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Thrum
Imagine a
band with Tammy Wynette on vocals and Neil Young on guitar. That’s the
deal with Glasgow’s country rockers, Thrum. Sadly no longer in existence*,
they did though leave us with a mighty fine album, 'Rifferama' on Fire
Records as their burning legacy plus a clutch of indispensable, soaring
singles like 'Here I Am' and 'So Glad' that could make the hair on your
back stand on end. Ready Steady Go spoke to Johnny Smillie on the eve
of that album release in 1994.
In fact, one of my great music memories features
Thrum. I was once at the strange music open-air mini festival, somewhere
in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire. It was in the beer garden of a country
pub. Thrum were the headliners and they did a terrific version of Neil
Young's 'Like A Hurricane'. The blazing guitar and piercing vocals were
pure soul. The stars were shining and I'm sure the angels were at play.
It was truly an amazing, cosmic experience!
Thrum lead singer Monica Queen possess a
rare talent. A voice many can only dream of adding to their hapless band.
Packed with emotion, soul and energy. As she draws the first breath on
singles like 'So Glad' and 'Here I am', your legs will turn to jelly or
the hairs will stand up on your back.
What is your idea of soul music
and how far do you feel Thrum are to achieving it?
"Soul music is real music. Music that people
make for the love of it and express it without holding back. Like people
who are not trying to follow a fashion or a trend can be allowed to make
soul music. As long as you're gonna follow a fashion or a trend you restrict
yourself completely. You are setting yourself up to go by the rules laid
down by the press or the industry and it's impossible to make soul music
within that. So all we're saying, is we want to live outside that in order
for us to make music honestly. I don't mean to say it wouldn't be fashionable
but it probably wouldn't be. So in that respect I think we've achieved
that because we're certainly not fashionable. I think if we we're gonna
be fashionable we'd be starting our own fashion because we're not following
any trends".
Thrum have spent 4 weeks in America
recording their new single. Have they much affection for the country
and its culture?
"Our only experience other than what we've
seen on TV is the four weeks we spent in America and the three weeks we
had in San Francisco we had a great time. We did enjoy the culture there
once we got over the initial shock. The first day we were there, there
was gunshots so we retreated to the hotel for about a week. But we started
to relax a bit and get out".
What was all that about then?
"God knows, someone was robbing a store probably!
There was probably dead bodies lying about but we retreated in the opposite
direction and we were freaked out by it. But as time went on we started
to get out and about and quite quickly actually, got to know a lot of
people and settled into the place. It's quite a small place, so I think
it's a good place to see America because it's small, a bit like Glasgow,
it's quite easy to get into the scene there. They're more open, it's not
so fashion based. There's more of a collected mix of cultures and styles
there. We were more free to do what we wanted to do in that climate. The
studio we were in had a lot of old books and stuff lying around about
the whole San Francisco scene in the sixties and all the bands. We were
reading these and sitting about in the studio which was decorated in seventies
furniture. A real kind of sixties/seventies vibe about the whole thing.
It was nice to record over there".
Who has the most romantic, emotional
voice in music?
"Obviously Elvis, Al Green, Neil Young (Monica's
a big fan of Neil's vocals), KD Lang, if you wanna come more up to date,
I think it's quite tortured, Janis Joplin, Emmylou Harris even Brett to
some extent achieves it. Very few modern contemporaries, I think the dead
Kurt was quite good. I think most people didn't appreciate how soulful
his music was and his voice. I think people's concept of soul is sixties,
black beat groups. It goes far beyond that although most of those sixties
black groups did soul as a pre-requisite to the music they made. I mean
we wouldn't be big fans of Aretha Franklin, that's a kind of cliched stereotypical
idea of who you think is an emotional soul singer. When Diana Ross did
the Billie Holliday film I think she played the part better than Billie
Holliday did in real life".
What do you like about country music?
"In America it's the biggest selling form
of music but that's like Garth Brooks, unlistenable for us anyway. We
can't listen to that. Again it's a soul thing, most country music is tears
in your beers kind of thing, it is written from the heart about relationships
and broken relationships and as much as that all seems cliched that is
real life".
So to people who don't know much
about country music how would you explain the difference between your
Garth Brooks and your Gram Parsons?
"I think soul. No attempt to catalyse on
a commercial thing. I think it's the difference between small labels and
the majors, it's just what you are trying to achieve. I think Garth Brooks
is trying to achieve a bigger bank balance, Gram's giving out his soul
and you can hear that in the records he made. Much as we like country
we're in no way attempting to be a country band. That's a complete misconception
that people have. I mean we throw in maybe a Gram Parsons cover in a set
and you get a journalist saying, country band. And I say, did you hear
the other nine songs? We're quite a wild punk rock band really. I don't
mean that in the new wave sense I mean like Elvis was a real punk rock
band, the Stones, the Beatles in some of their records, certainly Neil
Young in his most grunge mode. These people we're rock'n'roll bands but
they all had very much country influences, you know? Rock'n'roll is a
fusion of blues and country, you know? That's where it started so it's
ridiculous to say, Oh like, you like country so you must be country band".
What is the main reason you formed
a band?
"One of the main reasons is I didn't want
to be confined by a nine to five kinda life. I just thought there was
more to life than that and I had more to say. Monica was born with this
unique vocal, it just seemed obvious that she should be a singer not a
postwoman or a shoe saleswoman".
How do you feel about the "Tammy
Wynette with a Hard On" description given to Monica by the Melody Maker?
"It's a funny kind of humorous phrase that
we've kinda taken to our hearts. I think it's just a comic statement but
there's some truth there, you know".
What is the message in the single
'Here I Am'?
"It's very much a summer single. So get in
there, grow your hair long and have a good time. Yet again, it's about
sitting with your parents and thinking much as they thought they're life
was important, you know thinking I just don't want to do the nine to five
you've been doing all your life. You look back and there's nothing you've
seemed to have achieved other than bringing up a family, not undermining
that in anyway but just thinking I wanna do more so. Let's just get out
there and have a good time and do more with your life".
Who do you most admire and why?
"That's really hard actually. I admire Monica.
I love music and her voice really does it for me".
Having a singer of Monica's capability
must be a bonus?
"Anyone can learn to play guitar but you
can't learn to sing. You can learn voice control but you're either born
with it or your not! So that really limits groups. You have to really
seek out and find. Probably most of the best singers live 'till they're
fifty and are singing in the Working Mens Clubs at the Weekend and they
sound like Frank Sinatra but they probably just never get the chance!
That ties in with the 'Here I Am' thing, you know, live for what you've
got".
Do you write songs from personal
experiences or globally for the listener to appreciate?
"It's more like us looking at other people,
what other people are seen doing and in that way maybe there is a country
element to it. Just seeing people's lives and writing about them and feeling
for them you know, you feel for what's happened to someone. Sort of rationalise
it by writing about it. So it's a comment on life but other peoples lives.
Sometimes they're personal!"
How important or serious should
people take music?
"I actually think they should take it a lot
more serious than they do. Not in a big U2, political statement thing.
I don't mean they should listen to what singers are saying in terms of
politics. I just think music can make life more acceptable. It takes you
into another world, it takes you out of yourself. I think that's why we
were given music, you know? That's why music exists, it always has done
in some form or another. I think man does not live on bread alone".
Year 2002
* Monica and Johnny are back making music under the guise of Monica
Queen The debut album is in the shops now!
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Page last updated: April 2002
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