Interview with Danny
Bryant
appeared in Volume 17, issue 28 of
Blues
in Britain Magazine
April 2004
Interviewed
by Monica Madgwick of Boogaloo
Promotions
When
did you start playing guitar?
I started playing the guitar around the beginning of 1995 just before my
15th birthday. I was still at school at the time and all my
schoolwork went out of the window and every spare moment into my guitar.
The band started around 5 or 6 years ago and we turned professional and
started doing this full time at the start of the year 2000.
What
made you choose guitar rather than another instrument?
Obviously when you are younger
you go for the instrument that seems the most exciting, and the instrument
that seems to be at the forefront of the band is usually vocals or guitar
or in my case both. But I think most of all it was that I had just started
to hear the blues and I fell in love with it. The way these people made a
guitar sound, the way they made it look, their attitude and commitment
towards it, just everything associated with the role a guitar plays in
blues music.
What
are your musical influences?
Well I
think a lot of people know about my friendship with Walter Trout and the
inspiration and guidance that he has given and continues to give to me,
which has always been so important to me and my growth in music. I would
hate though for people to think that that’s where my inspiration ends. I
have so many influences and they are all really important to me. I suppose
that some of my other main influences are people like Eric Clapton, I love
his fluidity and the way he can be reserved and laid back one second and
on fire the next, he is a massive inspiration to me. I also love Ronnie
Earl for his classic approach to an old school style, I love Buddy Guy for
his wild no holds barred playing and at the moment my favourite is Otis
Rush for pure emotion and feel. I just try to take it all and come up with
something that is my own style, really I think that’s what I will always
be striving for, and I think everyone does. I am happy with the way
that’s going. To me it’s all about feel and the love of it. I don’t
think you have to just play two notes to be playing with feeling, someone
like Buddy Guy or Walter plays a flurry of 30 or 40 aggressive notes and
it touches your soul and moves you and it has emotion and feel yet,
someone like BB King or Magic Sam plays one note and it has the same
affect. I love it all and try to let it all be an influence on me.
How
do you see the band developing in the future?
Well we
work hard and it’s great at the moment because we see our audiences at
gigs getting bigger each time and we are getting better and better slots
at the festivals and doing some nice tours. We now have a good agent for
Europe, which is also exciting. There are still areas where we are
relatively unknown to people and we are working hard to change that! We
are very pleased with the way it’s progressing and, to be honest, I just
love doing this and I love the places we play and all the great people we
meet. I enjoy the hard work and travel of it because it’s what I have
always wanted to do.
You’re
on the road a lot… What’s
your philosophy in terms of the gigs you accept?
Well we do this full
time, no one in the band works day jobs it would not be possible with the
schedule we have, but in order to maintain this and be able to live
normally we have to keep busy. When we first started we played anywhere,
which does teach you a fair bit about audiences, now we like to only
really play places that do a door charge, you cannot play a blues club and
charge lets say for example 5 pounds on the door for a ticket and then
play a pub for free entry in the same town a week later. As you know, that
is neither any good nor fair for the band or the promoter. We do play a
couple of free entries locally, but very few and only because there are no
real blues clubs, and we enjoy it. These gigs are more like seeing old
friends really and they don’t carry the same pressures as the club gigs.
I am glad though that we don’t have to do that pub thing much more. We
are lucky because we keep very busy and get to pick and choose a lot more
which venues we play our gigs at these days, especially this year.
What
do you think about the British music scene today?
Well to me
I think it’s all about profile for bands and blues music in general. It
is such a shame you never see it on television, in mainstream magazines or
the press. Jools Holland hardly ever features blues musicians on his show
anymore, and you don’t often hear any on mainstream radio. How are
people going to get into this music or ever even know if they like it if
they don’t get exposed to it? I am sure there are thousands of people
out there who would love the blues if they only got to see or hear it.
Having said that there are some great bands out there, some great
festivals. People like Paul Jones, all the blues magazines and websites do
an amazing job at spreading the word and keeping it very much alive, I
think it will continue to grow.
There
are lots of young guitarists playing the blues, but not many young
punters. How can young people
be encouraged to listen to blues and support live gigs?
