Interview: Jack J Hutchinson

Jack J Hutchinson is unleashing a special new four-track EP ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ on September 2nd, Mixed by legendary producer, Kevin Shirley, the collection follows his critically acclaimed album ‘The Hammer Falls’ which was released earlier this year. It includes new versions of three of the tracks from its predecessor, plus the brand new full-tilt rocker ‘Days Of Thunder’ and is available for pre-order now via Eyesore Merch. Get all the details on the EP, and what Jack has been up to this last year, from the man himself, below…

The new EP ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ is due September 2nd, mixed by Kevin Shirley no less, even to an untrained ear it’s clear when Shirley is involved, but from a musician’s point of view what does Kevin Shirley bring to the table?

I think what you get with Kevin is the sound of a band playing together live in a room. There’s a totally different approach to that production level from Kevin, whereas a lot of contemporary production is really polished and has a pop-sheen to it. My last album ‘The Hammer Falls’ was mixed by Josiah Manning who did a fantastic job on that – and I’m working with Josiah again at the moment – and there are different approaches to it. There’s a brand new track on the new EP called ‘Days of Thunder’ which we did record live in the studio, and I hadn’t recorded like that in years. It’s just playing it live. On this one, I think we had two or three run-throughs of it and It’s a challenge in itself that, for instance, there are no twelve takes of the drums.

Kevin Shirley has an incredible resume…

I mean we are talking Iron Maiden, The Black Crowes, Joe Bonamassa, Led Zeppelin material from the 2000s, it was an honour to work with Kevin.

You touched on the new track ‘Days of Thunder’; it has a bit of oomph this one, did that come from the band coming off the back of some heavy touring towards the tail end of last year?

Yes, there is a bit of energy to it which is related to having not toured in ages and then getting back together again in a rehearsal space. I had this arrangement with Kevin where he was going to do three songs, and I thought that I would try and sneak in an extra one, and he said that he had a bit of time and had room for another track. So I said to the guys in the band “Why don’t we go into the studio in Kent”, and it took about six or seven hours to get it down. It’s really weird how you do it, you send all these files over to Kevin in Sydney and he pieces it all together and then bounces the mixes back to me at 3 am! But I am really pleased with it, and as you said, there is a bit of energy to this one, I think it’s a little bit different from some of my other material. Looking forward to playing it live.

Great video to go alongside it, filmed in a haunted prison in Bristol I believe?

Yes, we had quite a funny day with that because we couldn’t actually get into the prison! Despite us being given this sheet of paper with all the instructions on how to get in, myself and the director Neil Collins couldn’t actually get into the prison so the shoot was delayed for a few hours. But it was a lot of fun down there; very eerie, and very dark…it looks like an excerpt from ‘Saw’ or something like that. I was trying to do something a little different from my other videos, a lot of my videos are just us shot in a studio, and I wanted to do something a little quirkier. I have to say though, I find making videos a fucking pain in the arse! I just don’t like them. My old bass player Laz who was in that video, he enjoys them I think because he enjoys showing off all his tattoos and whatever haircut he has that week! But I’d rather be in the studio or songwriting. They are a necessary evil I suppose! [laughs].

It’s a great lead-up to the release of your first ever DVD, it must be a great feeling looking back on all the video releases from the last few years…

Yes, it was interesting because I watched the videos in reverse order and I got skinnier as the videos went on! There were ones from before the lockdown, and then ones that we shot over the lockdown period where I just got fatter and fatter! [laughs]. But yeah, it was a lot of fun to watch and there is some good stuff on there; the video that I did with Kris Barras – ‘Halo’ – is a really good one and that was a fun day out in Plymouth shooting with Kris. We were just driving around in Kris’s car trying to find locations, and we would just hop out of the car, film some slow walking, get back in the car and then do some Blue Steel shots in some other locations. And I’ve not watched that video since it came out, so it was hilarious watching some of the “moody” looks that I give to the camera! I am not Robert De Niro put it that way.

