AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER JETHRO TULL GUITARIST MARTIN BARRE

Martin Barre is most recognizable as the guitarist of the band Jethro Tull, but his music reaches far beyond that. We caught up recently, after he worked off the Thanksgiving feast at his wife’s house in Mississippi. His new album Back to Steel is a work of beauty, melding blues with folk and classical music in beautiful communion. The Martin Barre Band is coming to the Dublin Double Celtic Pub in Endicott on December 11th, and Martin promises a show that captures the rare energy that created rock-n-roll.

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TCC: You’ve been touring for nearly 50 years, but this is kind of you getting back into a more serious touring lifestyle.

MB: The album is the core of what I’m doing. In England we’ve been playing together for four years. However, in the band we have a core of Tull material. We do some sort of quirky stuff, and we brought the new album into the set. The Tull ingredient will always be there, in different proportions. It’s a part of the show, but there’s a lot more as well.

TCC: Can you talk to me about that? You’re obviously not playing with Jethro Tull anymore; you have your own band. You still play old tunes you had a large part in writing. With your new band, do you try to stay true to the way you originally played the songs, or do you play them in a new way?

MB: First off, there is no Jethro Tull. I know I’m being a bit picky but, I’ll always say after so many years playing in Jethro Tull, there is no Jethro Tull. I am essentially the guitarist from Jethro Tull, and always will be, because there will never be another Jethro Tull. Some songs, we play pretty well as they were, like pictures in a gallery. They don’t lend themselves to any change. Other songs, like ‘Fat Man,’ we do a really rock-y version of, and it works really well because the essence of the song remains, but it adds something extra. Adding to it rather than changing it. The song’s still there, but we’ve created a kick behind it. We have a bit of fun with some good music, and the music is still good, and we respect it and give it justice.

TCC: Excellent, my apologies for any offense.

MB: None, I didn’t mean it that way. I’m not trying to be a smart ass. It’s an important thing, because if you’re coming as a fan of Jethro Tull; it isn’t. It’s a bit naughty- it’s not something I’m doing. I advertise as the Martin Barre Band. I want people to know exactly what I’m doing, and what I’m not doing. It’s really important that people shouldn’t be misled into thinking that there’s anything that represents the name Jethro Tull in the true sense. It does not exist, musically, or physically. That’s it.

TCC: It’s important that people know what they’re going to hear, and that you’re not trying to say you’re doing something that you’re not doing. I’ve heard that you try not to imitate other guitarists when you’re playing guitar. Personally, I’m a saxophonist, so I found it interesting that you got your start on saxophone. Where did your inspiration come from, and your influences?

MB: First of all I’m a guitarist, and I played flute back in school. I played saxophone to work, back in the sixties. I played guitar and sax and played any gig I could get. Fortunately, I didn’t really enjoy playing saxophone, because it was keeping me from doing what I wanted to do. When the blues came back in fashion, then I was released back into my own world. I kept the flute, because I enjoyed the flute a lot more, and I could play blues on the flute much like I could play blues on the guitar. My influences- I never liked hearing people play like other people. It really annoys me when someone tries to play like another player. It’s the worst way of playing music. I’d rather hear a guitar player who’s not very good, but totally original. Playing something that’s not very difficult, or particularly great playing, but totally original. I really respect that a lot more than someone playing as Steve Vai or whoever. I think that misses the point. I look at other music styles- classical music, country, folk- anything that’s good music. I love good music. I don’t really care or question the heritage of the music. I like good melodies, good harmonies and dynamic music.

TCC: I think that’s a good way of looking at it. You don’t want to sound like someone else; you want to have your own sound. It was interesting that you mentioned Steve Vai, because he considers you one of his influences, and your style of guitar.

MB: He’s a great player and a fantastic musician. I didn’t mean to single out his name. Anyone who has a unique style, someone’s going to want to sound like it. I just think that you’re much better off finding your own route through music, your own channel. People say, ‘You’re wrong, actually I do want to play like him,’ but that’s not my opinion.

TCC: Some people take the route of learning a solo note for note, instead of trying to write their own music in whatever style they want. There’s definitely something to the act of creation. Listening to your newest album, your influences are clearly coming from across the spectrum. The music at times sounds really bluesy, really gritty; at other times it sounds like Bach if he were writing counterpoint with rock instruments.

MB: I don’t agree with you but I’ll take the compliment. I like to think that music has no boundaries, no beginning, no end, no territory. It takes you wherever it takes you, and I quite like contrast. I hope that when people listen to my CD, they’ll listen to the whole thing, instead of just a few tracks. I like a lot of contrast.In today’s music world people will listen to one track instead of an album. Artists generally create an album to be listened to as a whole, and by picking out a single track, it ruins the vision of the artist. I don’t buy many CDs and I’m so often disappointed by what I get. I’ll hear a song and think, ‘Wow that’s a great song,’ but it just doesn’t sustain through the whole CD. It doesn’t seem to me that there are many artists that are truly album artists. When you look back at Chicago, or Fleetwood Mac, or the Police or Elton John: they put out albums. When you got one of their records you knew you were going to get a great product. Nowadays, it rarely happens. The number of albums I keep in my collection, the albums I can play all the way through over and over is just a handful. Which is awful, and makes me quite angry. The quality control just isn’t there anymore. I’ll buy an album that gets a great review, but it doesn’t work. Reviews change from paper to paper, which makes it so hard to know what you’re buying.

TCC: As for your album, were you trying to do something different with Back to Steel? What was your thought process?

MB: Not consciously. I’m consciously trying to improve. The thought that I had, that I was trying to engender, was to be more straight ahead. My last album, there are things that would have a real theme, and then go on a tangent, and lose that pulse, lose that thread. Songs that would start and stop and go off at right angles. I wanted to be more straight ahead, be more listenable and more playable live. But that was the only criteria I followed. I just wanted the music to be, as anyone would want it to be, better, and of course I’m still learning as a musician, and a song writer and lyricist. I do better and better each time.

TCC: What should fans expect at your show? You’re playing the Tull hits, but are you focusing on your new album?

MB: Since this is our first time in America, we’re sort of going back to the source. Proportionally, it’s something like 60% Tull and 40% not, but it’s all a rock show. It’s dynamic, high-energy, and full-on for the whole show. I want it to be powerful, and I want the Tull to be really powerful as well. I want to bring back the energy of Tull in the early 70s when we were a stadium band- we were a power band, a rock band. That’s what I like to think my band is.

TCC: It sounds to me like you’re trying to get back to the roots, and bring music back to a ‘real’ place. MB: Exactly, and that’s the album, Back to Steel, a reference to steel strings, pick-ups and electric guitars. Getting back- there’s no hidden meaning in the title. I’m having a lot of fun playing my guitar. That’s what the whole tour is about. We all have a lot of fun playing, and we want it to be infectious.

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The Martin Barre Band will take the stage at the Dublin Double Celtic Pub (Rt. 26, Endicott) on December 11th. More info at martinbarre.com.