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From supporting Steve Earle at the Bridgewater Hall to playing the Kings Arms for us a couple of years ago, American singer-songwriter Joe Pug already has links to our fair city. Ahead of his headline debut here – an intimate, likely sell-out show at the Castle next month – we caught up with Joe to ask a few important questions…
Hey Joe, what are you up to right now?
Eating egg tacos.
You’ve visited Manchester a couple of times already. What do you know of the city?
I’m a devoted fan of Abraham Lincoln’s life. His connection to your city has always struck me as beautiful. That an American president would directly appeal not to a foreign government, but a foreign people, that seems unprecedented and, given the current state of global politics, unrepeatable.
It’s with great excitement that we’re welcoming Mr Willy Mason, the esteemed New York singer-songwriter, to our stage at this year’s Sounds From The Other City festival. We thought we’d build up the anticipation further by catching up with Willy in the meantime…
Hey Willy, how’s it going? Where are you and what are you doing at this very moment?
I’m in the US doing boring things getting ready for my trip overseas. While I was on tour the phone got shut off and there’s no hot water. My bus needs new brake-lines and my girlfriend’s truck just got towed away. Spring is a very exciting time of year. As soon as I get all this figured out I might get to record some stuff for tour but it’s not looking so good since I’m flying out on Friday, thanks for asking. Continue reading »
Ahead of his show at the Castle Hotel on 16 February, Hey! Manchester catches up with Portland guitarist and composer Ryan Francesconi to discuss his guitar style, Joanna Newsom and what we’ll be ordering for him at the bar…
Hey Ryan, how’s your year going so far?
Well, so far it’s great. All 11 days of it. This tour is the kick off event of the year! I’m replying to your questions here on United flight 928 en route to Europe from Portland. [We should add that this epic response was written via iPhone... Ryan joked of getting 'touchscreen tendinitis' and having to cancel the tour.]
Is this upcoming tour your first solo visit to Europe? Are you looking forward to any cities or venues in particular (you don’t have to say Manchester!)?
No, I’ve done some one off things and smaller runs – but this is the first proper tour doing the solo guitar Parables music in Europe. I’m happy with all of the events and cities – in particular, getting to spend a bit of time in cobbled Flandrian Belgium is always something to look forward to. Aside from a tiny house show in Ghent (I love that sort of thing) and a great show at the AB in Brussels, I get to be in the holy land of bike-racing shortly before the spring classics season begins. I’m there just a tad early to catch any races unfortunately!
To begin the tour, my girlfriend and I will take the train from Budapest and head west. That will be a magical snowy old-world adventure of sorts. Or… a suitcase dragging over icy cobbles, trudging through freezing rain, lugging a too heavy guitar case on my back, getting lost in southern Bohemia. I’ll let you know which happened when I see you.
You’re also joining Joanna Newsom for her continental Europe tour this month. How did you come to work with her?
We’ve been collaborating since 2006. We’re both from northern California and had met previously at a folk music camp in 2005. I was really impressed by her improvisation ideas over a few jams we had. I hadn’t heard her songs before, but they later became the soundtrack of that summer. We kept in touch, then the following summer she had an idea for a folk band ensemble to perform the material from Ys. It was the first time she had decided to put together a band and she wasn’t expecting anyone to play the Van Dyke scores… but that seemed like a fun idea to me, so we gave it a go. I kind of by default ended up the caretaker of complicated challenges after that. And there have been many! I’ve kept rearranging all the scores and writing new ones since depending on the touring lineup.
You may already be familiar with FUC51 – the blog that popped up earlier this year to poke fun at all things Madchester and Factory. Their writing is witty, their sources anonymous – just like the writers of the blog itself. But Hey! Manchester thought we’d ask them what it’s all about anyway…
Basics first: who are you?
Stephen Morris and Cressa. Some twat out of Northside probably. That guy with dreads who used to do ‘Wonderwall’ outside Boots on Market Street.
You set up FUC51 back in January. Was there a particularly terrible experience that prompted you to do so?
Nope. People tend to assume we emerged intentionally at the same time as Hooky re-opened the doors of the old Factory offices, but really, that was just a fluke on our part and proved incredibly useful in terms of interest around Manchester and music.
