
Mon November 03 2014 - LEEDS Wardrobe
Tue November 04 2014 - MANCHESTER RNCM - Studio Theatre
Thu November 06 2014 - ABERDEEN Lemon Tree
Fri November 07 2014 - GLASGOW Arches, Glasgow
Sat November 08 2014 - STOCKTON Arc
Wed November 12 2014 - EXETER Corn Exchange
Thu November 13 2014 - FALMOUTH Princess Pavilion
Fri November 14 2014 - SALISBURY City Hall
Sat November 15 2014 - BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
Tue November 18 2014 - CARDIFF Globe
Wed November 19 2014 - LONDON O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Thu November 20 2014 - BURY Apex
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