Jonny McGiffen

Guitarist/Singer

Style:  Delta Blues

Interview

K: Hi Jonny and thanks for agreeing to do the virtual interview. I’ve been listening to some of your music and it has a very genuine and natural Delta Blues vibe with a distinctively original twist. Some tracks reminiscent of R. L. Burnside with a driving repetitive groove and some with the melancholy of Skip James. What have you tapped into to make your sound so authentic?

J: I take a lot of influence from the old delta blues players. Not just guitarists like Robert Johnson or Charlie Patton but piano players like Leroy Carr and his singing style. I love John Lee Hooker’s cool hypnotic groove, Elmore James’ slide guitar in open tuning and Muddy Waters’ slide in standard. When I play acoustic or resonator I enjoy playing Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins. I love the sound of Willie Dixon’s solid double bass under those old Chess Record songs - the old recordings of him, Muddy and Buddy Guy are incredible.  

I love Sister Rossetta Tharpe and her quick way of singing gospel with a big sounding electric guitar - she is a huge influence on me when writing vocal melodies.

Howlin Wolf as a performer mesmerises me, with his dirty gravelly voice and crazy stage persona. His guitarist Hubert Sumlin influences my guitar playing in standard tuning massively. Other blues guitarists I love include Johnny Winter, Bonnie Rait, Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder to name a few. 

I take a lot of influence from my bandmates and I’m lucky they share an equal love of blues. Blue Milk’s bass player Ike Malinki loves his Hill Country Blues players like RL Burnside, Fred McDowell and Junior Kimbrough which definitely creep into my influences. Blue Milk’s harmonica player Leo Glaister is of course a huge fan of Sonny Boy Williamson and our drummer Taylor Whyte enjoys more Rock & Roll based blues like Tyler Bryant. 

All our influences help to conjure what we write. The sound I feel we create as a band is closer to newer, heavier blues bands like BRMC and early Black Keys but the music we write and our roots will always be deeply seated within old delta blues. 

K: Do you have a musical family? 

J: My mother sang in choirs when I was young, but it was the music in her collection that had the influence on me - 60s bands like the Kinks and T-Rex. There was Clapton and BB King in there too if I remember. 

K: Your band is called Blue Milk Where did the name come from? 

J: Bass player Ike Malinki and myself were pondering on band names about 4 years ago now, we were discussing the idea that in Glasgow, “blue-top milk” is the creamiest after we’d witnessed a barman down 4 litres and exclaim the fact. 

We spoke about our love of Robert Johnson and his song “Milk Calf Blues,“ with the lyrics

“…your milk is turning blue…” and we were also listening to the album “Safe As Milk,” by Captain Beefheart none-stop at the time.

We wanted a name that reflected what we were trying to do as well as where we were. 

K: When did you begin your musical journey? 

J: The first instrument I picked up was actually the drums when I was about fourteen. The orchestra at my secondary school had a spare kit in the basement I’d play on with bands just making a racket. I was sixteen when I got my first acoustic guitar, my early influences were very much in Punk and Rock & Roll and I ended up playing bass with a couple of bands that went on to do fairly well.  

After a few years touring the UK and a couple of stints to the US in various lineups, I realised my passion was for Delta Blues guitar. I started teaching myself blues slide guitar and harmonica when I was in my early twenties. 

K: Have you lived in Glasgow all your life? 

J: I grew up in Manchester and moved to Glasgow for University in 2004 when I was eighteen.  

Before moving to Glasgow to study Archaeology at Glasgow University, I played guitar for lots of bands in Manchester - including with the bassist from Manchester band - Twisted Wheel for a short period. They have a very indie punk rock sound that definitely rubbed off on me. Earlier influences then were heavier rock bands like 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, the Who and The Vines. Before I found delta blues, I used to really love the rawness of American punk bands like The Ramones and English post-punk indie bands like The Fall and The Wedding Present.

 Almost as soon as I moved to Glasgow I found four musicians who shared similar influences and we formed a band called Nacional that later became a band called For Abel with a different line up. I played bass in this band for 6 years, we released an album and toured round the UK twice. The second time we went round the UK, we played at Glastonbury as the last gig of the tour. Glastonbury was incredible as you can imagine, the sheer size of the festival was a bit overwhelming at first but we soon got happily lost in the madness (after we’d played). 

