THE JAMES WARNER PROPHECIES
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 25th March 2011.
Midlands, UK, based rockers The James Warner Prophecies are releasing their upcoming single 'You are The Sun' on April 16th 2011 and following it with an extensive tour. We couldn't think of a better time to have a chat with them, so we did just that.
Joe answers questions...
What’s the history behind The James Warner Prophecies? How did the band form, and what’s the background of the various members?
Joe: The band started as just a means, simply to make music. Whatever type of music it might come up with, be it folk, r n b, rock, dance, whatever. It then started being taken a bit more seriously by us. After some line up changes, arguments and disappointments, the band seems to have found all of its limbs which is nice. The bands ethos has always been about making the music that feels right at the time. Whatever it may come out like. This still sits well with it although we feel its been shaped into a definable lump of noise. And this is done by having the right noggins in the band... so who are they?
JOE BROWN
Joe was raised by angry Liverpudlians in a barn made of Stickle bricks in the early 80's.
There was no real reason for the choice of living arrangement he later discovered, "It just seemed like a good idea at the time son," was his only explanation, Although, this may explain some of the anger shown by said liverpudlians? (Stickle bricks do not keep out the elements too well).
Joe first realized he had thumbs at a young age and took it upon himself to chew and suck them until he discovered he could put them to better use making noise and writing lines in a band and yelling his thought doodles at strangers from behind a microphone and his plank of stringed wood.
He started JWP as a side project from his main musical Endeavour at the time which was a Romanian Skiffle band called FALLOUT40.
JWP started to take more of the driving seat in his spongy brain bag when he came to the realization on one dark night in a van on the M25 that he could not even speak the language shared by his fellow band mates and that this was the reason for his exclusion from band conversations over the past 5 years. Bowled over by the novelty of speaking in his native English tongue and by the ability to communicate effectively and without the use of an interpreter to his band fellows, he threw himself into JWP with the enthusiasm of a perv in a brothel.
After many arguments and unresolved criminal investigations on missing person reports, he managed to find three other like-minded boing nongers to join him in mindset and his search for a new musical note! (he claims it to be called S, many have claimed different) then gave up soon after as the three ring sprinklers supplied him with an equivalent of three deciduous rain forests in Wilko's note book paper.
After an extensive band meeting about 'missing the point' and what to do with this surplus supply, he started to write down words from his greymatter spazdepriver onto the note paper as a means to make amends the apparent waste of our planets resource. These words formed the basis of the music that makes JWP what it is........what ever that maybe.
DAN WILLIAMS
Dan Williams, The Noise, Bash Ears, Bloody Filth Knocker, Slopdogging Skin Wrangler, Thunderklunk Mcguinness, Warblespunk the Funk Bunker, and Dave.
These are just a few of the names Dan has been known as over his musical career spanning an amazing 40 years! An incredible achievement for any 21 year old!
Dan started his life in a butchers shop in the south of Kent. Although he was 15 at the time, the question has to be raised, what did he do for the first 15 years of his life? Many have speculated about his involvement in the secret service and more precisely the black op's for young offenders scheme, which raised so much controversy in the early 90's.
When questioned on the subject, Dan merely looks into the distance and states "Well, someone has to pull those things outta' them", then quickly changes the subject.
He worked as a butchers apprentice for a while but bashed the bones too much to be a useful asset to a hard working butcher, so he was packed into his custom hard cases and shipped up to Belper in Derbyshire where he was told a kit was waiting for him to have and to hold. Dan while at first protesting after mishearing the word 'kit' as a rather more un-appealing substance when suggesting to have and hold something, soon found a family to live with and a noise to bash with. Then after a night of drinking pure drum scrapings through a straw, met Joe who fell over his own eyebrows whilst watching people watch other people watching football down the local pub, The Dirty Parrot.
They discovered a deep understanding of each others knee bones and talked for hours about skin bashing and brain splurging until they realised they needed to make noise with wooden things together. They organized a meeting in a public area with public disorder warning signs placed all around, and set about disorganizing a shrub using Gaffer tape and old pairs of earrings, and then wrote their first song about the experience before being led away by officers of the law to sit and consider their actions.
They didn't....... the rest is history.
THOM the bastard
Thom has killed people.
No information will be given as to the method of his victim’s disembowelment and DIY embalming service and as for the stolen eye jelly...this was purely a coincidence that it was missing. And besides, what would he do with eye jelly anyway??
His name would seem to suggest a slight impression of his character, as would his introduction here in our bio, this is all untrue. The court cases and public enquiry reports (also released in Braille by his demand!) clearly state Thom is no Bastard!....just a little bit bad tempered. And, loss of limb caused by Thom, could just as easily have been caused by "some other bastard" to quote the man himself. Especially when concerning his beloved Bass Rig which he calls 'Mugglewump the Wobble'. "Ya gotta' treat it right" he is heard telling wreckless bass players before mysterious disappearances take place in music venues around the country. When asked about the whereabouts of said bass players, Thom merely shrugs and says "I aint got no jelly have I!"
