Graham Parker

Graham Parker emerged from the pub-rock scene of Great Britain in the early '70s, though Parker himself insists that he really wasn't ever a part of that scene. With influences that include Top of the Pops, the Supremes, the Four Tops, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and James Taylor, he has become a longstanding artist that has garnered fans from all over the world. Coming from an era that made the reputations of Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, Graham Parker released his first album, Howlin Wind. Set to a fast Motown rock and roll, this album and its predecessor, Heat Treatment, didn't sell as well as expected. His third album, Stick to Me, was a much better effort in his eyes. The critics disagreed and found his previous two works to be more favorable, thus sparking his life-long bitterness towards rock writers and record labels. Some of Parker's greatest success came with his next album, Squeezing Out Sparks, which charted both in the US and the UK. The endless touring and inability to gain the acceptance he deserved took its toll and the end of his illustrious career was close at hand. We here at Enigma had the opportunity to sit down with Graham recently and discuss his passions, his struggles and the history that made up his amazing career.

When did you first start writing music?

I think the first song I wrote, I was thirteen because that's when the Beetles and Stones came along and it became possible for people to write songs. It was sort of a bad Beetles rip off and I kind of dabbled with it for years. Meanwhile I left school and did normal jobs and didn't take my talent seriously until I was in my early twenties and then the singer/songwriter craze came along and everybody had an acoustic guitar like James Taylor and Joanie Mitchell. That was a good inspiration to get into song writing and I started writing hundreds songs and I just kept getting better. Then in about 1973 or 1974 I started writing stuff that I thought was worth pursuing and that's when I put my mind to it. From then on, I found myself with a career.

You also write short stories.

When I was 21, I was working in a gas station and I was feverishly writing lots of songs when I was at home, but when I was in the gas station in a small village with very few customers, I spent my time writing fiction. I wrote a whole novel called, The Great Trouser Mystery, which is sort of a Sci-Fi fantasy comedy and I kind of left it on the backburner and concentrated on my music and got it off the ground and then I had that book published in England. In the early 1990's I started again with the fiction and I wrote another novel and continued with the short stories. In 2000 St Martin's Press published 10 short stories called Carp Fishing on Valium. Now I'm rewriting the novel I left on the backburner because I think it has some great stuff but it was poorly written. As I went along I learned more and more about writing. This stuff takes much more work than songwriting because these short stories can be 20 or 30 pages while a song is just a couple of minutes long. It takes a different degree of attention.

Has writing always been an outlet for you?

Yeah I guess. You write songs because you have a lot of pent up energy and emotion and that's the way to get it out. It solves a lot of problems.

When you write or perform live, who do you have in mind? Yourself? Mass Consumption?

Mass consumption is not even an issue. I'm not satisfied unless I feel I am writing something that resounds in some way within me. It doesn't have to be something staggering every time, but it has to have enough depth and credibility that I feel that I'm not shortchanging myself. That's the important thing. I certainly can't get away with anything that I feel I'm doing in an artificial manner. I'm really not thinking of people in any sense, I'm just thinking about doing the best I can for myself.

When you are touring with the Figgs, what do you look for when you are putting your band together?

Those guys have been a band together for a long time. So I'm kind of joining the band in a way, when I play with them. I let them come up with their own take on things. It's worked really well. The Figs are just a great band and the most exciting band I've worked with in a long time. We do a great show and it's been really fantastic.

In all your years of experience, what has been the hardest part of keeping a band together?

It's always the financial aspect. A band is an impossible thing for me to keep. It's awful to put grown men together for long periods of time. It's an unnatural thing. This works out great because the Figgs are the Figgs. They have their own career going. They have their own show. They make their own records. I just call them up from time to time and ask them what they are doing in three months time. Can you do some gigs? I don't have any responsibility in keeping the band together and I don't want it.

What part of creating a song do you like best?

There's always the point where you've gone through the whole entire process of writing, doing demos, recording it, and then knowing you've really nailed it. The most satisfying thing is knowing that you succeeded. It's very uplifting to make a breakthrough on something you've been struggling with.

Early in your career you were labeled an angry young man. Where did that come from? Do you think it was a fair assessment or was it some sort of marketing ploy to fit you in with other singer/songwriters of your genre?

My first record came out in 1976 and it still seemed to me that progressive music ruled, especially where I come from (the suburbs of England). I was kind of hanging out in my home village and driving up to London to meet these musicians who would become my band and formulate my ideas. I really wanted to change music and bring it back to the three and a half/four minute multi influenced pop song. My first album has all kinds of examples of that on it as well as a huge amount of intensity, which was deliberate on my part because I wanted to break through this (what I thought) very lazy and smug progressive music that ruled over everything. I wanted to cut through that very strongly. There were a couple of songs that were very intense and could be called angry, but it wasn't a ploy by the record company. It was the press and I think they said that very naturally and honestly.

How has your motivation shifted as you got older?

I'm not trying to break out and do some Brazilian Samba music or classical or anything extreme. I'm interested in a three and a half/four minute song with a multi influence, and it hasn't really changed. My latest album could have been done in the 1970's, apart from my singing which is way better now. I think I was an awful singer when I got started. The themes change a little bit but there is the same kind of passion and intensity.

Has there ever been a time when you lost faith?

This business is a roller coaster. Sometimes you think nobody cares anymore. You're going to go through that. I've just learnt that you never know what's around the corner. Suddenly you make a new album or write some new songs and everything begins again. It's a way of staying young because you are always starting again.

You are not very enthused by the larger record labels that are out there, why?

I'm not very enthused by any record labels. I use them as a bank and that's all. I want their money and I have no interest in anything else. I'm not on a major label because they're not interested in me. Labels are about making large amounts of money very quickly and that's all they care about. Creatively they are redundant, so I don't have any great things to say about any record label, including the one that I'm on.

Do you think they (labels) are a necessary evil?

Now, so many things are open for musicians. You can go the route where you put your own record out. You can form your own record label, although I would rather have BMG distributing me than me distributing me. I'm going to always try to use the opportunity that I have fans in various record labels who are willing to say yes we will give you this amount of money. I'm going to go that way as long as there is interest in me.

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