4.52am Issue: 066 11th January 2018 - The Who Killed Nancy Johnson Issue

theFretBoard is a forum for guitarists, and the
occasional bassist.
It’s run by guitarists, for guitarists, and covers
just about all the “stuff” that interests guitarists,
including guitars (!), amps, fx, learning, playing,
buying, selling and anything else that comes to
the minds of thousands of guitarists every day.
It’s completely free to read and free to join –
membership allows readers to see additional
areas of the forum which aren’t visible to nonmembers,
to start their own discussions and
post their own comments.
Best of all, there are NO ADVERTS.
Join the UK’s busiest, most interesting and most
diverse guitar related forum for free (did we
mention that it’s free?) at theFretBoard.co.uk.
Now.

A
nd so then it became 2018 and all was,
well, much the same as 2017.
What can you do?
Well, here at 4.52am we’re embracing the
whole ‘out with the old’ and so are determined
to bring as many new voices to the table as we
possibly can. Oh La Contessa will carry on with
her mining of the past, but there we are.
Enjoy!
All at 4.52am

Contents
Learn To Play: Elvis.................................................................. 9
Learn To Play: Galaxie 500 (Again)........................................ 11
Who Killed Nancy Johnson? .................................................. 13
Chris Carter ........................................................................... 31
Ezra Furman .......................................................................... 37
La Contessa Presents… .......................................................... 43
1960s: Fairport Convention ................................................... 45
1970s: Pilot ........................................................................... 47
1980s: The Maisonettes ........................................................ 49
1990s: Tori Amos .................................................................. 51
2000s: Badly Drawn Boy ........................................................ 53
2010s: Of Monsters & Men ................................................... 55

Learn To Play:
Elvis
W
e wanted to do something a little Rockabilly this
week, it always seems right at this time of year, and
what better song than Elvis’ version of ‘Lawdy Miss
Clawdy’ to get your fingers moving?
OK, maybe lots of things, but you get what you are given at your
Granny’s house.

Learn To Play:
Galaxie 500 (Again)
G
alaxie 500 are just about the most popular ‘lesson’
we’ve ever had in 4.52am, and whilst there aren’t many
other lessons for us to ‘curate’ we did find this one and
thought we should share with the group.
There is going to be a snowstorm, after all.

Who Killed Nancy
Johnson?
W
ith the new year among us, we really wanted to find
an exciting new band to grace our first cover of 2018,
and hearing ‘Dark Horse’ the new single from the
rather cool ‘Who Killed Nancy Johnson?’ we knew immediately
that we had found them.
Sparing no horses, we jumped in and had a chat with the band’s
guitarist, Pete Moulton. Here is how it went,
Can you tell us how you all got together?
“Explaining how we all met isn't easy, as the band morphed out
of a previous band. All four of us in it now answered an advert at
some point, over a period of a couple of years. I joined early
2016 so the singer and I are now the oldest members. We
changed drummers in 2016, and our bassist has been with us a
couple of weeks - we found him through Join My Band.”

Would you briefly tell us about each of the band members?
“Stefan Ball is the vocalist. He also sings for The Bronsons. Mark
Wren is the drummer, and Julien Bruinaud is our new bassist.
He's French - this is his first UK band. I play guitar - my main
previous band was back in Weston, called The Self-Inflicted.”
When and where did you meet?
“Rehearsal rooms! - we rehearse in and around Reading, so for
all of us the first encounter with the rest was when we came
along to try out for the band. I guess I met Stefan about a year
and a half ago? - that was about six months after Who Killed
Nancy Johnson? started gigging under that name. The drummer
at that time was Nathan Haynes and Paul Anthony was the
bassist.”
What are your influences as a band, and how does that translate
into your own sound?
“My influences when playing guitar come from different things.
I've chopped and changed a lot through the years. There is a
layer of punk rock in there, which would be taken from things
like Black Flag, The Descendents, Bad Brains, but I also have a
love of bands like Joy Division, Killing Joke and The Chameleons. I
love the energy of punk but I also like the tribalism and darkness
of the later post-punk movement.
Not sure of the influences the other guys have. Mark can drum
in pretty much any style you like. Julien was I think in metal
bands in France. Stefan is into garage rock and punk and writes
dark lyrics. All of that comes together somehow.”

