Radio
Sweethearts Profiles
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lyrics / guitar tab page - where to buy "Lonesome
Blue"
click here for John
Miller interview
John Miller - Frank Macdonald - Martin Hayward
Kevin Key - Malcolm McMaster - John McCusker
| John Miller "The
Singing Conductor", John has been a lifelong fan of
country music, in particular his hero Hank
Williams, and is the main
songwriter in the Radio Sweethearts line-up. As well as
being vocalist/frontman and guitarist John is regularly
seen playing the DJ at the Sweethearts Club in Glasgow's 13th Note
Cafe.
Married
to Susan (who co-designed both Sweethearts album covers)
John's ambition is to be able to make enough of a living
from his music to be able to give up his "dreaded
day job".
See
Interview below
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Frank Macdonald Head
Honcho of the Shoeshine Records
empire, Frank has been the business brain behind the
Sweethearts success to date. He is the other songwriter
in the band and, as well as drums, has been known to add
guitar, piano or just about anything he can lay his hands
on to the Sweethearts sound. He has even been known to
prise a tune out of Malcolm's pedal steel.
An
in demand session player, Frank has contributed to
recordings by BMX Bandits, Teenage
Fanclub, Eugenius, Kate
Rusby, Ben Vaughn, Alex
Chilton, John
Herald, Michael
Shelley, Cheeky Monkey, Speedboat
and a whole host of others besides the Sweethearts.
Frank's determination and zest for his music is such that
he will undoubtedly become a major success story one day
soon.
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| Martin Hayward Scarred
veteran of underground pop skirmishing in the 1980s,
Martin was a member of the seminal Pastels. His
'Nothing To Be Done' appears on the soundtrack of the
1998 Irvine Welsh movie 'The Acid House' and has been
covered by Teenage Fanclub
Alongside
Frank, Martin's fantastic primitive bass playing provides
the backbone of the Sweethearts sound.
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Malcolm McMaster King
of the pedal steel, Malcolm is such a devotee that, along
with his best mate and fellow steelie Willie Gamble, (who
has also played steel, mandolin and guitar with the
Sweethearts) Malcolm regularly makes the pilgrimage to
the Annual Steel festival in England. He has also visited
every pedal steel site on the old internet. As well as
Steel, Malcolm also plays guitar and takes great pleasure
in telling anyone who'll listen that his all time hero is
legendary axe man Albert Lee.
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| Kevin Key Guitarist
Kevin is the most recent addition to the Sweethearts
line-up. A Singer- Songwriter in his own right Kevin can
regularly be seen gigging with his band around Scotland
and released his debut album 'Heartbreak And Blue' early
in '99 on the Alcove Recordings label. He is currently
working on the follow-up album which will hopefully
include his excellent song "Boomerang" which
has become a live favourite.
Former
studio engineer, and now college lecturer, Kevin was
responsible for the final mastering of the new
Sweethearts album, 'Lonesome Blue'.
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John McCusker Fiddler,
writer, producer and all round talent, John McCusker of Battlefield
Band fame is something of an
honorary Sweetheart. He plays with the band whenever his
busy schedule allows and has added fiddle and mandolin to
all of the Sweethearts recordings to date.
He
has recently been writing and recording with his long
time girlfriend, Mercury Music Prize nominated Folk
Chanteuse Kate
Rusby. Kate recorded a song called
"Radio Sweethearts" ,written by Mr. McCusker
and Sweethearts singer John Miller, on her 'Hourglass'
album on Pure Records (available on Compass Records in
the US)
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Interview with
Sweethearts Singer John Miller 11 July 2000
Q. As founder member, lead
singer and songwriter of Radio Sweethearts your appreciation of
traditional Country Music is very apparent, since when have you
been a fan of this kind of music and who are your musical heroes?
A. I've listened to Country
Music from an early age, since I was old enough to realise, I
guess, so I'd regard myself as being a lifelong fan. I grew up on
what I thought was a traditional West of Scotland diet of Hank,
Johnny, Patsy, Jim Reeves, etc. I was, and still am, obsessed
with all things Hank and would buy or steal whatever I could lay
my hands on in the quest for new Hank songs. It's only recently
I'd say that I was content with my Hank collection so I'd have to
say that he is definitely my foremost musical hero. Even through
those difficult teenage years of jumping around to punk rock and
ska, Hank was always waiting for me when I got home - I just
didn't let my narrow minded buddies in on the secret. It was only
after another of my musical heroes, Elvis Costello, recorded his
"Almost Blue" LP that some of my compadres figured
country was cool after all - and there was I with a fine
collection of it. Elvis Costello was also responsible for my
initial introduction to the work of another hero of mine, Gram
Parsons, covering both "Hot Burrito No.1" (as
"I'm Your Toy") and "How Much I Lied" on his
LP. Sadly the original recordings of these songs wouldn't become
widely available in the UK until years later, and even then only
on import to begin with but I did manage to console myself with a
battered copy of the, unfortunately Gram-less, "Last of The
Red Hot Burritos" live LP. My other country heroes are too
numerous to mention but would definitely include all of the
people I've mentioned so far plus Faron Young, Willie Nelson and
Merle Haggard.
Q.The first Sweethearts
album was recorded very quickly. What do you remember about that
session and working with Kim Fowley?
