{"id":12403,"date":"2017-11-15T09:15:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T09:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/jd-meatyard\/"},"modified":"2017-11-15T09:15:55","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T09:15:55","slug":"jd-meatyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/jd-meatyard\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Meatyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-12402\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/527ede70799b3466fec1c701da379a2f.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"481\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/527ede70799b3466fec1c701da379a2f.jpg 481w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/527ede70799b3466fec1c701da379a2f-244x300.jpg 244w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/527ede70799b3466fec1c701da379a2f-359x441.jpg 359w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/527ede70799b3466fec1c701da379a2f-1x1.jpg 1w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/527ede70799b3466fec1c701da379a2f-8x10.jpg 8w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Chris Guiton<\/strong> interviews jd meatyard, who describes himself as a&nbsp;left field artist much favoured in his Levellers 5 and Calvin Party days by the late great John Peel, with albums such as \u2018Lies Lies &amp; Government\u2019 and songs such as \u2018Tell Me About Poverty\u2019. June 2017 saw the release of \u2018Collectivise\u2019 the 4th album in his current guise as jd meatyard &#8211; featured on BBC 6 Music\u2019s Gideon Coe show.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CG. Can you tell us something about your new album, Collectivise, and&nbsp;how it builds on your previous albums?<\/p>\n<p>JD. Collectivise is a return to guitar, bass, drums\u2026lo fi as a&nbsp;production bonus. The previous album \u2018 Taking The Asylum\u2019 was&nbsp;influenced by \u2018songwriters\u2019\u2026like Cale\u2019s \u2018Paris 1919\u2019\u2026 Jonathan&nbsp;Richman\u2026Elliot Smith. For Collectivise the mood was different,&nbsp;darker, christ just walk out in the streets and see the despair\u2026and&nbsp;the recording of the new album coincided with a family bad thing, a dreadful loss\u2026with the personal and political in such a state the&nbsp;\u2018tone\u2019 of the recording added much to the songs themselves\u2026\u2018songs I\u2019d&nbsp;play everyday with songs painful to listen to even though I share the politics\u2019 says one. So all in all, the songs on Collectivise reflect&nbsp;of course the crazy place we are now in &#8211; the horror show that is the&nbsp;every day for so many people\u2026 and the personal to, as ever. I couldn\u2019t have an album with such a narrative lightened around the edges with&nbsp;mandolins and such &#8211; ergo guitar, bass, drums.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nhNR16qAKKc\" width=\"282\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nhNR16qAKKc&amp;feature=youtu.be\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>CG. You celebrate a diverse range of influences. Can you tell us a bit&nbsp;about how your music has evolved over the years?<\/p>\n<p>JD. Well, with Levellers 5 (NOT Levellers!) back in the early John Peel&nbsp;days it was just pretty much a manic rant at times, &#8216;like drunk kids&nbsp;let loose in a music store&#8217; said the MNE (true, as in we were like&nbsp;drunk kids\u2026) held together by a great band. Then with Calvin Party we&nbsp;played the indie style of big guitars n&#8217; stuff\u2026hey, all in all a pile&nbsp;of Peelie sessions n album releases, it was all a life to live. I headed over to live in Holland and packed in the \u2018band thing\u2019 as I&nbsp;wanted to just write songs &#8211; not songs for a band, just songs,&nbsp;any which way they came. So started jd meatyard\u2026Ralph Eugene Meatyard&nbsp;was a photographer whose work I liked, interesting stuff for sure, and&nbsp;I needed a \u2018name\u2019 to be a solo singer songwriter sort of guy. It&nbsp;worked, we formed a 3 piece in Rotterdam, me and Johan and Nina,&nbsp;sparse &#8211; two guitars, a floor tom and snare\u2026but what it opened up was&nbsp;the variety of song &#8211; the light n&#8217; shade maybe, loud quiet loud.&nbsp;It\u2019s worked well on the albums, the eponymously titled sort of nervous solo debut, then \u2018Northern Songs\u2019 with the much demanded \u2018Jesse James\u2019 song on through to the new release\u2026we got many indie radio show&#8217;s&nbsp;support, and plays from Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music\u2026the new Peelie, which&nbsp;really helps!<\/p>\n<p>CG. Brecht famously said, &#8216;Art is not a mirror held up to reality but&nbsp;a hammer with which to shape it.&#8217; How relevant do you think this is&nbsp;now as we face a continued neoliberal assault on the &#8216;cultural <br \/>commons&#8217;, those elements of art and culture that rightly belong to all of us?