Can you describe your sound?
“We play with a real punk rock energy, especially live, and often
play on the punk rock circuit, but as I say we have that darker
sound so we often class ourselves as more post-punk.
Something's been missing from punk since it went pop. We're
going to drag it back into the depths, where it belongs. So I guess
it's load of energy, plus a layer of complexity, that makes the
sound.”
How about your fans, what are they like?”
“Invisible! - but seriously, it's a challenge getting people along to
gigs. The good things are that Facebook follows have tripled over
the last year - and we're doing a lot more with social media,
videos and so on to try to pull people in - plus every time we play
live we pick up a few people who want to see us again, so it's
building. “
When did you start gigging - what was your first gig like?
“I've been gigging with Who Killed Nancy Johnson? for a year or
so. The first one was in Reading, where we're based. It was my
first time back on stage in about four years, and it was good to
blow some cobwebs away.”
Tell us about the best gigs you’ve been part of and how you
enjoyed them?
“We got to play with Vice Squad last year, which was ace. We
were invited to Italy as well where we supported The
Chromosomes on their album release, and we played a few
times with Hawaii Zombies, another Italian band.

All those gigs were special, the crowd was really having fun. My
favourite gig of last year though was playing with The
Terrorsaurs in Oxford for Musicians Against Homelessness. The
crowd were really up for it - we had a stage invasion, which we
loved! - and a load of money was made for a good cause.”
Tell us about the first thing you recorded?
“The first time I recorded was when I was 21. It was at the
Whitehouse Studio in Weston super Mare, which was quite well
known at the time for noise records. A lot of the Earache bands
and such like recorded there. It's an analogue reel to reel studio.
The engineer there, Martin, has been there for 30 years, and
he's a hard man to please. Made me play the riffs over and over
again. And then because it was analogue, I had to record it all
over again to thicken the sound.
I first recorded with WKNJ? just over a year ago - that was the
first time the band had been in a studio. We used the same place
we recorded the current single. We recorded four songs, and
recorded them all in one day, and that became our first EP, Cops
and Robbers, which we put out in January 2017.”
Was it what you expected? -and what would you change now?
“The problem with the first WKNJ? recording was we didn't go in
with everyone on the same page. We didn't all have the same
idea about how we wanted the finished recording to sound, and
I think that compromised it. That said, Cops and Robbers got a
good reception and a fair few radio plays - one reviewer put it at
second place in his list of best EPs of the year! - but we weren't
totally happy with it. It sounded a bit too clean, a bit too
polished.”

How has recording the new single compared?
“For Dark Horse and the other new tracks, I think this time we
were all on the same page. We discussed what we wanted from
the recording before we went in - which comes down to a sound
more like what we have live, grittier and more in your face. The
single and the new EP when it comes out are much more what
we wanted in terms of sound.”
How did you find working with the producer?
“Our producer Al Hislop is ace. It wasn't how he usually worked,
but once we explained what we wanted, he got on board with it
and helped us get the live feel. We got a real live wire sound on
the guitar for sure.”
What was the recording set-up?
“It was recorded with the bass, guitars and drums playing
together live. I like it like that. The band is about live energy, and
there's only one way to get that across. I even stand up and
prowl with the guitar to try and get that live attack into the
recording. I think we did that this time. Stefan went in and did
the vocal later, and then we did backing vocals just before the
mix. I do the shoutier backing vocals and I tried to get the shouts
out as if we were live, to get that venom in there. We had to
redo the bass in the end just before mixing because the bassist
left the band - but fortunately that didn't compromise the live
sound.

Probably the real difference in sound though was the mix. We
were very clear what we wanted, which was to keep the guitar
right up front. We lived with an intitial mix for a couple of weeks,
then did some tweaks. All the tracks were mastered by Al, but as
an experiment we sent the single away for mastering separately
by a specialist mastering engineer called Pete Maher, who does
work for major labels but is a big supporter of independent
bands. When it came back it sounded great - but there was a fag
paper's difference to be honest between Pete Maher's and Al's
masters of the tracks, which shows what a good job Al had
done.“
What is next for the band - can we expect an album?
“I would love to write an album. I think with eight or more tracks
we could show more sides to us. Its about finding the time to get
the tracks written to a point we think they are as good as we can
get them.
So for the moment it's a new EP, Flat Earth Theory, which will be
out on all the streaming and download sites about four to six
weeks after the single. We'll probably look at recording again
towards the end of this year, and what comes out of that
depends how much new material we have.”
Thinking about your approach to songwriting, what comes first -
words or music?
“Usually we start with the music, and that mostly comes from a
guitar riff. We try and build a feel for it as a band, with some
form of melody and a drum pattern, an idea of what the verse
and chorus might be. Stefan then goes away and constructs the
song and adds the words. Then we put a few thrills and spills on
it.”

