Jon Kirkman
The
new album is called More Jack than God, which is a great title for an album. Tell me how
you arrived at the title. Jack Bruce
Well, it’s a very mundane answer I’m afraid, nothing to do with Eric
Clapton or born again religions or anything like that. The third track on the album is
called Kelly’s Blues and I’m playing acoustic guitar on it and a friend of mine
Godfrey Townsend is also playing acoustic guitar so when it came to the mix the engineer
said, “Do you want more Jack than God?” (Laughs) So that’s the title thank
you very much. JK
There are of couse going
to be a few people who will think it is some sort of reference to Eric Clapton I guess. JB
Well yeah! But why should it be? JK
I suppose it’s because of the connection you had with Eric in the past. JB
I know but that’s a long time ago. I know he played on the last record but I
don’t wake up in the middle of the night thinking of Eric Clapton. JK
I’m glad to hear it (laughs) JB
It’s quite a funny thing though. Do you know a magazine called the National
Enquirer? In the current issue, somebody drew it to my attention, there’s a picture
of me, like a very young picture of me, and there’s a picture of Eric Clapton now and
a picture of me then, and it says this is how Eric Clapton has aged. (Laughs) It’s a
bit shocking – before and after. JK
It’s great that you can look at things like that and laugh. JB
Well, you’ve got to laugh haven’t you really. JK
Well getting back to the album, you’ve mentioned Kelly’s Blues which is a
stand out track on the album but it tackles quite a serious subject doesn’t it and
also a very sad one as well? JB
It is very sad. You know you read something in the paper or whatever and it really
gets to you. We all do that and it just affected me and at the time I thought, “God!
What a tragedy, really.” JK
I suppose as a parent you could possibly empathise. JB
Well also because round about the same time I lost my own son. It was the same year
and it’s the whole thing of the tragic loss of a young life and it was so unnecessary
in her case and it just really got to me and I actually started writing it that year, or
actually it was a year later because after my son died I didn’t touch any musical
instrument for a year at least. Then we kind of worked on it over the years. Between now
and then and I just felt it was ready and it was a long enough period gone by. I obviously
didn’t want to hurt anybody you know. It was done out of a genuine memorial or
tribute whatever you want to call it. JK
I think with something like that there is a very fine line to be walked isn’t
there? JB
Yeah! I wouldn’t have written a pop song or something. It doesn’t matter;
people have different ways of doing it. Bob Dylan has written things in his career about
tragedies and so on so yeah! It was something I wanted to do and I finally managed to do
it and it’s done with respect. JK
Listening to the album I can see a lot of it turning up in the live set. How much
of the album would you like to see in the live set yourself? JB
I think we could do all of it really. There’s not anything we couldn’t do
there. JK
It’s obviously important for an artist to go out and promote the new album.
Audiences want to hear certain tracks from your past, which is understandable. JB
Well I’m not actually planning to go out on tour until next year anyway.
I’ve been having a year off and enjoying it. So even though I’m not planning on
going out immediately I know a lot of those songs will show up at some point. JK
That’s good and it obviously bodes well for the future because I know as an
artist you have to keep going and moving forward. You can’t just relax and live on
the past. JB
Exactly! This is the second of three records that I’ve been planning to do and
I’m still on course with that and I’ve done the third one, which I want to do in
Cuba and then who knows? I might move in other directions. But I just feel I wanted to
give this time to develop and I think the second record compared to the first one,
although I like the first one a lot, it had a spontaneous thing about it; this one is kind
of more homogenous. JK
I felt that the last album was a very nice introduction and for many people a
re-introduction of your talents. But this album goes a lot deeper. Would you agree with
that? JB
Yeah! Definitely! You know simply because it’s not a band record. I’m
working with some of the band on the record but I couldn’t really call a band record
because it would knock things off course. So it isn’t really a band record but the
band are all there you know but having the touring band there, having played a lot
together obviously it helps. JK
Well it makes things incredibly tight and with working together extensively I guess
you guys must work very intuitively as well. JB
Oh yeah! The way that for instance that the first track (So They Invented Race)
came together the way that I do things. I do a track here in my little studio then
I’ll take that to New York and just play it to the guys and they go immediately
“Oh yeah.” JK
Which must be good for you? JB
Yeah, it’s great because they respect my approach to rhythm, which is good. So
we keep the original track. It’s there but they’re playing with it. JK
In terms of the right record label for you Sanctuary would seem to be absolutely
bang on and the right company for you to be with at this moment. JB
Yeah, that was very lucky and something I’m very grateful to Gary Moore for.
It was him who introduced me to the company and if that hadn’t happened it would have
been much more difficult. I was talking to an American company, a good company and
everything but it’s much better having them in London. They are a great company, the
last of the great ‘hands on’ companies. JK
They strike me as the sort of company that signs artist and then says, “We
know what you do and believe in what you do, so go and do it and when you’ve done it,
we’ll go and do the business that we’re meant to do.” JB
That’s right. JK
I also think that over the last twenty years the tail has come to wag the dog in
respect of the music industry. JB
Well all the big companies are really panicked by the internet thing and all that,
and sales went down, although sales have gone up again in this country a bit and also the
big companies, because they’re so big, they need big sales really so they’re not
really interested. There’s a huge amount of artists, like the vast majority who
aren’t selling millions – not that anyone is selling millions any more (laughs).
