Martin Barre of Jethro Tull Goes ‘Back To Steel’ – Talks Solo Album, Hendrix & Guitars (INTERVIEW)

If you have been listening to Jethro Tull for the past forty-six years, you will know the imprint they have made in the music world. That unique sound created when a group of musicians changed from being a blues-tinged band into one with a cacophony of medieval bings and whistles mated with the new darker twinges of rock & roll. It was a vision seen and pursued and would become their legendary trademark. Between Ian Anderson’s flute and Martin Barre’s guitar, a whole new forest was open to play in. But it was in March of 1971 that their popularity would rise to surreal heights with the release of their fourth album, Aqualung, and over the next few years their popularity would continue to grow.

Barre joined the band in 1969 following the departure of Mick Abrahams (Tony Iommi was briefly a member of Jethro Tull in the interim) and was a major component of the new direction they would be heading. He first appeared on the Stand Up record and toured with them opening for Zeppelin and Hendrix before the band really took off with Aqualung. In the ensuing years, Jethro Tull would accumulate eleven gold and platinum albums, selling over sixty million in the process, and nab a 1988 Grammy for Crest Of A Knave.

This fall, Barre has produced his third solo album in as many years, a record he has titled Back To Steel. A lover of music, he has formulated a cornucopia of sounds this time around, starting with an upbeat snazzy title track, a version of the blues classic “Smokestack Lightning” with that perfect Martin Barre twist, a couple of Tull songs, a Beatles track and some pretty special tunes of his own creation. Jethro Tull may have ceased but Martin Barre is still playing, having recently been on tour in America (which concludes for the holiday break on December 20th in Hamden, Connecticut). His shows are being called fantastic, fun and rocking.

Glide spoke with Barre this past week about his new record, his guitar playing, Jethro Tull and Jimi Hendrix.

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You have a wonderful new album out. You must be really excited about it.

Yes I am. I was very excited making it and that’s not always a good sign because I think sometimes when you’ve really enjoyed a project, it doesn’t mean it’s going to transfer to an audience readily. Jethro Tull did albums that we really loved making and they weren’t very well received so there’s no guarantee. But the response has been so good from the word go and I’ve had really positive things happen for it. I think it was the right thing to do and I think that’s become apparent.

You do a version of “Smokestack Lightning.” Where did your actual blues roots begin?

Well, you know, the blues was always around in the mid-sixties in England. I was in a band when I was in school but we all played “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Smokestack Lightning” and all those sort of blues standards. I don’t know where they came from – well, I know where they did – but I don’t know how we found them. All those sort of things like “Walking The Dog” and all these really random tracks got their roots in the blues. It was just what we played. We played Bobby Parker stuff back in the sixties. You know, this music has been around a long time and I think it was always popular amongst groups because the chart music everybody hated, particularly in England, and I think all the musicians that were in bands were always looking for cool stuff to play onstage. So it was a sort of little closet library of information.

This is your third album in as many years. What is something you did different this time?

It’s sort of the third one of a series of three because the production of the CD was the same as the two before, the same engineer, same studios; but they are all very, very different for a good reason. I just wanted to cover all those areas. I love playing acoustic music, I love sort of soft melodic harmonic Christian music and that was the first CD, Away With Words. Then I think because we were playing a lot of live shows, the second album sort of pinpointed what we were doing onstage. Then the third album is really moving on to the writing side of it with mainly original material. And I think that’s where we will be going in the future.

I had a chance to listen to Away With Words and I thought it was lovely.

You know, it’s hard for me to not say nice things about it because it’s pretty obvious I like it. I was really happy with that one. To me, it was something I could always put on the CD player and I would enjoy the sounds and I just felt that I did a good job on it. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea and it doesn’t fit into any of these genres so it got very little airplay anywhere but I just think it’s a nice CD to own. I just love music to be very emotional, to fit in the mood you’re in. Sometimes I just like to be quiet with quiet music and I think that’s why I enjoy that.

On Back To Steel, what would you say was the most unique song that you did – one that perhaps took you to a place you don’t usually go?

Maybe “Moment Of Madness” because the way I wrote it was completely different originally. We recorded it and we thought the best thing about it was the riff and I should rewrite it and make that the sort of backbone of the whole song; make it more sort of strange and more powerful. And I was really pleased with that. The first version of it didn’t work and I changed the lyrics, the melody, pretty much changed everything but the riff. But there’s not a track on the album that I won’t say I’m not happy with. They all sort of have a different take musically.

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The title track is quite snazzy

Yeah, it works really well live and I had that sort of tempo and bluesy feel in mind and it was tailored to set that sort of feel. It’s a really good track when we play it onstage.

Is there a reason you picked “Eleanor Rigby”?

