Asia Fields interview 7.7.17
Manchester, UK indie rock and pop group Asia Fields who incorporate elements of funk and dance with layered percussion have just released ‘Goodbye Frank’ featuring much loved tunes such as Dazed, Save Me, Ain’t That Just What Love Is, Friction, and many more unheard demos from ’88 onwards available on vinyl and CD. I interview lead singer Graham Maley about his days in the band and what he’s up to now!
Louder Than War:
Can you give us a bit of background of your upbringing?
I was born and
grew up in Harpurhey Manchester 9 in the 1960’s. I attended St Thomas’s
county primary in Crumpsall and then the, ‘famous for all the wrong reasons’
Plant Hill high school in Blackley in the mid 1970’s. A more Northern, working
class background would have been hard to find. Both schools developed and
finely tuned my survival instincts; academia would have been a bonus if at all
possible. Having said that sport was high on the agenda and I spent most of my
youth playing football and listening to music. I left school and took an
apprenticeship in engineering, lasting 5 years. I left around the time of my 21st birthday,
bought a Ford Transit van and set off for Europe with an acoustic guitar and 2
passengers, one of which was Tony Welsh. (relevant for later).
What was the first
music you remember listening to?
The music I remember
as a very young child, obviously played by my parents consisted of a lot of
Jazz, some good old crooners, and the two stand out albums I always remember
were ‘Sergio Mendiz and Brazil 66’ and the theme music from the musical ‘Hair.’
I also remember certain songs from the radio impacting me massively, none
greater than hearing David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’ for the first time in the
summer of 1973. Of course The Beatles, The Kinks, The Stones, were a constant
backdrop for me before I had reached the age of 10. My Aunty was married to the
original drummer of the Hollies and they were both big into the music scene so
I heard a lot of the above bands, especially The Beatles round at their house.
What was the first
serious music you got into?
I remember a lot of
music coming in at once. My sister was 3 years older and into old school Reggae
and American funk and I remember really liking this stuff. I would have been
around the age of 13. I was particularly struck with the sound of funk guitar
and Bass. I loved Funkadelic and Parliment but was also listening to Bowie and
Lou reed. And then Punk came crashing in which only mildly caught my attention,
but what followed influenced me massively. Most of my school mates were into
heavy rock and metal but I remember a couple of us discovering bands like
X.T.C, Joy Division, The Jam, The Buzzcocks, Talking Heads, Magazine etc. These
were such great discoveries at the time and we felt like we had discovered
something sacred.
What was your
musical background before Asia Fields?
I began writing songs
in my mid teens, nothing of any quality and definitely lots of cringe worthy
stuff, but I was interested in the idea of telling a story through the medium
of music. Around the age of 17 I met Tony Welsh at Oldham College. We had
similar diverse tastes in music and became great mates. It wasn’t long before
we put a band together called Jazmedia with Tony on guitar and me on vocals,
Karl Drinkwater on saxophone and I think Mark Hughes on bass, later to be
replaced by Mark Hindley. We acquired Dunc the drummer later and Gillian Wright
on trumpet. We were quite experimental, maybe in the way of Biting Tongues,
Rip, Rig and Panic, Laughing Clowns even. We gigged locally but split up after
around two years. Tony and myself carried on writing and formed a little unit
called ‘Aldo in Arcadia.’ I can’t remember how but we met Clint Boon soon after
and he heard us rehearsing at Unit 8 in Oldham. He returned with his four track
recorder and we made a demo which is still around somewhere. I think this was
1983/1984. We played a gig at the Castle, the former Grey Horse in Oldham which
ended up in a drunken brawl and me and Tony being banned from there. One week later
we were travelling around Europe busking for food.
Who did you meet
from Asia Fields first?
