Chatting With Burn The Midnight Oil

It’s nice to hear when our features attract attention. Salisbury’s Radio Odstock  picked up on our interview with Devizes band Burn the Midnight Oil and they gained air time, but the interview was published short of year ago now, and the band have had significant changes to the lineup and their style. So, I the time is nigh to poke my bulbous nose in and interrupt their rehearsal again…..

Formerly a trio, bassist Chris Lane remains with Chrissy Chapman up front,  but guitarist Andy Jacobs sadly passed away this year. “Andy was an amazing musician and really helped carve out our initial sonic signature,” Chrissy told me. “We’ve always wanted to acknowledge his creative contributions, given that music ran through him like the letters in a stick of rock. However, for reasons I can’t discuss out of respect for everyone involved, the band collectively decided that it was no longer suitable for Andy to remain involved. We’ve made every attempt to show him grace since that decision but there was a negative backlash. Regardless, we were all very sad to hear he passed away shortly after, and our sympathies remain with his family and loved ones. We’re committed to remembering him in the best light.”

“There was definitely concern about doing the songs justice after we parted ways with Andy,” Chrissy continued. “Eventually, though, we made a conscious effort to develop a new sound that honoured the music while allowing John the creative freedom. The core of our sound now focuses on doing the  songs justice rather than trying to replicate what Andy originally brought to the table and embracing the natural evolution of our sound that draws from all of our influences.”

John Lane joined as guitarist, but was making me a cuppa while I was chatting with  Ron Riordan, the new drummer. They’ve both been instrumental in forging a new direction for the band, literally! John said of Andy’s passing, “as part of getting through that phase the band has grown,” and Ron added it had “evolved.”

Turning to Chrissy I jested that when we did the original interview, she had suggested they didn’t need a drummer! “Well,” she explained, “we always needed a drummer, but we were able to perform at the time without a drummer because we were percussive enough. And it went down really well. A couple of venues, we did three gigs before we got Ron, a brilliant drummer!”

Ron stepped in immediately at a crossover period between Andy and John, a proficient drummer who told me he had played in a few ska bands in Swindon, “I started playing drums when I was about nine, in orchestras and learnt to read music, that type of thing.” I smiled; he looks like he can blast a Two-Tone riff. “That’s the thing though,” Chrissy said, “because straight away we had DOCA’s Winter of Festive Ales booked. So it was like, everybody had to jump on really, really quickly. And we wanted to use that as an opportunity to do the originals.”

It was on the strength of the demo I asked them to play RowdeFest, I hadn’t seen them performing before. But the committee was encouraging me to find a covers band. “We followed your advice about doing the covers,” Chrissy said, though it wasn’t really advise, rather a  way to get them booked! I’m so glad they did, they were dynamite and feedback was overwhelming. The kind of band you’d think had been on the circuit for years. “I felt that we were at the party at the end of the day!” John remarked, and they certainly was.

“What was nice about that is it the focus was about ‘let’s give people a show’ rather than it just being about  ‘let’s get our songs out’,” Chrissy explained. “Your influence was about getting a show to give to people, keeping people up on their feet, so and not allowing those breathers.”  I did encourage them to ensure they blasted some originals out too, though, which they did!

“We tried to dress it on different levels of the visual,” John stressed, “wearing the outfits, the recognition of known songs, and the come on, party time!”

“Yeah, it worked, didn’t it?” I replied, a template to liven up a pub gig, and Burn the Midnight Oil are certainly getting them. The Queen’s Tap in Swindon and Kings Arms in Amesbury their recent outings, but how do they feel about how far they’ve come?

“Given that the new face of us being coming up a four piece with Andy’s departure in January, to get that in the space of a year, well, less than a year,” Chrissy said, “as a new lineup, I think it’s quite incredible.”

It’s the added drums which changes it, I supposed, surely essential for a harder rock feel.

“It changes the scale of the presentation,” John added. “It’s now got drive and rhythm rather than being listening for the lyric. It’s actually motivated, it hooks into people’s natural sense of rhythm, and you can’t help it. First thing people take in is rhythm, then melody, last of all, lyrics. So if you hook the first bit, you don’t get the second one, then they come back for the lyrics. So we’re attacking it from the best angle.”

Here was were I felt a healthy division between John and Chrissy’s perspective, as she began to speak on where she drew inspiration from in the writing and a change in direction from  intrapersonal to interpersonal. She drew from personal relationships and her faith, implying her writing was key, but the difference was never confrontational and a good blend of opinion is surely necessary to compose the elements of a song professionally.  

“I had a tsunami of a creative spell, and wrote twenty songs in as many days. So we’re now, everybody’s having to play catch up, trying to get them polished!” Chrissy explained. She labelled her past songs as an “angsty teenage phase,” and felt her songwriting about “good guy/scumbags” had evolved and matured into “something more universal. It’s not so much like a diary, it’s definitely becoming more cryptic. It’s pulling in a different kind of imagery and symbolism. And then, because I’m faith-based as well, I’ve given a lot of inspiration taking verses from the Bible that have really helped me through difficult times. I’m weaving them, not to be preachy, but just to be like, this is my story.”

