Talking To... Nick Harper
#NK You’ve taken very much the troubadour approach to music.
#NH Travelling around telling stories. I’m not really a career person…[At this point Nick is offered a curry, by his hosts] Great a chance to eat as well as talk bollocks…I guess I loved music and playing the guitar. I got many years of pleasure out of music before I considered getting on the stage. In days gone by maybe I would have got by strolling across the land playing for my supper in people’s parlours. [Looks down at food and smiles] These days you can do it and pay the rent. I’m not very focused you do have to be professional, but I can get on and write songs.
#NK Do you find the studio a far more focused environment?
#NH Not for me, but for the listener and the crew. I tend to go on flights of fancy in the studio. It’s not as spontaneous as the stage, where I also try and do things differently and get into areas I haven’t been before, but on stage it’s just one man and his acoustic guitar, whereas in the studio, you’ve got a lot more things that you can play with. It can take months in the studio and some of it sounds like shit, but it’s always worth a try as there’s so much you can do. I take everything I do as far as I can go. There are more restrictions on stage.
#NK Normally when you tour, you tour solo.
#NH I love the freedom it gives me. Improvisation is more difficult, when you’ve got others waiting for your next move. It’s not far on them to drift off into a song. I don’t like to get into the verse chorus, verse chorus thing.
#NK On a different subject, you’re an artists that has moved onto myspace, which was where we set this up. What does MySpace give you that your own website doesn’t?
#NH There’s a lot of good things about it. It wasn’t my idea. Looking at it, there’s a fair bit of crap and a lot of your friends just want to advertise their gigs on your space{laughs} Which can be great as you can communicate wit like minded individuals. Also everyone gets roughly the same format, you can jazz it up a bit, but there’s not a lot you can do with the page. You know where the music is so immediately people get the chance to hear you straight away, if you go to my website, you’ve got to click on the right section to find it. It’s very immediate which I like.
#NK What’s next after the tour?
#NH Feet up with the family for ten minutes. Record the next album, finish mixing the DVD and think about how my music can bring the world together in song.
#NK I think Coke tried that last one.
#NH Not so much in that American imperialist sort of way, more a dandelion and burdock thing.