Pressure Zone

Dave and Marco talk to Kris Needs, a music journalist who over the past 20 years has been prolific and influential in his output as writer, critic and commenter on popular music culture.

Pressure Zone

Dave Clayton and Marco Perry are in it. They are it.
Pressure Zone is the outlet for their combined talents. A vehicle. A driving force.

The Ultimate drive

A four album boxed set of music recordings for your road trip.

“I’d already been to the Pressure Zone studio to meet the boys for tea and biscuits. Garibaldi’s and Hob Nobs, a jazzy and funky combination, so it’s not just the music then? I spoke to them together at The Telegraph, “a country pub in London”, a wine, beer and top-grub establishment set in rural heathland just a stone’s throw from the music studio which they’ve built for themselves in Roehampton, overlooking Richmond Park in leafy west London. We order our fish ‘n’ chips, and now it’s time for ale and chat…”

KN
The new Pressure Zone studio looks and sounds great how’s it working out for you?

DC
Because of our various individual commitments it means we can come here for off the ball work both separately and together. It’s full potential hasn’t really kicked in yet… but it will.

MP
We can do quite a lot of the writing and recording process here It’s an inspirational little place obviously lower cost than doing everything at Beat Farm in Hackney Road. In any case, that studio runs commercially as well. I like to mix there but It’s not always necessary for many other parts of the process.

DC
I’d actually like to see finished product coming from here with a “Made In Roehampton” tag ..It’s only that we have such a great tried and tested mix facility in The East London Beat Farm, that we haven’t got around to starting and finishing a complete production from here… Yet!

KN
How did The Ultimate Drive come about ?
and… How did it get that catchy title ?

MP
Well we had all this music to compile for the albums and we were completing songs down here at Beat Farm West. As we put mixes together we let a few out to fans and to friends and to see what the reactions would be like. People just said “It sounds great in the car” and “This music is great for listening to while driving” So we said, “Alright, we’ll make it The Ultimate Drive… Music for your road trip.” Then we completed the set with that in mind.

KN
Where did you both come from and how did you meet?

MP
I’d migrated across the river (Thames) Actually I’m from deepest beautiful South London originally. After a long spell of recording and touring in the USA I moved back and became resident engineer at Ray Davies Konk studios which is where we met.
Dave had already come hundreds of miles down the M1 from Sheffield.

He showed up that day on the session with a mad arsenal of keyboards and synths and
enthusiastic unlimited supply of good humor. This Yorky getting down and grooving between the big speakers in front of the mixer.. Sheffield’s finest blades had arrived.

DC
In Sheff, I was a steel worker and at night played the working mens clubs.
When I was made redundant due to the Tory cut backs I spent my severance pay on some choice synthesizers and keyboards and made the big decision to go Pro. I joined Person To Person which was good grounding for me, we signed to Epic, completed one album then split but I had been spotted by ABC and moved to London. Then as a session musician we met on a job at Konk where the producer and artist fell asleep (no names) Me an Marco finished the track together working all night. The producer erased the tape next day but we had made good contact and since then, over the years, we’ve somehow managed to juggle the tasks of paying the rent, keeping relationships, and …..The Funk!

KN
How did you find it, making that move down South to the proper big smoke?

DC
Well the handkerchief on the end of the stick was quite heavy (I had a lot of equipment you see) The move was always on the cards for me but I had mate’s who were already down here sessioning away.. Dave Palmer, Danny Cummings, Simon Eyre, Jeremy Meek, a few other lads from Sheff that were finding their feet… I was more like a calculated gambler and was able to play it safe. I came here with a contract from ABC which kept me busy and paid me 6 days a week, that gave me some sense of security while I gained a footing and plugged into the session scene.

KN
Tell me about where your musical inspiration was coming from at that time.
I know you two both got pretty heavy into house music early on.

MP
I’d heard the disco clubs and gay scene music when I was in San Francisco in the early Eighties but not really paid too much attention to it . It wasn’t till I came back to England. I was working on a recording session in a warehouse down in Southwark and we were constantly being interrupted by this thud thud thud .. which was coming from downstairs where a vacant floor had been taken over for the night by a bunch of crazy herberts.

