Before anyone reads this, its worth pointing out that this was written as academic piece of work that wasn't intended as a blog post, which is why I have referred to myself in the third person. Its not something that I ever EVER do.
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It’s a sunny June afternoon in Didsbury,
Manchester. As I wait for my companion to join me in the beer garden of The
Fletcher Moss, I shuffle through my notes and consider whether or not I will need
them. After some delay, my companion arrives, glass of ice water in his hand
and guitar on his back. Growing up in Oldham, a northern town on the outskirts
of Manchester, like so many other suburban musicians, Martin Minshall has found
something of a home in the venues of Manchester city centre and beyond. The over
saturated ‘circuit’ of sorts within a music city such as Manchester can be
something of a frustrating scene to be a part of, but teenage idols such as
Noel Gallagher and, above all else, David Bowie provided a younger Martin with
a great sense of direction. Starting out when he was 16 just 2 years ago, with
the carefully constructed stage name of ‘Faraday (Martin Minshall)’ a now 19
year old Martin has dropped the moniker he adopted (from a Manchester street no
less) and has decided to just go with his birth name ‘Martin Minshall’. “I’m
dropping Faraday”, he exclaims before he has even sat down and got himself
together after the long journey on public transport from Ashton-Under-Lyne,
where he now resides. With this, my aforementioned notes go back into my bag,
in favor of the more organic conversation he has immediately evoked.
Once he’s
sat down and has wiped the sweat from his brow, the first thing I put to him is
a quote from the Oldham Evening Chronicle in June 2011. Just 3 months after
starting out, this was Martins first ever print feature and interview. He
discussed many ambitious and aspirations back then. So in June 2013, I ask if
he still stands by this particular statement: “In 10 years time? I’m not going
to lie, filling Wembley Stadium is a dream and as unrealistic as it sounds I
can keep the hope that one day it will happen”. His new response? “Absolutley.
I still stand by every aim in that interview. My perspective has changed in 2
years but I still stand by it and I’m doing everything I can with my new EP to
take me a step further towards that”. And he certainly is. The live arena is
certainly an arena in which Martin excels. He regularly draws crowds on the
Manchester unsigned scene, and has got a handful of shows in cities across the
UK under his belt too. Indeed, it was Martin’s live show what initially drew me
in. I first came across Martin supporting Sam Smith & Company at Retro Bar
in Manchester, almost a year ago to the day. On the day of the queens jubilee,
he decorated the stage with a union jack, removed his shoes and wowed the crowd
with an uncharacteristically energetic set (for an acoustic artist at least),
playing songs from his debut EP ‘Perspectiv’ coupled with a precise but
personal rendition of Green Eyes by Coldplay, a song he recorded for his first
demo tape.
Now discussing live music, we talk about Manchester’s emerging scene
and I ask him how he feels about the concept of ‘pay to play gigs’ (a concept
where the artist buys x amount of tickets for their own show in advance as part
of the booking contract, in return for the opportunity to play certain venues).
Not everyone does it, and the controversy surrounding these gigs are well
documented, but I know that Martin has played a few so I ask. He responds by
telling me that he shys away from them “Its unsustainable. They (the promoters)
have a job to do and they need to book enough gigs to earn a living”. After
this somewhat short response Martin begins to talk about what he believes to be
the greater issue regarding live music on the unsigned scene “The problem is, there
isn’t enough promoting in promotion. I understand that its hard, if you do put
on x amount of gigs per week, to push each and every individual one. I see
promoters put tweets and Facebook posts out and they just pass me by, even if
they are booking bands that I actually like, I just go past them because its
just another blanketed promoter gig”. It’s clear by his conviction that Martin
is speaking from experience. The last “blanketed promoter gig” that Martin did
was at Liverpool Academy in September 2012, a ticketed ‘pay to play’ gig billed
as the official after show party for the “Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds”
show at the Echo Arena on the same night. Priced at £10, Martins ambitious
manager (who is notably absent from todays meeting between us) attempted to
book a coach to bring fans from Manchester. After interest waned due to the
actual Noel Gallagher show being sold out, leaving Martins fans without tickets
to the main show, he sold just 10 tickets. In addition, he was unexpectedly
handed a set time of 8pm, before Noel Gallagher had even taken the stage at the
Echo, thus clashing with the main support band (none other than former Blur
guitarist Graham Coxon). He played to a room that holds roughly 2 thousand
people yet, on September 9th 2012 at 8pm, it barely contained enough
people to require security staff. A Seemingly unfazed Martin delivered his 30
minute acoustic set with the precision and professionalism of someone such as
Noel Gallagher or Graham Coxon, and what’s more, he did it as if the venue was
full. I remind him of that night. “Being an acoustic artist, you sort of
realize that it has it drawbacks. Promoters will put you on earlier in the bill
and as a result, people are less likely to pay attention to you. They act on
the assumption that the acoustic guitar shouldn’t be loud and it should be
toned down for gigs and you should stand still at gigs” What abruptly follows
is an energized artist who clearly loves what he does. Martin almost interrupts
himself by continuing with an emphatic “NO! I’m gonna grab ‘that’ persons
attention like the front man of an actual band would. Just..without the band”.