Thom bore witness to the 'public disorder, shrub, gaffer tape, and earring sessions involving Joe and Dan and found the experience a moving one. He immediately offered his services as a Bass player (and also to share his jelly) and the guys were too afraid to say no. Thankfully Thom turned out to be the legendary and much fabled 'Rumble Meister of the Apocalypse' and so all was well.
Thom also loves 'Tool' and own's a Labradoodle.
KATE ROUNDING
Kate knows only that she woke up in a cloth sack with only her clothes and a flute made of car parts one morning after going to see a band called 'Smellmongers Headache'.
After much screaming and writhing around, she was let out of the bag by Dan who was passed out next to her. Dan has struggled for years with a little known medical ailment known as 'Drummers' Band Splat' (DBS), which causes him to compulsively create bands for one night only shows to play the music from 'Little Shop of Horrors' in the style of the club singer.
Kate saw a poster stuck to a tree which appeared to be made out of repeat prescription notes and crayon. Being a curious sort of woman, she went along to the venue that evening which was a bus shelter in Greater Manchester, only to be confronted with 4 vagrants and a wide-eyed black haired Drum Stick wielding gent who welcomed her with the question "Do you have a Car?"
Feeling embarrassed that she was the only audience member and coming from a background in punk and tree hugging, (though not at the same time) she felt the need to support this poor deluded fool's DIY attempts and replied "Yes" then sat on a chair (or a bin, as they are more widely known) to enjoy the bands show. It did not go well, and the next thing she knew with certainty, was waking in the sack after one of the vagrants slipped her a sedative in her half time cup of coffee (which she demanded on pain of death). The vagrant had some rather unpleasant activities planned for her at the after show party but Dan luckily stole Kates car in the half time break and fashioned a flute from the exhaust manifold and presented the spaced out Kate with it in the second half. She was very flattered by the gesture, and also being not a little inebriated by the sedative, agreed to join the band on lead flute solo styles, which Dan was so happy about!
At the end of the show the bond forged from this musical journey caused Dan to fight the vagrant to deprive him of his wicked way with Kate. The man, who's name was Bill, was strangled to death by Dan with his own lower intestines........ gross!
After all of this was explained to Kate in the morning, she decided to forgive and forget and join his band JWP on flute and keyboard (although the car part flute was laid to rest due to logistical problems in transporting the instrument), but she got a new one, and joined our motley crew with the proviso that her eye jelly remained her own.
Who were the early influences? Do you all have similar listening tastes?
Joe: Yes but we all come from slightly different points. Dan is well into his classic stadium rock sound, Thom is slightly more from the prog persuasion. Me and Kate are kinda just what ever we like is good. An open ended completely unhelpful answer I suppose.
Did you know what sort of sound you were destined to have at the start, or has it developed a lot since you began?
Joe: As already stated the band has its ethos of what ever it comes out like, is how it will be heard. So no. The band’s sound has been refined though. We are firmly in the rock camp nowadays. We want to get our music to as many folks as poss and in trying to do this it becomes more important to make the sound more pigeon holed ye know? So we have made the band a more definable sound but with this in mind, the band has always done acoustic sets as well as their full band version, which has a slightly different feel, while retaining the jwp ting….we hope. Watch this space for some new stuff flying out at you after our single release and tour which might be a less garbled and non specific reply to your question.
How would you describe your sound to somebody who hadn’t heard you before?
Joe: A rock band with flute in it. A bit like marmite. mmmmmmmmmmm
Where did the name come from?
Joe: A flexi touch biro.
You released an EP last year. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Joe: The EP was a diy jobbie.
We recorded the drum sounds @ a friends studio (James singleton). Then brought it all back to my house and recorded the rest of it and mixed it in my bedroom. Im a firm believer of a “it aint what you got, its how you use it” style of production. Lovely studios with pool tables and built in cinemas can be nice, but don’t mean you will get a stunner! I like “Cut the Crap, let record” The ep was released, sold out and then we got a second pressing. It got entered into ‘The Pure Rawk Awards 2010’ and went on to win best ep/ single. We were well chuffed. since, I have moved into a studio (SOUND HUB, Belper, Derbyshire) and we have recorded 5 new tracks at this place to be included on an album later in the year along with a load of other tracks that will be recorded when we take my gear to a little cottage in Wales and spend a week making music. As well as some other ep’s and singles in the pipe line. It’s a creative time for jwp at the moment. Woop!
How is it performing so far in terms of sales, airplay and feedback? I understand the EP is “award winning”?
Joe: We have had some nice things said about it. we’re really excited to hearing more feedback from people, so if your out there, let us know what you think.
How do you go about writing your songs? Talk us through the construction of a typical track...
Joe: Ok, so I write most of the songs to their basic arrangement then bring them into a practice then we put em together as a band. The band as it stands is the most creative it’s been ever really. An amazing group of peeps who are my best friends. It feels good to create these things together. And I feel so safe to give over these bits outa my head. And the rest I can only assume feel the same. Its lovely.
Where do you look for your lyrical and musical writing ideas?
Joe: Life in general. Life can be hard and also quite wonderful. I’ve always used music as medicine. I think many people do. It’s why we love it so much I suppose.
