Richard and Percy Jones

[missouriman]

Anil Prasad : You collaborated with Richard Barbieri on two of his albums, Things Buried and this year’s Planets + Persona. Provide some insight into that collaboration.

Percy Jones :I like playing with Richard a lot. He’s a synthesist with a really unique style. His sound is really recognizable. I first met him in Japan in the early ‘80s, playing with Masami Tsuchiya. A couple of years later, Masami did a tour of Japan with Ippu-Do and asked me to join him. Richard and Steve Jansen were both in the band. Of course, both were in the band Japan. I also met Mick Karn in a club in Tokyo years ago. We all got to know each other.

Richard told me that he and Steve used to go to the Marquee and see Brand X back in the ‘70s and that he liked what I did with Brian Eno as well. So, he first asked me to play on Things Buried, which was his first solo record. I was in Wales at the time, visiting my family. So, I’d go up to North Wales and record with Richard there. I just recently did a track for Planets + Persona called “Solar Storm.” I recorded that at home.

A couple of years ago, I also played with Richard in Sweden with Isildur's Bane. They have an expo every year and invite guests to play with them. So, I got invited and Richard and I were on the same gig. We got to play live and that was a lot of fun.

In terms of the process, Richard would provide guidance. When we did Things Buried, he would say things like “Don’t play so many notes here,” “simplify things here” or “you can go nuts there." [laughs] So, there was direction, but he’d also give me a lot of freedom. I didn’t get any direction for “Solar Storm.” He just said “Between here and here, you can play a groove, and then before here and here, you can go nuts a little bit.” And that was it. I did the track and sent it to him and he liked it immediately. We didn’t have to redo anything and he didn’t edit it down.


Here a link to the full Percy Jones interview with the excellent Anil Prasad.

http://www.innerviews.org/inner/percy-jones

[inkinthewell]

Thanks.