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Former Bible frontman and celebrated songsmith Boo Hewerdine tells John Callaghan about re-learning technique, Danish pedal steel and the joys of hand-built guitars.
Art And GRAFT
Despite the responsibilities of running his own label, as well as having a successful sideline in writing songs for other artists, Boo Hewerdine went back to school in order to improve his playing before the making of his new album Anon.
'I thought I needed to get up to scratch, so I just got a load of books and records on picking techniques and locked myself in a room for a while. It was absolute agony,' Hewerdine smiles.
Guitar players will be able to evaluate Hewerdine's clawhammer technique on songs like of the uplifting Apple Tree, or see whether the 'phenomenally difficult' back-to-front clawhammer variation employed on the driving Peacetime was worth the extra blisters.
Regardless of your playing ability, you'll realise that Anon is one of the most immediate acoustic albums in years; from the lilting patterns of opener Kite to the
evocative lullaby of encore Mapping The Human Heart, you'll be too busy wallowing in luscious melodies to have time to be impressed by any fancy-dan stuff. And you can forget the worthy but dull earnestness that cripples many an unplugged merchant.
'I write a lot of pop songs for other people, and although these songs don't sound anything like that I do use those pop sensibilities,' Hewerdine reasons. 'You've
got to realise that someone's going to listen to this music and they should get something else out of it, and not just force them to admit how great you are.'
Despite the discipline showed in improving his technique, Boo Hewerdine confesses to being an impatient man when it comes to writing and recording. Having given himself only five days to record his album at a swish Danish studio, he finished it in three. He's at pains to point out, though, that it wasn't a rush job; it's just that, given the quality of the facilities and the people working with him, he simply didn't need any more time. 'Endless fiddling about doesn't really improve anything,' he declares.
While Hewerdine concentrated on singing and playing the acoustic, Gustaf Ljunggren was the one-man orchestra who played everything else you hear on the record, including pedal steel, flute, mellotron and French horn. 'I love his solo on Apple Tree, because he whams the lap steel so hard it goes out of tune, but then it comes back in again,' says Hewerdine.
Meanwhile, the odd dissonance you'll hear on The Devil Takes Care Of His Own is down to Ljunggren losing his balance while trying to play his pedal steel in a tiny microphone cupboard, with Hewerdine strumming alongside him. 'The big room we did it in first made it sound too posh,' claims Hewerdine.
The singer-songwriter was game for trying all sorts of mic placements, tunings and so on, but to keep a common thread throughout the record, by sticking to the custom-made acoustic made for him by Canterbury-based luthier Alister Atkin.
'I played one of his guitars once and I loved it, so I asked him to make me one. I'll still use my Gibson J200 if I want a big, rocky sound, but the Atkin guitar easily covered everything on the record.'
Despite this affection, Hewerdine's not too hot on the guitar's specs. 'I just told him what sounds and feel I wanted, and let him do the rest,' he laughs. (At a later date, the luthier himself informs Guitar that it's one from his OM series, boasting a neck that's 45mm wide at the nut, Indian rosewood back and sides, a sitka spruce top, an ebony fingerboard and with onstage plug-in convenience provided by a Fishman transducer.) 'It sounds so good through a PA,' coos Hewerdine. 'It seemed extravagant but it wasn't too pricey, and I'm so glad I did it.
'All guitarists seem to spend their lives talking about their perfect guitar, so if you do ever get the chance to have it built-just do it.'
Anon by Boo Hewerdine is out now on Haven. For more information about Atkin Guitars go to www.atkinguitars.com
With thanks to Guitar Magazine and IPC Media.
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