Where The Skeletons Dance by Tricks Upon Travellers

For the uninitiated it means we can do pretty much what we want as long as we give the fiddler a few traditional sounding tunes and I manage to produce some authentic English folk melodies.

It’s great working in this genre. I can assuage my guilt about not being as politically active as I should be by writing about inequality, globalisation and the manipulations of the media. Death and love come pretty high on the agenda as well which probably surprises no-one. It gives me freedom to write whatever I feel strongly about. If something moves me I don’t have to fit it into some cliched style, I write as I feel and then we play as we feel.

I’m lucky in that I worked with and learnt from our old singer Graeme Hobbs, who is an excellent writer. He has the ability to get straight to the heart of the matter. Whereas I tend to intellectualise the writing process and can agonise for hours over one line (and still get it wrong) Graeme’s lyrics just poured out of his head like some stream of consciousness beanfeast.

The songs were always the strength of TUT. Take for example "Where The Skeletons Dance" our 3rd CD. A wonderful mixture of styles and songs (no shocks there then). From the heads down, no prisoners taken, punk folk of Knocker Boys (later to be interpreted as a gypsy swing number?!) to soft dark country of Deserve and the epic eco-anthem "Our Children Will Thank Us" there are no two songs that sound even remotely the same.

Maybe that’s a problem, maybe we never had an instantly recognisable TUT sound. This CD really put TUT on the folk rock map with great reviews, the Glastonbury gig and independent radio stations all over the world picking up on it. Unfortunately all the promises of a succession of agents, promoters and would be managers remained just promises (story of our life).

Ah, the joys of the music business. I have “cynic” running through me like the lettering on a stick of rock but I’m still surprised at how talent is kicking around in little bars and clubs up and down the country. For our own part we’ve been rejected by folk venues for being too “rocky” and rock venues for being too “folky”. A rock and hard place certainly come to mind. C’est nous !

It’s strange really, I drive all over the south of England spending hours in cars and vans, unloading and loading heavy awkward gear and getting home again at 4 in the morning. Why ? It’s for that 2 hours on stage, 2 hours of ego massage, 2 hours of feeling truly alive, 2 hours of feeling just wonderful. It’s all a lie really it’s sometimes 2 hours of “I can’t hear the guitar guys”, 2 hours of “all I can hear is the guitar guys”, 2 hours of “who set this sodding PA up anyway?”. But the more I play these days the more I get a sense of incredible privilege to be able to do what I do.

The band has reached a temporary hiatus with the arrival of 2 sets of twins to drummer and bass player (!!!!) but I continue to write new songs and look forward to performing them when the time is right.

Stay cool guys.

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