But the kind of people like me, round about my sales potential – those companies
aren’t interested in. JK
I think Sanctuary have targeted artists who have a genuine track record and who
still retain a good audience and also have credibility. JB
They’ve got a tremendous amount of interesting acts now. JK
It also strikes me that Sanctuary has that one thing many others haven’t got
and that is integrity. JB
Yeah, they have that and obviously you always get worried when something gets that
successful. But obviously some of the big companies maybe in slightly better times would
want to gobble it up. So far that hasn’t happened and I don’t think it’s
really liable to happen now because they’ve got a bit too successful. JK
Getting back to the album, once again it’s been produced by yourself and Kip
Hanrahan, I guess this must be a very good working relationship you have with Kip. JB
Well it goes back. I’ve worked with Kip seventeen, probably twenty years
almost and I can’t imagine doing this kind of record without Kip’s input. JK
Going back to the work you did with Cream, you worked with Felix Pappalardi and Tom
Dowd and they were very respected although there was a time in the seventies when the
emphasis was on the artist rather than the productions. However it seems to have swung
around again and the production is equally as important as the artist. JB
Well with me and all the solo records I did I never really had a producer. I
suppose on Jet Set Jewel I had Dennis McKay but I always like to produce my own records
because I knew exactly what I wanted because I had written all the songs and I knew what I
wanted out of them, you know. But with Kip it’s just a great relationship with him.
He comes up with ideas for rhythms or whatever but I’ve still got the power of veto
(laughs). I’m not going with some big time producer who takes over completely and
I’m just a sideman. I wouldn’t fancy that really. JK
One of my favourite tracks on the album is Written in Blues on her Skin and
it’s a very stripped down affair with just drums and piano and sounds very late night
with dare I say it a certain amount of sleaze in there. JB
Well it’s just something I came up with on the piano in the studio really and
we just thought that might be a laugh and I thought I’d almost like to do it like in
a strip club because when I started out (laughs) I worked behind strippers a lot. JK
I’m sure many musicians started out like that. JB
Yeah, when I was about seventeen and starting out in Italy it was like that so I
just wanted to get that thing, and quite often you get the situation ok, if the bass
players gone out for a cigarette you’ve just got the piano player and the drummer
bashing away so it was a nod to that really. JK
Obviously many people know you as an excellent bassist but your piano playing is
pretty incredible too. Do you prefer the piano or bass or the guitar? JB
Well I like everything but my first love has always been piano because when I
started out there was a piano in my house and it was there so I just started tinkling on
it really so it’s always been my first love. The bass is just such a natural thing to
me now. I just sort of do it without thinking. It’s like an extension of myself.
Piano is more of a challenge and I just find it very rewarding and enjoy it. It’s
what I do at home. JK
Do you actually write on the piano or do you write on guitar? JB
It depends. Usually I get ideas because I play the piano a lot you know, just
improvise on my nice Yamaha piano and I get ideas that way, but usually I just work the
ideas out in my head, just think about them. But sometime you get an idea on acoustic
guitar like Kelly’s Blues is a guitar type song so it depends really on what the song
is you know. JK
There are three re-interpretations of Cream songs on the album including a track
called We’re going Wrong or as someone said, “Can you play that song I’m
Going Mad”. What’s the story behind that? JB
It was in my local pub and he was just a young guy, nineteen or whatever and he
just came up to me and asked for that song. So it struck me if he liked that perhaps I
should re-do it. So I thought of doing it live with the band on one of the gigs and so we
did those three tracks (We’re Going Wrong, I Feel Free, Politician) in England and
played them live you know; Live vocals, everything, just done as a live recording and it
gave me a hint as to what the rest of the record should be like. It was like a starting
point. JK
I personally love Politician and it’s sometimes difficult to re-interpret a
song that is so well known but I think you have come close to bettering the original. JB
Well I like that version. Whether it’s better or not I don’t know. I
hadn’t planned to have it on the record but the drummers, it’s one of their
favourites for live and they said, “Oh we’ve got to do that”. So I had to
agree (Laughs). I feel free I did because lots of people have done it like from David
Bowie to Belinda Carlisle. JK
And used in commercials.
JK
There’s a third album to come as
part of the deal with Sanctuary. When will you start thinking about that? JB
Well I’ve already got some ideas and actually got some recording for that
album. I would think that a nice time to do that would be to go to Cuba, say a year in
February (laughs) when it’s miserable weather here. JK
You are still very active in a touring capacity and obviously in a recording
capacity. How do you view yourself within the business these days? JB
Well I just think there has always been people like myself. I would say I relate
more to the jazz touring musicians that I grew up as a kid always respecting. I’m not
comparing myself musically but the people I admired were not the people who would just
think I’ve done enough I think I’ll retire now. People like Duke Ellington you
know, that was his life and I consider that very much a part of my life too. So I do think
of myself in that way as hopefully someone who will go on as long as there’s an
audience and as long as I can without striving to have huge hit records because I think in
a way if I’d had hit singles or something like that years ago it would have been
difficult for me to carry on the way I have. The fact that it’s been a regular thing
as opposed to a big burst of things and then trying to recreate that kind of success. I
deliberately did it this way so that I would have this fairly low key but successful in
its own way career. JK
Neil Young said once that after Heart of Gold he was right in the middle of the
road commercially so he veered off that road and said it was a more interesting journey. JB
Well I think that’s the same as me. After Cream I decided, and it was a
deliberate decision, not to continue down that road and when Eric and Ginger were playing
at Madison Square Garden with Blind Faith I was playing in a club called Slugs in the East
Village which is no longer there. But that was a great experiential jazz club. JK
I think doing that though gives you ultimately more control over what you want to
do. JB
Well it’ just kept me more down to earth really although I’ve equally had
my moments of not being, (Down to earth) it would have been much worse if I had have
joined Led Zeppelin I suppose. (Laughs) JK
Good luck with the album and thanks for talking to me today. JB
Thanks Jon. © Jon Kirkman Rockahead September 2003. |