You’ve always put together very strong physical products – the artwork, the packaging, etc – the EP/DVD is another stunning example of this, and it also features your first hype sticker so that’s got to be a plus!

I know! I got the stickers through a few weeks ago and they are pretty cool. As you said, I’ve always been more into the physical stuff rather than digital, and this particular set harks back to the days when I was a teenager buying the deluxe version of albums; where you would have a couple of videos and maybe a behind-the-scenes documentary. And I always used to find those really special, so that’s why this one looks the way it does. It acts as a great companion piece to ‘The Hammer Falls’ album, it’s like the icing on the cake. But those “hype” stickers you mentioned; I was shocked at how expensive they actually are! I could have recorded another two songs for the cost of those fucking hype stickers! I unwrapped some to sign them and then had to re-shrink wrap them so they were shipped sealed, but there you go!

You head out in October for some live dates with a new line-up, you have Phil Wilson alongside you on drums; Ash Wilson’s brother I believe?

It is Ash’s brother, yes. I played with Phil a few years back at a charity gig down at the Half Moon in Putney, and we just really hit it off, and it’s always good when you connect with someone like that. Once I knew that there was going to be a line-up change Phil was the first name that came up, and he came straight on board, and it was fortuitous how that worked out because he was the one that I really wanted. On bass, we have Charlie Rachael Kay, she’s amazing, and on the forthcoming tour, it’s going to be a different vibe from the last few tours. Having played with Laz and Felipe for the last three and a half years…I’ve had a great run with those guys, they were with me through a lot, shows all over the world, toured Brazil together, and when I knew that they were sort of walking away and doing other projects, there were no hard feelings at all. With music being the way that it is, all you can do is just be really thankful for the time that you had with musicians because everyone has their own interests…ultimately, I think that Laz wants to be the bassist in Gojira! And I can’t offer him that! Felipe, he’s joined a full-time blues band so he’s going to be doing a lot of blues shuffles…which isn’t what I’m going to be doing these days. I wish them well, and I’m excited to see what Charlie and Phil bring to the table.

The tour is supported by the independent charity Help Musicians, what does that involve?

When the pandemic struck, it kind of took away my whole business model which was earning money through touring. Obviously, the pandemic curtailed all of that so I was trying to find ways of bringing in funding because all of that money was reinvested in music – coming back from a two-week tour of Spain I would be straight into the studio – any profits would go straight into the music. So over the last two years, I thought about how to navigate the different landscape we all found ourselves in, and one of the ways was the Kickstarter campaign to fund ‘The Hammer Falls’ album which paid for the bulk of the recording, the mastering, and the vinyl manufacturing. I really appreciated all those wonderful people that supported me with that, but I’m also aware at the moment that everyone is fucking skint so going back out and asking my fans for more help didn’t seem appropriate.

So I was looking at other ways of funding not only the new EP/DVD but also to give us some security with regards to the forthcoming tour so that the guys I take out know that they are going to get paid. I had applied for funds through different bodies but didn’t get it, so Help Musicians wasn’t the first one that I applied to, but I learned from those experiences and I spent a good few weeks on my application to them, and I think that they felt that there was a lot of potential in the project. One of the big things that I spoke about was wanting to look after my musicians as that is a big thing for me, and having Help Musicians onboard will offer both myself and my musicians help with mental well-being…which is a big thing for musicians right now. It’s almost like it is “uncool” to talk about mental health, and I feel that the more we open up and talk about our issues, the better. So the support from Help Musicians will help us keep going, and as a long-term project. Had I not gotten their support I would have found the funding somehow, my family joke that I’m like Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses and I will always find the money, but thankfully it’s not like an episode of The Sopranos instead and I owe someone money!

No visit from Furio looking for his money then! How was your NAMM experience earlier this year?