<\/p>\n<p>JD. \u2018Art is all\u2019, I used to believe. Problem is \u2018culture\u2019 is now a tool&nbsp;that we\u2019re controlled by, there\u2019s no argument to this\u2026Edward Bernays&nbsp;pioneered such control of the masses at the behest of the New York\/U.S elites early 20th Century. &#8216;The conscious and intelligent manipulation of&nbsp;the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society&#8217;\u2026 keep us all in the mall whilst they go about screwing the planet. I do think that there is hope, the&nbsp;dumbing down of all culture, the collapse of the popular into little&nbsp;more than corporate funding is I think coming to an end\u2026gotta say,&nbsp;social media has had a big part in this loosening of the reins, there&nbsp;is now an emerging culture of radical attack, of questioning, of&nbsp;challenging that hasn&#8217;t been around for a long time\u2026social media, the&nbsp;great channel for leaks that they can no longer control\u2026the other day&nbsp;with the Paradise Papers tax stuff\u2026no wonder they\u2019re so frightened of Jeremy Corbyn!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That I get hammered, and I do, for my tiny contribution &#8211; songs for&nbsp;Palestine, \u20184 Kids on a Gaza Beach\u2019, for the left, \u2018Jesse James\u2019, \u2018Blow&nbsp;it Out yr Arse\u2019, &#8216;St Peter at The Gate\u2019, \u2019Collectivise\u2019\u2026 people in&nbsp;Sheffield walking out of the show, others rolling their eyes \u2018oh not&nbsp;more politics\u2019, underlines the problem\u2026the attacks I get are pretty severe at times.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZX4vwHnRrho\" width=\"298\" height=\"298\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>CG. What are your thoughts generally about politics at the moment, in&nbsp;particular the hope offered by Jeremy Corbyn and the dramatic shift in&nbsp;the position of the Labour Party?<\/p>\n<p>JD. JC has done something that I\u2019d completely given up on, he\u2019s energised&nbsp;so many people &#8211; people that had given up hope &#8211; many on the left\/humanists that had walked away following Blair&#8217;s band of closet neo-libs\u2026the feeling now that there is a real possibility of success for a centre left government is astonishing given recent history. We now&nbsp;have a Labour Party fit for the name, a leader that matches many of us in historical choices &#8211; aye, we did play anti-apartheid shows, and&nbsp;shows for the miners and he\/we never wore \u2018Hang Mandela\u2019 T shirts&nbsp;like some of the tory toffs. Yes, there is a wee political frisson about now with JC attracting crowds like never before\u2026just as the Tories are chewing themselves up with the tax dodging and abuse&nbsp;charges ripping round the ether &#8211; good times\u2026hopefully great, honest,&nbsp;progressive times on the way. There needs to be big changes globally.&nbsp;The corporate governance of the planet, profit is ALL, has worked for&nbsp;the elites but it has, no doubt, fkd the planet. The poor and the&nbsp;immigrants haven&#8217;t fkd the planet the rich have.<\/p>\n<p>CG. There\u2019s a lot of heartfelt anger and honesty in your music. How do&nbsp;you combine the personal and the political in your songwriting?<\/p>\n<p>JD. Thanks. Its easy, no? What\u2019s the old one &#8211; \u2018the personal is&nbsp;poltical\u2019? I don&#8217;t know how songwriters can avoid being political!&nbsp;Of course I get it, Ed Sheeren and the like are \u2018business\u2019 artists&nbsp;&#8211; they write flatlining songs for a flatlining audience &#8211; formulaic, high production and a marketing plan to suit. We don&#8217;t expect anything&nbsp;from such artists\u2026however, I am surprised that so few \u2018serious\u2019&nbsp;artists that have the opportunity to comment don\u2019t bother to do so&nbsp;&#8211; each to their own. However, for Morrissey, Radiohead and the rest&nbsp;who play the \u2018non political\u2019 card as an excuse to pocket the Netanyahu&nbsp;$$$\u2026well, what can you say, sick. It\u2019s my naivety I guess, I expect&nbsp;more from artists. For me, what else is there? The pain, the&nbsp;tragedies, the loves and losses\u2026fk, it&#8217;s all there in the everyday of&nbsp;life, to seperate politics from personal is to artificially divide reality. So, for me, there\u2019s no contrivance, it&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qzboYO577xw\" width=\"308\" height=\"308\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>CG. At Culture Matters we are very interested in what an incoming&nbsp;Labour Government would do to develop arts and culture policies that&nbsp;reverse the impact of austerity, make the link between progressive art and progressive politics, and support culture for the many not the few&nbsp;(to coin a phrase!). What are your thoughts on what a socialist arts&nbsp;and culture policy should offer us?<\/p>\n<p>JD. Financial backing for creatives, right now there\u2019s little or no&nbsp;support unless you\u2019re already making $$$\u2026I beg PRS now and again for&nbsp;support &#8211; nada, nothing, nunca. We need targeted support for those with a catalogue of, let&#8217;s say, meaningful music. Sad thing is that in&nbsp;music particularly there\u2019s a real dumbed down practice &#8211; the&nbsp;mainstream now is the aural equivilent of Enid Blyton, kids read EB,&nbsp;no probs, however adults listen to the aural equivalent. Little from the&nbsp;left field gets through\u2026Sleaford Mods bravo. Support for \u2018alt\u2019&nbsp;venues would help, this would include \u2018hands on\u2019 support in terms of creating a culture of arts\/music clubs aimed at that very real alternative&nbsp;audience\u2026funding for progressive ideas is what we need.