I love The Beatles’ music, I always did when I was a lad, and then being brought up with them throughout their sort of changes, you know, changes musically through those years. But The Beatles were always a sort of constant. They never sort of did anything wrong musically and I’ve always really loved them and then I met them and then I worked with Paul McCartney. I’d never have dreamt when I was a sixteen year old kid buying their first albums that I’d actually end up working with one of them let alone meeting them. It was a real privilege.

With “Eleanor Rigby,” I’d heard Jeff Beck do “A Day In The Life” and I just thought how he could do something really cool with other people’s melodies and so I wrote it as an instrumental to do onstage with Jethro Tull and never got round to finishing it. I just put it on a shelf and there it was this year and I dusted it off and thought, let’s do it as a song. I did riffs to it. I mean, I always try and make it a bit more my take on it. I don’t want it to be a cover. I changed a lot but I hope it works.

Which guitar did you use primarily making this record?

I use PRS. It’s sort of my main guitar and I’ve sort of used those and Soldano Amps for probably twenty years now. But, you know, I like to experiment with different instruments. I’ve got different guitars at home. I don’t use them a lot but occasionally I just get them out and put them on the record. I’ve got Standards and Gibsons, the normal sort of guitars, but essentially the one I always go back to is the PRS and it sort of does everything I need it to do. But then I play mandolins and Bazookas as well, even banjo I played on this record. You’ve got to listen for it. It’s on “Bad Man” and “Skating Away.” It’s very subtle and it’s not a very obvious banjo part in there but I love the sound of the banjo. And I love it when it’s a texture and the Bazookas and mandolins, they’re really cool instruments. So yeah, I’ve got some nice ones of those.

When you first started learning to play the guitar, what was the most difficult part for you to get the hang of?

Information, really, because there was no tutorials like there are today, there were no videos, no books that guided you towards rock music. All the instructional books were sort of dance band music. It was awful. So there was just no information. What I wanted to play I had to figure out for myself. There was nothing to listen to until the blues artists started emerging – Freddie King, BB King, Albert King. By then, things were better and there was a lot more to listen to on record. Radio wasn’t playing it. Unfortunately, the blues came a bit too late because by then I was playing a lot of Tamla and R&B. I’d sort of learned all that kind of music. Then the blues just sort of dominated guitar players for probably ten years but everybody was playing the same thing. They were just sort of paraphrasing the great American blues players and I just thought, that’s a pointless exercise, so I never did it. But I still love the blues.

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When did you realize your tone and your sound was so different from everybody else?

(laughs) Well, I think I was the only guy who wasn’t playing the blues. I’ve almost sort of been almost annoyingly different. When everybody wants to do THAT, I want to do something else. I’ve never followed the crowd. I’m not a loner but I just don’t like being one of that big massive people that just do things because it’s trendy or because everybody else is doing it. I’ve always found my own little space in whatever I do. I can’t explain it but I think it’s the way I still am. I listen to a lot of Classical music and I just love it. I love melody and construction, arrangement, writing, all the beautiful elements of Classical music are there and so strong. There’s a lot more to listen to than in pop music or rock music or country. So I listen to it a lot.

But I do pick up on good music. I like a lot of country, modern country music is great. Joe Bonamassa is playing some cool stuff. I still listen to Don Henley and Jackson Browne, the sort of really good songwriters. I’m not particularly interested in guitar whiz kids. The last record that I bought that I loved was Snarky Puppy. They’re from New York and they’re a pretty good band. But I’ve got a broad spectrum of what I like.

Who is your favorite Classical composer?

That’s hard to pin down but I love Baroque music, Vivaldi, Handel, Bach are all beautiful music but I like Brahms, you know, the people who wrote the symphonies – Brahms, Elgar – and then Mozart, more or less everything he ever wrote. It’s just unbelievable. It’s just a huge area of music and I quite like Classical channels, which are hard to find these days, in America particularly. I don’t like all of it but I often hear something that I really like that I’ve never heard before. It’s a huge, huge area of music. But it’s very sad that it’s not accessible across America. I mean, for instance, in Jackson, Mississippi [where his wife is from], there is no Classical music. There might be one in New Orleans but I don’t know why people ignore it. They think it’s not cool but it has everything that rock music has. It’s got dynamics, it’s got power and energy. It was the rock music of it’s day (laughs).

Do you think it’s harder or easier for guitar players in today’s music world?

It’s harder because there are so many of them and I hear a lot of really young players who are really great players. So the standard is really high. But then guitar is the number one instrument in the world so it’s a big market. But it’s exciting and you’ve got so much to learn. It’s easier to become a good player than it was when I started. But then it’s harder to have your own individual style because that is something you can’t really learn in a short space of time. I think your style and your own personality takes years to develop and sometimes it’s by playing very simple things that you develop a sound. It’s not by playing like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, Scott Henderson, because by virtue of what you’re playing it imposes a style on you. But I think if you play very simple music, especially if you’re writing it yourself, then you’re building your own stamp, your own personality.

