Interview with Jimmy
August 2016 - Jimmy was messaging with Bibi Lynch - journalist, columnist, writer and broadcaster. She’s written for the Guardian, GQ, Grazia… and others not starting with the letter G. A regular voice on radio (BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4); an irregular face (!) on TV (from sofa-moments on 'This Morning' and 'BBC Breakfast', to hosting Living’s 'Bachelor of the Year' and 'What Men Want' series.) Bibi also created Living’s hit show 'Dead Famous.' Bibi is currently presenting 'Bibi Does Soho' on Soho Radio in London.
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BL: Hi, Jimmy. Good to type. Let's paint a picture. Where are you right now? What can you see?
JR: I can see your purdy face on my computer screen! Beyond that I'm surrounded by my music gear in my writing suite. Familiar surroundings!
BL: So you're working on the album now? Any final touches?
JR: Yep! Been doing the album since last September. Lots of tweaks. Problem with my final touches is they are never final. That's what happens when you are producing and mixing your own stuff. Keep going back, and back, and back!
BL: But that's how you get what you want, mister. Good to be precise… Let's go back… You set the record for ‘highest Hot 100 debut for a new UK act’ with Are You Jimmy Ray?. It entered at #26 in 1998. Even One Direction couldn’t beat you. Good to beat those boys?
JR: I beat them in a single chart number, they beat me in hair length in centimetres, digits of supermodels' phone numbers and ...well let's not mention the bank balance! The chart record is a nice thing to have. Would love to beat my own record, like Usain!
BL: Heh. But are they happy…? (They're happy.) Amazing record to have. Shows how huge that time was for you. Totally broke the States. People talk about 'breaking the States'. But what was it like? (I'm having a HobNob as you type.)
JR: It was an unexpected shock. I honestly had no plans or ambition to go to America as stateside success just wasn't happening for UK acts at the time. The Spice girls changed all that and I think I rode their wave a bit... having the same manager in Simon Fuller (nibbles Jaffa cake.) I think my genuine love of American retro music made it a bit easier for me out there. I felt like an honorary 'Septic'. Honestly, they were great – the'mericans!
BL: Who was your least favourite Spice Girl?
JR: least fave spice girl was Deidre Spice. She didn't make it through the final audition. Fave was Vicky (until she didn't record the duet I wrote for her & me.) Then it was cuddly spice (Emma.)
JR: I mean bunny spice, or whatever.
BL: Hahaha. Oh, Vicky… I got in. Old Spice. Rude gits.
JR: They did call me 'Spice boy' in the press one or twice (just once actually.)
BL: Oh I bet. Naughty lazy journos. Ha! God, I bet you loved it in the U.S.… What was that time like? Amazing? Insane?
JR: My very first visit to the states was LA to shoot the video for Are You Jimmy Ray?. When you consider I was escorted to the shoot location in a limousine with two motorcycle cop outriders and then later that day used as target practice by a 'not-too-friendly'-lookin' fellow with an imaginary sniper rifle in the Latin quarter of downtown LA. you could say that was pretty insane start to my time in the U.S.!!!!!!
BL: You were on every top TV show out there. Including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno… What was he like?
JR: Leno was actually really friendly and cuddly too (not in that way.) He showed me his vintage car in the studio lot & then introduced me to John Travolta before he cut me loose me in front of his millions of viewers - Like I said - very friendly!
BL: Travolta?! Too much. How did you psych your head for that? Millions of viewers AND Danny Zuko!
JR: Well this is the thing. Trav was a far better rocker than I was, so it was pretty intimidating - plus my hit song wasn't as good as anything on the Grease soundtrack so I felt like a bit of a shmuck in front of him. But he was great. I drew attention to the fact that my hairstyle at the time was a poor imitation of Danny's and he got it. He was too cool. The show itself went pretty well, everything on US TV is totally live, no backing tracks like in the UK so we got to land a pretty good punch on that show.
BL: Wish I'd been there! Got chills just hearing about it. Amazing… And did Cybill Shepherd steal your shoes on a show? (Or have I made that up…?)
