Scotland Today 30th November 2004





Ian Brown Interview





Ian Brown, the former singer with the Stone Roses, has become a patron of James Watt College in Greenock.

The college opened its new state of the art recording studio and Ian helped the launch with a surprise gig. He now intends to have a very hands on role at the college, doing workshops for local kids and even recording some of his own music there.

Asked by Scotland Today's Billy Sloan how his involvement came about, he said: "It came through Roddy McKenna. Roddy's involved with the place and he signed the Roses back in '88, kept in touch, stayed friends with Roddy and he phoned me up, told me his involvement in the place, told me what the place was about - did I fancy being a patron. major honour for me. "

Asked what he thought it would be like to think that you can record an album at college, because when he started with the Stone Roses, there would have been nothing like this he replied: "There wasn't anything like this, no. There's university courses and all that now to get into the music business. There wasn't anything like that, no."

Billy commented that some people might say that you should not be going to school to make rock 'n' roll music. What did Ian say to that?

"I don't know about that, I think if you're going to do the technical side, come in and learn how to technically operate things - amazing, you can't go wrong. The guys have put a lot of work into this place, there's a lot of loaf gone into this place, you can feel it."

When Ian started the Roses there was nothing like this at all. The band actually had to steal equipment. Ian said: "We did yeah, we used to get int the car and drive to London. In them days there weren't no CCTV and all that and they'd just leave the place... We'd walk in, take an amp we'd see in reception. We'd swap it for the drum kit when we got home or we'd take something else and swap it for a little PA system. Yeah, we did. I'm not proud of that, but that is how we started."

As for how he would get involved, he said: "I would send me boys up, me musicians, me engineers, programmers and we'll do workshops. Take a kid out of an environment for a couple of hours, get him on the drums, make it an experience he's never had before. If I find someone that's a great singer, maybe I could bring them in and you know, we'll have all the lads and see where we can take this."

Asked if he was pleased with his latest album Solarising, he said: "Yes, very pleased. Best work so far."

"I've only had three days out this year, just the sheer graft that I put in, you only get out what you put in and I just kept grafting until it was right. I put a lot of work into it and I can hear that."

The first single from the record was "Keep what you got" where he worked with Noel Gallagher who is a self confessed Stone Roses aficionado. What was it like working with a guy who was such a fan?

Ian replied: "It was great. What impressed me was his level of musicianship, he's a lot better player than people realise. He's a really good guitar player. I was aware that people would be buzzing to see the two of us working together while I was doing it. It was great, yeah. "









Scotland Today
http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk




Back To Media Articles