Rock, alternative singer/songwriter LIAM NAUGHTON has a couple of releases tucked under his belt, with his latest being an EP release. Liam himselg goes into great detail about his past, present and future.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Now there’s a question, history is a long time. My get off my arse moment was when Danny Murphy hit the play button on Harvest Moon in the background at work. When it finished I asked “Can you play that again?”. I thought it was brilliant, the way Neil Young put down his lyrics. After years of bull shitting myself I bought a guitar and practiced 4 hours a night, 6 hours on weekends for 6 months straight. I started writing soon after I moved from Ireland to Perth Australia in 2004. I was very disciplined about it too, choosing to stay in and focus on that rather than going out on the sauce or lazing it in the couch talking shit with a bunch of mates. I had to be disciplined too cause I really liked the other options as well. It was a pretty prolific writing time for me. I really loved working the words and packing things up neat and tidy. I was very critical of myself but I knew when it was a finished piece. I took my songs to open mic nights and bit by bit got more comfortable with playing live. It’s tricky to sing into a mic when you’re trying to find the fret board. I’d love to have had some vids of those early performances cause I was really shit but really determined. It took me until 2006 before I got the balls to go to a studio. I went to Jerry Freedmans studio, ‘Jericho Music’ in Perth after seeing an advertisement ‘ARE YOU READY FOR LONDON’. I thought, course I’m not, but that sounds like the place. When I got there I was so nervous sitting down in the quietness of his
studio with my guitar and playing a track one on one. I thought I was in confession.
I worked with Jerry on a song called Badman, left 2 days later with my first finished song, dead proud. I went back to Jericho in 2007 and recorded about 17 further demos. I’m on a roll here. Then all of a sudden, for various reasons life took over, I got side tracked and things ground to a halt only to resurface again in 2011. It wouldn’t be the last time my ship would hit the rocks either.
In 2011 once again, my third visit to Jericho Music we began work on my first EP Cornerstone. Put it out 2012, did CD’s and everything, supported it with live shows and all that but it kinda went nowhere. Bummed!!! To be honest, I didn’t market it very well. I was always a bit shit at that but I put it down to Catholic guilt. One of the deadly sins Pride is ya know. I must not….True. My ship ran aground juts off the coast of nowhere once again. What’s the point, just go home son.
Couldn’t let it go. Roll on 2016 The Nannup Music Festival came calling. 6 months to get ready for it I called up Lauren Reece who played drums on the Cornerstone live shows. We went to the rehearsal
studio, just us two, for 4 months and rehearsed the songs she knew plus a bunch of other ones I’d written. See, even though I wasn’t active on the Perth music scene, all the while I was still writing at
home. Those rehearsals would set the tone for my Leaning In LP. James Vinciullo would join us on bass guitar and after Nannup we went to Fremantle Recording Studio to record Leaning In as a 3 piece rhythm section. I wasn’t overly keen on forking out big $$ and wanted to keep it a bit low key but curiosity killed the cat. The engineer Brian Mitra loved the songs and encouraged me to get a lead guitarist to top it. Elephant Isle were recording their EP as well and their guitarist Cameron Hayes came on board with us. Ship went off course again a bit but a trip to The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and reading how he never gave up despite how crap his life was inspired me to finish the
record. Leaning In eventually came out in 2018. I got very favorable reviews but I hadn’t done it the right way. I’d only uploaded it to on-line stores and played around Perth with the band, everyone liked it but it couldn’t get out of the starting blocks. What does a man have to do. Cameron took off to London to have a crack. I was disappointed by that but really admired him for it.
Fuk, if he can do it so can I… enter The Animal Farm. I took a years leave off work, went to London and re recorded 4 tracks from Leaning In with The Animal Farm. George Addison Atkinson who was playing drums with Cameron in Georgia Reeds line up came on board. Matt Leppanen of The Animal Farm played bass and produced what was to become my Cut On A Cut EP. I battled it a bit but we got there in the end. Unfortunately covid-19 hit the shelves before I did, the music scene died in London, is still dead and it’s looking like that for the rest of 2020 so I grabbed my parachute, bailed, and now I’m at home in Perth eating a cheese burger.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
When I do something I always like it have relevance and not just drag something randomly out of the sky. That’ll do, no it won’t do, there’s got to be a meaning to it. All of the other musicians in the group are music teachers, hence The Educators. My late dad was also a teacher so I thought it was a good fit.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Up until I went to London to we were based out of Perth in sunny Western Australia. The local original music is pretty small here but it full of a real bunch of great, very talented people who try really hard to expand it. No shit, a lot of great musicians here. Current big international bands from Perth are Empire of the Sun, Tame Impala, John butler, and big Aussie bands like Birds of Tokyo, Eskimo Joe, Karnivool, Methyl Ethyl. The grass roots local scene isn’t very well supported here by the punters. You really have to tease them out to shows but there’s a well of talent here, you can be sure of that and I plan to unearth it!! Acts Like Turin Robinson, The Caballeros, The Shakeys, Atlas Chasers etc
4. How would you describe your style?
When I was learning the guitar I didn’t learn any particular style like blues, rock ect so by not doing that it didn’t force me down any particular path. When I’m writing I don’t set out to write a certain
type of song, I wait until I find something musically that interests me and is far enough removed from anything I’ve heard before. If it sounds too close to not being original I’m inclined to drop it and
move on. But from my releases, in general you can hear that what comes out is along the lines to 90’s guitar rock
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
Ya know, I thought a release was uploading to the on-line stores and then telling all your Facebook friends about it. I can be a real twat sometimes but then again someone a long the way could have told me different. Cut On A Cut is the first record that I have released thru the proper channels. My independent Cornerstone EP and Leaning In LP are also available on on-line stores. You can expect to hear earnest song writing without feeling short changed.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
Cut on A Cup EP had just been released 19th June 2020. I do have a new album ready to go. It’s well beyond the advanced stage of song writing. I’ll just let what’s gone before soak in a bit longer and see
what the response is before I take it to the next stage.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
I had taken a year off my day job to move to the bright lights of London, hook up with Cameron and launch an assault on the Irish and UK music scene. I mean, what better place to test your wares against all of the up and coming acts in one of the main centres for music. I wasn’t fazed either, I felt that I had some good horses in my stable and was ready to bang some doors down. I’d a bunch of shows lined up so what could possibly go wrong???? Holy Fuck, for once I didn’t derail my own train, Covid-19 did it for me.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
The plan is to spend some time marketing Cut On A Cut, hit the bricks and take it to the stage. Then start work on record number 4.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Cornerstone, Leaning In and Cut On A Cut are available on all online stores. My YouTube channel ‘Liamnaughtontube’ (didn’t mean it to sound phallic) has band and acoustic live performances.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Whether you like it or not, you can hear that a lot or work and ideas have gone into the song writing and music. I want people to feel like they haven’t been hoodwinked or short changed in any way. I want people to feel that their time was well spent!
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