Influences

Although I mentioned Bryan Adams as being the catalyst that sparked my interest in guitar, it was really Oasis who firmly cemented that passion.  I was vaguely aware of them from their first album, Definitely Maybe, hearing kids at school mention this band, but for me it really started when I heard the track Morning Glory from their second album of the same name.  Cable TV was the new popular thing in the mid-90s in Britain, or at least Edinburgh where I was, and there were three music channels.  Morning Glory was on heavy rotation on one of them and I was drawn to the raw, loud electric guitars.  Then I heard Don't Look Back In Anger and that was it.  I bought the albums and for the first time I'd found a band where I loved almost all of their songs.  This was early 1996.

For most of the year, Oasis were what I was listening to along with other Britpop artists like Ocean Colour Scene and Cast.  I also bought Best Of albums from classic rock acts like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty at this time.  Then one day in June 1996, VH-1 were featuring Crowded House as Artist Of The Month, due to them announcing their break-up and the release of their Best Of, Recurring Dream.  All this was unknown to me but one day sitting in my room Don't Dream It's Over came on.  I instantly recognised the song from hearing it on radio over the years but never knew who the artist was.  This was first time I'd seen the video.  I kept hearing more Crowded House songs that month which I recognised and pieced it together... ahhh, all these songs are by these guys!  I guess the advertising slogan for Recurring Dream was spot on - "you know more Crowded House songs than you think you do".

I couldn't wait to buy it and that's exactly what I did with my first wage in October 1996.  My love for Oasis had serious competition.  I would say in hindsight, Oasis were the band who inspired me to consider Music as even a possibility and they were certainly the inspiration for getting strongly into guitar music but Crowded House took it to another level.  They showed me refined and sophisticated pop songwriting and arrangement.  Oasis were one-dimensional in that area.  Their strength was their power and loudness as well as melody.  Subtlety and interesting arrangements were not their forte.  I didn't think anybody could write better melodies than Noel Gallagher for a while but then Neil Finn blew me away.  His melodies took longer to sink in but once they did they were much more enduring and satisfying to my ears.

I worked my way through Crowded House's catalogue over the next year and then Oasis' third album Be Here Now was due for release in August 1997.  This felt like my time because it was the first album release of theirs I could go into as a fan.  I watched the BBC documentary the night before the release and then went into town on the day of release, first thing in the morning with my friend and we both bought a copy, went home to each of our homes and played it all the way through then spoke on the phone afterwards about what we thought.  I didn't want to admit it to myself at the time but I was slightly disappointed.  I liked many of the songs on it but it still left a disappointing aftertaste.

By the time 1998 came around, I was starting to explore other areas of Neil Finn's work.  I was now familiar with the four studio albums of Crowded House, played their Best Of over and over, and had recently discovered his previous band, Split Enz.  Although not as impactful on me as Crowded House, I grew to love many Split Enz songs.  Around the time I got my portastudio in June 1998, I remember listening to Neil Finn's first solo album, Try Whistling This, a lot.  I'd also discovered a low key, lo-fi side project he did with his brother Tim, the two of them playing almost all the instruments.  It was very different to both Crowded House and Split Enz but I loved it.  It was simply called Finn and it seems to be an album that Finn fans either love or can't get into at all.

In September 1998 I went to my first gig.  Neil Finn had just released his first solo album that summer.  I remember hearing the lead single, She Will Have Her Way, whilst I was still on that cancelled music course.  I was blown away by this song.  Distant Sun had replaced Don't Look Back In Anger as my favourite song but now She Will Have Her Way was also up there.  Anyway, Neil was touring this new Try Whistling This solo album and he played the Armadillo venue in Glasgow.  I went with my Dad and brother and it wasn't a disappointment!  We had to rush off during the last song to catch the last train back to Edinburgh.  I remember it was Addicted, my Dad's favourite from that album, and we were standing in the aisle, making our way to the exit but trying to catch as much of it as we could.  The bass coming through the floor was amazing.  I'd never experienced that before.  (There is a nod to this event in my 2022 video for the song Conveyer Belt below)

Other artists I was listening to at this time were The Verve, various Britpop, delving into the work of John Lennon, T. Rex, Slade and of course, The Beatles.  One day, similar to how I discovered Crowded House on the music channel, I saw a video with this new band of very beautiful brunettes.  They were playing a kind of mix of Irish folk and pop.  I quite liked the song but was probably more attracted by their appearance, to be honest!  Yes, this was The Corrs.  I was impressed that these beautiful women also played instruments.  I'd never seen that before.  I bought their album and although I liked a few songs on it, I soon realised they weren't quite the serious artists I had imagined and were leaning more towards lightweight, sugary pop.  Not really my thing.

Another memorable band that had a strong impact on me during this time were Travis.  Again, their video for All I Wanna Do Is Rock came on the music channel and stopped me in my tracks.  I never caught their name but about a year later they were all over the radio with Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, Driftwood and Writing To Reach You.  Again, as with Oasis, I got into their second album first and then worked my way back.

To me Travis were a kind of mix of Oasis and Crowded House.  They sat somewhere in the middle.  They could rock out when they wanted more like Oasis than Crowded House could but they were more refined than Oasis, more subtlety in their songs, which aligned them more with Crowded House in my mind.  They weren't as sophisticated as Crowded House for sure, but they had elements of both bands to my ears.  I know this is a controversial point, because I've come across a few people who love Crowded House but can't stand Travis and some Oasis fans who also don't connect with them because they view them as too lightweight or soppy.  I don't hear them that way at all.  To me, Fran was another songwriter like Noel and Neil who rarely wrote a bad song.  With each of these three bands, I liked almost all the tracks on all their albums and many of the B-sides too.

I'd say they were certainly my three biggest influences when I was starting out, if we're talking about modern artists.  Gradually as the years went on and I discovered more 60s and 70s music, I tended to be more drawn in that direction.