MW Questionnaire: DAVE TATTERSALL

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DAVE TATTERSALL

THE WAVE PICTURES

answers the Music Works Questionnaire

wave pictures david tattersall

DAVE TATTERSALL

1.QUALIFICATIONS ?
I have a Sociology degree from Glasgow University. Franic and Jonny went to art school in Cardiff.

2. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS ?
There’s so many! Personally, I really really enjoyed playing as Daniel Johnston’s backing band for that tour.And we just made an album with another hero of mine, Wild Billy Childish, which is exciting. It was so great to get to work with him. We wrote all the songs together. It’s called ‘Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon’. Watch out for that!

3. AMBITIONS?
That’s a tricky question. I’m not sure. I often think that I’m not a very ambitious person. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. There are things, but I can’t think of any. I want to keep making better records, and improving as a band. I don’t know if that doesn’t sound a bit stupid though. I’d like to keep the band together. It’s hard to just keep a band together. And it’s very hard when you don’t make any money and you spend half your life away from home, traveling. I just hope we can stick together.

4. SONGS YOU WISH YOU HAD WRITTEN?
I wish I’d written Cupid by Sam Cooke. The elegance and simplicity of his writing is hard to beat. And everybody loves that song! I’ll tell you a song that I ripped off a lot, especially when I was younger, is Eight Pictures by the Go-Betweens. I don’t know if I wish that I had written that one, but I do know that I basically re-wrote it many times! It’s such a great song. I love it!

More often than not, it isn’t really that you want to write a song like such and such a song, but more that you want to make a record that sounds like such and such a record. For me, coming up with the songs is easy enough, but making great-sounding records takes a lot of thought. I often think that I wish we could make a record that sounds like the Troggs on something like With A Girl Like You, something that sounds so fresh and alive and joyful, just like that record.

Or this morning I was listening to Bitch by The Rolling Stones. It’s basically just a riff, not great songwriting like the Sam Cooke, but it’s a great great record! The sound is so tough, and the horns really bite through and I thought ”God – I’d love to make a record like that!”

5. DESERT ISLAND DISCS ?
Jimmy Reed, You Don’t Have To Go; Ann Peebles, I Can’t Stand The Rain; Billie Holliday, These Foolish Things; The Rolling Stones, Bitch; Daniel Johnston, True Love Will Find You In The End; Hank Williams, Lovesick Blues; Link Wray, Hidden Charms; Thin Lizzy, Johnny; Barbecue Bob, Motherless Chile; The Troggs, With A Girl Like You; The Who, I Don’t Mind; Ike Turner, Steel Guitar Rag; Rory Gallagher, Laundromat; The Meat Puppets, Look at The Rain.

6. FAVOURITE ARTISTS/BANDS OF ALL TIME?
The Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Reed, Wild Billy Childish, Robert Johnson, Television, The Violent Femmes, Rory Gallagher, Jonathan Richman. The Wave Pictures is kind of a mix of that Rory Gallagher guitar thing and something like The Modern Lovers.

7. WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO NOW?
Syl Johnson, Back For A Taste of Your Love is a really great album that I’ve been enjoying recently with that great Hi Records drum sound. You hear it on Al Green and Ann Peebles too. It’s the greatest drum sound in the world! The Birth of Surf Volumes 1 and 2, on Ace Records – just absolutely killer surf guitar compilations. You’ve got Dick Dale doing Surf Beat and The Centurions doing Bullwinkle part 2 and The Ventures doing Walk Don’t Run… It’s great stuff! Lately, I’ve been really into Thin Lizzy. I find something very moving about Phil Lynott’s voice. I like the albums Jailbreak, Live and Dangerous and Johnny the Fox. I’ve been playing those albums over and over again.

6 and 12 String Guitar by Leo Kottke… that’s an amazing album too! Long Journey by Michael Hurley – I’ve been enjoying that one lately too. Such a touching record. Really great stuff. Finally I would like to recommend what I believe to be the greatest album made in the last ten years… Forensic R’n’B by The Spartan Dreggs. Seriously – this is a modern masterpiece that has been totally ignored. A truly great album.

8. LAST BOOK YOU READ?
I just read ”Nemesis” by Phillip Roth… A beautiful, beautiful book. Really brilliant.

9. HOBBIES?
I like playing darts and pool… pub sports. I like watching films.

10. VINYL, CASSETTE, CD, MP3, WEB STREAMING?
It’s got to be vinyl.

11. INDIE MUSIC IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET ?
It’s tough. The internet in many ways has made life easier. But in many ways it has been destructive. Record shops are closing down every week because of the internet. Cinemas too. Small bands like us would have been making more money in pre-internet times too. I sort of despair a bit about the internet. It has taken over everything. I think it’s a great technology, with all sorts of advantages, but people have been tricked into using the internet all the time and in place of other things.

The internet is no substitute for going into a shop and buying a vinyl album, taking it home and putting it on your turntable. There’s no subsitute for that. Towns will become boring without record shops in them. And now bookshops are going to suffer because people are even reading using electronic devices… which is fucking absurd!

Books are nice things. Records are nice things. I hate these fucking idiots, reading electronic devices and only listening to music on Spotify or Youtube. As a band, no one buys your albums, you make more money from doing T-Shirts, which is ridiculous. I got into this because I love albums, not to become a t-shirt salesman! Fuck it! I liked things better before.

12. PERSONAL MOTTO?
I am sorry to say that I don’t have a personal motto. I should have one.


The Wave Pictures

The Wave Pictures British rock band – Jonny Helm (drums), Dave Tattersall (vocals, guitar) and Franic Rozycki (bass) formed back in 1998 (with a different band name) when Dave and Franic were teenagers.

Their varied discography captures a range of styles and influences, from garage rock to afro-pop to country punk, all recorded live with few overdubs. Dave Tattersall is the lead songwriter of the band and he is highly prolific, since the band releases at least two LPs / EPs every year, since 2003.

The Wave Pictures new album ‘Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon’ will be released on Moshi Moshi Records in February 2015, with the first single from the album, ‘Pea Green Coat,’ to be released on December 1st 2014. The album was co-written and recorded with one of the band’s heroes, Billy Childish.

https://thewavepictures.bandcamp.com/album/great-big-flamingo-burning-moon

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