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When it comes to releasing albums, British slide guitarist Troy Redfern doesn’t hang around. Some thirteen months after releasing ‘The Fire Cosmic’, Troy is back with his latest opus ‘The Wings of Salvation’, and it is a beauty. Troy was on hand to talk us through the rather-speedy writing and recording process, as well as talk about what fans can expect from the album. Connect with Troy, below…
The new album, ‘The Wings of Salvation’, sounds great, really big and bold! You must be pleased with how it turned out.
Weirdly, I hadn’t listened to it in ages but I was listening to it earlier as we are working on what will be the next single, so I was listening to it with my headphones on while I was working. When you haven’t listened to it in a few weeks, it’s almost like you are listening to it with fresh ears, almost like you weren’t even involved with it, which is the best time because when you are recording it you cannot listen to it properly because you are so involved with it.
Do you still listen to one of your albums when it is out there, or is it a case of moving on to the next one and only revisiting it when you start rehearsing for a tour?
Obviously, you have to learn the new material, for instance, we’ve played ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Come On’ live, but yes, the only time that I really listen to the material is for that reason. Today was a bit unusual because I was preparing for the next single so I had to learn ‘Sweet Carolina’ in my head…again…just to make sure that I could play it for the video, so I was prepping myself for the contour of the guitar solo. The single is out at the end of September so I’ve not got long to get ready. But, it’s nice to sit and listen to the album like someone who has not heard it before, I think that is a nice thing. Dave Marks has done a great job with the production, likewise with Paul Stewart on the drums, his playing is brilliant, and I’m really pleased with the way that it has come out because of the time restraints that we put on ourselves, that was a stupidly short amount of time! [laughs]
By the time that ‘The Wings of Salvation’ comes out, only thirteen months will have passed since your last album ‘The Fire Cosmic’, was it always your intention to have such a quick follow-up?
No. No, it wasn’t! I had discussed it with my team and we were talking about upcoming tours so it became a matter of urgency that we fitted the album into a particular time slot. So that was talked about in January of this year, we started the album in February and we finished in the first week of March. When I say started…normally I start recording ideas on my phone and I have a catalog of ideas to sift through, but this time there wasn’t any of that, it was a blank canvas. So I got about forty verses or choruses down on the guitar, just sang some vocal melodies – no lyrics – just vocal melodies and guitar parts, and then I sent them over to Dave and we began to choose the ones that we liked the sound of, and the ones that we thought were worth developing. We hit the ground running with that, and because Dave is in Ireland, for pre-production and the demos, we both had [digital workstation] Logic and it meant that as soon as I did anything then his dropbox would get instantly updated and vice-versa, so that’s why it was so fast. I would put my ideas in with programmed drums and he would do some arranging and put his bass parts in, so, yes it was super fast…I’ve never done anything like this in such a short space of time!
‘The Fire Cosmic’ was written over a year I think, I was working on that one myself in the demo stage so I would put the guitar parts in and then maybe work on a solo for a week, write the lyrics, etc…so it might have taken a few weeks to get just the one song together because there were no time restraints. And this one was the complete opposite because I had ten songs to write lyrics for in a couple of weeks! And that was a lot of pressure, I had insomnia and would have my phone by the bed at night, and I was going through choruses and ideas, and then a line would come out so I would lean over and put it into my phone and then try and go back to sleep, but then another idea would come so as soon as that happens you have to try and grab them! [laughs]
What is interesting about putting all this pressure on is that listening back to the album, it doesn’t sound rushed. And from my point of view, the songs are better or at least as good as the songs on ‘The Fire Cosmic’, and I do work better under pressure. When you have a time limit or a date when you need to get things done for a particular reason, and you are working with someone like Dave Marks who works very fast, then that is a good recipe.
As well as producing and engineering the album, Dave also plays a major part on the album (bass/keyboards/percussion/guitars/banjo) but when it is just your name on the finished product and the pressure is all on you, it must be crucial to have someone like Dave there alongside you as a sounding board.
Yes, and as I said earlier, when you are doing it all on your own and don’t have that sounding board you mention, then that is hard. You lose any objectivity because you are constantly asking yourself if this is any good. When you have someone there, you can bounce ideas off them and give you some kind of feedback, so yes, working with Dave was like working with a band member in some ways. We spoke about the album very early on and he got it, he got what I wanted stylistically, and he played on my last album so he got what I was about. That’s what you want, you want someone who can lift it up in production and suggest things. And as you pointed out, he plays a lot of instruments, on ‘Navajo’ he plays banjo, he plays the keyboard parts…he’s an incredible multi-instrumentalist, he’s a bassist but he’s as equally as good playing the guitar, and the keyboards…he’s worked with Hans Zimmer.
The album opens up in blistering fashion with ‘Gasoline’, was this one always going to open the album?
No, actually it was going to be the last track! The last few albums that I’ve put out have been blues-rock, a bit of slide, and a few Southern influences, but on my Bandcamp page, I have a few more experimental albums listed. I did one called ‘Thunder Moon’ that is pretty out there! [laughs] ‘…And the Gods Came Down’ which is a bit more space-rock/sci-fi/fusion…I like playing different time signatures, I’m a big Frank Zappa fan so the riff for ‘Gasoline’ is in 7 – well the whole song is in 7/8 – and originally the demo had an Eastern sound, it had a choral sitar in there which we didn’t use in the end, so I thought it was a bit much for the front of the album so we put it at the back. And then when we looked at the album as a team and talked about the singles, they suggested ‘Gasoline’ and I wasn’t convinced, but I went with it at the front! I wasn’t even sure that it should have been on the album! [laughs] But now that it is in that order, I couldn’t imagine it not being there.
