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Lucky Jim
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Article
written by Mary B
Sep 14, 2006.
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Ah, Gordon Grahame, one half of the amazing duo known as Lucky Jim. With one album under their belt and the second one swimming to the surface fast I felt it was time to rack Mr Grahame's brains. So rack them I did!
SoundsXP: You called your first album 'Our Troubles End Tonight' - but they didn't quite did they? After the quick rush of acclaim that it thoroughly deserved you kind of 'disappeared' much to my disappointment. Why isn't the name 'Lucky Jim' on the music lips of everybody?
Gordon: When I wrote that particular track (Our Troubles End Tonight) I was trying to will my self into a more positive place and in a relatively short time I had turned my life around. As far as the success of my recording career goes and why it is the way it is I have no idea . Most of the time I just keep pressing on although let me say I have no doubt that at some point my music will be recognised.
SoundsXP: Who was responsible for the 'You stole my heart away' video because I was absolutely addicted to watching it at one stage. And do you have any plans to enter the film world at any stage? Maybe you could write a film about two cops (because you remind me of Starsky and Hutch - that's a huge compliment) who want to be singers.
Gordon: I wrote and conceived the basic idea. It was the first time I had done so and really pushed for it because I didn't like the other treatments we were being sent. It was filmed and directed by Mark Bader who was a photographer normally. As for acting, I flirt with the idea but never really stray from my musical leanings. Much like my attempts at poetry they only serve to remind me that I have invested all of my life into songwriting and only a couple of hours into anything else. Yes, Ben is definitely Hutch but I'm no Starsky .
SoundsXP: Your second album can't come quickly enough for me. You say that the process 'has proved harder than one would imagine' Can you elaborate on this?
Gordon: After me and Ben completed the first album I immediately set to work on a second. I didn't want to get caught out later and also I find it very easy to write once I have put a bunch of songs to bed - so to speak- in a finished recording. The thing is, it is very hard to say when an album has finished its shelf life and when it is time to release another - well at least in the eyes of the record company. I put the new songs aside and feeling it may be some time till we got the chance to put them out conceived another album of entirely different songs called 'Let It Come'. This was initially gonna be an acoustic low key kind of thing but it became a pretty epic sounding affair. I wanted to put it out on the internet without promotion ie something to keep the fans happy but in fact once the label heard it they wanted it to be our second album. "It's 90% great but it just needs a few more killer songs to make it perfect" Trying to find that 10% actually put an end to the 'Let it Come' project. It lost direction and sunk under the weight of too many songs trying too hard to fit into its mould. It actually was recorded and mastered before any of this happened and I think it may surface again. Personally I don't think my work was understood - it was probably one of the great things I have ever done. So back to the drawing board. The question of the second album became the burning issue now. We were encouraged to write singles or to at least turn existing songs into singles but after trying this out with about 10 new tracks we fell flat and enlisted the help of Steve Osbourne who has worked with KT Tunstall and U2 to name but two. He recorded 5 tracks with us over two sessions and we decided to use two - Loves Sweet Song and Let It Come Down - and these are probably going to be the singles now. We done another session over a week with Phil Bodger - an engineer from Brighton - and that pretty much capped all the recording that we would ever do for the record. We had about 38 songs at this point. By now we had lost all judgment on what we had and entered a kind of limbo until Mark Mitchell, a marketing man behind The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and Bonnie Prince Billy, wanted to get involved . He gave us the clarity that we needed and helped us piece together the album that has become 'All The Kings Horses'. Of course there was so much more to it than the story I have just told. There was a real 'end of the world' feeling going on. There was depression and rage but in a strange way I'm like Tony Blair - I don't know when to give up.
SoundsXP: In your blog you are quite an open person. You talk of the process of trying to hold on to a relationship. I love your comment 'Life doesn't wash off in the bath' You have lead quite a life! Would you agree with this?
Gordon: I find it impossible to be any other way . And as an artist it is my duty to be a sensitive, awkward bugger and I usually am. As far as the life I have led I always felt that everybody else has done more or been to more places, but I know now that it is often the case that this is not true. My life has been stranger than fiction and for that I am truly grateful and bewildered. It always feels to me like it is just starting out but I also feel 10,000 years old a lot of the time. I find life fascinating and yet I am bored a lot of the time. I have written more songs than most do in a life time and yet I always feel that I am lazy and have too much time on my hands. I never feel at home anywhere for long and yet I am always looking for one. I can't talk to people, a lot of the time I am very shy and yet I have taken a lot of risks that would frighten other people who are generally more confident in life. I drive myself and those around me crazy but it's only because I am passionate and EVERYBODY knows it. I feel such a compassion for humanity and yet I cannot find my heart. If people put me on a pedestal I like to destroy their illusions but it is only because I want to know if they still like me. I don't think I have answered your question.
SoundsXP: Why are you touring solo? And where can we expect to find you playing? I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best with it.
