Interview: James Blackshaw - Workaholic, And Reluctant Guitar Virtuoso

It's high time Ragged Words sat down with (or, more accurately, got its phone card out and called) James Blackshaw. Ever since the Hastings resident's magnificent Cloud Of Unknowing album troubled our end-of-year albums list in 2007, we've wanted to inquire first-hand into the origins of his twelve-string guitar sound; rather shamefully, it's taken three more albums - 2008's Litany Of Echoes, '09's The Glass Bead Game and this year's All Is Falling - for us to pick up the phone and dial his number. But at last, on the eve of his tour with SWANS, Ragged Words finally got to speak to the prolific 29 year-old.

Having introduced piano into your last couple of records, there’s electric guitar and more bumped-up arrangements this time around. Did that make it more of a challenge for you?

“Yeah, it was. I don’t think, in many ways, that it’s a huge step away from what I’ve been doing on previous albums, but I kind of felt like I had to go one way or another. Either concentrate more on the arrangements of the other instruments and the composition as a whole, or else completely strip things back. Weirdly, the album kind of ended up sounding like both at the same time!

"It was fun to work on, and definitely the most difficult thing I've managed to record so far. I'm usually pretty spontaneous, and prefer to try and record the arrangements there and then; with this album, though, I did work on writing everything the way you hear it, and so arranged it a few months before it was recorded that way. I wanted the guitar to be less of a focal point than it’s been previously. It’s still there of course, just less so.” 

Was there maybe a part of you that wanted to get away from being seen as “that guy who’s amazing on a twelve-string guitar” and show what else you can do?

“Oh, thanks! I guess people like my guitar-playing, but it’s never been a case of consciously thinking I’m not happy with being called a great guitarist or a virtuoso guitarist - which I don’t think I am at all by the way! I’ve seen and heard some virtuoso guitarists, and I’m certainly not one of them! It’s never been a case of me trying to prove something else, I’ve just always been more interested in the music. A lot of guitar music can get caught up in itself and I never initially set out to be a solo guitarist, I just fell into it and ended up feeling very comfortable with it as a tool to write music. I think it’d be really boring if I went the rest of my life just making solo twelve-string guitar records. I don’t honestly know if I could make things interesting enough for myself – let alone other people – if that were the case.”

Did it take a lot of classical training when you were younger to get to the kind of solo guitar standard you’re now at?

“I’ve never had guitar lessons at all actually. I think I had two or three piano lessons when I was really young, but I just got bored with them. In retrospect, I wish I’d actually kept them up (laughs) so I could play piano a bit better than I can now! My parents bought me a cheap electric guitar when I was ten, and I was in some punk rock bands when I was younger, but then I went a few years - maybe from the ages of 17 to 22 - without playing guitar at all, and instead played bass, a little bit of keyboards... I even tried drums and was pretty terrible! I was a pretty good bass player though (laughs). So it was only when I was about 21/22 that I started to listen to a lot of guitarists like John Fahey and Robbie Basho. I’d heard Fahey before but had never really gotten obsessed with him, but then I kind of did!”

Was that when you first started recording stuff then?

“Yeah, I recorded the first thing on twelve-string when I was 23. There’s also a recording - which I’ve never really released - that was done on a six-string and was much more trad- or country/blues-sounding, and that was maybe done a few months or a year before my first twelve-string stuff, but I think buying the twelve-string really helped me find my feet in terms of what I was wanting to do with the music itself, getting these drones and overtones by playing with open tunings and stuff.”

Those drones can certainly be heard on the new album: there’s more of a sort of harsh beauty to the songs – particularly something like ‘Part 2’ – does it sound that way to your ears too? And how is that achieved?

“I definitely know what you mean. I think it’s largely through playing an electric twelve-string, as well as the settings on the amp and things like that. It's slightly more angular, and less sweet in a way, in those kind of overtones. An acoustic twelve-string is more subtle, and when you amplify an instrument it can actually do some really weird things... You can kind of hear some weird feedback on a couple of tracks; not through distortion, just from the way the amp was set, and hitting something a certain way.”

I always think that, with instrumental bands, it’s easier to pick out the emotions than it is with, say, a solo artist like yourself. It’s a nice challenge to have to find them within your music. For example, again thinking of ‘Part 2’, it sounds like a very sad and mournful song. Was that the way it was written, or is that a kind of emotion that carries through the whole album?

“You know, I think with the last three or four albums – or certainly since The Cloud Of Unknowing – things have gotten a little sadder or darker or more melancholic, or whatever you want to call it, and I think that’s the case with the new album too. It’s weird, I don’t think it’s intentional and I can’t really say why it's happened. I don’t think I’ve been depressed or down when I’ve made those albums as opposed to the other ones. I think I’m also attracted to ambiguity, and not just in instrumental music; with some of my favourite music, I don’t know whether I should be smiling or crying when I'm listening to it. I like to think that that’s in my own music too - that I’m not dictating to anyone what they should feel from something - and that’s kind of one of the reasons I wanted to give it such an ambiguous title, and not give the tracks names.”

You’ve got eight tracks on this album, compared to some of the others which might have had two, three or four. Do you think that will maybe prompt more people to invest in the record, rather than just picking up most of the songs on blogs here and there?

“It wasn’t a motivating factor or anything, but it’s interesting all the same now that you mention it. When I realised that the new album was basically going to be one piece, I wasn’t sure initially whether or not I was going to leave it as just one big track. With the way I’d written it, I had various different parts in mind, and most of them were distinct, so I thought actually that’d be a really great way to sequence it. In terms of blog culture and being able to get things from BitTorrent, I wouldn’t say it’s not scary or that it doesn’t have a negative effect on certain artists or labels, but I think it’s a bit silly to even attempt to fight that. I think it’s just part of the way things are now, and everyone’s going to have to adapt. A lot of blogs are great for getting stuff heard too... But I do suppose that if someone was to download ‘Part 4’ and ‘Part 6’, say, it wouldn’t make much sense (laughs).”

As a fan, it’s great that you’ve released an average of at least album an year. Is there any danger of that slowing down?

“That’s an interesting question. I really don’t know. For a while now, I’ve almost set myself a goal of doing that so that I don’t become 'comfortable' - and besides, I’ve never really had any shortage of ideas. It probably won't be possible for me to keep that up for the rest of my life. And actually, this year I decided to take a little bit of a break; so, aside from touring commitments and some side-projects, I’m just going to take a year out from working on anything. It just gets a bit too intense, and when I’m working I do tend to drop the ball in many other aspects of my life because I just get obsessive about it. I’m trying to slow down and give myself a bit of time, but it’s something I enjoy and am compelled to do. So, while I won’t be recording this year, it wouldn’t surprise me if I started again early next year and looked to have another album out by the end of 2011... Who knows!”

And finally: you’ve a big tour with SWANS starting this month and going intermittently through to December. Are you looking forward to going on tour with your label boss (Michael Gira of Young God Records)?!? Are you under pressure to sell a few records before the tour starts!

(Laughs) Yeah, I’ll get beaten if I don’t! No, I love Michael. I’ve met him and spent time with him before, and he’s a really great guy. It’s certainly daunting just going away on a tour of that length with the same group of people, that’s always daunting. But I’ve always had a good time with Michael, so fingers crossed (laughs)!