Even though the gap between completing ‘The Fire Cosmic’ and beginning ‘The Wings of Salvation’ was so short, in what areas do you see growth? For instance, do you see growth in your songwriting…or confidence even considering how pressurised the recording process was.
Yes, kind of. I think going through that fast-paced, pressurised recording process makes me trust myself more. It makes me think that even under that sort of my pressure…I can do this. It was self-imposed pressure I should say! Lyrically, in songs like ‘Dark Religion’ and ‘Navajo’, there was more narrative in them, I had lyrical themes in mind and I was able to articulate them in the songs, which I was pleased with. I think that if I had sat around for months writing them, then I wouldn’t have come up with anything better as you just end up second-guessing everything.
‘Navajo’ is edging forward as perhaps the standout track on the album, and going into the first few listens of the album I felt that I had an idea what it would sound like and tracks such as ‘Navajo’ help make the album a great surprise, it’s way more expansive for one…
I hadn’t listened to ‘Navajo’ for a while and when I put the album on earlier I was really pleased with it. For me, ‘Navajo’ is very similar to ‘Ghosts’ from ‘The Fire Cosmic’, and if you enjoyed ‘Ghosts’ then you will enjoy ‘Navajo’. But you can never guess that because you never know what will work, and what other people will like.
Have you tried it live yet?
I will be, yes. It’s a song that works well when it’s just myself and the guitar. The one guitar will hold that one up. We’ve done ‘Come On’, ‘Sweet Carolina’, and ‘Gasoline’ live, ‘Gasoline’ is a harder one to play live because of the time signature, ‘Carolina’ works well because it’s a good time song, it’s a bit Stones-y…
And it’s not a cover of ‘Sweet Caroline’ thankfully!
No! It’s definitely not that! [laughs]
You are very hands-on with everything that you create, right down to creating the cover art yourself, it must be vital for you to have such a strong physical product out there?
Yes, ‘The Fire Cosmic’ was the first time that I had done the artwork for an album properly, I think! It was the first one that I created the illustration, and I felt that I needed to do that again. I’ve always drawn, and been into art, but I wouldn’t consider myself an artist as such. When Dave and I were talking about the album packaging, he said that this one – we’re both Star Wars and comic book geeks – was more Tatooine [lawless, harsh desert world in Star Wars] than it was [legendary comic book artist] Jack Kirby…and as soon as he mentioned Tatooine then I instantly knew what he meant: browns and reds, and that palette of colours. So I was sitting here one day and got some charcoals out and started having a go, and it turned out really well I think.
You tour relentlessly, and if I recall correctly since the lockdown lifted you have toured with Robert Jon and The Wreck, The Sweet, and When Rivers Meet as a solo performer, and also with the full band opening for The Quireboys, when you go out with Dare in October is it just yourself or with the band?
It will be as a duo, it’s me and Finn McAuley, my drummer. We’ve toured before as a duo and it went down really well. The solo stuff is not in my comfort zone, I do it because I’m asked to do it, not because I want to do it. I’m a band guy and I think that’s where I do my best, when I’m playing solo I usually get into the swing of it mid-tour, but I need a beat, and when I am out with Finn then at least I have that beat. It brings a certain energy. But I completely get why some bands want a solo opening act because they can get on and off really quickly, and there is no big changeover. You mentioned When Rivers Meet, that one worked really well, the merch sales were off the scale on that tour, some of the best merch sales that I’ve ever done. The fit with When Rivers Meet was good, I do the slide thing, as does Aaron [WRM guitarist/vocalist Aaron Bond] and it was the perfect match with their audience. Those guys are great, they are nice and genuine people, they shared a post the other day about an album review for someone else, and not many bands do that.
You mentioned earlier that you grew up with Glam, it must have been special for you to open for The Sweet?
It was, yes! They were brilliant, such a phenomenal band, and they were doing this one song every night during the soundcheck and I thought “Why are they playing Motley Crue?”, I thought that they were playing ‘Kickstart My Heart’ and then I found out it was ‘Hellraiser’, so obviously Motley Crue lifted some of the riffs from that! The Sweet were brilliant night after night, so many great songs that I didn’t know were theirs…like ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’, I didn’t know that was theirs! It was an honour to open for those guys.
Support slots are great because you are getting in front of all these other audiences, but I want to get out there and do a full set with a full band and present the music as it should be. Hopefully, we will head out on a headline tour during Easter 2023.
‘The Wings of Salvation’ is available September 23rd, pre-order information here.
Interview – Dave
All portrait images – Adam Kennedy
Live image – credit Will Carter
October Tour dates:
Leeds, Brudenell Social Club – Thursday 6th October 2022
Newcastle, The Cluny – Friday 7th October 2022
Glasgow, The Garage – Saturday 8th October 2022
Bury St Edmunds, The Apex – Thursday 13th October 2022
Rescue Rooms, Nottingham – Friday 14th October 2022
Bilston, The Robin – Saturday 15th October 2022
Shoreham Ropetackle, Brighton – Friday 21st October 2022
Southampton, 1865 – Saturday 22nd October 2022
Bristol, Fleece – Sunday 23rd October 2022
London, O2 Academy Islington – Thursday 27th October 2022
Manchester, Academy -Friday 28th October 2022
Newbury, Arlington Arts Centre – Saturday 29th October 2022
Tickets available here