“We’d like the two songs we did at the award ceremony, to polish it up more, get a scratch track done, and then we’re going to go back to Matt Miller’s Dusty Shed, who did the original three.”

“We can’t really use the original EP anymore. And also, it’s fair to say with John’s influences, and the way that we’re allowing space for his creative flow to come into it, it just sounds different.”

John pointed out his mixer was adequate when I pondered if they needed a producer. Chrissy replied while it would be “fantastic,”  she crunched numbers and said they, “really want to get onto the festival circuit, and that means having tracks done ASAP.”

Captivating to listen to Chrissy delving deeper into the inspiration behind her songwriting and the maturity she felt it levelling to, in which she exclaimed with much delight, “it’s definitely been refreshing having John’s influence, him sharing how he sees it as a viewer. Because you write what you know, and unfortunately, I’ve been exposed to quite a lot of things that I don’t think many people would ever want to be exposed to. And being able to find hope and joy in some of the songs and being able to write happier songs. For the first time ever, I’ve written two love songs! I’ve never written love songs before! So, there definitely seems to be more universal themes.”

Yet as fascinating as it is, hearing Chrissy’s writing motivations, John revealing the technical side to their development, Ron adding splices of drummer-fashioned wit, and together them trying to summarise their change in direction whether it be a more rock-blues or dark-country, only to finally decide it unnecessary to pigeonhole it anyway, it makes for a laborious read, so I thought I’d inject a light-hearted, more physical observation with Chris, who otherwise, I suspect, would’ve remained silent, save occasionally strumming his bass!

It was that I heard Jimi Hendrix had extremely long fingers, I noted so too did Chris, and wondered if he considered it an asset to playing guitar! John jested, “it’s like watching a spider running up and down a hot plate!” Ron pointed out his stumpy fingers, “I’m a drummer; I’ve just tried to learn the bass guitar and I can’t get my hands anywhere round the neck of the guitar like Chris can!”

Chris exampled pianists’ tendency to have stumpy fingers. “You look at Elton Joh or Les Dawson, they’ve all short fingers, but they can play like crazy! I can get away with some stuff, but some of it’s more, arguably, bad habit than good! But I can get away with having long fingers rather than good habits!”

 A fellow of far fewer words than the front girl, evidently, but when he does its witty self-mocking is worth it’s weight in gold and sparked a humorous angle to the interview in which, while Chrissy justified his dexterity and nimbleness, Ron favoured to joke about Chris’s dancing on stage, “which is brilliant. I love it!”

John praised the firmness of Chris’ bass, “you’re methodical, you’re listening. I’m done wondering if he’s bored to death as I explain something to him, as he’s sitting there taking it in. It’s not till you go and think he’s got it.”

They all seemed content with each other, and John effectively “keeping them in line,” and this brought up the subject that they abstained from drinking while performing. “One rule I was pretty adamant about,” John explained while Chrissy and Ron laughed about being “hyper,”  “is drink and music don’t mix. If you’re going to load it up, don’t expect to be any good at the music. Because we’re there to make the party for everybody else.”

“Yeah,” Chrissy joshed, “so I’m not allowed to have a pre-shot of tequila, which is really good because I definitely noticed a habit where I needed the Dutch courage in order to get up and I started realising, this is a bad habit that I don’t want to become dependent on. So it’s two-wayed. You were definitely enforcing it. And I tried to be more mindful of it and just get up despite feeling nervous. And I get nervous every single time still.”

Aside the notion everyone gets butterflies, we moved between passionate subjects like the local circuits and venues and getting further afield, and we ventured back into songwriting inspirations, but I wanted them to nail it into a summary.  “In a nutshell,” Chrissy said, “we’re focusing on rhythm and melody so that the lyrics can shine through. And we’re drawing inspiration from real life. Trying to make them more universal and a punchy sound. Rocky, bluesy, layers musically and lyrically; say that, Darren!”

Okay, I will! And if you want to hear this band progressing, follow their socials for gig updates. They’ll be in Devizes on Sunday 14^th December, at that tropical holiday resort in the Brittox, The Muck & Dunder, with a fundraiser for Ugandan orphanage His Grace Children Centre Bugiri, which they’ve organised themselves.

In true Christian spirit Chrissy annually organises a fundraiser around the yuletide, which she did as a soloist ironically titled One Trick Pony. Ironic because, she lent her vocals to drum n bass tracks, returned to town to learn guitar and perform acoustically,  and now there’s Burn the Midnight Oil; a proficient four-piece who, merging experiences in varied genres, refuse to  pigeonhole their developing style, and has an angelic vocalist with a penchant undaunted to delve deep into her psyche and faith for inspiration, and oh yeah, a bassist with long fingers!

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