Tony and myself went
our different ways in Europe. We lived in Italy for a while before he headed
off to Germany and myself hitched hiked to Greece and the Islands. We had no
contact during that time but when I eventually returned to England I telephoned
him only to find out he had arrived home on the same day. We met up and carried
on writing once more. We started rehearsing at The Mill and Chris Goodwin heard
us and offered his services on drums. We re established our connection with
Clint. The Inspiral Carpets were formed by this time but had a different line
up and I don’t think Clint had joined at that point. We acquired the Bean
brothers on congas, bongos and percussion. We needed a bass player and Chris
brought his mate David (Taff) Jones along who had just bought an acoustic
guitar but couldn’t play bass. Chris said he was a good lad though and that he
looked the part. We took him at his word and we began rehearsing with Taff
learning at a great speed. We had a couple of female backing vocalists too and
very early on Clint was again recording our demos. I loved Chris’s style of
drumming and he really enhanced my love of rhythmic, funky guitar. We were both
quite into A Certain Ratio among others and we were enjoying the direction we
were heading. I remember buying a Wah pedal in 1985 and that made things more
dancier. I think me and Chris gelled well musically and with the addition of
Latin and Cuban trained percussionists we were leaning towards a dance sound
but still holding down an indie feel. We also recruited a saxophonist later on
which gave a slightly different feel to the band. Some time after this we lost
Tony Welsh which left me as the main songwriter.
How were
rehearsals?
Rehearsals became a
way of life. Two or three times a week we were at it, which led us into
venturing out to do gigs. Firstly in Oldham and then on into Manchester. We
kept this line up for around three years. We were very disciplined with
rehearsals, very rarely missing one and I always remember them to be
productive. We weren’t really a band that argued a lot and fall outs were none
existent. We did a few demos with Clint Boon and a couple with other people.
This line up lasted until 1988. The new line up saw the introduction of Eamonn
Sheehy on drums, Mark Finch on guitar, and Paul (hewie) Hewitt on bongos.
Who came up with
the songs?
I was writing the
songs for the band, mostly on acoustic guitar and then taking them into
rehearsal where they would be adjusted and arranged a little depending on what
sort of feel we got to them and where the dynamics and emphasis would be.
Were they band
efforts?
We did used to Jam
stuff but not really for long. We always has a framework or structure to the
songs I brought in and then we may go over sections of the song to establish a
feel. There are examples though of where a song was jammed into existence as in
the deleted single ‘Friction.’ Sometimes songs came out massively different
from how I wrote or perceived them. I remember periods though where we moving
in different musical directions and it was almost impossible to bring a new
song in because of pull in opposite directions.
Who were your
musical influences around this time?
I think my musical
influences came from a few places. I was a big Postcard records fan and found
Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, Josef K delightful. A few mainstay bands were always
there though, such as Talking Heads, Pale Fountains and Shack, Love, A.C.R.
I was a big Smiths and James fan but they never influenced me as a songwriter.
That was the same for many other bands I was into earlier on such as The
Bunnymen, Wah Heat, Teardrop Explodes, Psychedelic Furs, Fire Engines and many
more. Some bands inspire you to be in a band but don’t influence the way you
write. And others do both.
Did you have any
plans to get signed by a major and go places? Or was it a joy ride kinda thing
for you all?
We always had our
vision romantically tied in the Indie way. We were climbing the ladder in a gig
sense, packing out Manchester and then London venues and others in between. We
were preparing the release of our debut E.P. ‘Burst’ we had recorded with
Graham Massey engineering on our own ‘Frank records’ label, yet managing to
pull crowds of over 500 people before we had the record out. We refused all
interviews with magazines and Music papers not wanting to be tied up with the
Madchester movement. We had a building in Oldham where we were rehearsing, and
the record company was on the second floor. Our manager lived on the top floor
and we built a wine bar (Jacksons Pit) in the cellar, which still functions
today as a cool venue for bands. So we had all we needed to remain totally
independent and were living in a lovely bubble of self sufficiency. We had
offers from many labels during 1989/1990 including three major labels but we
stayed firm with our intentions and refused all advances. The single was
released and sold over 5000 copies. We then recorded the follow up single
‘Friction’ which we recorded with Chris Nagle. This eventually got deleted and
the roller coaster had begun.
There’s quite an
upbeat Brazilian feel some of the tracks. Was this an influence on your
playing?
There was a period
where we using our influences quite prominently. David the conga player was
really into Latin/Brazilian/Cuban stuff. Also Mark Finch was developing his
style under the West African influence. We were all into Talking Heads also and
I think you can hear this influence. We always tried to keep some Indie
reference to it all but we drifted for certain.
Where did you play
gigs at this time?
We were signed to
‘Blast Hard’ agency and we embarked upon a couple of national tours, so lots of
University gigs and a focused effort in London. We travelled quite a lot in
this period and received very welcoming reviews from the music papers etc which
led us into eventually compromising our stubbornness and doing a full page
spread for N.M.E.
Did you support any
bands of interest?
