Interview by Nick Charles for Rhythms. December 2010
January 9th, 2011Interview by Nick Charles for Rhythms. December 2010
Leigh Sloggett is a Melbourne based acoustic roots guitarist and singer songwriter who creates wonderful moods and grooves with catchy melodies and direct lyrical images. Swapping from lap to regular guitars he pays homage to earlier icons without being an imitator and the results leave an indelible and at times dark image. He’s a regular performer on the folk and blues circuit and definitely one to keep an eye out for.
Even though you started playing at a young age you had quite a hiatus in your playing career. What brought you back to music in such a big way? I’d have to say song writing. It gave me a reason to be making music beyond copying other guitarists. When I began again I had maturity and experiences on which to reflect. When I stopped in my twenties I was boring myself with a lack of direction and there seemed to be no need to play other than the pleasure of playing itself.
It’s obvious you have blues influences but there appears to be a decidedly modern roots sound at work. Who are some of your guiding lights? The first main influence would have come from Dutch Tilders. That gave me a love for country blues and led me back towards that tradition. Then Cooder and Kottke who I both saw in concert as a teenager and who inspired my interest in slide guitar. Another strong influence was David Bromberg’s wonderful acoustic playing. When I came back to playing, people like Ben Harper were making original contemporary acoustic orientated music which seemed to have grown out of the styles that I had also enjoyed. Hearing Kelly Jo Phelps’s album ‘Roll Away the Stone’ confirmed a lot of things for me.
The open tunings create intense moods, which is something you seem to aim for. Tell me about them and where you picked up on them. Well you can see by the influences where my interest in open tunings came from. It all grew from the old blues players. For me it is about the moods you get from open tunings but also the directness, simplicity and freedom that they bring, especially as a solo performer.
It’s a challenging environment being a solo and original performer and trying to grab the attention of a typical audience. How are you finding the live scene these days? Yes, finding appropriate venues is always a big challenge. The other challenge is getting bums on seats. It is always unpredictable, often the gigs you expect to be the best are the worst and the ones you expect to be bad surprise you. It seems to be a matter of slowly accumulating more and more venues that love what you do and are happy to have you back. Maintaining a positive frame of mind and keeping it in perspective is important.
You’ve got some nice instruments I notice!
Yes I’m very pleased with the guitars I’m playing at the moment. For my lap-slide I have a custom Martin D28JPII. The JP stands for Japan. It was custom made for a Japanese Martin dealer. I recently had the bracing scalloped which has really brought it to life. My standard guitar is also a custom guitar, made by Jim Cargill which is giving me a lot of pleasure. I have Sunrise pickups in the sound holes of each guitar and run them through some effects (mainly reverb) and a Fishman preamp. The Sunrise pickups have a lot of clarity, which is nice for finger picking.
The new album “Looking for Clues” seems reflective and at times dark. How did it come about? I released ‘Looking for the Clues’ in November 2008 and recorded it at Sweetwater Studio in Frankston. Ray Luckhurst engineered it and I had Liz Frencham on double bass and backing vocal and Mark Blanch and Tom Moore on drums and percussion on various tracks. Gretchen Anderson played violin on ‘Am I Going Insane’ and Stax played the didgeridoo on ‘River’. Jeremy P Martin helped with the violin orchestration as well as the drum sample on ‘River’. Copies can be ordered through all good record stores, on line from my website www.luckyleigh.com , at CD Baby and always at my gigs.
Would you say you’re a songwriter who follows traditional structures? Some of your songs have a very open ended narrative style. My song writing is completely intuitive. I wouldn’t say there aren’t traditional structures in my songs but they would be there by osmosis rather than intellectual intent. That said, I enjoy learning music theory and practicing scales and those aspect of music, but when I write I don’t consider those formal aspects. What I do is listen for how things feel. My lyrics generally draw on my own life experiences or those of people around me that I’m close to. The experience of living overseas for several years has provided me with a lot of material. Beyond that I’ve noticed I have quite a few songs that relate to environmental degradation which is something that concerns me a lot.
Art is another passion you have. Do they inform each other in any way? My art and music are more like two halves that complete me. Each achieves what the other cannot. I don’t think my art and music inform each other except in a broad way. My art has taught me to be open to ideas that come through play (like a child making up games). So in many ways it’s a journey of discovery rather than having an intended goal that I aim to reach. This is certainly true with my lyric writing. More often than not my lyrics grow from a first line rather than an overall initial concept. I think the secret to creativity is to be aware of, and open to the muse when it comes. To do that you, have to give yourself time and space. You also have to catch it before it passes you by.