A.I was one of the many people
who were aware of Kim Fowley's part in musical history without
really knowing, or realising I knew, any of his work. I'd heard
about him from friends like Lindsay Hutton and BMX Bandits and
knew he had a reputation for being, putting it diplomatically,
slightly eccentric. Nothing they told me prepared me for meeting
him in the flesh. After he had agreed to go in to the studio with
the Sweethearts I was asked, nay summoned, to appear before him
armed only with my acoustic guitar and sing every song we had
ever written while he sat there writing down the titles and
giving them all marks out of ten. A very daunting experience,
believe me. Actually, I still have that piece of paper in my
possession which I took as a grisly memento. Anyhow, a day or two
later we assembled at Riverside studio in Busby, near Glasgow, to
cut our debut single for Shoeshine Records. Kim's arrival was
preceded by a fax teling us which songs he wanted us to record.
To my complete horror it contained a couple of songs which the
rest of the band hadn't even heard, let alone rehearsed, and
which I had to frantically try to teach them before K.F. arrived.
As if we weren't nervous enough! Once Kim arrived we set up so
that we could record everything at the same time, live. After one
or two false starts we recorded the song "New
Memories". Our nerves were shot to hell and someone
suggested that we do a couple of old Hank tunes just to loosen
up, Kim agreed reluctantly, and we played through "I Saw The
Light" and some other stuff. Unknown to us Kim kept the tape
running so we ended up recording these as well. Following this
every song we recorded was done in one take (the first); we had
no choice as we would no sooner finish one song and Kim would
yell "NEXT!". Unbelievably we ended up with 15 tracks
recorded - and mixed - in one 18 hour session. We figured we
would definitely be able to get a single out of it and there the
matter would have ended if Kim hadn't called from the USA to say
"I've got you a deal for your album". What album? we
cried en masse, but, it was true, thanks to "mad" Kim
Fowley we had made our first album and the rest, as they say, is
history.
Q. To your mind how does
"Lonesome Blue" differ from "New Memories"?
A. Apart from the obvious fact
that "Lonesome Blue" contains all original songs, I
think the main difference, for me, is that "Lonesome
Blue" seems more like an album and not just a collection of
songs thrown together. There are none of the acoustic fillers
which appeared on "New Memories". Also, I'd always felt
that "New Memories" was not very representative of John
Miller the songwriter. I'm probably happy with less than half of
my contribution to that album and even those songs that I am
happy with I don't feel are among the best I've written, before
or since. I know different folks have different opinions on what
they like so I'm not going to put a damper on anyone else's
listening pleasure by naming names. I'll just say that there are
some tracks I don't really like and leave it at that. I am,
however, more than happy with my entire contribution to
"Lonesome Blue". Although both LPs were recorded in the
same studio and in the same fashion, I think that the easier pace
at which "Lonesome Blue" was recorded (four and a half
days instead of 18 hours - a luxury) gives it the edge. It also
allowed us to iron out the one or two rough edges which would
have found their way on to "New Memories". We kept
overdubs to the barest minimum we could get away with - mainly
backing vocals - on both albums but probably worked a little
harder on the harmonies on "Lonesome Blue".
Q.Of which of your own songs
are you most proud?
A.I've never thought of being
"proud" of my songs but I suppose they are like your
babies in a way and when you see them grow from the initial idea
into a fully recorded song you do take a little pride. The songs
that I really like a lot are "A Deeper Hurt" from the
"New Memories... Revisited" album and "Heart On
The Line", "San Francisco" and "Let Me Be
Your Man Tonight" from "Lonesome Blue", I'm also
proud of my contribution to the title track. I'm also pretty
excited by some of my new songs which we've started to perform
live like "Popping Pills", "We Don't Care
Anymore" and "Everybody Knows".
Q. Do you feel disadvantaged
being based in Scotland and making this kind of music?
A. I do feel at a bit of a
disadvantage but only where the influence of some members of the
UK media are concerned. Some of them seem to have a problem with
where we are geographically which leads to preconceived ideas
about our music. This is why they are fond of words like
"pastiche", which I've seen used once or twice in
connection with us. The unfortunate thing about it is that,
although it is only one person's opinion, it can still influence
some people who read it. If reviewers had to listen to and review
albums without any refernce to background info I'm sure they
could find more constructive things to say about the actual
music, but no, it's "Glasgow band play Country??? Surely
not". They just don't seem able to accept it. I wonder what
they would say if it was an Austin, Texas songwriter based, for
whatever reason, in Glasgow? Strangely enough the very people who
consistently DO NOT have
a problem with what we do are the Americans, our first album
received nothing but rave reviews stateside and even got to
number 29 on the Gavin Americana chart. We've also played with
numerous visiting US acts who actively like our music. To me it's
a simple equation. I grew up listening to and being influenced by
the exact same records as a lot of my US contemporaries, I know
because I've spoken to many of them at length about it, therefore
it stands to reason that I would use those influences in my work
in the exact same way that they do, so, what I write is, surely,
as valid as what they write, even if I was unfortunate enough to
be born on the wrong continent.
Q.Which contemporary Country
artists do you enjoy?
A.I tend to gravitate towards
folks who share an obvious love of the more traditional country
which I enjoy. I'm a big Dale Watson fan and I love the new Slaid
Cleaves album "Broke Down". I also enjoy Wayne Hancock,
Robbie Fulks and BR5-49. Steve Earle at his beat is hard to beat,
oh, and I also love "Not The Trembling Kind" by my Spit
and Polish label-mate, Laura Cantrell.
Interviewed by F Macdonald.
Text appears courtesy of Shoeshine Records.
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home - history - club - discography - soundclips - reviews - live - links - news contact - new
lyrics / guitar tab page - where to buy "Lonesome Blue