Again it’s about exposing people to it. There are lots of bands now
trying to reach a crossover audience, which is really good. Whenever
you do see young people at blues gigs brought along by their parents or
something, they are usually very enthusiastic about it. Lets hope that
spreads for everyone and continues to grow. If only blues got the media
coverage that “I’m a celebrity” or “Pop Idol” or something like
that gets!
What
has been the high spot for you in your career to date?
I remember we played a club
in Holland about 2 years ago on one of our first tours there and there was
only 20 people in the audience and then last year we went back after doing
some big gigs in the area and it was sold out, that felt great because it
showed us that all the hard work is worth it. But to be honest I love it
all. There have been so many exciting gigs and places we have been to. We
have played some great festivals in Holland and in Belgium and France. In
England we have played main stage at Colne, Burnley, Maryport and many
others. The other week we played at the blues and rock festival in
Skegness and they are always a fantastic audience. It is also great to
have done gigs on the same bill as people like John Mayall, Peter Green
and Hubert Sumlin. And I have jammed with Walter about 9 times in the last
few years; it is always amazing playing next to your biggest influences.
Also I think the friendships we have made with all the various people that
come to see us and promoters and our fellow musicians. Over all we have a
lot of fun and some great times.
…And
what’s been your worst moment?
I think the hardest was
sometime last May. My Grandma died which was very hard for us all. As you
know my Mum is manager of the band and my Dad plays bass, my girlfriend is
also on the road with me and we all lost someone that was very special to
us. So it made touring really hard. We had a new CD coming out and dates
to fulfil and we more or less had to go straight from her funeral service
to a festival in Ireland and then onto other dates, but that’s just the
way it is sometimes. Of course when we first started out we played a
couple of places I would rather forget but I think everyone does, it does
however teach you a lot.
How
has your music changed from when you first started, and how do you see it
developing?
I
think I have calmed down a bit in my style. I concentrate far more now on
the feel of what I am playing and the value it has within the song. The
whole band knows each others playing so well, that comes with time and it
makes a big difference to the music. We take it seriously but we also have
fun together and a laugh and a joke. I think I will always be an
aggressive type of player, that’s just my style of playing, some people
like that and others prefer a different type of blues, without the rock
edge. That’s the great thing about music so many different tastes and
styles. As I said before I love it all and think its all valid, right from
Son House or Robert Johnson right down to a modern band like the Hamsters
who are heavy rock and blues. Also, my Dad Ken on Bass and Andy on Drums
have been in the band right from the start and that means we all grow
together as a band and in our music. We would maybe like to add a keyboard
player at some point, just for a bit more depth of sound. We have tried
this in the studio and it works well.
Where
would you like to be (in your music career) in ten years’ time?
At the moment we are really
enjoying building these clubs up. So I suppose in ten years time I would
want to have moved on to bigger clubs and halls and still have audiences
grow more and more with each passing year. Obviously I also want to
continue making albums, and have them well distributed, and just keep on
working hard touring and building on my career. I would also love to by
then be touring the blues clubs in the US with a decent agent there and
make it a regular part of my touring year like we do in the UK and Europe.
I don’t have any illusions of being a pop act and don’t want to be
anything like that.
…And
what about thirty years’ time?
All I know is that this will
always be my life and my job and I will always be giving it everything
that I have got and enjoying it to the full. I do have lots and lots of
ambition and want to take it as far as I possibly can. If that means
massive theatres or just small blues clubs, either way I am happy as long
as I have given it everything.
How
important is financial success to you, and how do you see this influencing
your music plans?
I do this for the love of the
music, otherwise I would do a normal day job and be home at five and have
weekends off to see my friends and do normal things. But this is the life
I have chosen and I am happy that I can make a living from doing something
I love. I don’t know that many musicians in this genre of music ever
become millionaires. You do however have to work hard and make the money
important to you otherwise you would never have anything, but mainly with
this life the money has to be secondary to the music, because the music is
what it’s all about. So I can’t see it ever influencing my style or
music decisions. I would like to think that I will always be honest to
myself in music and do the things I really want to do, that way I can
sleep at night!
Blues
in Britain Magazine
