The Sheffield Scenester

We had arranged to interview Left Ajar down at The Frog And Parrot to see what has been happening with them of late, they have always been a band that have interested us, fusing catchy funked up riffs with traditional metal solos, an interesting combo to say the least. Andy Pearson, Jamie Duke, Russell Jones-Davies and Rob Butler had just ordered lunch, which gave us a fifteen minute window for a quick chat……

Scenester: So how did the band start up in the first place, you know the how, why and who’s who of Left Ajar?

Andy: I kinda started it at school....but we didn’t really have any members, so first off we needed a bassist which is where Jamie came in, but he couldn’t play bass guitar of course, still he said “I wanna be in a band, so I’ll learn to play” so we figured “Let’s do this!” The original drummer started Ok but we wanted someone who was a bit more technical and I used to work at a place called Woolworth’s....if you remember them! So I basically propositioned everyone that came to the counter buying rock CD’s, asking them if they knew any drummers. Well Russ’s mum came along buying a White Stripes CD, so I asked who it was for, she said it was for her daughter, I asked “Does she play drums?”, she replied “No, but my son does!” So we swapped information, Russ came down and we just got on with it, did quite a few gigs under that line up....but eventually the singer was having a bit of a clash with us, so we replaced him with Wayne. Mind you we had a spell were it was me and Jamie singing……!

Jamie: It was funny at the time, we’d do very loud gigs so you couldn’t hear the vocals…!

Andy: Yeah, but we moved onto Wayne after that and he did a fantastic job, but it got to a stage were he felt he couldn’t do what we needed…….

Jamie; He wanted to do one thing and we wanted to do another so it was a kinda separate ways thing…….

Andy: So Wayne moved on and that’s when Clare came along, she did a few auditions and we thought “Yeah, sounds decent”. We brought her on board and did a few gigs with her, but it became apparent quite quickly that there was a clash there so she’s moved on too. But as it happens, Rob intended to audition for us the previous time when Wayne left but we’d already moved towards Clare, so when she quit he was the first one we thought of!

Rob: I didn’t even know until I got a call saying “Can you come to a rehearsal tomorrow?” to which I’m like “Yeah….sure!”

Jamie: We’ve gigged with him loads of times, a good mate of ours and so we asked him to come down and practice with us, he really impressed us and so we took it from there really!

Scenester: Rob, how do you see yourself fitting in with quite an established sound?

Rob: I started off as lead guitarist in a band called Ten Foot Dolls and then went onto my last band which was Miseria Lost, again as a guitarist, but we gigged for a couple of years and split up recently, we’re all good friends and everything, it just kind of ran its course. So when the opportunity came to join these guys, I pretty much jumped at it! Hopefully I can carry on what’s been happening so far, cos I know these guys pretty well already having played alongside them in my previous band. I’d also like to bring my own spin to it as well, something a little different, you know a bit of pizzazz, a bit of eccentricity I think. I’m looking forward to it cos it’s my first time away from a guitar, in a way I’m quite nervous cos I won’t have anything to hold on stage, so I’m hoping I don’t come out with something crazy like a Mick Jagger moment or something!

Jamie: Rob’s already started writing with us as well, so since Wayne left we’ve written about thirty new tracks, we’ve sent them to Rob to see which ones work best for him!

Scenester: Are you re-visiting the old material?

Jamie: Yes we will be, it’s just that we want to work on a lot of new stuff, you know to get the new album set out and while we’re doing that we can work on the old stuff as well.

Rob: We’ve already got some basic ideas about what works best, cos my voice is different from Wayne and Clare’s as well, we’ve already had a couple of challenges so far but a couple of songs stand out really well…….

Jamie: Luckily as well I’ve done most of the lyric writing, now I’ve had to try and write for Wayne and Clare who are both a higher pitch than me, but because Rob is the same sort of tone as me I’ve found it easier to sing with him, so songs we’ll both be writing now will be a similar sort of level.....so it should progress much quicker.

Scenester: With the change in line-up obviously there will be a change in style, so do you worry about the older fans loosing faith with it?

