London’s own Ian Roberts is an artist that, like many others, looks to the masters during his approach to music-making. However, unlike many others, he understands there’s a great difference between inspiration and mimicry. He says “When I first started out, I wanted to be like my heroes. I wanted to sound like them; I even used to try and write like them, and there was my first mistake. If I could give one piece of advice to anyone starting out right now, it would be to never ever try to be like anyone else and find your own sound. I found mine just two years ago and it has brought me more pleasure than ever.”
Roberts, who has honed his style into some of the most upbeat tunes you’ll hear today, is also inspired by his family, as heard on his upcoming EP, Tinkers Lane. The EP (due out next month) represents “a place where dreams comes true, where one is free to do what they want to do, with no constraints.” Roberts continued, “Every single song is going to sound different. I want to show what I can do as a songwriter…I have what I hope is a fresh new sound but with a real tip of my hat to the 50’s and 60’s.” Check out Tinkers Lane and click to http://www.ianrobertsmusic.org for some tour dates this fall. Roberts says he’s written nearly 50 songs in the last two years, so a new record isn’t far behind. There’s still much, much more to get into, so keep reading for all the answers to the XXQs below.
XXQs: Ian Roberts
PensEyeView.com (PEV): How would you describe your sound and what makes you different from others your genre?
Ian Roberts (IR): I have what I hope is a fresh new sound but with a real tip of my hat to the 50’s and 60’s, I write happy uplifting melodic songs with a message, which I then colour with harmonies. I’m not trying to sound like anyone else, what you hear is totally me, the songs are from my heart.
PEV: Calling London, England home, what kind of music where you into growing up? Do you remember your first concert?
IR: I grew up listening to the greats like The Beatles, The Small Faces, Elvis, Sam Cook, Patsy Cline, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, Frank Sinatra, both my parents were massive fans of good music, it didn’t matter the genre to them, they just loved good songs, my Mum was a singer, she did the pub/club circuit, she had the voice of an angel. My first gig was as a rebellious teenager so of course it had to be a punk gig, my parents didn’t yet at that time understand the sound of punk, but I loved the raw excitement of jumping around, I still think when punk has melody it works brilliantly..
PEV: What was it like trying to break into the music scene when you first started? What was your first show like?
IR: Trying to break into any scene when you first start is difficult, there’s lots to learn, but when I first started out I was with my friends in a band, we were so excited to be playing anywhere that we never seen the difficulty of it, we just wanted to get on stage and sing our songs (I still do) but we really had no idea what we were doing, we knew how to play our instruments and how to deliver a song, but we knew nothing of how to get a gig in the right kind of place, we didn’t have a promoter or any such luxury, we would just turn up at a pub and ask for a gig, it was great fun though.. Our first gig was in a garage with a bunch of mates watching, I remember being nervous beforehand but then walking off stage after our little show feeling like we were on our way to the top, it’s a wonderful feeling, music gives you the ability to dream massively, and I love that..
PEV: What can fans expect from a live Ian Roberts show?
IR: I’ve always believed that music is just one thing: It is a communication between the hearts of the writer/performer and the audience, and that communication should only ever come from the heart… So when I play live I like to feel like I’m part of the audience and they are a part of the show, I want to talk to them the only way I know how; from my heart, and I want them to engage as I do with them, I often invite people up to sing-a-long with me, if I hear someone in the audience singing a really cool harmony (as I did a short while ago) I stop the song and grab them up with me and beg them to sing with me, it’s great when that works, it’s fresh and bring tingles down the spine.. Expect to be moved, expect lots of heart, hopefully something to dance to too, and hopefully you’ll come away thinking about what was said in the lyric..
PEV: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you step on stage to perform?
IR: There are obviously still nerves, if there isn’t then I think there’s something not right about the performer, but anyone who does it from their heart will of course have some nerves going on because they’re about to open their heart to (hopefully) a large audience, so of course there are nerves, but also excitement, I still get butterflies in my stomach and my heart still beats to almost bursting, I hide it well. The thing is; when you step on stage you never want to let anyone down, certainly not yourself, but if you’ve done your hard work rehearsing then you’re fine, you can relax in the knowledge that you know what you’re doing, that you’ve done all the work you possibly could to get to this point, the hard work does pay off. So I usually feel ok as soon as I say hello and strum my first chord, then I just lose myself in the music and the atmosphere, and I’m still always amazed at how quick it all goes, it’s over before you know it, and people are offering to buy you drinks at the bar…
PEV: What is the best part about being on stage in front of an audience?
