Website: https://troyredfern.com/
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Interview

Òran Mór, Gaelic for ‘great melody of life’ or ‘big song,’ is a thriving arts & entertainment venue in the heart of Glasgow’s West End.

I walk past the bustling outdoor seating area and climb the steps to the ornate doorway of the beautifully restored old church. The trendy modernisations are clearly obvious but the soul of the 165-year-old building still feels strong as I am guided down the old internal stone staircase to the basement where I briefly chat to Troy Redfern just as he is about to start his sound check for the gig tonight. “Nice guy,” I think to myself as I take a seat.

“Just play something through!” the sound engineer shouts up to the stage. “No problem mate.”

The sound that then materialised out of nowhere made my head snap up and I felt my eyes narrow. I’d watched a guy walk up onto that stage but it wasn’t the same guy standing there now.  The Resonator growled and howled through the over-driven amp and a voice that I hadn’t heard before started singing “John The Revelator”.  Even at the sound check the energy on stage was electric and I couldn’t help wondering what the Parishioners of Kelvinside Parish Church would have made of this in 1876.

With the sound check done we settle into the interview, and I welcome Troy to Glasgow with the gift of a “Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer” and a “Tunnocks Teacake,” which for the uninitiated, are rare, centuries-old, Scottish delicacies.

Kirk:  Welcome to Glasgow Troy. That was some sound you were generating up there. What’s your set-up?

Troy:  I have a 1929 National Triolian Resonator. That’s the white and mustard one.  I use a Barcus Berry pickup on that because I use a high-gain sound, which is quite unusual. Most guys who play resonators go for a different sound altogether. The other is a 1935 Dobro with a 60’s Gold Foil pickup on it.  Similar to the Barcus Berry, it’s a very open sound, they can pick up a lot of gain and can provide that fuzzy, distorted sound if that’s what you’re looking for. The amp is a Magnatone Twighlighter Stereo. It’s got a vintage vibe about it that I love.

Kirk: I noticed that you reached and exceeded the Kickstarter goal for you new album.

Troy: Yeah, that was really cool.  I put a fairly modest target on there to begin with as I wasn’t sure how it would work.  I’ve never done a Kickstarter campaign before, but I knew that if you don’t hit the target then you don’t get anything.  It went about £1k over target so it was really nice that people wanted to get behind it.

I’m getting mixes coming through now from the studio and am really looking forward to putting that one out.  I’ve got some different players on this album.  I’ve got Paul Stewart from “The Feeling” on drums, Dave Marks is playing bass and he is also producing the album.  Someone asked me if I was going to try and top the last album. I would say, it’s more of a side-turn.  I haven’t gone further into “Rock”.  There are some rocky tunes on it, but I was just trying to focus on getting songs that I was happy with. There are a few intense tracks, a few mid and a few quieter ones which I think gives the album a nice contour.

Kirk: Do you keep the same band line-up when you go on tour?

Troy: When I go on tour, I take Finn McAuley on drums and Keira Kenworthy on bass. That line-up is very solid, and we have some festival dates for a month-long tour set up in Europe later this year. When I do live gigs that’s the guys I use, they are just brilliant!

Kirk: The last couple of years has been a tough time for artists. What are your views on retaining control of marketing, production, funding etc going forward?

Troy: It’s a tricky one.  If you sign to a label, you’re not getting much money for your product, and they are also now taking up to 70% of the merch revenue.

Signing with a label looks great on Social Media. That’s all very well but The Bonamassa Model” works very well.  “When Rivers Meet” are doing  it all by themselves and that’s what I do as well.  It’s not easy because you have to do all of the production costs yourself, and it’s not cheap: hiring a studio, getting the musicians, the sound engineers, the mixing, mastering, the physical product…it goes on and on.  But then you get all of the returns. It’s not easy either way but at least if you’re doing it yourself you have control.  On the downside, the labels can open up opportunities for the band to move in different directions, for example they can get you on tours with different people or expand the touring geography, you know, stuff like that.

Kirk: Your last album “Fire Cosmic” contained some wonderful storytelling, what was your writing process for that album?

Troy: I love to write allegorically. I’m not the sort of person that writes directly about my life, but I do pull in references from my life, and I’ll chop things up and throw in metaphors to get the song across, more along the lines of how David Bowie used to write.  There may be some issues that bleed into my songs on a personal level but there are all sorts of other things in there (laughs).

I also do a lot of “automatic writing.”  By that I mean, while I am experimenting with the original idea for the song, I just play and sing whatever comes out with no filter. I’ve learned to do that over the years.  Just singing words without the conscious mind interfering with the process. Once I’ve got that out, I will then listen through to what I have said and then pick out things that lend themselves to the narrative that I’m going for.  It’s an interesting approach because you’re not really sure of where those words are coming from sometimes…a bit like when you are improvising a solo and you don’t really have time to think.  I love that!

Kirk: Do you have any specific goals at the moment or are you taking opportunities as they arise?

Troy: A bit of both really. When things come my way, I take them, and I am looking into next year and setting up as many opportunities as I can. For the remainder of this year my main focus will be the new album. The single is coming out at the end of June and the album will be out in August and that takes a lot of work for the press and PR and then we will be making some videos for each of the singles. Luckily, I haven’t got too many gigs after this tour.  I have some Festival stuff as I said but it’s good to have a block of time to dedicate to releasing the album properly.

Kirk:  How are you enjoying being back on the road?

Troy: I’m loving it.  Last year from September through to December I had 3 tours with Robert John and The Wreck, The Quireboys and The Sweet and they were full UK Tours and this one just now is the 4th one so I have been very lucky.  Yeah, so back into the swing of it again and the audiences that we meet are fantastic.  The gigs are full of really lovely people and there is a real family vibe. The gigs are selling out which is great.

The guys I have been touring with are all amazing as well and so are the crews which makes all the difference. They’ve all made me feel very included in their “families” for which I am really grateful.

Kirk:  Brilliant, thank you very much Troy. Any chance of a quick portrait…..

PORTRAIT

I don’t have a flash as I’m traveling light, and the basement is really dingy, almost dark in fact.  I see a downlighter on the ceiling and ask Troy to stand under the light, put his hat on and look up. “Click.”  Here’s the shot…

Date: 07/05/2022

Location

Oran Mor, Glasgow

Camera info

Camera: Sony A7R3
Lens: Tamron 70-180 f2.8
Focal length: 119mm
Exposure: f2.8, 1/40s, iso 800
Time of day: 18:49
Conditions: Dark interior
Lighting for portrait was a downlighter in the ceiling :-)