An interview with Snowy White !
An interview with Snowy White !
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Date: February 25, 2005 Location: De Boerderij City: Zoetermeer, Holland Interview by: Clemens Steenweg Talking with Snowy White is talking to rockhistory! Although this guy has worked with the legendary Pink Floyd and was he a fulltime member of Thin Lizzy, he can easily go out on the street without being recognized! Therefore, the following quote could be from him: "Just let me be the guitarplayer and play the music I like, nothing else, no fuzz, no importance, that's what I love to do!" A sympathetic guy, who talks about Pink Floyd as if it was just a job to do, and generally speaking: It is a job! For those who aren't musicians: you can't imagine that! All one sees is the myth around Pink Floyd and no more than that, but, for instance, let's talk about the premature exhaustion a 2 year lasting worldtour can do on a man's mind and body! But Snowy White isn't the guy that's complaining, because touring is what he likes to do, and luckily his fans can look forward to a new album, which will be recorded later this year! But you have to like jazz!! |
| CS: At the age of 11 you first heard of the bluesmusic that became a goal for you as a musician. When did you decide to became a professional guitarplayer? SW: I can't really remember, except that once I started playing the guitar and heard some blues that's when I first decided that that was what I wanted to do, and where I lived at the time there was not much to do. You couldn't do much except get a job locally in the pub. I didn't have any education, I left school when I was 16, so the guitar was my escaperoute and I decided that my ambition was just to earn a living playing music. It just came on me, I didn't sat down one day and decided, it just seemed the right thing to do. |
| CS: How did Pink Floyd came up with you?
SW: They just rang me up! The manager rang me up and said they were looking for another guitarplayer for all their live work, and I'd been recommended by two independent people. I think probably as being a sort of ordinary "down to earth-guy" as much as anything else, and did I want to go along and meet the band and see what they wanted, so I said "Yeah". I didn't know much about Pink Floyd, that was tough! I think I was probably the only person in England who hadn't listen to "Dark Side Of The Moon"...... CS: ......Unbelievable, haha!! SW: It's true, haha! I was just a "blues"-man, you know! I didn't any of that funny keyboard-stuff, I wasn't into it then, haha! CS: Just guitars! SW: Yeah, mostly! |
| CS: What did you learned from the times you worked with Pink Floyd? SW: Well, that's a difficult question to answer, because I don't really know! I múst have learned things! I mean I experienced things, whether I learned anything from them I don't know. I guess I learned things, probably what NOT to do as much as what to do, but it was so far out of my area of level of music and sort of fame. The things were sort of happening around them, they didn't really translate into things that would happen around me, with my music and my band in the future. So yeah, I learned a few things. Basically I just did my job and I enjoyed it! Yeah, a long time ago now... |
| CS: Were you really surprised they asked you for the job? SW: Well, I don't even know that, I would say, haha! Because I was doing a few things, and people were asking me to do things and this one came up, and it was obviously a big job. I guess I was surprised really, because I didn't know of the fact that people sort of recommend me to some big manager like that at the time, so I guess it was a bit of a surprise but it only last for a few minutes and then you start getting down to earth a bit, really. |
| CS: Your roots lie in the blues. Was it difficult for you to change to the symphonic rockstyle of Pink Floyd and the hardrockstyle of Thin Lizzy? SW: Not really, because it's all based on blues. Guitarlicks are based on blues and the chordprogression's simple, really, I mean they got great songs that Roger Waters wrote, and Phil Lynott wrote a lot of nice songs too, but it's all based on blues, the guitarsolo's, the harmony guitars, everything really, so it wasn't out of my style. The sounds themselves were somewhat different that I've worked with before, and I had to sort of learn a few things back getting some sounds and I had to play one of the band's Stratocasters once and a while on stage, and I played bass quite a lot as well, which I enjoyed, with Pink Floyd. |
CS: Was playing in Thin Lizzy a logical step in your career?
SW: No, hahaha!
CS: You toured a few times with Roger Waters. Can you tell what it's like to work with one of the people that had a very important and influential role in the history of rockmusic?
SW: Yeah, I enjoyed working with Roger! A lot of people think of him a bit of a hard man to work with because he knows what he wants and he doesn't put up with anybody not coming up to the right level, but as soon as you realise that and as long as he knows you're doing your best you get treated very well. I mean I didn't always agree with his methods of treating people, sometimes in the past, but he's actually very pleasant to work with and I always look forward to it.
CS: How did you experienced "The Wall"-show in Berlin with so many topacts just after the fall of the real wall?
SW: It was a good and very interesting atmosphere, and an interesting show. But you know, a show like that is a big machine and one musician is a very small part of that machine, and there was such a lot going on and a lot of rehearse and a lot to do, that there wasn't time to think much about anything except getting your part right, and trying to do the best thing you could and a sort of hoping things went well.