JR: Almost! Cybill Shepherd stole my HEART when I met her at a gig I played in London as a teenager, Jamie Lee Curtis kidnapped my suede creepers backstage at Leno (or was it Rosie?) She was an absolute dream. So down-to-earth and approachable for someone so FAMOUS. Ooooh! We all fell in love that day!
BL: Ha! Those flirts!
JR: BTW I'll tell you who didn't flirt with me... Cyndi Lauper and Gloria Estefan when I barged in-between them to have our photo taken at some awards thing. I asked Cyndi "Are you having fun?" She didn't seem to be… not after she met me at least.
BL: Hahahaha. Hope the injunction's lifted now, though. What’s your strongest ‘I’m a boy from Walthamstow! HOW is this happening to me?!’ memory of that time? The maddest thing that happened?
JR: The most bonkers thing that happened beyond question was being asked for my autograph on a vist to GRACELAND! I'm a humongous EP fan and that moment just about topped everything. I really thought “hang on - what's going here then?”
BL: And now the Comeback… Am hoping against hope you’re going to wear a black leather jumpsuit…
JR: Yes. I have black leather... vintage 1998. Tried on the pants the other day. Thought they fitted fine. Went out in them. couple of hours later "pop" and continued on like that throughout the evening.
BL: Haha! Top of the Pops!
BL: There’s an Elvis cover on your new album Live to Fight Another Day… How did you choose (You’re the) Devil in Disguise?
JR: Love Elvis. I was going through a bit of a darkish period / mood and was writing a lot of stuff with punky, angry guitar riffs. I found a riff that worked on 'Devil' changed some of the chords to minors and then tried to deliver the vocal In a style I thought Morrissey might do it in. It actually worked (I think?) Very different to EP's version. Thanks Mozza! Love to hear an album of EP covers by Mozza!
BL: Mozza does EP? Stop it now, Jimmy Ray. (Version is great. A really unusual understated 'bouncing' quality to vocal. Me like v much.)
BL: The other cover on the album (apart from reworking of you-know-what) is a song from your uncle Johnnie…
JR: Yep Uncle Johnnie Ray. Lovely fellow, loaned me his hearing aid don't you know! (Or was that Mozza too?) Johnnie was the last of the great teenage crooners back in the 50s. Very powerful & emotional vocal deliveries - in a way I could never match so again, I've twisted it to fit my own psyche. Plus Soliloquy of a Fool is just such a great title - proppa use of the english language - know wot I mean Bibi!
BL: Only too well, JR. Only too well…
BL: The rest of the album is originals and a reboot/re-imagining of Are You Jimmy Ray? called Who Wants to Know?. Why go back?
JR: BTW, It's great being able to interview with 3 or 4 Jaffa cakes in one's mouth!
BL: Based my entire career on that gift.
JR: Yep, I think I've written 11 originals for the album. That's about 1 a month! slightly quicker than my typing. When we first recorded RUJR? as is often the case, I felt we could have gone further with the 50s Kitsch, so that's what I've done here. It has a fuller sound with strings and horn section and a plethora of 50' guitar styles. I have a pair of shoes made out of plethora. This version is closer to the vision. BL: Heh. Twat. (I say that with love.)
JR: I love you too, stupid!
BL: Ha! Who Wants to Know? is also a clever riposte. Now and then. It's great.
JR: I still get it you know "Are you Jimmy Ray?" Or "didn't you USED to be Jimmy Ray?"
BL: Do you? It's your 'Rickaaaaaaaaaay!' What do you say? Who wants to know? Actually say it?
JR: If I DON'T say WWTK? then I'm not doing my bit for the war effort.
BL: Don't tell 'em, Pike!
JR: I say it whilst choking ...as if on a Jaffa cake.
BL: As your biography says, the album has a real retro rock ‘n’ roll flavour… But that is a big old umbrella… From ‘Wall of Sound’ to ‘1960s’ surf’ to ‘Americana’…
JR: Yeah, retro. It just feels natural that way. When I pick up a guitar it starts to twang or 12-bar. I feel comfortable writing with humour (more common in the 50's than now)...less so direct from the heart. I could never do a raw heartfelt Johnny Cash album although I do do ('doo-doo' lol!) an acoustic thing at the end which is pretty honest. I'm too emotionally repressed to do that all the time. Most of the meanings in my songs are buried or disguised. I probably shouldn't mention murderer, MURDERER! Phil Spector but his thing was definitely an influence. The sound – wall of. Does that make me EVIL?