IR: The chance to perform my own songs, to share what I have in my heart, and to feel the response, my songs generally have a message to them and it is wonderful when an audience understands what I’m trying to say in a song, it is a magical thing to hear people singing along to a song that I’ve written, to see the joy in some people’s faces, there are some people who feel like the song is their song, and I love that, being a songwriter is a bit like being a parent, the songs are like my babies and when I hear people singing along to them I feel proud of the song as I would if it were one of my own children who was up on stage singing with an audience singing along with them. So that communication is why I do it, I write about what’s going on in my life, I write about what I see, hear and feel, and I need to write to get it out of my soul, and I feel like I have a need to share it, I want people to feel as good as how it makes me feel when I first write the song, so I suppose being on stage is like free therapy in a way, on both sides of the stage..
PEV: What was the underlining inspiration for your music?
IR: There are so many inspirations around; sometimes when I’m learning a cover song I get half way through it and I hear a new song, it sounds crazy but it’s like hearing the original singer start to sing a new melody for me, so I just go with it, I follow it, it takes its own form, and I usually end up with a new song from it, but here’s the thing; it feels like the original songwriter is talking to you, showing you the way, so when people ask me who inspires me or what inspired me to write a song, I have to say it’s almost always one of the greats who lend you a hand in writing a song, and that’s true inspiration..
Also, about two years ago I was going to give up on chasing the dream, I wasn’t ever going to stop writing and playing, but I was going to stop chasing, so with this in mind I went back to a load of old songs that I never finished, these were songs that I never felt were good enough because I felt they were a little too soft, a little too emotional, a little too personal, but I decided I would finish them off and just play them to my wife and children. As I was writing them I felt they were the best work I had ever done, and my wife was telling me the same thing, so I played them to a few friends who all agreed, I think I struck a nerve inside like a rich vein of songs because I’ve written almost fifty songs this last two years, and all of them in this same feel, and now playing these new songs live is the best feeling ever, and I’m getting better responses than ever before.
So inspiration can also come from giving up. My point is that inspiration can come from all places, and at all times, all you’ve got to do is be ready for it when it comes, keep your heart open at all times.
PEV: Thinking back to when you first started out do you ever look back at your career and think about your earlier days and how you’ve arrived where you are today?
IR: Yeah, when I first started out I wanted to be like my heroes, I wanted to sound like them, I even used to try and write like them; and there was my first mistake, if I could give one piece of advice to anyone starting out right now it would be to never ever try to be like anyone else, find your own sound, I found mine just two years ago (see the last Q&A) and it has brought me far more pleasure than ever.
PEV: What’s one thing we’d be surprised to hear about you?
IR: Deep down I’m shy. ~ Oh and ssshh I really like old Cliff Richard songs..
PEV: What happens when you hit a brick wall when writing? What are you methods to get over it?
IR: I don’t have a method, if I was honest with you; I don’t know how I write songs, I couldn’t tell you. I’m not the sort of writer who sits down and decides to write a song, it never happens to me that way. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a song blaring in my ears, I keep my mobile phone by my bedside and when the song finishes in my head I then sing the melody into my phone, in the morning I grab my guitar and search for the chords then I pick up a pen and write what’s inside my head, (sometimes I write it there and then at 3am or4am in the morning) and sometimes it floods out, other times it takes a couple of days to find the lyrics to match the feel of the song. At other times I could be out shopping or on the train and I hear a melody in my head, so I sing it into my phone, I get strange looks but if I don’t record the melody then there’s the possibility that I’ll lose it..
But here is how I feel about writing songs: Melodies are drifting around up in the sky, if you’re lucky enough for it to pass by over your head then you’ve got to grab at it, it’s like the melody is calling for you, write it down, create the song, because if you don’t it will float straight past you and into the head of another songwriter down the road who will grab it. And that is why I think songwriters hit what they call a brick wall, because they ignore the melody that passes by. Ignore a passing melody at your peril…
PEV: How do you think the industry has changed since you first started out in the industry?
IR: There has been a massive change to how we listen to music, we’ve gone from vinyl to cd’s and it’s almost all downloading mp3’s now, I honestly think we’ve lost a little bit of quality along the way, I’ve recently gone back to vinyl, it fills a room with a depth that mp3’s can get close to. Also I think technology has allowed people to get into the business who wouldn’t have been there many years ago, shows like the X Factor have fast tracked people who can’t play instruments (and in some cases can’t even sing) to being really big stars, and certain computer programmes can make anyone sound good nowadays, that never used to happen, you used to have to do your hard work, you had to learn an instrument, you had to have the ability to sing in tune, and to do it live without auto correct microphones, so the type of people who are coming into the music business has also changed massively too. I also think there is far more control by the big record companies now, when is the last time you heard a peace song played on mainstream radio, and I don’t mean an old John Lennon peace song, I mean one that has been written recently? There are many songwriters writing them but they’re not getting signed by the major record companies and they’re certainly not getting airplay on the mainstream radio stations, and yet we’ve been at constant war for a long time, it’s just one example of the control that the industry has right now. The problem is that we as musicians have allowed the business people to run our industry for far too long, and the business people have just got more greedy and controlling. And now with technology and free downloading the business is in trouble. Something has to change, and it will. I’m just delighted that playing live is still THE thing for most music lovers..