CS: I always wandered where you rehearsed then?
SW: We rehearsed thére, for two weeks, before we did the show! They build the whole stage, and before that we rehearsed in London on a big stage with guest musicians, and we had two weeks to rehearse it in Berlin on the sight. So finally, when we do the show it's like another rehearsal only there's a lot of people there, haha!
CS: Have you ever played a guitarsolo on such a high position as you did in "The Wall"-show in Berlin?
SW: No, of course not, haha! No, that was a high one!
CS: The view must have been fantastic.
SW: Yeah, it felt good!
CS: Did you already made the album you always wanted to make?
SW: No, I'm just gonna make that next. It's always the next one, haha! It's like the English pubsign: "Free beer tomorrow!" When you go there the next day, it's still "Free beer tomorrow!" It never comes!
CS: With whom you would still like to make an album?
SW: I hope I can use some really hot jazzplayers on my next album. I can't mention names right now, but there are certain instruments and certain guys that play these instruments that I would really like to play on. I don't see sort of other guitarists really much joining, but a nice saxophone, upright bass, you know, upright acoustic bass, African percussion, probably ordinary piano.
| CS: On your new album “The Way It Is” you recorded a new version of the 22 year old song “Bird Of Paradise”. In what way you were searching for a refreshment in arrangements? SW: Well, I was never happy with the sounds on the album 'cause it was actually done in a rehearsalstudio with a mobile studio outside, really cheap job, and we never really did it again. I wanted to sound a bit more modern without losing the feel of it and I wanted to shorten it a bit, and I had enough of doing the big, long solo's at the end, so I just kept it short so it felt nice to me, it was just for me I did it, really! And I'm quite happy with it, yeah. |
| CS: Was recording “Black Magic Woman” on “The Way It Is” a tribute to Peter Green? SW: Well, it's one of my favourite songs and I'll always thought one day I'll do it, and a guy from Columbia came up with a nice arrangement, horns and all that and it seemed to suite my voice and I enjoyed playing it, so there's no big thing behind it, it's just nice to do. Music, it's how you feel at the time when you play it, basically. |
| CS: In the videoclip “Black Magic Woman” you play without a guitarpick and on the DVD "The Wall" in Berlin you play with a guitarpick. You don't always play with a guitarpick? SW: No, I tell you what: there are two reasons. One is: I've got a guitar at home standing in the room and I have to pick it up and play it, and I never got a pick, you know, there's not one around when I want it, so I just play it with my fingers, and gradually I've got used to it. And the other thing is I find playing with a pick actually causes me a bit of tension in my shoulder, and playing with my fingers relaxes everything. So, as much as I can I play with my fingers, now I like the sound as well, it feels nicer. |
| CS: How did you came up with these Dutch guys (Juan van Emmerloot (drums) and Walter Latupeirissa (bass)) for The White Flames? SW: I was invited to do a gig in Holland, it was about ten years ago I guess, and they were a sort of "backing band" guys that I played with, and it was great, I loved them so I asked them to do an album with me. |
| CS: Did your equipment changed over the years and what is it now? SW: The only thing I've changed is I used to use a Fender Twin Reverb. Now I use a Vox AC30. And the same guitar for 36 years! Played it everyday, you know! |
| CS: Did your way of playing guitar changed over the years? SW: No, not really. I think it got slightly less desperate to prove anything. Hopefully it's got a little bit tastier... |
| CS: You get older, you get wiser? SW: Probably. In theory! I don't know whether that really happens, I'm not sure if I feel any wiser, haha! |
| CS: To what music you listen today? SW: Old! I listen to the music today that I used to listen to in the 70's! Santana's Caravanserai, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, B.B. King, "live"-stuff, some modern stuff I listen to, sort of jazzy stuff but I don't listen to a lot of music, to be honest. |
| CS: Can you tell or confirm anything about rumours that say that Pink Floyd’s working on something in 2005/2006? SW: I can't! 'Cause I have no idea. I seriously have no idea. |
| CS: What are your plans for the near future? SW: I'm starting to write songs for the next album and as I said I'm gonna try and get a few people on. I'm just quite excited, I'm always excited for the next album. So my plan is to write stuff in the summer, a few gigs, not many and then in the Autumn start thinking about seriously recording the album. 'Cause that's what I enjoy, really, recording and writing and playing gigs, and hopefully in the Autumn we can do some shows as well but I think the Summer there's not a lot going on, I think I'll just songwrite. Maybe one or two festivals, but that's just for the band ticking over! |
© 2005 Stoneways Rock Productions