exclusive INTERVIEW And Also The Trees (2009):

Simon Huw Jones (shj)

Justin Jones (jj)

1.What were the main elements that gave TRABM album its direction and atmosphere?

shj- Working with a different bass player (Ian Jenkins) and the fact that he was playing a different instrument (the double bass), gave the music a very
different feel right from the start, especially the parts that were bowed. The
richness of that deep, wooden sound was new and exciting for us and it seemed to integrate with our style very well, without taking it off in a jazz or
pseudo classical direction

Justin's guitar sound and style of play seemed very pure to me as well, pure in the sense that it was very much his style and sound rather than drawing influence from anywhere else. Most of my lyrical inspiration comes directly from the music, so these sounds are the equivalent of musical seeds.

In the end, I also think that the sound of the album was coloured by the locations we worked and recorded the music in a shed surrounded by mud, cockerels and stinging nettles, a disturbingly beautiful 11th century manor house and a victorian chapel in the east end of London, which makes it sound as though we set out to find interesting places to work but in actual fact it was chance that dealt us, this interesting hand. They were more or less the most convenient, affordable and.. Ok...interesting places
we found to work in

2. AATT have been making music for almost 30 years now. Do you find it an increasing disappointing when the amount of CDs you sell the type of concerts you play aren't that different, or does this give you a feeling of having complete artistic freedom?

jj- I am not disappointed. Being a musician on our own terms is a privilege. We even deliberately play smaller concerts than we should sometimes, just to keep it interesting and intimate. For example, we played on a boat in Paris. It was small, very small and lots of people couldn’t get in. It was a different experience and that’s good in itself. By the time we walked onto the stage the boat was leaning heavily to one side so the trip across the stage was up hill. I think people remember these things

3. If you could turn back time and change one choice in your career, which one would it be?

jj– From a personal musician’s angle, I would have liked to have continued to have piano lessons and to have become a better musician. It would have helped in becoming a soundtrack composer for film, which is what I always wanted to be.

shj- I don't recall having that many choices. Things just happened, or didn't. Maybe when all those major record companies were begging us to sign with them, we should have given one of them a chance? but maybe not.

4. How strong is the influence of the place you were born and grew up in the music and the lyrics of AATT?

shj- It's strong. Our family lived in a big old farmhouse in the middle of the
countryside, the kind of place that young, creative people leave as soon as
they can. But, for one reason or another, we stayed, and discovered that if we were open to it there was quite a lot out there to draw inspiration from. I could hear echoes of that land scape in Justin's guitar on TRABM, and I'm sure it still influences my lyrics. I dream of Worcestershire all the time, it's in our blood

5. After your special dark urban americanatrilogy trip, you have entered the 21st century with two albums racing a different direction. According to the way you work on songs and the facts that drive you, is there a prediction for your next step?

jj-This latent desire to write scores for films is always there, and I suspect that the next writing project will have a strong element of this. Perhaps exploring the boundaries of film music within the context of AATT. I like the
idea of pushing this out further and saying “to hell with musical structure and
form. Let’s go for a walk in these ideas, a very long walk”

6. If for one very serious reason you were obliged to leave, having only one of your albums in your suitcase, which one would it be and what for?

jj– If you mean an album from my collection at home, I would probably say Rain Dogs by Tom Waits. A good balance of emotions and mental imagery, and I have a sentimental attachment to it.

shj- If you mean which AATT album, I'd say '(Listen for) the rag and bone man'. I'm very pleased with it and I like the range of emotions it provokes within me. If you meant 'any' album, it would either be Bowie's 'Hunky
dory' because I loved this since I was fifteen and still do, so probably always
will or Vaughn Williams' 'Sea symphony' because it's a journey I can make again and again.

AATT "The Beautiful Silence" Live at Paris 2008