What's On chatted with local musician, Rob C about his band C Force, his musical influences growing up, and their forthcoming gig at the Looe Music Festival.
Tell us a little about the music that you listened to while growing up ?
I grew up in Whitleigh, Plymouth and the first musicians I really picked upon were Bowie, Roxy Music and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. Then the Pistols came along and kicked the door open for songwriters like Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and bands like Talking Heads. I loved a lot of that stuff, and then a little later I got into bands like Talk Talk and The Waterboys. I had an epiphany when I went to WOMAD in 1987 and saw the Malian musician Salif Keita. That opened my eyes and ears to a lot more diverse forms of music and soon artists like Miles Davis, Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell were demanding my attention. After a five-year stint in Bristol a lot of these influences came together in the band Sha-Gov and around that time I started using samplers. I've always been in to recording, and characterised beats became a key part of the sound in my head. This really came to fruition when I hooked up with Milestone and formed The Cohorts. When Milo re-located to Bristol I really got back into using the guitar as my main instrument, and that kind of lead me musically to where I am now.
Can you explain your approach to writing lyrics and composition when songwriting ?
For quite a while in the late Nineties, up until the start of this decade, I was really just writing music and leaving the lyrics to collaborators. I got back into playing guitar in 2004 and went on a bit of a mission to learn a lot of songs that I had liked over the years. I'd never really played in cover bands so I didn't have much of a repertoire – I learnt a fair bit about how good songs are put together by doing that. One day my good friend Jimmy Buddha Om said to me "That's all very well, but why don't you write some songs". He was running the Acoustic Cafe downstairs at The Fortescue at the time, so I said that I'd write a song about that. Tom Waits has been my favourite songwriter since about the mid-eighties so I drew on his influence to help me sketch out the characters and describe the atmosphere of that place, he's the master of that stuff! After that I got on a bit of roll and I haven't gathered much moss since.
One of your most popular songs, Kirsty and Stacey's Big Day Out, you said was inspired by a chance conversation, overheard in the city centre one day. It seemsto me to be about the disenchantment of youth in the city that fall through the gaps. Those between the student population, and those in gainful employment, and the enduring power of childhood dreams. The touching thing it nails is the power of a friendship, with the line 'at least with you I don't have to pretend'.
Yes that song is influenced by a snippet of a conversation that I overheard down the west end of town, between two girls who were probably in their late teens. That song, like quite a few others that I have written, has a strong narrative thread to it but I also like to mix things up by being more abstract, impressionistic or poetic.
That song also promises, 'One day you'll have your big day out' . What would be your ideal big day out ?
My idea of a big day out at the moment would be going to London after Jeremy Corbyn has been voted in as Prime Minister and witnessing the abolition of the Monarchy, the House of Lords and the disestablishment of the Church of England so that this country is constitutionally brought kicking and screaming out of the middle ages and into the 21st century.
In this country there is a strong British songwriting ethic, that takes what works from what went before, and hones that in service of new material. Almost like a continuation of a musical arts and craft movement. You seem to have that same desire to improve and whittle away the superfluous. Is it hard to change that style when playing with C Force, so that rather than playing riffs that sound like hummable vocal melodies you are laying a structure over which to display the lyrics, which with C Force seem to be a more story led type of songwriting ?
I also play solo gigs and as a duo with Si. For those gigs I play acoustic guitar whereas with C Force it's pretty much all electric. It's interesting swapping between the two and it took me a while to get used to it when C Force got going. I play the acoustic much more percussively than the electric, to try and fill out the sound. With a really good drummer like Pete driving the band, I don't really need to do the percussive thing so much – there's more movement in the chords and more solo lines going on with C Force. It keeps me on my toes swapping between the two and that's a good way of keeping things fresh for me, which is important when you are a songwriter. I don't really think of myself as a guitarist though. It's an instrument that I can operate to some degree to facilitate songwriting or to accompany myself when I want to sing some songs. Generally I won't pick a guitar up unless I want to work on some songs or need to practice for a forthcoming show.
You have been writing songs and playing guitar for a long time now as well as producing and work with the Cohorts. There is a line in one of your songs that says 'You always have to study, and learn you never pass'. Do you think you are still learning ?
That pretty much sums up my attitude to music and song writing. If you stop learning you are pretty much doomed in terms of creativity. I don't necessarily mean that you have to learn about music all the time, just keep developing as a person and observing, analysing and learning about the world around you. I do read a lot of music biographies and interviews with songwriters though. It's reassuring to know that most of them have the same insecurities as me.
With C Force, you are back together with Pete now, the drummer from the Sha-Gov days and of course Si Hackers with whom you also play in The Wireless. Is it easier to work with friends or does such a long professional relationship put an inevitable strain on the relationship ?
If you are in a band with someone (especially when you are playing your own material) you have to be able to relate to those people, and get on with them. Although I don't think you have to have a gang mentality, which is kind of what it was like for me when I was younger, it helps if you have some reference points in common, when it comes to describing songs, and how you want them to sound. A bit of rubbing up against each other every now and then isn't necessarily a bad thing though, it's certainly worked for bands like The Who!
Which current bands or artists are doing interesting work, or stuff that you can connect with?
The one act that has really made me sit up and take notice recently is Sleaford Mods. Their uncompromising directness, aligned with some great lyrical content and back-to-basics beats does it for me. Earlier today I heard a song by Paperface - I don't know anything about them but I'm going to check that out. It just jumped out of the radio and stopped me in my tracks. There's some good music being written by Plymouthians as well. I think Darren from Crazy Arm writes some great songs and my old mucker Milestone is an excellent lyricist. Also, I'm still discovering old music that I missed the first time around, a recent example of that is Carole King's Tapestry album. I've often found myself late at on YouTube flicking between Sleaford Mods and Carole King videos. I wonder what a psychoanalyst would make of that!
Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Looe?
I've not been to Looe Festival before so I'm looking forward to checking things out as well as playing. When I went to WOMAD and stumbled across Salif Keita I realised that the best stuff at festivals is usually the stuff you knew nothing about before you got there. I've probably been influenced to pick up the guitar over the years by as many local musicians as internationally famous ones. Rich Meen, Clive Hooper and Vince Lee are three good examples of local guitarists that I've been inspired by since I started out. I've always liked Johnny Marr's guitar playing and his new material sounds pretty good, so if I get a chance I'll go and see him.
Future plans for C-Force and yourself ?
My main aim for the future is to keep writing, that's the driving force for everything else. If I wasn't writing new material I wouldn't have put C Force together in the first place. Expanding the set, our sound, and the range of venues that we play is important. Mainly, I just want us to keep doing it to the best of our ability and stay true to the songs and the way we like to make music. Everything else will flow out of that.
C Force are a powerful and dynamic trio lead by Plymouth-based songwriter, vocalist, guitar player and musical maverick Rob C (The Wireless, The Cohorts, Sha-Gov). The C Force rhythm section features two of Plymouth's finest and most respected players - Si Hackers (The Wireless, Joey the Lips, Sha-Gov) on electric bass and extra vocals, and Pete Nicholls (Grooveyard, Rhythm Machine, Sha-Gov) on drums. The band's original material covers a wide range of lyrical topics and musical bases - from lilting grooves, through driving beats with a healthy dose of grit, to thought-provoking vignettes of life in the 21st century. The core line-up of the band is often augmented by guest musicians, including pianist Phil Hawkes and the dynamic twin horn attack of Tim Sayer (trumpet and flugel horn) and Andy Visser (tenor sax).
INTERVIEW AND PICTURES BY LAWRENCE HYNE / GREENBEANZ PHOTOGRAPHY