<\/p>\n<p>CG. What&#8217;s it like working in the music scene at the moment? How has it&nbsp;changed over your life? What do you think of other bands and musicians&nbsp;these days?<\/p>\n<p>JD. See above, ha. Since John Peel left us its been a&nbsp;struggle for many bands, JDM is lucky. I get support from many&nbsp;independent radio shows and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music has played songs&nbsp;from all my albums as JDM. But when Peel was around it made a&nbsp;difference with others who used him as a marker &#8211; so we\u2019d get better&nbsp;gigs then and plays from other network DJs &#8211; it&#8217;s noticeable how so may doors shut when the great man died.<\/p>\n<p>CG. The DIY culture that emerged with punk still appears to be going&nbsp;strong. A grassroots approach to music is a great way of empowering&nbsp;people who might otherwise feel excluded. What are your thoughts on this, and how might the labour movement best support this?<\/p>\n<p>JD. Like many, music was my door to everything else. The house as a kid revolved around&nbsp;C &amp; W, played on the record player and also live by my ma n&#8217; da,&nbsp;brother and sister \u2026great singalongs until the dreaded introduction&nbsp;of Lanliq &#8211; those days \u2018buckie\u2019. Then dub and reggae got me asking how&nbsp;come so many Scottish names\u2026slave history and nasty empires entered my&nbsp;vocab, Lou and the Velvets blew open my eternal love of New York, and&nbsp;introduced me to Warhol and 3 hour long screenings of looking at the Empire State Building &#8211; the very notion of \u2018alternative\u2019 in the arts&nbsp;and of course in life too. Punk was such a break, the sheer bravado and \u2018fk you\u2019 attitude was so liberating and yes, empowering, as it blew away so much deadwood in music and beyond, for a moment it terrified the establishment. This is what I mentioned before&nbsp;&#8211; the government can, if it wants to, fund street level creativity&nbsp;through music and the arts by encouraging people with ideas to create spaces, small venues with real spirit, progressive places that&nbsp;encourage participation with artists and the public. Such activity is&nbsp;critical in fostering a \u2018knowing\u2019 public rather than a shopping mall mass taught only to, well, shop and little else. We need a mass of&nbsp;people with a critical, intelligent mindset if we are to break the&nbsp;corporate ruling of our lives, our world. The arts, music is central to the creation of a better future for us all &#8211; nearly said \u2018for the&nbsp;many, not the few\u2019 &#8211; phew! Painting, music, photography, all&nbsp;creatives have a critical role to play in saving the world from a <br \/>toxic culture that will see this planet drained to an empty shell &#8211; as long as they make $$$$$$\u2026we can change the everyday from one of banal&nbsp;consumption at best to something more vital, a life worth living.<\/p>\n<p>CG. I see you\u2019re about to tour the Netherlands, and also live abroad&nbsp;part of the time. How do you find foreign audiences react to your&nbsp;music and does spending time abroad give you a different perspective&nbsp;on life?<\/p>\n<p>JD. Aye, back to Rrrrrrrotterdam, what a place. I never realised the&nbsp;toughness of the Dutch until we moved there for a couple of years and&nbsp;Rotterdam, port city n&#8217; all is as tough as it comes. Holland was cool&nbsp;for the music, my music. They got the punk thing, shared like most&nbsp;northern European countries a liking for \u2018alt\u2019 stuff &#8211; so you get such&nbsp;acts touring these places\u2026unlike Spain, Malaga city where the kids are into either 80s Bronx beats or the most insipid pop you\u2019ve ever&nbsp;heard &#8211; \u2018rock\u2019 ground to a halt here with Duran Duran, punk never&nbsp;happened down this way\u2026I get back to the UK for recording and gigs,&nbsp;see family. I love being back for the first few days\u2026Pogues Irish bar&nbsp;in Liverool, up to Glasgow to see a game..recently discovered the wonder&nbsp;that is Bristol, recording the new album there&#8230;what a great city, now&nbsp;there\u2019s a place that seems to be getting good culture to the centre of&nbsp;&nbsp;things. But after the first few days I\u2019m sort of looking for my return&nbsp;flight\u2026different perspective, for sure, back to the calm of El Palo.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cSome People is an epic track \u2013 If there was still a Peel Festive 50 it would be in the Top Ten this year\u201d,&nbsp;<em>Louder Than War<\/em>. For more info and to buy his CDs go to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jdmeatyard.com\/\">jd meatyard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Guiton interviews jd meatyard, who describes himself as a&nbsp;left field artist much favoured in his Levellers 5 and Calvin Party days by the late great John&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":438,"featured_media":12402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1665],"tags":[1712,2078],"class_list":["post-12403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-2","tag-music","tag-songwriter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/438"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}