K: Glastonbury, awesome! When did you start getting interested in Blues? 

J: When I was about 23, I’d Just come back from SXSW festival in Texas where I’d seen T-Model Ford play a show in a record store. His electric guitar playing and voice stunned me. He had this infectious dirty groove to his music and spoke about blues coming from a place within you - not being about where you’re from. Which was lucky for me because I didn’t know any Mancunian blues guitarists.  

K: What were you doing over Texas, did you go specifically for SXSW Festival? 

J: I went to SXSW with the same band the following year - we played at least 2 shows a day for a week on the main strip (6th Street) to packed out bars and venues. We were in the thick of it and we loved it - Musicians and industry types everywhere, exploring a street about the same size as Great Western Road in Glasgow but every bar/club/roof terrace is converted into a venue if it isn’t  one already. everyones excited and happy to converse.  

The folk from Texas we met really were a lotta fun - We stayed with a Texan family from Austin who were happy to ferry us around on the back of an old pick-up. I should mention at this time that the manager of that old indie-punk band I played in was John McAlinden - AKA Colonel Mustard (& The Dijon 5). We all had a lot of fun together and found the whole experience a little surreal. We’d finish a show and some fella from the bar across the street would ask us to play over the road at his place when we’d finished or later in the day - we took every gig offer we were given because we knew we were there to work and use any opportunities we got. So we were just running round the different venues with as much equipment as we could carry - getting random gigs when they landed in our lap. Theres a massively laid back feel to SXSW despite how much organisation it must take to run the festival. I’d say half of the gigs we played were gigs offered to us when we were at the festival. We thought Glastonbury was big - SXSW covered an entire city and not small one either but Austin didn’t have that frantic feel to it that Glastonbury could have. 

The idea was to record a new album when we returned to Glasgow but the last day we were in Texas, I witnessed T-Model Ford playing in a record store. He was the only Blues act I saw and it was by accident. I was literally looking at vinyl and he wanders in with his guitar and his crew. This old frail man, but his guitar and voice transformed him into something massively powerful and up-lifting. After he played I went out for a cigarette and nervously spoke to him for a moment or two before he got into a Cadillac with his people. That’s when he said the thing to me - “…The Blues don’t matter where you from, the Blues comes from what’s in your heart…” Sounds cheesy but his parting words there as he shuffled into the back of that Cadillac will stay with me forever. That moment I knew I wouldn’t be playing indie-rock or post-punk in bands for much longer despite how much I still loved it. I’d found something new, a cool new style that really spoke to me. I knew too that I would be dusting the cobwebs off my telecaster when I got home and sticking my well loved Fender Jazz bass in the corner for the foreseeable. I listened to nothing but delta blues on the thirteen hour plane journey back from Texas with a lay over in Newark. By the time I got back to Glasgow, after one week away my taste and outlook on music had changed completely. 

A year later the band had dispersed for various reasons but I still keep in contact with my old friends from For Abel/Nacional. Individually we’ve all kept our music going in one way or another but my path was for the blues - and it took me 23 years and a 1 hour blues set from a master on the other side of the world to figure that out.

K:  Very cool.  Carry on… 

J: I’d been living in Glasgow for a few years now. There was a pretty strong blues scene and I’d noticed my taste slowly move from punk and rock & roll to more roots/blues-based acts like Dylan, Canned Heat, Cream and The Black Keys. So, after seeing T-Model Ford I started looking at their influences and finding all the old blues greats like Fred McDowell and Elmore James. I started experimenting with open tunings and slide guitar - When I put my guitar in an open G for the first time it was like the guitar became a whole new instrument with a completely different technique. Like a fresh start, a brand-new approach.  

I write a lot in different open tunings and I picked up slide and harmonica quickly because I felt like I’d found this traditional bold sound I was dying to replicate. I love the haunting sound of slide scratching across steel strings and the wail of a blues harp. I like the harsh rawness of some of those old 1930s blues songs that I think still lingers from my old love of punk music. So, I set about translating a lot of the old Delta songs to electric guitar. I love to play a dobro when I’m writing but with the band I usually play electric. I wanted to create a newer blues sound whilst keeping the basis really traditionally Delta.

