{"id":3724,"date":"2020-05-05T20:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2020-05-05T18:28:27","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T17:28:27","slug":"companion-piece-jack-sharp-wolf-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=3724","title":{"rendered":"Companion Piece : Jack Sharp (Wolf People)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In issue 102 (available to order online now: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/latest-issue\/\">HERE<\/a> ), we featured an interview by THOMAS PATTERSON with JACK SHARP of Wolf People, talking about his solo debut <em>Good Times Older<\/em>, a beguiling selection of folk songs, many inspired by his home county of Bedfordshire, recorded with the help of Ian Carter and Nicola Kearey of Stick In The Wheel. As an online treat, here\u2019s the full transcript of the interview (conducted prior to the current Coronavirus pandemic).<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JACK SHARP - Lacemaker\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yinuDwfjpJo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>SD: Hi Jack, congratulations on the album. We love it here at <em>Shindig!<\/em>. How long has the album been in gestation, and when did you decide you wanted to work in the English folk tradition?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>JS: Thank you! I got into folk songs through Pentangle back when I was sampling records to make hip hop. I suddenly realised that I recognised all the tunes because my Mum used to sing them to me. I\u2019ve been singing folk songs casually for years, because it fitted neatly alongside what I was doing with Wolf People, helped me find my voice, and inspired my writing a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Ian and Nicola from Stick in the Wheel\/From Here Records have always encouraged me to explore that side of my playing and singing, so I eventually decided to make a record and gave them a call.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SD: How does working solo compare with working with Wolf People, and how does it compare working in acoustic folk as opposed to a heavier rock sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JS: It\u2019s definitely more intense for me personally. I need to try not to think about the fact that I can\u2019t rely on anyone else. If you have a bad day in the band, the rest of them are there to sort you out and pick up the slack. When you\u2019re playing solo you have to try and forget that you\u2019re the only person providing the music, or the ground starts to disappear from under you. On the other hand, it\u2019s nice being able to dictate pace and add space wherever I want in the music without throwing the other players out.<\/p>\n<p>I definitely saw it as a challenge going from Wolf People to solo stuff: Can I create something worth listening to with just my voice and a guitar? There\u2019s an awful lot of space left when you take drums, bass and electric guitar away.\u00a0 The load ins are a lot easier though.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SD: How did you hook up with the Stick in the Wheel crew? What did they bring to the recording?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JS: Ian was one of the first people I met when I moved to London in 1999. I remember he gave me a load of digital music files (which was a new and exciting prospect at the time), and it included a version of Ghost Town where he\u2019d edited out the happy verse. That was my first impression of Ian, and that he was an amazing producer. I didn\u2019t hear him play guitar till years after.<\/p>\n<p>When I\u2019d moved out of London years later I bumped into Ian and we\u2019d both got into playing folk music. He played me the more folky stuff he\u2019d done with Various Productions and I was blown away, then when I first heard Stick in the Wheel I was 100% on board. I just loved it. I got to know Nicola through Ian, because he mixed most of the Wolf People stuff and often bought Nic in to do backing vocals (she\u2019s on all the albums).<\/p>\n<p>Both Nicola and Ian are incredible protagonists for music and creativity and are exactly the type of people you want to be around as a musician; hugely encouraging but also very straight up and uncompromising. Ian always says \u2018do good work, pass it on\u2019, and that\u2019s a pretty solid way to view making music and art. Do the best work you possibly can, then try to get it the attention it deserves, while encouraging other people to do the same.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3726\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3726\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3726\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-2020-Credit-Christian-Webb-9G1A4768-rt-lr-resized-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"762\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-2020-Credit-Christian-Webb-9G1A4768-rt-lr-resized-2.jpg 1181w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-2020-Credit-Christian-Webb-9G1A4768-rt-lr-resized-2-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-2020-Credit-Christian-Webb-9G1A4768-rt-lr-resized-2-672x1024.jpg 672w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-2020-Credit-Christian-Webb-9G1A4768-rt-lr-resized-2-768x1170.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-2020-Credit-Christian-Webb-9G1A4768-rt-lr-resized-2-1008x1536.jpg 1008w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3726\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jack Sharp Photo: Christian Webb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>SD: How did you choose the material for the album? Did you have a lot to choose from, and how did you settle on the originals you included?