Robin Trower Invites You To Come And Find Me: 13th Floor Interview
Robin Trower, fresh from celebrating his 80th birthday, is about to release a new album titled Come And Find Me.
The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda did indeed find Robin Trower and spoke to him at length about making this new album, preparing his For Earth Below for a 50th Anniversary Edition, working with Jack Bruce, appearing on Top Of The Pops and his days growing up in New Zealand…
Click here to listen to the interview:
Or, read a transcription of the interview with Robin Trower here, beginning with the former Procol Harum guitarist’s early days in New Zealand:
Robin: When I was a kid, we lived in Gisborne!
MD: How long were you there?
Robin: I think probably two or three years.
MD: Have any memories of it?
Robin: I do have, you know, just vague, vague memories, being on the beach, and I remember the school. I remember I went to school there.
MD: That’s cool. And have you been back? Have you played here?
Robin: No, never played in New Zealand. I always, always wanted to.
MD: Oh, well, you never know. There’s still time.
Robin: Yeah.
MD: So tell me what led up to…you’re pretty prolific these days. You crank out the records. What drives you to keep doing this after all these years?
Robin: Well, I think the fact is, I just keep coming up with some ideas, and obviously it’s something I love to do. I love to play guitar. I love writing new music and songs. And once you’ve written a new song, you think, well, I’ve got to record it. So away you go!
MD: Have you ever had a dry patch where songs weren’t coming to you?
Robin: I think quite a few years ago now. To be honest, ever since my previous manager, Derek Sutton, formed our own label, I found the freedom, you know, the freedom of being able to record what you know, come up with whatever I wanted. I think that kind of opened the floodgate a little bit.
MD: Oh, that’s that’s good to know. That’s interesting. So what inspires you to write songs these days? Are there things that, do you watch the news? Do you read the papers? What triggers things?
Robin: A lot of it does come from, you know, current events. But there are also other, you know, just playing unrequited love songs and etcetera, you know.
MD: Yes, the usual suspects, So the album is called Come And Find Me. And when did it start becoming a record in your mind?
Robin: I think pretty much after the last one was finished, I already had some material which was part finished. So, kind of that was the beginning of it, and I added some new songs last year. So, as I say, I pretty much had half an album already by the when, when the last one was finished, you know. Because I’m recording all the time. Well, not all the time, but every time I get sort of three or four songs, I go in, you know.
MD: Because I read that it was recorded over a 12 month period. And I’m just wondering if that’s usually how you work. It sounds like it is.
Robin: Yeah, that’s right. I mean, some of the songs that were on the previous album were from earlier…quite much earlier, you know. And there’s some songs on this album that were recorded maybe three years ago. I think the song, the last song on the album. Time Stood Still, I think that’s that’s like, four or five years old. So there are current things and there are stuff from the past on this album.
MD: So your drummer, is that Chris Taggart, who’s playing drums on everything?
Robin: That’s right, yeah, the wonderful Chris Taggert.
MD: Tell me a little bit about him. Why is he your guy?
Robin: Um, well, he’s a monster drummer, for a start, but I he was introduced to me by a guy was working with, Livingston Brown, on an earlier album. He was somebody that he recommended, and from there, I sort of tried him on gigs, and relationship has grown from there, you know, and he’s played drums on all my last few albums.
MD: And the other main character is Richard, who sings, right? Richard Watts.
Robin: Yeah, he plays bass and vocals when we when we play live. But because of the way I go about recording, I play bass, most of the bass, on the album.
MD: Do you talk much with Richard about his vocals and what you want to get across, and how you want him to sing, and all that stuff?
Robin: Yeah, I mean, I make, I make a pretty precise demo for him to learn the songs from, right? And then when he comes in, we talk about, you know, how he’s going to approach it. And, you know, we kick it around a little bit, but it’s such a wonderful musicians and singer that by the time you know he’s he’s learnt the song. There’s not a lot more to add, if you know what I mean.
MD: So the album opens with the tune called A Little Bit Of Freedom. Why is that chosen to open it? And what can you tell me about the song itself?
Robin: Well, I think it’s funky, that’s why. But, you know, I like the what the lyric is about. You know the fact that we’re losing freedoms all the time, right? More more rules, more regulations, more laws. I don’t know how it is in New Zealand, but it’s starting to bear down here. I think.
MD: And I’m sure you follow what’s going on in the States as well…
Robin: Yeah, don’t ask me about that!
MD: But yeah, I mean it does stress people out as well, you know this feeling of, everything’s closing in on you, I guess.
Robin: I think it’s just too much nanny state to be honest.
MD: I’m curious about your guitar playing. You’ve obviously been playing it for a very long time, since sometime in the 60s, at least, maybe even earlier. What is your relationship like with your guitar these days? Has it changed over the years?
Robin: No, it’s still a marriage made in heaven.
MD: Oh, that’s good to hear.
Robin: It’s still a love affair. Definitely.
MD: Do you play every day?
Robin: I do! Yeah, I like to play every day, if only just to keep my calluses hard.
MD: And are there other guitar players out there that you kind of look to and go, Oh, these, these, this guy’s got something or this gal’s got something going on.
Robin: Um, no. I mean, my favorites, my heroes really tend to be from, you know, 50s and 60s.
MD: I was listening to Come And Find Me (the song), and it almost felt a little bit like the old Cream song, Tales Of Brave Ulysses. Do you know that one?
Robin: Yeah.
MD: I’m assuming that you knew those guys back then.
Robin: Well, I did a couple of albums with Jack Bruce.