It just sounded like some bloke building a shed. Eventually we gave up and went to join the party. For me I can only describe it as an awakening, blooming marvelous! It all made sense on a big sound system, just like early reggae did when played out to a crowd. I heard that booming celebration of the bass drum, the pulse of the people. The club scene was really free at that time and it felt like boundaries had been completely blurred, It was like for a moment in London’s club culture… I mean in the dance music scene ..skin didn’t matter and everyone was just being cool together.

Of course subsequently things changed again and went into self conscious compartments but just for a beautiful moment in time it seemed like anything could happen and everything was possible. My inspiration and influences were in the productions…nearly always American, New York, Chicago, Todd Terry, Marshall Jefferson, Steve Hurley, The jazzy and more soulful house was ear opening to me but the primitive and raw productions were also inspiring and had some deep and dirty funk going on so you felt this was really the peoples music and a lot of that was played and not computer driven at all and as for records being made by engineers who were producers and musicians as well.. I could relate to that.

DC
ABC would I think have been one of the main reasons, We used to go to the famous Shoom with Danny Rampling, and I just fell in love with the whole culture. The early Shoom days were amazing, legendary, I just remember going down in a basement to a sweaty room, bangin’ music playin’, the place was an absolute tip, completely trashed but it didn’t matter, you knew it was your vibe. Set your decks up, dance and have a good time. A lot of it was really jazzy, just based on good feel and rhythms, and the early stuff was actually played like Marco said, Those Chicago boys would just turn on a drum machine and jam it, a lot of them were jazzers..Fingers Inc, Larry Heard, Jamie Principle, Derrick May ..that was more techno, but Larry Heard was a major influence for me, and Fingers Inc. and when I heard his solo stuff.. You know it kind of follows on from Dexter Wansill who composed Nights Over Egypt, who we just listened to, who was making really Jazz Funk but almost in a dance format sort of way. I think Fingers Inc with Robert Owens was a major step forward to me.

KN
Who in your careers have been your major influences then ..musical and Jazzical?

DC
Yeah The Jazzers have been the big ones..and also… Keith Emerson ..major influence, Marvin Gaye, Brian Auger, George Duke, Joe Zawinul ….. major influence and.. Deep Purple ..actually they were a massive influence on my life! Sabbath and hmm…. That’s quite a strange mix actually?!

KN
Hmm yes, Although from a similar place in time they represent quite different places in musical culture, style and fashion.

DC
Yeah that’s right, I mean you had to immerse yourself in the whole fashion thing as well. I used to wear loons and tie dyed tee shirts and grew me hair as long as it would go. I was like a hippy rocker.. Most nights you’d find me with me head inside bass bins, sneakin’ into the mucky duck or some place round Sheffield .. Groundhogs, Motorhead, Saxon or one of those type of heavy metal outfits. I’d always like to put me head in the bins for maximum effect. That’s why I’m so surprised that me hearing is still relatively intact.

KN
And you mentioned to me earlier that you recently had a hearing test right ?

DC
Yeh… I got the hearing of a twenty year old apparently!

MP
But sadly not the body.

KN
So pre funk you were actually a metal head, a hippy heavy rocker.. What happened?

DC
Well suddenly I met a friend who just played me some Marvin and some George Duke and a few bits and overnight it was like Oh… and it just hit me like a ton of bricks and then Brian Auger and the whole lot came in, The Meters, Earth Wind and Fire and the entire funk army.

MP
When I left school I joined the South London Jazz Federation as an aspiring sax player. That showed me some neat tricks but more in a traditional way and I was big into exploring everything.. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Blues, BeBop, American Soul, Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire. Muscle Shoals horns, Brecker Brothers, Pink Floyd, Santana, Average White Band and producers like Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, Narada Walden, I’d say that they were a big influence on me. I’ve been kind of nomadic in my musical journey. I had a great love of reggae, and soul from the early seventies when I first heard Jamaican 7inch records played at the local orphanage disco. My spars there were also able to turn me on to Fatback, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Philly Soul, James Brown. It got Funkadelic and smoky later on.
I became heavy into reggae dub which has been a severe influence. I worked in a big pub rock venue as sound crew mixing the bands that came through on that college circuit.