PEV: What can fans expect from your upcoming release (Sept 2013)? What was the writing process like for this album? And what is the story behind the name of it?
IR: In September 2013 I’m releasing a six track EP called Tinkers Lane, I’m recording the EP at the moment in London at The Church Studios which is owned by David Gray, and my producer is a guy called Tristan Ivemy, Tristan produced Frank Turner’s UK top 10 album ‘England Keep My Bones’ eighteen months ago. So I have some good people around me.
I love the name Tinkers Lane, for me it brings up images of freedom, Tinkers Lane is a place where dreams comes true, where one is free to do what you want to do, with no constraints, and that is what I’m doing with this EP, every single song is going to sound different, I want to show what I can do as a songwriter, there are so many albums nowadays that disappoint me, every song sounds the same, only the production changes ever so slightly, and yet if you listen to Abbey Road by The Beatles you will hear a country song, a rock n roll song, a church organ music song, a German ump papa music song, they took almost every music genre and wrote a great song over it, to me that is real songwriting, a writer who can write all kinds of songs from all kinds of genres and yet you still know it’s them, now that’s songwriting…
PEV: With all your traveling is there one area you wish you could travel around and play that you have not yet?
IR: I want to come to the USA, I’ve never been, many friends have toured there and they all tell me that it is THE place to play live, hopefully one day I can make that happen..
PEV: How have all your friends and family reacted to your career?
IR: My kids still love hearing my songs on the radio, my brothers and sisters are all proud, my friends still treat me like they always did, and my wife loves me, so I’m a lucky man.
One of my children has recently picked up one of the many guitars in our house, I’ve never forced any of them to play, I’m of the school of belief that they will do it when they’re ready, and when they are I’ll be here to help, so I leave the instruments all around the house for them to play with, of course they have all banged and strummed away since they were babies, but my twelve years old who is a grade four piano player recently asked me to show her a few chords, and now she’s never without a guitar or a ukulele in her hands, I came home one day last week and casually walked past her room and she was strumming a guitar and singing one of my songs, she didn’t know I was home, and I got the chance before I said hello to stand outside her room and listen to her singing and strumming one of my songs, her choice of song, I can’t even begin to tell you how good that made me feel.
PEV: What can we you doing in your spare time, aside from playing/writing music?
IR: I write, I write poetry and anything else that comes into my head. I can sit down and start to write about something and suddenly hours have passed by, and when I read it all back to myself it honestly feels like someone else must have written it all, I sit and wonder as to where it all came from, it feels like it wasn’t me, I love writing. I also read a lot too, I love losing myself in a really good book. But most of all I try to spend as much time as I can with my family, time goes by so quickly and the kids grow up so fast, I’m out a lot gigging or recording so my time is precious, and my family is the most precious of them all…
PEV: Name one present and past artist or group that would be your dream collaboration? Why?
IR: Paul McCartney and Paul McCartney ~ because he’s the greatest songwriter that has ever lived, I’d love to sit in a room with him and sing him my new song, I know he’d have a great harmony straight away, and then just sit all night playing song after song after song after song. It’s a dream of mine; we’re in the Mull of Kintyre with those big warm jumpers on and we’re sitting around a fire and we both have guitars and we’re making up songs together, and with every part he writes I have the perfect harmony for it, and with every part I write he does it too….
PEV: Is there an up and coming band or artist you think we should all be looking out for now?
IR: Yes, my really good friend Lee Ross, he is one of the most gifted and giving songwriters that I have ever heard, he’s also recording an EP at this moment in time, and every song is an absolute beauty, now there is a songwriter that gets straight into your heart with tenderness and wonderful melody, yes look out for Lee Ross, and remember the name, you heard it here first…
PEV: If playing music wasn’t your life (or life’s goal) what would be your career?
IR: I love to write, so if I wasn’t writing songs I’d still be writing something, I often sit down and just write, I can lose myself for hours writing, I write poetry, I write stories for the kids, and I write anything that comes into my head, one day maybe I’ll turn all that scribbling into a book or two..
PEV: So, what is next for Ian Roberts?
IR: Well once the six track EP is all finished it’s out touring and promoting it, and if all goes to plan then it’s straight back into the studio once we finish touring to record an album, I’ve written almost 50 songs in this last two years so I have lots to be getting on with, and luckily the songs just keep coming, I’m loving it at the moment, I have tunes running around my mind all day and night, and I want as many people as possible to hear them all, I’m a happy man…