A multi award winning singer/songwriter and an excellent guitarist, Joan Armatrading spoke to Limerick Post about touring, her guitar playing and Rihanna. Joan Armatrading taught herself to play guitar and began writing songs at the age of 14. Her debut album, ‘Whatever’s For Us’, released in 1972 was critically acclaimed and saw Joan signed to A&M world-wide, she shot to fame in the mid 1970’s, with a ballad called Love and Affection and the career that has followed has witnessed a plethora of classic and memorable songs such as Show Some Emotion, Down To Zero, Drop the Pilot, Me Myself I … the list goes on.
This year she released the jazz influenced Starlight. The jazz flavoured recording compliments Joan’s two previous CDs, the blues influenced Into The Blues (2007) and This Charming Life (2010) which was very much a rock/pop collection.
2007’s Into The Blues debuted at #1 in The Billboard Blues Chart remaining at the top for 12 consecutive weeks and was nominated for a Grammy.
Joan is currently on a tour that will have her on the road until December, does she still get a buzz from the road?
“Travelling is very exhausting but being in the different cities is fun, definitely being on stage is fun”, says Joan. “It doesn’t matter how tired you are as you are getting to the place, as soon as you get on stage this adrenaline kicks in and you are as wide awake as you could ever be. And as we enjoy the music, the audience enjoys it and this thing circles around, that is the best feeling. You can’t beat the feeling of being on stage and hearing a crowd roar and you see them stand up because they loved a song. There is nothing like that.”.
While Joan’s songs are universally loved, her musicianship can sometimes be overlooked. Joan has played and recorded all the instruments on her recent albums. Being such an accomplished guitarist, Joan has done 2 series of interviews, for the BBC, with other guitarists to discuss their different styles and influences. She traded licks and tall tales with Mark Knopfler, John Williams, Bonnie Raitt and Russell Lissack of Bloc Party for the series.
Touring with a 4 piece band, bass, drums and keyboards, Joan is the only guitarist and has to perform all the guitar parts while bringing the songs across to the audience. “You have to be very present in the performance and because I am enjoying the music and I love playing, and I want to play well for the audience”.
These day Joan uses 2 custom made Tom Anderson guitars and 2 Ovation Acoustic guitars, 6 and 12 string. “Technology these days is great”, she says. “I used to have this great clunky setup that had all this outboard gear that could get all the different sounds and it took 20 men to lift the gear around AND now you got something you could fit in your handbag where you can program different sounds in rehearsal before you go on stage.”
Talking about the new performers that Joan admires today, she is a fan of Rihanna, “I think her voice has a distinctive sound. I also love The Killers, Kings of Leon and Tinie Tempa is really good.” To make great music Joan opinions you need a, “great melody, you don’t necessarily need a killer hook, but you need everything to be working in tandem, you need the voice, and a great melody.”
You can hear some of the best and most memorable melodies in music when Joan Armatrading plays at University Concert Hall on Wednesday September 26.