Well, I had never been to Los Angeles or Anaheim before so I was quite nervous beforehand, which is something that I don’t tend to get. But once I was there it was incredible, I was hanging out in Hollywood with Fab from Supersonic Blues Machine. We went to a studio where loads of manufacturers were showcasing equipment; microphones, pedals, guitars, etc. It was just really cool to be in Hollywood…it was a great week where I got to meet a lot of people who offered me advice and opportunities further down the line. It was a weird experience playing at NAMM though! I played some acoustic sets where I played material from ‘The Hammer Falls’, material that was supposed to be played on an electric guitar, so I thought sod it, I’ll play some of the heavier stuff on an acoustic guitar. But it’s almost like a conveyor belt of artists, for instance, after one of my sets there was a Hip Hop DJ straight after me and it was so much the opposite of what I do, and then some great Americana acts. The quality of performers is so high…I got to hang out with Jared James Nichols, he was really cool, I got to see Gilby Clarke from Guns N Roses…it was an overwhelming week in many ways. You just have to hold your nerve and act like you belong, I guess. When I used to play at open mic nights in Burnley I thought that I was the dog’s bollocks, and then I moved to London and realised that there are hundreds of better players, and that’s kind of what it is like in L.A….but then I went to The Rainbow and sat in the booth where they filmed the ‘November Rain’ video and I thought…”I do belong!” [laughs]

Rock and metal have been thrust into the spotlight recently with Stranger Things using Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, meaning an entirely new generation might have been discovering metal for the first time. With that in mind, it is quite sad that Metallica had to come out and stick it to the so-called “gatekeepers” by making a statement defending kids getting into the band via the hit show…

I’m of the age now – I’m in my late thirties – where I’ve been around a little bit, but even when I was a teenager I was meeting people who had been into Metallica since the early days…I remember buying a ‘Master Of Puppets’ Tshirt in this shop in the Arndale Centre in Manchester, and I used to hang out at this place in Burnley called Hellbound, it was the only metal club that they had in the city centre, and this guy gave me a load of shit for wearing the Tshirt! He obviously thought that I was too young to be wearing it which was daft because this was 1999! And all these years later I was in the town centre here and I was wearing a ‘Master of Puppets’ hoody which I have had for years, and there was this young lad walking towards me wearing a ‘Master of Puppets’ Tshirt and I thought…“this is me twenty years ago!” It was horrible because he looked like a younger more handsome version of me! So maybe I should have pulled him to one side and asked him to name every track on the record! [laughs] I think it is great, man! You want younger generations to get into this stuff…but, my wife is a massive Kate Bush fan and when ‘Running Up That Hill’ was in it she was like…” Oh no, everyone is going to know who she is now!”…I think that she felt that Kate Bush was “her thing”! But I should tell you, I was planning for this tour coming up with Phil and Charlie, I had worked out a version of ‘Running Up That Hill’ a few months ago before Stranger Things was on, and as soon as I saw that episode I was like “there is no fucking way that I can do that now!” because everyone is going to be doing it now. So scratch that one and I’ll just play ‘All Along The Watchtower’ like everyone else instead, or ‘Fortunate Son’!

 

Check out Jack’s version of ‘Fortunate Son’ on one of the dates below:

5 October – The Railway, Winchester (w/Trouble County) TICKETS

8 October – The Brickmakers, Norwich (w/White Raven Down) TICKETS

9 October – The Crauford Arms, Milton Keynes (w/White Raven Down) TICKETS

14 October – The Thunderbolt, Bristol (w/Firekind) TICKETS

19 October – Bannerman’s, Edinburgh (support TBC) TICKETS

20 October – The Waterloo, Blackpool (support TBC) TICKETS

21 October – Trillians, Newcastle (support TBC) TICKETS

23 October – Soundbay Festival, Swansea TICKETS

12 November – St Austell Band Club (w/Firekind) TICKETS

19 November – Whitby Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival TICKETS

2 December – Looe Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival TICKETS

Pre-order ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ here.

Interview – Dave

Photo credits – Will Carter

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