I feel that now would be the right time to ask the question no journalist wants
to ask an unsigned solo artist, but somehow I'm gonna have to, and now is the perfect time. He responds with an
elongated, somewhat trepidations “No” when I enquire into his plans to form his
own band around his name. “I will probably assemble a band of session musicians
when I launch my new EP but nothing permanent. It depends on the response the
new EP gets. There is no definite plan yet anyway. I don’t think I would get a
‘band band’; I’d probably end up going down the more expensive route of session
musicians. Looking into the future and eventually recording albums, my idea
would be to record with certain musicians that fit a certain concept. It
wouldn’t be a permanent band. Bowie was an amazing manipulator. I’m obsessed
with his methods. I think people are naive when they say that Bowie drifted
from style to style and hit the nail on the head every time…no he didn’t. Every
single move was calculated and if you want to hit the nail on the head every
time, then you have to be calculated.” After a lengthy and passionate
discussion on the merits of David Bowie, a subject in which I am assured he
could talk about all night, talk shifts towards a picture of him and his
guitarist Mick Ronson, which hangs on the wall in Blueprint studios, setting
Martin off with wild claims about his plans to steal it, which is when talk shifts
abruptly to his recent time there recording ‘EPii’, the working title for his long
anticipated follow up to 2011’s debut acoustic EP ‘Perspetiv’.
Martin regularly
describes Manchester’s Blueprint Studios as “home” and it quite clearly is as
its still to this day the only studio he has ever used. These sessions have been
different though he tells me, as ‘EPii’ will be Martins first effort to include
the thing he says he doesn’t want…a band, or does it? Recorded sporadically in
late 2012 and most of 2013, the yet-to-be-named EP contains contributions from
session musicians and friends alike. Assembled together with his producer (simply
known as ‘Fred’), it contains a hired rhythm section of Nick Blaca and Brian
Hargreaves on bass guitar and drums respectively. In addition, Martin looked to
both Sam Smith and Chris Gilman, the 2 lead guitarists in Manchester band ‘Sam
Smith & Company’ to complete the main backbone of his sound. Together with
Martin’s voice, his wonderful talent on the piano and his standard acoustic
guitar, the record will also contain a string quartet arranged by and
featuring none other than his manager, Annabel Revell on Cello. “This EP is
different. More effort has gone into it. My last EP did a great job in that..it
served a purpose, this is me, I’m here. My first ever gig was when I launched ‘Perspectiv’,
and that was just to say, again, this is me. Now, I’m trying to put as much
effort into presenting the music as much as anything else, just to do it
justice.” And this is where Blueprint Studio’s come into play. Widely regarded
as the Abbey Road of the north, Blueprint studios is perhaps most famous for
being the home of Manchester band Elbow. And Martin feels no different. I ask
him why he often describes it as home and he responds in a typically warm
fashion “because I can walk down the corridor in my socks” he says with a
smile. As fans of Martin will know, removing his shoes before a performance is
part of his stage show. And as a critic, his response to my question, coupled
with the fact that I have witnessed many of his live shows, the only conclusion
I can draw is that this is how Martin makes every stage he graces seem like home,
like he completely owns it (however subconscious that may be). This, coupled with a growing rapport with
Fred, his returning producer, must leave fans his fans salivating with
excitement. Without a release date for the EP, it’s hard for Martin to predict
what is coming up for the rest of 2013. He assures me he is taking his time and
that he is doing so “for all the right reasons”. As the ice cubes in his water
have long since melted and sun looks like its turning into rain in true
Mancunian fashion, we briefly discuss his plans for the coming months; “I’m
playing a show at Dry Bar on July 26th and then after that, I’ll be
launching the EP”. But when that will be, I don’t think even he knows. He seems
keen to get this release just right with delivery, and everything else that
comes with it.
Samuel Smith - June 2013
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Martin is all over the internet, but everything is viewable from his Facebook page at http://facebook.com/faraday.official
