Baz, here at Bionic Buzz we are all about people’s passions. Where did you passion for music come from? Was it a certain album or live performance that inspired it? Or was something natural for you as a child?
Well I certainly was no musical protégé or childhood genius, I can tell you that much! I think that I can safely speak on behalf of Will (Gray, Mansion Harlots co-founder) and I when saying that Mansion Harlots’ one proper show in the ’90s at The Rifleman in Hounslow, England was pivotal in sparking our desires to perform all the more in our next bands: {satellite-state} then later The Signal Fires and Atlantic Fire for Will, and Magic Eight Ball for me. To perform songs I had written on a stage with a band for the first time was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life, and I guess I’ve been chasing that same buzz every time I’ve stepped onto a stage over the next 22 years. Before any of that though, me discovering the Manic Street Preachers and Will falling in love with Radiohead made us want to take that step into making our own music. Both are still our respective favorite bands to this day.
Your band Mansion Harlots just released its début album ‘All Around A Fairground’ last December through Magic Cat Records. It’s interesting since the band was first formed in 1997. So tell us about the history of the band why now to release your debut album.
Mansion Harlots was a short-lived band in its original incarnations, having started whilst we were all still in school in 1997, then ending upon leaving college in 1999. Whilst our workload together in that time is not comparable to what we did in our next bands, events such as entering a studio to cut a first demo or making a live début are key firsts for any musicians to experience together, and Will and I had several of those shared moments during that time.
Thoughts of Mansion Harlots though were for many years a bunch of fond memories for those involved, but not much of my song material from back in the day had stood the test of time in the state in which I had left it. What our early work did contain though were a good few ideas that never truly left my head nor heart in my subsequent years of performing with Magic Eight Ball. If Mansion Harlots were ever to return though then we simply could not do so based on just the old material alone, so it was never going to be a simple case of just turning up and playing, and what I hadn’t realized was quite how much work was needed to bring us back from the dead.
When I pitched the idea to Will about making a Mansion Harlots album in early 2017, the proposal was for me to tastefully write over those good old song ideas of mine and have Frog write his own songs too for the album, then I approached writing completely new material for the band two decades on. My songwriting approach here provided ten songs for the record, and Frog contributed a further two of his own compositions to the album.
Some people thought that the new beginning of Mansion Harlots meant the end of Magic Eight Ball, but that was simply not true. I felt that in working on this Mansion Harlots material (and my solo album prior to that) before next going into the studio with Magic Eight Ball would be good all around, and during the making of this record I have performed live solo, and also with Mansion Harlots and Magic Eight Ball on different sides of the pond. There has always been room for it all. If this reunion had taken place at any other point though then it would have been detrimental to our other bands I think as it simply wouldn’t have been the right time, but this opportunity arose to make an album together and perform some shows in Europe and we seized the moment. ‘All Around A Fairground’ wasn’t so much 22 years in the making, but more 20 years postponed.
Artwork by Joseph C. Weide
Photography by Baz Francis Duarte
3. Your single ‘Panda Eyes’ is a great song. Its got a great music video that was filmed in New Mexico. Who came up with he concept of the music video and directed it?
Thank you for saying so! The initial concept of the video was my own, and I liked the idea of me wearing the panda suit so that the focal point of the video was the story and the song, and not the singer. I am currently living in New Mexico for a little while, and I really like the absurdity of the story entwined with a standard weekday afternoon in Albuquerque. I completely lucked out in meeting two incredible film-making talents in the city, director/screenplay writer Kevin Schulmeister and cameraman/editor/co-star Jesse Walden at Yo Soy Productions, who took my basic video concept and turned it into the beautiful tale presented in technicolor within the ‘Panda Eyes’ video.
4. Whats the future hold for Mansion Harlots?
The next move for Mansion Harlots is the release of our session single ‘Acoustic in Luxembourg 2018’, which Rachel Newton-John and I recorded at ARA City Radio in Luxembourg City in the middle of making the album and our reunion shows. Sam Steen at ARA is a great guy and has been so supportive of both Magic Eight Ball and Mansion Harlots over the last few years, so our single should be out over the coming months. I am also planning on posting a free instrumental from the album sessions via our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/mansionharlots) soon too, then I’m then due off on a US solo tour in the Spring where I shall be incorporating more of my Mansion Harlots songs in the sets.