I was into some of the punk bands and the Pistols records which were brilliantly produced. I started to take a more DIY approach to my own music but I was never a punk rocker myself and I used to go out dressed smart. It wasn’t till I went to the States that I discovered American “garage bands” along with Trouble Funk..and the South LA Go Go beat plus “Art student” alternative music in San Francisco and The Dead Kennedys. Then it all made sense! I often grew my hair long …and at the back.

DC
Were you into Poodle Rock.? I mean was it like ..a mullet style ? …before you lost it all ?

MP
No, It was all over long but I used to comb it slicked back with grease, I still do sometimes…then I wake up.

KN
Can you give us an idea of who are your keyboard playing heroes and why?

DC
Joe Zawinul because of his most beautiful synth playing technique like when he took a solo on the ARP2600 Just the poetry in his playing. Herbie Hancock for just being pure.. everything, Jazz, Funk, a display of… well not arrogance because that implies a negative quality so more like … genius! Brian Auger ..because he just touched me, Spice Island,

Reinforcements, I could relate to his interpretations with just a brilliant feel to his playing. When I listen now I almost think I’ve developed as a player myself .. well .. more like him so perhaps he was a bigger influence than I realized. He’s English as well so maybe that had a lot to do with it.

KN
How about an example of some of your best all time albums?

DC
Probably All ‘n’ All. It’s just got some of the best harmonies and the most beautiful funk, Beautiful Feel.. feel like I’d never heard before, and honest, almost like there wasn’t such a marketing move on Earth Wind And Fire at that point. The brief.. It was like.. Just make beautiful music .. funk out… make soul. Play with great feel and it’ll sell because it’s just fabulous. Not because… it sounds like ..somebody else.

I’m sure there was criteria on marketing a record back then, but not like it is now..Then it was geared to more like pure. Just write and record it and all the great recordings…Well you know that’s why people bothered to get top microphones and good recording engineers in great rooms to capture this beauty. To a degree that still exists but it’s much less now.

Other defining albums…I love The Blues She Heard Me Cry by George Duke, When I first heard that it just blew my mind because I just heard musicians playing notes…. Technically it was just amazing, It feels amazing, it’s funky. And I couldn’t understand it. It was just mind blowing technique, and it wasn’t twiddely diddely, It still had the funk. Deep Purples Made In Japan is another great live album. They funked in a rock kinda way, they just had an empathy. More defining albums.. probably Gratitude by EWF and that was live ..Umma Gumma Pink Floyd … Live again you see. Me faves always seem to be live ones. Going back to that untamed …pure spirit. Albums that were just played and made. I know they had to have singles and so on but there was just less emphasis then on the hard sell… the market place was different then.

KN
How do you balance your playing with an appreciation of great feeling and technical excellence?

DC
I know what you’re saying, There is a line there, I’m not saying it’s a fine line to appreciate but there is a line, you know … between technical excellence and feel.

I’m not bothered about the notes if it feels good but also I admire technical excellence if people can feel that…. It’s just that’s the way they express themselves.. in being technical. There’s some people that are technical but that are.. well they just express themselves in another way but it’s almost like ..They’re expressing almost an ego rather than a feel. Some of these that are really mind blowing, playing notes.. It’s almost like the mathematical brain takes over to a point where.. like you know that’s just their way of expressing themselves and that’s who they are in a very clinical kind of way and I suppose the world needs them. There are musicians who play with both great feel and with great technical ability and they are the truly gifted ones. Herbie Hancock, George Duke, I know there are a few on the funk side and I think also in other areas like Richie Blackmore as a guitarist, Jaco Pastorious as a bass player I could go on and on …
Stevie Ray Vaughan … etc.

