Interview with Nick Harper

As the son of highly acclaimed and politically savvy British folk singer Roy, it is not surprising that Nick Harper champions a very unique musical approach, that is in many ways, indefinable. As a boy, Nick was influenced by his dad's friends - Dave Gilmour, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - and played guitar with the Magic Band at the age of ten. Nick still has a penchant for Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Zappa. He exerts a keen - and some might say unusual - wit, and his music conveys his satirical, left field and political edge. I met up with Nick before his set at the Masque Theatre, to ask him about some of the high points that span his twenty five year career....

Photographs and interview by Amy Scott-Samuel

So when did you first start making music?
Well there's a picture of me dancing around with a ukulele in my arms at the age of two. It was taken at the 1968 Cambridge folk festival, and I'm stood next to my dad on stage while he's doing his slot. I learnt my first chords A D and E when I was ten, and then I learnt C, G and F when I was about seventeen. So there was quite a lot of time in between when I wasn't playing and was just mucking around with my friends.

You are self taught then?
Yes. My philosophy is, if it sounds good, then do it again. That's how I've always written songs really..

How would you describe your sound? It seems to be an amalgamation of quite a few different genres.
I don't really know, I'm sorry. I wish I could pigeonhole it and I wish other people could because it'd certainly be a lot easier to sell. They put me in the folk section but it's definitely not folk, unless you are saying that all music is folk music. On one of my albums I can go from a poem about Wiltshire to some fairly nasty rock n roll and then a speech about George Bush. So there's no one style. They can't say 'he's this or that', which I think is great because life isn't just heavy metal or just folk or just indie. Life is all of it.

So you're playing Liverpool tonight. Based on your song 'Treasure Island', I get the impression that you hold a soft spot for our city?
Yeah, definitely. First and foremost, it all comes from the 1971 FA Cup Final, which Liverpool lost but I had already decided on them. They were all in red. It was the first game that I can remember seeing while growing up in the middle of nowhere in Wiltshire and I guess the die was cast then. I also used to listen to 'Help' endlessly, so I had this affection for the place before I ever got here. Then when I started gigging I found that this place and its people hold a passion that no other place on earth has. The people are so full of life. I admire them.

Would you say that politics inform your music?
In as much as..politics inform pretty much everything. I do think that if you have a platform, then it's important to make use of it and to stand up and say what you believe in, and I still do believe that politics are important. Even though they [the politicians] seem to be a bunch of complete beeeep.

Can you tell me about the Love Hope Strength charity and the amazing journeys you have been involved in?
The whole thing has been an incredible journey. The best reward I've had, in some ways. The treks to Everest and Kilimanjaro were real physical and mental challenges, which I enjoyed. You know, the triumph of will over the body. Through taking part in those journeys, and because my mum died of cancer, I realized that by playing music I could potentially stop that happening to other families across the world, those that are less fortunate than we are. It's probably the best thing that I've done with my music..a tangible thing. And you know, that's a great gift to me.

What have been the high points of your career?
While trekking up Everest I learnt the Nepalese national anthem from the Sherpas, and when we came back down to earth we did a gig in the square surrounded by temples, in Kathmandu. I played the folk song to an audience of about twenty thousand people and they joined in and sang it back to me, which was an incredibly moving experience. Oh, and there was a little earthquake before the gig. So if you ask, 'Did the earth move for me during that show?' Yes it did.

To read Amy's review of the gig by Nick Harper click here

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