An interview with Ian Henderson

Chances are, if you haven’t heard of Ian Henderson yet, you will soon. This Cape Town-based artist, who cites influences such as John Mayer, has just released his latest album, Superglue, a collaborative effort that saw Henderson working and recording with musicians from across the world, many of whom he had never met in person. MIO caught up with Ian to find out a bit more about this process and to get his take on making and promoting music in the current media environment.

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Please give us a bit of background about how you got into music, and some of the highlights you’ve experienced.

I didn’t actually pick up an instrument until I was 17. I have vague memories of my mother telling me I couldn’t sing so I couldn’t play the guitar! Hahaha. Very strange looking back now… So when I left school I just bought a cheap guitar and taught myself, and then added a bit of piano later on to increase my range of options for writing. I played in a few local Durban bands and then decided it was time to record and I looked around and saw bands falling to bits one by one and decided if my work was to have any longevity it would have to be as a solo artist. So I recorded my first record, Freefall, with Angus Kerr and Dave Birch in Durban. I’ve played most of the festivals and toured around the country several times, but I’d have to say it’s the recording that really stands out – it’s about creating something that is your best effort at that point, that will always be there. For better or for worse!

You have recently released your new album, “Superglue”, which is a collaborative effort between yourself and various other artists. Please tell us a bit about how this came about.

In early 2007 I got involved in an online collaborative recording experiment through a recording forum called “The Womb” at mixerman.net. I ended up singing on a track I wrote, with the musicians from as far afield as Paraguay, Australia and Europe, and we never met in person. It turned out great, and the mix guy was a Swedish producer called Ola Sonmark. We’d clicked musically and I asked him to work on my new record, without having ever met in person.

Initially I had in mind that I’d record in South Africa and he’d help with arrangements and mix, but it ended up with him coming over here, and then us recording here and in Sweden and Norway. The basic rhythm tracks were recorded in Sweden in a conventional studio, but all the guitars were played by one of the record’s arrangers – Rune Thoen – in Norway, and bits were chipped in from all over the place. Trumpets in Seattle, some bass in Germany, a couple of bits from the original project guys in Australia and Paraguay, and all the lead vocals and solo pianos in my apartment in Cape Town.

What sort of processes did you use to do the actual writing and recording of the album?

I had written the songs before I brought Ola in as producer. We both work in Logic, so we were able to set up common projects and work on pre-productions and arrangements, sending stuff backwards and forwards by email and talking a lot on Skype. All before we ever physically met. We decided early on that most of the musicians would be Scandinavian-based, and we had a first rhythm section session before Ola came to South Africa in September 2007. Drums and bass from this session survived on about six of the final songs.

He then came to South Africa for a few weeks and we worked intensively on song structure, arrangements and intial vocals. At the same time Rune was sitting in a small seaside village in Norway working on guitar parts and helping arrange the songs – so there would be mp3s flying backwards and forwards and lots of fighting with South Africa’s dodgy internet connections to have Skype conferences and play ideas to each other.

The muscians who played on the record were all really top-drawer – getting great performances was never an issue so we focused on really nailing the arrangements and getting the songs to work and then everything else fell into place. Ola then went back to Sweden, and we had another rhythm session in Karlstad and that was the foundations done and we started building the tracks properly. We then started farming out the tracks to players in various places for extra keys, horns and so on.

A major highlight was getting a small orchestra to record on the title track, Superglue. The song needed strings, and we didn’t want to go for cheesy samples. Ola had a good connection with Dan Sonmark, a well known arranger in Southern Sweden, and he swung it that a small city orchestra recorded on my track for a really reasonable fee. The record was full of these kinds of happy coincidences and opportunities and there was a lot of enthusiasm from the Scandinavians to be working with a South African singer-songwriter from halfway around the world. I think there was also a very natural fit between my sound and their sound, perhaps more so than there is here.

What were some of the major challenges of working in this way, and what were the benefits?

The biggest downside of this way of working is that you miss out on the amazing sensory experience of a band in a room recording music together in that organic, connected way that creates so much magic. Sadly I suppose a lot of modern music isn’t recorded that way any more anyway, but I still feel that’s what recording really is about. I think the project also took a lot longer because there’s quite a lot more admin in working remotely.

On the upside I got to work with a lot of very talented, world-class musicians that I would not otherwise have had access to. My keys player is Nord-endorsed, and one of the top touring players in Sweden – he was able to fit in the session at his own time, in his own studio, between touring obligations. Geography was no problem. I had a trumpet session in Cape Town and wasn’t happy with the result, so we used a horn player in Seattle. This stuff was unthought of until recently.