I’d always been a fan of blues players that came later like Albert Collins and Freddie King but I found myself swaying more towards the playing of those earlier electric guitarists that were still deeply seated in Hill Country or Delta Blues - like RL Burnside and Muddy Waters.  

After I’d spent some time mashing a lot of these playing styles together, I went in search of a bass player at the various Glasgow blues jams. It wasn’t long before I found Ike Malinki who has a mutual love for Delta Blues. The first time we met for a practice we played a stream of old delta blues songs back to back like we’d been playing together for years. We realised straight away we could write some great new delta style blues together so we played as a duo for a year and then went in search of a drummer and a harmonica player with similar musical tastes. We found them in Taylor White and Leo Glaister. That was four years back now (2016) and Blue Milk have been going strong as a four-piece, playing gigs and writing together since. 

K: What attracts you to Delta? 

J: Part of my love of Delta Blues comes from the fact that the majority of the old players are hailed as the origins of blues and still hugely inspire modern musicians today. The most direct example of this I can think of is Delta Blues player Bukka White teaching his cousin BB King guitar.  

Delta blues seemed to be the answer to a time of hardship and difficulty - a lot of those old songs are written from a place of truth and depict this. Many came from old gospel songs sung by slaves in the cotton fields.

 When Robert Johnson wrote the song “Crossroads,” shrouded in mystery about making deals with the devil - It was actually about being out of town after dark and being worried about getting into trouble because there was a curfew for black people at that time, “…Go tell my friend Willy Brown I’m standing at the crossroads and I believe I’m sinking down…” 

Bukka White - who could get a room dancing with his upbeat resonator driven blues, wrote a lot of his songs in prison. The history of a lot of these musicians lead you to believe that they truly lived the music they were creating. “Times are hard, but the blues will get you through it…” A sentiment that’s arguably as applicable today. There’s an honesty and spirituality in Delta Blues that I love, like the songs came from a need. 

K: Are there any venues in Glasgow for blues that might not be mainstream? 

J: There are certain venues that cater for blues like The Howlin’ Wolf, Avant Garde and The State bar of course and it’s true to say that there’s a definite taste for roots music and a mix of various types of blues/rock and folk that’s played all over Glasgow. There’s no shortage of places to play - Venues that put music on every night of the week host a variety of different bands. Swing on Hope Street, The Clutha and Bag O’ Nails put on some great blues and jazz acts and there’s been some amazing folk and roots players I’ve seen down at The Blue Arrow and The Old Hair Dressers. Smaller bars like Slouch, Piper Whisky Bar and MacSorleys are great to play stripped-back acoustic blues. 

K: Can you tell me a bit more about the Rum Shack Sessions? 

J: The Rum Shack Sessions host different acts filming and recording them live from the venue. We recorded an acoustic version of our last single there a few days before The Holy Smokes Records Revue on 29th August 2019. The gig lasted a full day with about ten acts playing that were associated with the label. 

K: How are the single releases from earlier in the year going? 

J; It’s really nice to hear people enjoying our songs and them getting a bit of radio play. We’ve been pleased to see how much of a reach our songs get with people listening in Norway and Australia as well as over in the States. We love playing our songs live so it’s a shame we’ve not had a lot of chance to do that this year.  

K: Can you tell me a bit about Holy Smokes Records? 

J: Holy Smokes Records is a Glasgow based label set up in 2013 by Chris Blackmore for folk/roots acts. Blue Milk released their first single “Moonshine,” with them in December 2018. The label consists of a handful of great bands that draw their influence from old blues/jazz/rockabilly/folk roots music.

Holy Smokes have been responsible for organising some of our biggest shows like following John Cooper Clarke at Eden Festival in 2019, the Holy Smokes Roots Revues and our sold-out “Coal In The Fire,” EP launch back in February 2020. 

K: I saw the video at Carbeth Huts. There is quite a bit of history around those. Can you tell me a bit about any connection you have with the location? Why did you choose to record the video there? 

J: Our friend Mario Lupi recorded us playing live in Carbeth. Mario records live video and audio professionally and we were lucky enough to have him record our first big gig at King Tuts back in 2018 supporting Fantastic Negrito. He suggested Carbeth Huts being a location that had a similar feel and look to old Mississippi cabins in the delta. Mario had a friend that lived at one of the cabins who was out of town and kindly let us use the porch for recording.