BL: Yes.
JR: Oh dear. OK well Devil in Disguise is probably the right cover then!
BL: This lyric made me laugh out loud… ‘I love you in the back - so meet me round the back - I love you in the back of my mind…’
JR: Yeah, that lyric makes me giggle too, especially as just as the 'meet me round the back' line drops and very protrusive string run reaches it's crescendo - ouch!
BL: Ouch indeed. Always loved your retro - written retro - but how has your style progressed and developed over the years? Do you think writing and producing other artists has developed you further?
JR: Yeah. I have written with other folk over the years - Jo Callis form Human League being the real highlight. I love retro but also love techno / synth stuff - since hearing the League - so my production techniques can go right across that spectrum. When I say the new album is retro, it doesn't mean there aren't contemporary sounds and ideas on there as well.
BL: Yeah, more sensibility and feel… I think the album is so great. And I have a favourite track… Is that allowed? #SophiesChoice
JR: Is it the closing seconds of the LAST track? Lol
BL: Hahaha. I refer you to previous 'Twat'… No it's not. (Love acoustic Sex for Beginners, though…) No, it’s Back to the Country. I think your best song yet. I’m getting some Roddy Frame there…
JR: Aaah, thanks for mentioning Mr Frame. He's probably my biggest UK influence. Amazing guitarist, lyricist and melodian (is that a word?) I love the mysteriousness of the man too. I've been a fan for years but know virtually nothing about him as a person. I love that. 'Back to the Country' is my crack at Americana. I'm a sentimental chap at heart (I cried watching the Elephant Man yesterday - AGAIN!) and although I know shit about 'the country' (apart from it has a lot of shit in it) I wanted to and think I achieved some of that 'longing for a simpler way of life' thing in that track. Probably the best guitar solo I ever landed too! Thanks!
BL: Pleasure. A real 'complete' feel to the song and vocals. Think it's fantastic.
JR: Thanks!
BL: Why the comeback…? In your biography you say you want to ‘finish the job’… Did your career feel incomplete then?
JR: I was always driven by my creative side since being a little kid. It just reared-up in me again last September and It was like 'Ok. Let's do it.' Had I been in Lidl with a trolley-full of groceries at the checkout at the time it was like "right just leave the trolley there ...I'm off to the studio." I'm glad it's taken me less than a year to do it too. Sounds like a long time but after 18 years it's not.
BL: Has the process been different? From then (1997) to now (whatever year we're in)?
JR: We're in 1957
BL: *flux capacitor face*
JR: Process is different because I've done everything - written, recorded, played, produced, arranged, engineered, mixed, cleaned the bog, took the dog for a walk. I'm also using my own home studio so it's free this time. 'Cross collateralization' my arse! (look it up musical younglings)
BL: Ah… yes… That's a whole different interview…
BL: YOU HAVE NO DOG!
JR: it's one of those invisible Japanese ones where you just take the leash for a walk.
BL: The emperor's new dog…
BL: The Comeback: exciting or terrifying?
JR: The terror makes it exciting! I just hope someone notices!
BL: Terror is good. And it's not just the Catholic in me saying that.
BL: What do you hope will happen?
JR: I'm actually just glad to have completed the songs. I'll release the thing and if anyone digs it then that's a bonus. I would love to be able to perform the album with a band as I did in the states all those years ago. I'm still in touch with the guys I worked with back then and to reunite for a TV show or a gig would be the ultimate.
BL: Oh, boy. That would be incredible… And there's a certain freckly writer who'd happily do those backing vocals…
BL: Live to Fight Another Day, Jimmy Ray! #preach
JR: Thanks Bibi Lynch! I'll see you on stage OR just "meet me 'round the back" wink! wink! Love ya!
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