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JS: The album is a collection of things I\u2019ve enjoyed singing over the years with some original songs that sort of fell into my lap when I wasn\u2019t writing for Wolf People. I love Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Shirley Collins, Pentangle, Fairport, Young Tradition, ISB and all of that 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s revival stuff, so I just ended up singing and adapting some of those into my style of playing, then looking further into archives and folk song books.<\/p>\n<p>I tend to lean towards songs about the natural world, and songs that favour animals over humans, I guess due to a growing disillusionment with the human race. It\u2019s heartening to channel into those feelings going way back into history too, or at least bend the meaning of songs to my own way of thinking a little. Another factor is trying to find songs from the area I grew up (and now live), Bedfordshire, of which there\u2019s not many. That\u2019s forced me to heavily adapt material, adding or re-writing words and changing tunes that I didn\u2019t like or simply didn\u2019t exist in the examples I found.<\/p>\n<p>I found quite a few songs in a book called <em>Old Songs Sung<\/em> in Bedfordshire (which was nearly the title of the album). It was a collection of songs (just lyrics actually) sent in to the local paper in 1906.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SD: I read you recorded it all in one day in a Moot Hall. Was that a recording process and location you found beneficial to your work, and would you work again in that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JS: We hosted a gig for Anna &amp; Elizabeth in the Moot Hall the previous summer and the acoustics were incredible, so when Ian suggested finding somewhere special to record the album, I really wanted to use it again. If you\u2019ve got to be in a room for 8 hours, it may as well be a 15<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0century timber framed market hall, right?<\/p>\n<p>We actually went back a few times, but all the takes we picked were from a single day\u2019s recording. It was really freeing being produced by Ian because we\u2019ve always self-produced the Wolf People records, so being able to concentrate solely on the music was a great change of pace.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s always good to record in interesting spaces because it sort of frames the recording process, gives you a specific memory and atmosphere associated with a set of recordings that sets it firmly in time and space. For that reason, I\u2019d probably go somewhere else next time to give it a different feel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SD: Obviously a lot of the material related to Bedfordshire. Growing up, were you aware of the county\u2019s folk tradition, and what does the county mean to you today?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JS: Not at all, it\u2019s not really a place that has a lot of traditional music associated with it. There are the county specific May Songs, and Fred Hamer collected a few songs in the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s, but it\u2019s not nearly as rich in traditional music as say Norfolk, or Cambridgeshire.<\/p>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t interested in folk music growing up at all, but the environment had a huge impact on me. I moved from South East London when I was six, so suddenly being able to run about in the woods, and meet farm animals and stuff was mind blowing for me. I love Bedfordshire and it\u2019s been the focus of a lot of my song writing in the past, so it seemed like a natural progression to find some locally associated songs. There\u2019s a lot of history and material here, but I\u2019ve always felt like that\u2019s going to be true wherever you are, it\u2019s just a case of digging under the surface a little bit, and asking around.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SD: What\u2019s next for you? Will you continue to work in the folk world? Will you be playing live, and if so, do the songs change in a live setting? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m doing a launch and some in-stores, which will mostly be me with some help from Joe Woolley from Lords of Thyme and hopefully some guest spots from Nicola and Ian of Stick in the Wheel, so they should sound fairly faithful to the record. I\u2019m trying to get out to more folk clubs while I\u2019m not doing as much with Wolf People, to show my face at the singarounds and floor spots.<\/p>\n<p>I contributed to a project for author Tom Cox, who is releasing an album of songs inspired by his short stories, and that should be out soon, also on From Here Records.<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit \u2013 Christian Webb<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3725\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL-24x24.jpg 24w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL-48x48.jpg 48w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jack-Sharp-SMALL-96x96.jpg 96w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Good Times Older was released April 24<sup>th<\/sup> on From Here Records, and can be ordered <a href=\"https:\/\/jacksharp.lnk.to\/goodtimesolder\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jack also kindly played at our &#8220;It&#8217;s A Happening Thing &#8211; The Shindig! 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[&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,4],"tags":[734,735],"class_list":["post-3724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-thoughts-words","tag-jack-sharp","tag-wolf-people"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3724"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}