It’s like when someone speaks to you.. when you are in communication with someone, You might meet the obvious in a healer or a priest or you might meet someone on death row, but they might have an inner spirit that just captures you and blows your mind, and musically transposing that .. and it can be any style of music, Guitarists like George Benson, Alan Holdsworth, The guy from Radio Head don’t know who he is but love his playing. John Maglaughlin, love him, Johnny guitar Watson, Drummers, Lenny White, Ndugu (Leon Chandler) Alphonse Muzon, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham (How could you forget the awesome Cobham) Steve Gadd (I had the privilege of playing with him) How many more do you want !!

MP
Yes there are a few! Steve Gadd played on some truly great Steely Dan recordings. The Dan are for me an example of a combination of the mathematics and the feel like you’re saying. Aja was really a beautiful record and with precision sound tooling. Steely Dan were a fantastic combination of being able to see the mathematics of the sound and at the same time with great feel and superb synergy in the band. And when they play live .. people sing the horn lines and guitar solos along with them. Those are classic poetic lines and maybe a good example of what Dave’s talking about.

I listened to Gaucho and heard the playing and recording quality and the production and that’s what made me go to the States. I wanted to be where the greatest recordings were being made and work with some of the best recording engineers in the world. In LA at Fiddlers, and when I worked at Hyde Street in San Francisco I had access to some truly classic vintage recording equipment. Great microphones in superb recording rooms. That was a good time too for me to record technical excellence and performers rising to the occasion because they just sounded so good on the playback. My job was simply to capture a feeling.

KN
Can we talk a bit about your equipment now?

DC/MP
That would be in the video laughs etc ..!

KN
OK …Take 2 ..You are versatile enough to play, record and session with the finest.
Talk about your gear.. what you now use and how things have changed over the years.

MP
With regard to recording of course the principle is still the same as it ever was. We’ve just changed the way we go about doing it that’s all. I’ve collected a few bits and pieces over the years. Microphones, tape recorders, signal processors, valve gear and various rare one offs and custom made effects and boxes that are like my main tools of the trade but also we like to experiment with new gear when we can. The biggest impact in our time has been digital. Although coming from completely analog recording backgrounds we’ve both fully embraced the world of digital and virtual recording. We combine our traditional equipment with the latest technology. So we might record anything.. guitar, piano, bass, drums..

Let’s say for example that we play a digital keyboard through an amp and loudspeaker miked up in a room (always a few variable possibilities to be had there) and we record on to a piece of magnetic tape for it’s characterful quality then we bounce that to a hard drive and chop up the digital sound wave in a computer and with software “plug ins” and feed that into the analog mixing desk and with old style valve compression mixed to a stereo analog master tape which we transfer to a finished digital master for editing in the computer. The point I’m making is.. We mix and match and combine the best of the old and new to get the sound we want but we’ll never let the gear or the recording options get in the way of the song. After all’s said and done..

You can’t beat a good tune!

DC
Well my top keyboards are ..
The Wurlitzer electric piano. “Wurly world” is an extension of my body.. What you put in is what you get back, bit like a Hammond organ but that’s more aggressive.
Because of it’s church origins the Hammond is like a spiritual connection to the universe with all it’s various voices, combined with a Leslie speaker cabinet it’s a monster.

It also requires a particular playing technique so you can really create your own “sound”
The Hohner Clavinet D6 is like the harpsichord of the modern era it’s so funky and a beautiful design. You’ll have heard it on Superstition (Stevie Wonder) as I did and instantly fell in love with it.
The Fender Rhodes electric piano is really the backbone of most modern electric jazz and it’s a classic “must have” sound… rock to jazz and back again.. It’s always a winner.
Over the years I’ve owned and played many classic synths, there are so many things you can do with a synthesizer and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t become totally a classical pianist or totally a jazz pianist. I’ve found so much scope in being a keyboard player. There’s a life time of exploration and so many things you can do.. It’s infinite !