Andy: No cos every change we’ve had has made us a stronger, when we bring a new singer in, yeah, you wonder will they won’t they work, but from a live point of view which is most important for a band like us, we have to consider that at the audition stage. That way, when we play in front of the fans we know they are going to get a good show, that’s the main thing for us……

Rob; Now I’ve played on the stage with these guys about a dozen times over the past couple of years and each time I’ve seen them I’ve noticed they’ve gotten better and better, whether it was with Wayne or with Clare. It’s interesting to see that development as a fan, which in a way is how I’m joining the band, as a fan, so I already know what they’re about and how they work, so I personally think they are just gonna improve.

Jamie: We’ve really only had one practice session with Rob was already performing, cos at the sessions we move around and enjoy ourselves rather than just jamming away…..

Andy: It means when it comes to our live shows we’re not just stood on stage, we get up and have fun!

Scenester: So what influences you to write then?

Andy: Well for me its playing the guitar itself, but my main influences are bands like Extreme, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens Of The Stone Age, and that’s created me. Then we have a mish mash of styles from the other members and it all kinda blends together into what is Left Ajar. We don’t tend to sound like a lot of bands whereas you get a lot of indie bands who sound like indie bands, then there are punk bands who sound like punk bands because they’ve just followed the bands that they like. Instead we have a mixture of different genre’s coming together as one.

Russell: A lot of ours are probably instrument specific because I like more funk stuff because a lot of the good drummers that I like come from that sort of background…….

Rob: I mean my guitar influences are the likes of Pete Townsend, but I like a lot of new stuff as well, I’m a massive Manic Street Preachers fan as well. When it comes to my lyric writing I like to incorporate the traditional simpler stuff like Motown, my mums a massive Motown fan you see, but we’re bringing in this newer, more angular side as well, basically anything that’s catchy really. If it’s not catchy then it’s not really what we want, that’s what I like about these guys cos everything has got as beat to it which works really well.

Scenester: So what local bands are you into?

Jamie: Previously it was Miseria Lost because we used to gig with them a lot, but obviously they’ve split up, we like Dead Replica and Darke Horse……

Rob: A band called Stonerun. I saw them and I was just kinda blown away, they put on such a good show and were so professional as well, but they’re really good. Before I joined the rock scene I was part of the acoustic folk scene and there’s a band with some mates of mine called Who Killed The Cranks, then there’s Pocket Satellite who do that kinda acoustic indie stuff.

Scenester; So what are your thought’s on the music scene then?

Andy: The main thing I like to see is performances, so it annoys me when we do a gig and play with a band that looks like they don’t want to be there!

Russell: It seems like Sheffield has a lot of venues and opportunities not only to play live, but to play to a lot of people, I mean you get a huge cross section of people in this city….

Rob: A while back it was brilliant because you had so many classic venues, but since then Boardwalk has shut down, Runaway Girl has shut down and even The grapes is no longer doing live music but recently you’ve had places like The Plug and O2 opening up…..

Jamie: With events like Soundclash going on that’s what is really happening right now, they put gigs on so well and because they have contacts with the bigger and better venues it attracts a bigger crowd. That’s why I like West Street Live because its free entry and they put a mix of bands on over quite a few nights so you get a good crowd…..

Russell: West Street Live, personally I think is one of the best things for the Sheffield music scene itself, I mean that business concept of the ‘anybody can play’ attitude. You get it a lot on the acoustic scene at open mic nights but for electric bands, especially young bands, it’s the best way to do it!

Scenester: Are there any last words before you tuck into your lunch?

Rob: Well obviously we’ve got a big gig coming up on April 16th at The Plug and that’ll be my debut, part of Soundclash so it is going to be an awesome night….

Jamie: We’ve had a huge response from fans with some buying five or eight tickets each so they can bring their mates down. With that sort of response we quite often get their mates turning up to the next gig with some of their mates, so it’s escalating quite well and we’ve had a lot of good feedback on Rob already! Plus because we record our own stuff, so it won’t be long before have some tracks up on Facebook and MySpace, it’ll all come up on leftajar.com anyway

At this point four platefuls of burgers, eggs and chips arrived which seemed as good a point as any to call the interview well and truly terminated. To be fair though it was a tasty looking array and we had in fact ordered a burger platter ourselves. Once lunch was finished we all sauntered down to Devonshire Green for a few more group shots, where Andy, took it upon himself to take charge and we ended up running around for new photo opportunities. It was a good laugh anyway and a good day out, so just to say thanks to Andy, Jamie, Russ and Rob and we wish them all the best, as well as look forward to hearing them on April 16th.