At the time we went up there, all the cabins were empty and the only sound you could hear were the people casting their lines into the fishery nearby and the birds whizzing through the air. There was a very peaceful but eerie tranquility at Carbeth. It was nice to get away from the turbulence of the city - Myself and bass player Ike Malinki stayed up there for a day and wrote and recorded two songs, “The Only Horse In Town,” and “Devils Calling.” 

K: How has Covid affected the band? How are you guys holding up? 

J: The current situation has been hard on everyone in music. In any artistic/creative form of employment really. It was hard at the start of lockdown in March to come to terms with live gigs, band practices and studio sessions all being cancelled. We had a lot of shows planned for this year. As well as the money, we missed just playing music together and battering around song ideas.

I know Ike, Leo and Taylor and myself have been putting the time into practicing individually because we were lucky enough to get a good few rehearsals in when things eased up for a couple of months back there and it sounded like we’d not been apart. At the minute, we’re back to sending each other recorded ideas and working remotely. A lot of the ideas we’re throwing around for new songs right now are sent on voice memos just to demo to each other. We all have a clear idea of the blues we want to create though so we try our best to inspire each other with rare old delta blues songs and new blues players we find. Our intention at the end of the year is to get back into the recording studio to record a new single we’ve been working on for release early next year.  

We’ve been writing and sharing ideas a lot, but it’s been hard to finalise songs without getting the band together in the same room as often as we’d like. I’ve been writing a lot more individually to take to the rest of the band whenever we can practice. Lockdown life can make it hard to motivate yourself with ideas, so I just try and record at any fleeting moment of inspiration. I’ve been watching a lot of westerns and listening to a lot of Justin Johnson’s dirty slide guitar riffs that inspire me.  

The last song I was working on is about outlaws fleeing to a canyon to escape bounty hunters. Song ideas have mainly been slide guitar based, swampy sounding songs on electric or on a resonator. 

K: Have you any gigs lined up for the future? 

J: Our next “gig” - if lockdown guidelines will allow - will be a live stream with the full band, to be recorded at the Ice Box in Glasgow at the end of November 2020. This will be the first time we’ve played on a stage for 9 months due to Covid. We look to next year for our live gigs in venues as a full band and hope things look up so we can get to the festivals again in 2021. 

K: So back to the Westerns that you mentioned earlier.  I’m a bit of a Spaghetti Western fan myself.  Ennio Morricone was a genius and everyone in those films was super-cool.

So if you were a cowboy what kind if cowboy would you be? 

J: I’m glad you asked. If I starred in a cowboy film it would almost definitely end up unintentionally hilarious. I would of course insist on a handlebar moustache and someone to teach me how to strike a match off my minimal stubble. My horse would be drunk, disobedient and disapproving. Also, I think I’d be sporting a three piece frilly Mexican number complete with cummerbund and sombrero. So I’d probably get shot pretty quick.

In my own mind I’d be like Clint or Val Kilmer playing Doc Holliday in Tombstone but in reality I’d probably end up looking more like Buster Scruggs or Chevy Chase in The Three Amigos singing My Little Buttercup in the Saloon.  

K: Poncho or No Poncho? 

J:  A poncho wouldn’t be flattering fer moi. I have shoulders like a pigeon so I would literally look like a sack of potatoes with a hat 

K: If the barman slid a whisky down the bar would you catch it or would it end up on the floor? 

J: This is a technique only dedicated alcoholics can perfect. John Wayne’s tip for the bar-top, whisky sliding professional? - always look away from the glass at the last moment before it reaches your hand for extra cool. 

K: Nice.  I’ll try that when the pubs are open. In fact I’ll buy you one and we can have a bit of a practice.  Thanks for your time Jonny, it’s been good fun. 

J:  Thanks Kirk and we need to meet up for a jam when everything goes back to normal. 

K:  For sure.  Take care.

Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BLUEMILKMUSIC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bluemilkglasgow
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ANxVq6wMUGA
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bluemilkblues

Date: 07/10/2020

Location

Near “The Cat”, Glasgow

Camera info

Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: Nikon 70-200 f2.8
Focal length: 700mm
Exposure: 1/800 sec at f/2.8
Time of day:  1.15pm
Conditions: Even cloud with intermittent breaks
Lighting: Natural light plus high speed sync, 24″ softbox using Yongnuo trigger and Nikon SB910