Tell us a bit about your recent road trip…

Well, I’ve just come back from riding a motorbike across the country from the most westerly point, in Alexander Bay, to the most Easterly point, which is Kosi Bay, with an English friend, Tom. We travelled off-road as much as possible, through all of the strange, out-of-the-way parts of the country like the Richtersveld, the Verneuk Pan, Pofadder, Tugela Ferry and the high mountains of Lesotho. We took a film camera with us, and everywhere we went we asked the people we met what makes them happy. These were mostly very rural areas, and the answers surprised us – they were all about the simple things in life. Sometimes in this hectic pace of the cities and our ambitious ventures we forget about what’s really important. The sky, the weather, chocolate, looking into the eyes of your loved ones. Perhaps we just overcomplicate stuff most of the time. Tom and I ended up several evenings, drunk, asking each other what happiness really is. It’s something to do with being glad to be who you are, where you are, in this world, right now.

Are you planning any national or international touring to promote the album?

That’s the plan. I played a little in New York and Stockholm last year and it’s definitely on the radar. I’m trying to focus on getting things fully in shape here at the moment. I toured to Durban in December, but things fell through in Joburg on that trip – it’s still on the cards for this year, though. I’m looking at possibly doing another record in Stockholm later this year or early next year – hopefully that will coincide with a short tour with the recording band and then some shows in the UK and Holland at least.

What have your experiences been in terms of using the internet as a marketing and networking tool?

Everyone’s now doing the standard Facebook/Myspace thing, so I think what’s needed is real ingenuity – the question is how to stand out in such a crowded place where everyone is shouting “me, me!”. I’m trying to build relationships with fans, so I’m more content than brand-oriented. I’ve spent a lot of time building up the substance of my site and keeping newsletters and contact flowing because I think that in the long term that will pay dividends, but it’s a slow process. I’m still planning some marketing adventures using channels that other musicians haven’t really been utilising so much in this country. I guess the challenge is how do you get your product to people? If you’re not having major hits on radio how do people hear you, other than though word of mouth?

The reality is that revenue streams are drying up for record companies, so there’s less and less chance that they’re going to spend money making and marketing records. The jury’s out right now on the future of the recording industry as a whole – clearly it’s going to dramatically change shape in the next few years. Artists need to take a lot more responsibility and be creative about the business side of what they’re doing, but they also need supportive teams of people.

Do you think the media industry in SA does enough to promote local music?

Hmmm. In patches. Take Obrigado – the Vida magazine – it’s full of music, because music is identified as hip culture. There’s definitely more attention given to it on TV – the SAMA’s now have quite a big buzz made over them. Probably the biggest single issue is that the music opinion makers in terms of the media are a very small number of people – just a handful of individuals - in this country and there’s quite a narrow interest in what is cool or interesting. Are you mates with them, or do you piss them off, or do they think you’re interesting? I’d prefer the media to become more diverse and multifaceted, but that’s probably just my take on culture in general in this country.

Do you make a living out of anything other than music?

At the moment, yeah. How many acts in this country actually make a decent living just from music? The industry is busy turning on its head – it’s anybody’s guess how revenue streams are going to reorganise themselves in a context where most people don’t believe you should pay for music any more. I have some websites that I look after, I do some filmmaking, and some writing in the field of conflict management from time to time. Keeps the loan sharks away for now! At the moment I’m paying for my own recordings so that I keep copyright, but that means stumping up a fair bit of money up front.

What are the benefits of being based in Cape Town as a musician?

It’s probably the most diverse scene in the country – strong jazz, electronica and R&B energy, interesting underground/indie bands and most of the notable acoustic, softer sounding bands seem to have come out of here. It’s a cross-over scene, and people are drawing on diverse influences musically, and I like that. I like the climate, I’m happiest by the ocean and get to spend lots of time kitesurfing, Giovannis has the best coffee in the country and the modeling and film and creative industries pull in for the summer – what’s not to like?

What’s on the cards for the rest of the year?

Hopefully a new record later in the year, for release in early 2010. At the moment we’re talking about Stockholm or Oslo. I really want to record most of this one live, with a great band, in less than two weeks. I like the Scandinavian musical perspective – it’s sophisticated, the musicians are all well trained and play at a really high standard, and there’s something intellectual and yet authentic and down-to-earth about the way they approach music that really resonates with me.

We’re also carrying on making music videos for the record, which is itself a wonderful project. I’m lucky to have a wonderful creative partnership with a great photographer in Cape Town – I bring the ideas and put it all together and she makes it look beautiful! So far we’ve done three videos for the record. The title track off Superglue hasn’t been released as a single yet, because we were holding it back to establish the record a bit. I’ve got high hopes for that one!

 

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