We supported The
Inspiral Carpets a good few times. The first one being November 1989 at the
International. Everything seemed perfect for our performance there and it
certainly served as a springboard for us. It is still one our most talked about
gigs. We also supported The Charlatans, The Levellers and Shack, which was
wonderful for me personally being a big Shack fan.
Any interesting
stories of life on the road?
One springs to mind.
We had played Alexandra Palace in London and we had no-where to go so we
thought it would be a good idea to drive all the way to Ridge Farm recording
studios where The Inspirals were recording an album. We bought masks and found
the studio eventually then broke in as the Inspirals slept. It was probably
about 4am and the chaos that ensued was a delight to witness. We drank beer and
played pool until the morning came and then set off back for Manchester. I
drove the whole way and then got out in Failsworth where David Keane (Beanie)
took the wheel for the remaining two miles. He did a dodgy right turn and
ploughed into a van at the Roxy cinema, tipping the hired mini bus over and
causing more entertainment for the people queuing to watch the film than I imagine
the film itself. Beanie wasn’t insured to drive so he was trying to put his
bobby hat on the head of our manager who was insured to drive before crawling
out of the mini bus. We could cram some crazy times into a 24 hour period. I am
remembering more as I think but maybe some should stay as memories only!
How long were Asia
Fields together?
We formed in 1984 and
disbanded in 1999
When did Asia
Fields come to an end?
We were asked to make
an album which would be released and I have no memory of who by. We chose to
record with the lovely and sadly departed Steve Lloyd at the Noisebox in
Prestwich. I think we spent around a week recording mostly new stuff. We had a
different line up at this point with Dave Wells replacing Eamonn Sheehy on
drums, Andrew Preston joining us on keyboards and Christian Butterworth had
replaced David Keane on bongos and percussion. We did however ask David back to
come and record on the album which he did. This was 1999 and our direction in
music had changed. I thought it was some of the best stuff we had written. We
stayed in the studio for around a week and recorded nine songs. We said our
goodbyes and planned to ring each other the next week for rehearsal as usual
and to continue with the details of the album. It just never happened though.
Nobody rang. I think with all we had been through it was too much effort to
carry on. Too many years and too much ill fate. As though we had died years ago
but no-one could face the funeral so we kept on going. The irony of it was the
album was already called ‘The Good Goodbye.’ And the album remained unheard for
eighteen years until Cherry Red got in touch with us to ask we would include
the single ‘Dazed’ on the up coming compilation album ‘Manchester North Of
England.’ I got talking with John Reed from the label and we discussed the
album amongst other things. He asked if we were interested to release it with
them, which we obviously were. So after years in the dark we have two albums
released and a track on a compilation album.
What did you do
after Asia Fields?
Briefly put a band
together with Tony Welsh once more, under the name Go Cosmic. I think we had
some strong songs and had potential but the dynamics of the band didn’t work so
it was a short lived affair. Then I began playing with James Loughlin from the
99s. We formed a little project called The Homelys. We kept it very garage
like, recording most things actually in my garage. It expanded eventually and
became a full band. We have a few recordings on you tube and The Homelys
facebook page.
Do you still play
now?
I moved to a small
village in southern Spain almost three years ago. I have managed to put a band
together here with a bit of an international feel. We have the luxury of being
able to record in the Bass player’s house so we are managing to document the
creativity. It has a different feel to the music than anything I’ve done
before, which I like as it stretches me as a song writer. And in this tiny
Spanish village I stumbled upon the bass player who is also from Manchester,
and has a very similar musical upbringing. We are about to become more active
in a gig sense and hopefully release some material under the name ‘Aluna Pop
Ups’
What are you up to
these days?
Still as interested in
music as ever. Had a bit of a lifestyle change obviously with moving out to
Spain. Enjoying learning the language and embracing a new culture. There are
less than ten English people in the whole village so I have avoided the expat culture
and thrown myself in the deep end, which has brought its challenges, but has
stopped me from becoming sterile and safe. I have written a couple of books
under the pseudonym Grov Moluvsky and am currently embarking upon a third. I
still return to Manchester a few times a year, it is a magnet for sure and if
the sun shone a bit more there i’m certain I would be back in Manchester 9 with
those wonderful scallywag mates of mine!
~
You can follow Asia
Fields on Facebook.
Goodbye Franke is available to purchase from Vinyl Revival .
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