Gordon: I am playing solo because it's been the only way I can afford to do it without an album to promote. I am playing with the band on the 27th sept in Brighton and then December 3rd 4th 5th 6th & 7th in Germany. As far as a general tour in the UK is concerned that will probably coincide with the album release in Jan/Feb next year. German Album release 28th October.
SoundsXP: You have been a busker. Does it feel any different to playing live in a venue? I would imagine that you feel more exposed? People are paying to see you at venues whereas you have to sell yourself more on the streets (I do not mean literally of course!)
Gordon: Busking is a reality check for anyone. Most of the time nobody is listening and after playing with a semi successful band it really says a lot about what kind of a person you are, that can change from sell-out shows to playing on the street, but I have to say that while in Amsterdam I made more money than I ever did in the record business just singing to people eating pizza and having coffee. You know, it was interesting and at that time my life had been boring. In fact I had been in a nearly catatonic depression for 6 months and really woke up again by jumping into this new existence. Desperation can be a real motivator. It just takes a lot more for me to get desperate than most. I actually gave up on the whole music thing in Amsterdam but fate came in the form of a record company executive who gave me 500 dollars to record some tracks for him . It came to nothing but I was bitten and smitten again. 'Oh Despair!!!'
SoundsXP: Can I take it that you are named after the novel 'Lucky Jim' If I am correct how did this come about? You appear to be a well read man. If I said name your top five novels of all time could you do it?
Gordon: I didn't! I named it for no other reason than that that was my catchphrase of the time when things went right "Lucky Jim!" I used to be well read - top 5 novels in no particular order:
1 Desolation Angels Jack Kerouak
2 Death On Credit Celine
3 Our Lady Of The Flowers Jean Genet
4 Tropic Of Capricorn Henry Miller
5 Cities Of The Red Night William Burroughs
SoundsXP: Gordon, Do you believe in fate?
Gordon: Yes. Fate occurs unexpectedly and changes the course of a life. Destiny though seems to me to be an entirely different animal. I think destiny is always there but you have to make it happen.
SoundsXP: Ben and you appear to be quite different people. What is the chemistry like between you? You are this Nietzsche reading, dark soul from Scotland and he appears to be the surfer dude who knows a good tune when he hears one. Yin and yang if you will. A fair observation or do I deserve a slap for generalising?
Gordon: I think it's fair to say that there is a lot of truth in that statement but only on a certain level . Often when we are together we are quite similar in temperament and often we seem to exchange roles. Sometimes Ben seems to have a keen business sense and I am none the wiser but at other times he is a complete Romantic and I am Mr Logic. I think when we acknowledge the dark at all it tends to overwhelm a lot of people, who think it is somehow a concession to negativity, but I see the dark often as a spring board to the light. I have never felt closer to God than in my darkest times. Yet I am rarely melancholy nowadays . Oh as a footnote I might mention that we are very popular in Germany with Goths and death/black metal fans. When I asked a magazine interviewer why this was he said "It's your voice, it's so sad"
SoundsXP: Do you need a girlfriend? Oh wait no, I've got my questions muddled up :-) I am waving my magic wand now and I am saying to you that you can be lucky in love or lucky in music - what would you choose and why?
Gordon: I am lucky in love because I know how to love. I could put it another way but that is how it is. That doesn't mean that I haven't had my share of heartbreak and regrets and that I've been a total shit but I love people and I don't try to to take it back from them if they change. I don't try to control it and I can accept it if they don't love me - it may take some time - but I always believe that if I don't have love then it is waiting to happen and I can wait. With Music, who knows? I believe it is meant to be. I like my story and I make my own rules as far as what I consider success to be.
SoundsXP: Who is on your cd player/ipod/turntable at the moment? What present day bands/artists are you into? Would you say that the UK music scene is quite rich with talent at the moment?
Gordon: I have always looked to the past for inspiration and don't pay a whole lot of attention to the present. At the moment I have been playing Nick Drake, Mott the Hoople, Beck's Sea Change, Elliott Smith's last album, which floors me, and I have a thing about writing a musical at the moment so I am constantly preoccupied with Oliver and 'Somewhere' from West Side Story. As far as the uk music scene is concerned I wanted to champion a band on myspace called Maggie and Erika until I found out the tracks were 40 years old (check out my friends)
SoundsXP: Finally Gordon, I know that you are a fan of Van Morrison. You say that his album Veedon Fleece 'should be put in a time capsule and left for the aliens to wonder at the accomplishments of man' In your words there is an echo of dismay as to why people cannot see the beauty in that work. I echo your words every time I mention Lucky Jim. Do this girl a favour and go make your mark with a permanent pen in the music world. Can you do that for me?
Gordon: I can because there are people out there like you. Sincere thanks.
No, thank you from the bottom of my heart that I can't find either (because you stole it away) Look out for 'All the Kings Horses' and all the King's men and let's put Lucky Jim back in the limelight again. Er, i'll leave the songwriting to you Gordon...
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