Jammerzine Exclusive: An Exclusive Interview with Marty Willson-Piper

Let me start by saying that this interview with Marty Willson-Piper is the culmination of a dream. Never in my life would I have ever thought that I would be talking to a guitarist and musician/songwriter that literally changed my personal playing style and the way I think about the guitar in general. To me, this man is on par with the giants because he thinks, writes, and plays, on his own level. A true master of the art. I may sound like I am laying it on a bit thick, but I’m not.  Just look at his robust body of work which includes The Church, All About Eve, MOAT, and Anekdoten, just to name a few. And now he has returned yet again with Noctorum.

Noctorum started in 2002 and features Marty on guitars, bass, bouzouki, and vocals and Dare Mason on programming, guitars, mandolin, keys, bass, vocals, and woodwinds. According to their bio: ‘Dare and Marty grew up together on the Wirral, near Liverpool, listening to classic sixties Pop singles, Singer-Songwriters, Krautrock, Spacerock, Prog, Art Rock, New Wave, Punk, Funk, Glam Rock, Heavy Rock, Reggae and Soul – probably the reason for their diverse and eclectic sound.’

And today we get a special treat! We get to talk with Marty in this special three-part Jammerzine exclusive in which we talk about Noctorum’s new album titled ‘The Afterlife‘ as well as their beginnings. Marty’s other projects as well as the state of music and how he gets that signature tone as well as his philosophy on music (seriously, this guy knows what he is talking about. He has one of the biggest music collections I have EVER seen and he has an extensively detailed website to prove it! It’s called the ‘In Deep Music Archive ‘. Check it out HERE) and life in general.

Marty is currently having a PledgeMusic drive for his upcoming album ‘The Afterlife’ in which pledgers will get a personally signed copy of the album THIS MONTH! The album will release to the public in February.

You can also check out our review of the first single titled ‘A Girl With No Love’ HERE. You can also check out the new single ‘Piccadilly Circus In The Rain’ above.

As of November 8, ‘Piccadilly Circus in the Rain’ will be available across online stores and streaming platforms. The full album ‘The Afterlife’ album can now be ordered via PledgeMusic but only until mid-November.

About Noctorum
Noctorum recently announced the impending release of their fourth album ‘The Afterlife’ – the duo’s first long-play in seven years, which will be released exclusively on CD and gatefold vinyl to PledgeMusic contributors in November 2018. The general release of this album will happen in February 2019 via Schoolkids Records.

Noctorum is guitarist/singer-songwriter Marty Willson-Piper and producer Dare Mason.  The duo presents their new single ‘Piccadilly Circus in the Rain’, following up the first single ‘A Girl With No Love’.

Named for the village Noctorum, located near to their childhood homes on The Wirral (near Liverpool), Dare and Marty liked its association with night and its Latin derivation. This collaboration has an eclectic focus, making the quiet-loud and vice-versa, singing words that might be spoken and playing indoor instruments that should be heard outside. It has to be imagined to exist.

“Perhaps city-living is by definition a difficult slog – high rents, a constant pressure to earn, an uphill battle that traps you in a vicious circle that has you so focussed on the job of survival that your aspirations, your dreams, are swept aside, pushed out of reach as all your waking hours are spent treading water, your imagination drowning, your ideas lost in the rush hour,” says Marty Willson-Piper.

“Piccadilly Circus In The Rain addresses the struggle and questions the romantic notion of London as a cultural melting pot – music, galleries, nightlife, history, energy, red double-decker buses, unarmed friendly Bobbies, the cover of Abbey Road and the Queen. Singling out this city is purely coincidental but in truth, for most people with artistic tendencies “London brings you to your knees”.

Having formed in 2002, Noctorum released their debut album ‘Sparks Lane’ on Heyday Records in 2003. In 2006, they followed up with the album ‘Offer The Light’ on that same label, later re-releasing it as a digipak in 2010 via Second Motion Records. Heyday released their third album ‘Honey Mink Forever’ in 2011.

Marty Willson-Piper has been writing and performing internationally for over 35 years. He is best known as a long-time member of Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, who he was with from its inception through to 2013. He joined All About Eve in the ’90s, releasing two studio albums and several live albums with them. He is also lead singer and lyricist with Swedish band MOAT and a touring member of Swedish Prog legends Anekdoten. Since the mid-1980s, Willson-Piper has maintained a steady solo output, releasing six solo studio albums and three live solo albums to date. He has also co-written music with many artists, including Grace Slick, Aimee Mann, Susannah Hoffs, and Linda Perry.

@mwillsonpiper [rotatingtweets screen_name=’mwillsonpiper’]

As a house engineer at London’s world-famous Townhouse Studios, Dare Mason has worked with the likes of Prince, Paul McCartney, Boy George, Tina Turner, Ravi Shankar, and Soul II Soul, among others. After becoming a freelance producer/engineer in 1991, he produced albums for The Grid, The Church, Placebo and AC Acoustics, working in London, New York, Sydney, and Stockholm. He finally moved to Cornwall, where he set up the VIP Lounge studio in 2001. Nowadays, Dare is mainly known as a mixing engineer, having mixed recordings by Brix Smith (ex-The Fall), Cinerama and Tommy Tokyo. Dare is also a composer, songwriter, and accomplished guitarist, singer, and dabbler in keyboards, usually contributing musically to the artists he produces.

CREDITS

Marty Willson-Piper – lead vocal, electric lead, and rhythm guitars, bass, Swedish cittra
Dare Mason – keyboards, backing vocals
Olivia Willson-Piper – backing vocals
Richard Evans – trumpet
Steve Jackson – drums
Written and produced by Marty Willson-Piper & Dare Mason
Lyrics by Marty Willson-Piper
Recorded and mixed by Dare Mason at the VIP Lounge, Penzance, England
Mastered by Poppy Weinberger for Riverfish Mastering
Design by Olivia Willson-Piper & Lizzie Tucker

A breath of fresh air with just the right mix of upbeat instrumentation and an attractive tandem of male and female vocals. Gentle, mellifluous guitar lines are whisked about by a brisk drum beat, while Willson-Piper’s sweetly soft and fluid vocals offer up a bittersweet portrait of Londontown… superb and stand up to anything ever released by The Church or All About Eve”
– Big Takeover Magazine

“Bristling with energy and rock and roll groove but retaining that slight psychedelic infusion that served his formative band so well, it is that trade-off between its underground nature and hooky accessibility that will see it pick up fans across the spectrum”
– Dancing About Architecture

LINKS:
http://noctorum.band
https://martywillson-piper.com
https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/noctorum
https://www.facebook.com/Noctorum
https://www.facebook.com/marty.willsonpiper
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwdErmBx2NQI7_lOdwqgepQ/videos
https://twitter.com/mwillsonpiper
https://soundcloud.com/noctorummusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/14rNOocOS3RnmAKhT4GnU4
http://www.anekdoten.se