Is there a story/theme running through your songs, or do you generally aim for standalone tracks?
Joe: Nah. They are what they are. Not sure really. The lyrical content usually means quite a lot to me. The rest follows suit...
You incorporate lots of less-mainstream instruments like mandolin and flute into your music. Is that just what you do, or did you deliberately head down a different musical avenue to separate yourselves from the crowd?
Joe: We would be lying if we said we didn’t like using a more varied sound but really,…. Again, it is what it is……. Sorry that’s probably quite useless. Our sound has all been done before. We aint re writing the way things are done, just only looking at the rules if its needed at the time. I hope that makes sense...They are just songs. Hope you like em...
You have a new single coming out in April. Tell us about it... and you planning a video?
Joe: The single is called YOU ARE THE SUN. It’s a song I wrote a while after my wife left me. I’m going to paste the explanation from our site. I spent some time writing that so I feel it’ll say it best...
"...This song is for someone who WAS my whole life. how proud I felt! .....she left. Then followed a long time of heartache and massive insecurity which out grew any bad time I have had in the past. i'd never felt quite so lost! ....Bad times. Don’t mis-read this as a 'poor me' statement. Everything that happens is a lesson. And therefore, valuable.....and a part of me. With the help of my amazing family and friends (im a very lucky lad), and a little later on a lovely girl called Hannah who has become a very big part of my happy xxx:) I came to realize how much better off I now am! This song was written on one of the occasions I was sat in my kitchen in a mess. (It’s a good place to be in a mess...it’s near the kettle:). I had just smashed a cup by accident and it started me off crying uncontrollably (:)HA! ridiculous!) but then, I started to laugh which just mixed in with the crying and made for a very silly scene indeed!:) a very strange moment for me, The headmush is a strange old space!
At some point in this scene, the sun popped out and I then drew the comparison of the sun and this woman. The sun is soooo amazing. all life depends on it. it is at the centre of our universe, it's not out all the time but it's always there, and you can rely on it coming up in the morning, even if it's cloudy. But, it's so destructive! it's so damaging! it will, eventually, cause the end of our planet, it's lovely to be out in, but it will burn you, give you cancer, make you blind, ruin your skin, make you thirsty, etc, etc, etc. I hope you see my point.
p.s The saddest thing about all of this is the time I spent with her almost feels devoid of value now. We had some amazing times, but they just seem dull when taking into account her reasoning and method of ending the relationship. did the stuff mean that much? This song is a VERY conflicted song. In one hand the time we spent will stay in my heart and soul, the greatest day of my life was the day we were married! But on the other hand, I wish it never happened! and I could happily remove that section of my life from memory Right Now! it feels tainted and cheap. I chose "You are the Sun" as the title and main lyric because of this conflict. I want people to listen to the track with a pre conceived notion of the songs subject. "you are the sun" sounds romantic or love filled or what ever. so you can feel comfortable in knowing this? It was a difficult song for me to write. I wanted you to feel unsure and maybe confused by it too.
....and if she does end up reading this........
you did this, not me....but i'll forgive you....I think.....erm.....?
I know it’s a long winded explanation but I kinda feel this needs to be said with this question sorry if it just went all pretentious…ah well. It is what it is.
Talk us through your existing touring/gigging plans...
Joe: We just want to gig!!!! As much as we can manage! Our live show is our best bit! We do the best when we can actually see the faces of folks. It makes for a more communal affair. We like that. Also people will get a clearer idea of what we are about. Come see us and you shall see what we mean!:) What is one of your live shows like? What should fans expect from one of your performances? Energy, friendly, nice folks playing their hearts out all in the name of a good show! A little bit of bad language (stage turrets I think:) The band don’t take our selves too seriously so don’t expect that looking from behind our hair sensitive shite, we have our tongue’s firmly in our cheeks. It’s the best way. Regardless of how serious the song is. People can listen to the words and look at faces if they wanna see meaning, otherwise join in with us takin the piss ay!? Lets have a good time!
What have been the highlights and lowlights of your musical lives so far?
Joe: A definite highlight for me personally is being in this band Right NOW. Its never felt this good before, even when times were good, and they were. But we just seem to have really become a little family. everyone is pushing in the same direction. No secret ego’s, no bullshit (which has been more of a problem than it should have been in the past) a big booya goes to our team who have always been our mums and dads (completely un rock n roll, but they are wikid!!!), but more recently we have found a manager called andy who is a legend! And is our 5th member, And a pr team Nikki and Kristy and our booking agent Jodie who are splendid! And nick @ evileye tattoo, who is our artist (what a legend) It makes me sooo happy to write this...I smile.
Any question you love being asked that I’ve missed? If so, what’s the answer?
Joe: You can decide on the question but im gonna go with: “only if my finger gets stuck, then ya gotta call the ambulance which is an obvious waste of tax payers money and therefore shows a lack of moral fibre”.
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Joe: I'm going to get my finger stuck in my ……. You can fill the blank yourself.
Anything else you would like to mention?
Joe: Absolutely nothing about fingers.
Thanks for your time
Joe: Thank you for taking an interest. hope you like our noise.
Thanks again to Joe for his time.