Modular synthesis is something we haven’t touched on but in the synth world you are able to create your own individual sound by simply connecting oscillators and signal
generators and then shaping them with envelopes and filters, The mini Moog for example is a wonderfully expressive keyboard and although only monophonic i.e. one note at a time,
When used with the pitch bending and glide controls it is a beauty to solo on. The kind of playing technique required to be able to let rip on a synth performance is also a bit of a specialist practice. Emulating real instruments and being able to understand how other musicians perceive and play their instruments and with virtual synthesis you can really get inside an instrument and slip that playing technique into your performance. In the virtual synth world Reaktor allows you to build synths.. You can put an oscillator into a filter, feed it into an envelope and then because it’s electronic and virtual, you can patch anything into anything and it becomes an endless modular patchable scenario
so whoever designed it is I think someone who appreciates and understands the virtue of patchable modules like the early designs from the 70′s by Moog, Oberheim, Sequential, Arp, Korg, Roland, EMS. In Reaktor with a box of palettes and colors, oscillators and filters, you can build your own synth’s and it’s endless. I know others have said it and I’m only saying the same but that’s the way forward for me. We still have our analog synths and classic keys but we’ll use whatever is appropriate for the job. Recording in the studio is a different approach than playing live..

MP
Obviously Dave can’t always show up to the gig with a full size concert grand piano under his arm so you have to often make compromises but for some occasions and particularly live you just can’t beat the real thing. Like a horn section for example as opposed to playing sampled brass. Last year we went to see the all time great Roy Ayers, a hero of ours playing a 5 night stint at the Jazz Café. Roy is famed for his amazing Vibraphone playing and the Vibes are a fantastic combination of design with small wheels that spin in the tops of the metal tubes underneath the metal bars that you hit for each of the notes with hand held hammers. The speed of the rotation of the wheels is electrically controlled with a foot pedal and produces the characteristic Vibraphone vibrato sound. It’s a wonderful sound and sight to behold but dear old Roy showed up with a sample triggering plastic keypad thing which wasn’t what we’d expected to see him work out on.

DC
Plastic Vibes.. Burn em!

MP
Of course it’s not always appropriate or realistic or practical to play the real thing we know but.. Roy mate… next time we will pay to hire you a real vibraphone OK?

DC
Having said all that… and dissed the plastic,
the band was tight and Roy still played a blinder!

MP
Agreed

KN
What future for Pressure Zone this year?

DC
Well we’re just right now in the process of putting together a show and will be able to let you know more about the details of the line up and dates as the year progresses.

MP
We also have studio and session commitments with artists we are developing which is exciting. It’s something I think we’re good at and we enjoy it.

DC
I feel that record companies so much now want the instant gratification of a successful artist or an act but are’nt prepared to, or don’t have the resources to go through the process of development. That part of the story was traditionally important for performers to reach their true potential but these days there seems to be no time for experimenting with expression and the companies want to package and sell.. almost.. well.. prematurely and for instant return. This creates a dilemma for fledgling talent and even those with some experience can often benefit from having musical encounters that stretch and twist them a bit to help them reach their higher potential and we feel that as producers we can do that.

MP
When the chemistry’s right we can really help their creativity be more fully realized.

KN
What’s happening with the Jazz Funk scene in London and where’s it going now?

MP
I think on all levels, local, national and internationally the interest is growing again “the seekers” can find it on line. It’s so changed now. Global fragmentation of the music business has meant there’s now a horse for every course and it’s more possible to reach a target audience with your music. Jazz Funk’s no exception. You may have to wade through a lot to find what you want but it’s all out there for everyone to behold.

DC
People will always want to funk and so the young guns have a party to come to!
There’s so much to explore. In London we’re still funkin and so are Incognito and Light Of The World, Central Line, Beggar and Co and the Funk Jazz Collective …. There’s kind of an organic collaboration happening right now which is funkin good news!

KN
Some of the finest beer battered fish and chips I ever tasted .. with mushy peas and
red sauce. Another Jazzy and Funky combination.