In Jethro Tull, which song would you say was the most challenging to transfer to the live stage?

Of course A Passion Play was because it was complex and we’d play it all the way through so I don’t think we ever played it note-perfect, and I mean, absolutely note-perfect. It was almost impossible to. If you’re in the studio you could do it but playing it live and you’re trying to jump around and present a visual show as well, it was a very challenging piece of music to play. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite by a long way (laughs).

Which Tull song do you think should have gotten more attention or recognition than it actually did?

There’re lots of them but the album I really hold close to me is Benefit because it was a really important time in the history of the band and I just think the songs are really great songs and it’s a very positive, upbeat album. A lot of people like it. When I talk to people, a lot of people say Benefit is their favorite album but it wasn’t the most important one. It hasn’t got standout tracks but they are all good.

You played the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970. What do you remember most about it?

I think really the chaos. It was chaotic. They were flying people in and out of the gig by helicopter because you couldn’t get there, couldn’t get backstage, no soundchecks. It was very exciting, being backstage with all those musicians, and playing to that many people is just so different and it rarely happens. It’s a special occasion but I wouldn’t say it was musically special. I mean, probably musically it wasn’t that great. It’s like Woodstock, you don’t sort of question the quality of the music. It was more the importance of the occasion and what was happening there.

Did you get to see anybody else play?

No, not really, because we were flown in. We might have seen a bit of the Moody Blues or some other but literally, you are flown in and you played and then you’re flown out again. There wasn’t sort of the luxury of saying, well, if you want to stay an hour, we’ll come and get you. You had to go when you had to go (laughs). So no, it wasn’t like that I’m afraid. Hendrix, who we played with a lot, and I know it was his last gig, but we shared many shows with him and I’m pleased to say that I saw some great Jimi Hendrix gigs.

Were you as enamored with him at the time as everybody else?

Yeah I was but I loved his songs and I loved his music. He was a great player and again he didn’t make me play any different but I just liked HIM. I met him and he was such a gentle, generous person and that taught me so much about music as his playing did. How someone can be that great and still be a normal person is very unusual, was very unusual in those days. I just liked him, I really liked him.

What did you think of Noel and Mitch?

All three of them were really nice people. They were very friendly but they were a great band.

Sometimes they get a bit lost in the shuffle. Everybody’s all interested in Hendrix and we forget that Hendrix was part of a band.

You could say the same with Jethro Tull, you know. It was the image of the frontman who obviously overshadows a lot of what else is going on but that’s the nature of the job. Anybody that would pretend to be part of the Jimi Hendrix band and not expect to be left a little bit in the dark. But they had a lot of respect and it’s a natural thing and it happens with every band on the planet. There is always going to be somebody who is magnetic and the other guys, they have to make sort of an adjustment essentially. You know, a band is a band and we’re a band of four equally important people and here I am doing interviews because you know who I am. Maybe in five years’ time you’ll know who the others are and want to talk to them. I just think that everyone has something to say and everybody has something to play and they need to be heard.

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What you are going to be doing into the new year? Is it all touring?

We finish just before Christmas and then I go spend Christmas and New Year in Mississippi with my son and then we fly back to England. We’ve got a few concerts at the beginning of the year and then we start up again that April/May and we plan to come back to the States in April and September. We’ve got some shows that are sort of penciled in.

Do you have anything else on the agenda? Are you going to make any new music?

You know, I’m not in a hurry to do another album although I will definitely be writing music. But I want this one to sort of settle in and establish itself. There will be another one but I’m not planning it yet. I want to get back to the States and do more gigs and sort of get the audience a little bit bigger and spread the word.

So tell us why should everybody go and get Back To Steel?

(laughs) Because it’s fun. I’ve really discovered how fun music can be to play and to listen to. It’s not complex, it’s not groundbreaking, it’s not sort of incredible virtuoso music – it’s honest songs and when we play a gig, we sound really, really good and have a good time. It’s sort of an old-fashioned gig, it’s all dynamics and energy and hot and sweaty and everybody sort of smiling at the end of the show and that’s nice.

 

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5 Responses

  1. Have the Back to Steel CD a great piece of Music And saw the Band live in Jackson got to Meet them all and sit in on the Soundcheck and was in front standing in front of Martin for the Show what a Rock Solid exciting Performance

  2. Good interview, but there’s one howling error in the transcription. Apparently you’ve never heard of the Greek stringed instrument called a “bouzouki” — you transcribed it twice as “bazooka”, which is an anti-tank weapon not often found in musical ensembles.

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