MD: Yes, of course!
Robin: One very, very good album. The last one we did together, Seven Moons (2008) is one of my favorites.
MD: Yeah. What was he like to work with?
Robin: Wonderful! Yeah, the man was dynamite…dynamite on the bass, dynamite on the vocals…yeah.
MD: And I see, speaking of vocals, you have someone named Jess Hayes singing one track on the album. Tangled Love. Who is that? How did that get there?
Robin: Well, on our last UK tour, her band was opening up for us, and, you know, I saw on the side of the stage, and my jaw dropped, to be honest. I thought she was so fantastic, you know, so I thought, oh yeah, gotta try her on the song.
MD: And were you worried that it sounded a lot different than the other tracks on the record?
Robin: No, I like the idea that some tracks are, you know, a little bit left field or really different. I try and get a good mix going, you know, on an album if I can.
MD: What do you hope that people get out of your records, when they hear them these days?
Robin: I hope that they get emotionally involved in it, because there’s a lot of emotion goes into it, trying, trying to connect with people, you know.
MD: Now the other thing that’s happening is there’s a 50th Anniversary version of For Earth Below coming up, is that right?
Robin: That’s correct.
MD: So it sounds like that was a major endeavor. There’s, like, four CDs and bonus tracks and extra booklets and rarities and things. Tell me what, what was, what went into putting that together?
Robin: Actually, the record company do most of it. I just okay, what they come up with…or not, okay. If, you know, I feel it’s not worthy,
MD: And what do you remember about the sessions?
Robin: What do I remember about what?
MD: The sessions that produced the record 50 years ago?
Robin: I don’t remember a lot about it, to be honest. I remember where it was. I can see the picture of the studio in my mind, but I don’t remember much about the recording of it.
MD: I think that was your first one with the new drummer at the time, Bill Lordan, is that right?
Robin: That’s correct, yeah.
MD: And he stayed with you for quite a while.
Robin: Yeah. Excellent, drummer. Really, excellent.
MD: I always thought it was interesting. that you used Matthew Fisher for a producer on those records, your old bandmate from Procol Harum. What’s the relationship between you and he, when you worked in the studio like that.
Robin: Well, he facilitated, you know, what I was trying to do. That’s basically it. And we got on really well. We always did in Procol, so it was nice to have a buddy right on the other side, on the other side of the glass.
MD: You must have had good relations with your former bandmates, then, I’m guessing,
Robin: Yeah. I mean, I never…I mean I kind of lost touch with them as as time went on, you know, I now and again kept in touch with Gary (Brooker) and obviously Matthew and Keith (Reid) in particular. You know, Keith and I were best buddies.
MD: And I see that there’s going to be some footage of Top of the Pops and things like that. What was it like…because Top of the Pops, let’s face it…you were pretty heavy sounding then and now. Was that an issue? Did you feel like you belonged on, on something like that?
Robin: To be honest, when I was on Top of the Pops with Procol Harum, I was so new to the band…I mean, I had no input, or feeling about what the band should be doing. That maybe came years later.
MD: So when you’re doing your own thing, it must have been different, but it must have been nice to get that kind of exposure.
Robin: Well, I mean, that was the big plug, wasn’t it? Top of the Pops for for a single, And still is, I suppose, to this day, is the biggest plug you could have had.
MD: And the music business in general has changed significantly over the years. Do you think for better, for worse, or is it just different? Do you have any thoughts about it?
Robin: I don’t think the popular music today is as good as it has been. You know, it’s all sounding a little bit thin to me. But, you know, you gotta remember, in the 60s, there were some very, very gifted people about, you know, very gifted. So, you know, hard to top it really,
MD: And you’re heading out on the road, is that right?
Robin: I’ve got a UK tour coming up and followed by a US tour in June.
MD: I know you took a bit of a health scare last year, and folks are concerned about you. So you’re feeling, feeling pretty good about everything?
Robin: Yeah, I had to have an op to fix a problem, right? But, yeah, I’m feeling tip top at the moment.
MD: So when you were, you know, back in the day, in the 60s, in Procol Harum, did you ever think you’re going to be here 80, years old and still treading the boards and doing doing the thing?
Robin: No, well, I mean, I think you felt, if you could last 10 years in the business, you’d be doing great. But fortune has smiled on me, definitely.
MD: Was there a point, sometime when you realized that this was for keeps, that it was going to be…this is what you do, and it ain’t going anywhere?
Robin: Well, I think, to hark back to what I said earlier about when my previous manager decided. that we should have our own label. I think then it seemed like there was, you know, an open ended…progress, really, you know, I mean. I could move forward without worrying about, ‘Oh, you’ve got to please the record company’, or ‘they don’t like this, and they do like that’. And what’s the current trend, and all the rest of it? I had a bit of that earlier on, you know, it wasn’t much fun.
MD: I’m sure it wasn’t. Yeah, I’ve heard horror stories, and you read about, you know, people who passed on…I was just doing a thing about Bob Seger and he was signed to Warner Brothers Records just before he made Beautiful Loser, and they thought there were too many ballads on they dropped him, and he went on to sell millions. So there you go. They don’t know what they’re doing anyway. Sounds like you do, so I’ll let you go, but thank you very much for taking time to talk to me. I really appreciate it. Hope you enjoy your release day and your tour, and maybe you can return to New Zealand at some point.
Robin: I would love that. Yeah, that would be great.
MD: I think you’ve got some fans down
Robin: Wonderful!
‘Come And Find Me’ will be released May 16 via Provogue
Pre-order the album HERE