How did you learn to write a song?
“For my part I studied a few songs I learnt to play and worked
out how they sat with the scales I'd learnt, and how that fitted in
with keys. I studied things like the opening lead break to Voodoo
Child and how it fitted into the scale. One day it all clicked, and I
was able to write my own licks, and knew how to fit them into a
chord progression that made sense to sing in”.
Which song are you proudest of being involved in writing?
“Strangely the one I'm proudest of is the new single, Dark Horse.
The opening lick, the chorus and the solo just showcase
everything I want in a song. Energy, aggression, with a dark
underbelly. “
These days you can record a song at home and have it
distributed and heard around the world in no time at all - what
do you think are the good and bad parts of the ways things have
changed?
“I think it’s great in a way. You can write a riff and bounce it over
to the others for them to listen. Stick a drum loop on it, cut it up
and lay vocal on it. I used to write stuff, and a week later
completely forget how the thing went. And I still get annoyed
when I think of some of the great pieces I have written, that
never got recorded, and have been lost for good.

In terms of finished recordings, the best thing about the way
things are now is that it's accessible to anybody. You don't need
record companies, managers and all that stuff - you can just put
it out there. I guess that might lead to a worry about the quality
going down, but you only have to listen to new music to know
there is a lot of great stuff out there and a lot of it is selfproduced
and self-released.”
Collaborations - have you done any, would you like to - and if so,
who with?
“We've talked about having guest appearance in live shows, for
example - get someone on to sing a song or two with us, that
kind of thing. The problem is logistics - the people we'd like to
invite, like Minki from 50ft Woman - aren't based where we are,
so it's about getting everything aligned. I'm sure we'd be happy
to collaborate on a recording as well - we'll have to think about
that for the next one. “
In terms of your guitar gear, can you talk us through it?
“I play an 80s black Les Paul Studio. I did have a few guitars
before I got hold of this, mainly a Gordon Smith GS-1, but once i
got the Les Paul I couldn't handle the lack of sustain I got from
my other guitars, so I cleared out the lot. I plug it into an old
Peavey Duel 212 I have had for 20 years. The amp was designed
to sit between the Classic 50 and the 5150, so it's quality. When I
bought it I intended to just use the clean channel, but the dirt
channel was the sound I was after, so I just use amp distortion
now. It sounds great with the guitar - I play with the bright
switch on, and the treble pumped up. It sustains all day, but with
a shrill to it.

I had a bunch of pedals that I used to use. I like old 80s Ibanez
pedals, and have a killer compressor, and an ace flanger. I have a
modern #1 Echo that I'm fond of. At the moment I'm not gigging
with any of them, though, because I haven't seen a use for them
in any of the current material. Ever since reading an interview
with Angus Young I've avoided over-complicating the sound. I
don't think you can beat a big slab of wood going into a powerful
tube amp for pure tone.”
Any dream guitars you would like?
“Not so much dream guitars, although I would obviously like a
nice 70s Standard over my Studio. I would like to try a Music
Man Axis Super Sport, to see if it lives up to the hype, but it
would have to be pretty special to dislodge the Gibson. I have
never got past the disappointment of playing a White Falcon,
and wondering how anyone got a tune out of it. As for amps, I
would love an old Burman, or a Mesa Twin would be nice. I could
list a few amps I'd like to own.”
‘Dark Horse’ is now available and it is a top song – well worth
checking out.
You can find out more about Who Killed Nancy Johnson?, here:
www.wknancyj.com

Chris Carter
I
may have mentioned once or thrice that Throbbing Gristle
were one of my favourite bands, so it is with some
excitement that I read that the band’s Chris Carter is
releasing a new album, his first solo release for 17 years, on the
20 th of March.
The album is to be titled, ‘Chemistry Lessons Volume One’ and
uses insistent melodic patterns and a sense of wonder at the
limitless of science as a basis Talking about the album, Chris had
this to say,
“If there’s an influence on the album, it’s definitely ‘60s
radiophonic,” Carter says. “Over the last few years I’ve also been
listening to old English folk music, almost like a guilty pleasure,
and so some of tracks on the album hark back to an almost
ingrained DNA we have for those kinds of melodies. They’re not
dissimilar to nursery rhymes in some ways.”

The album features ‘other worldly’ voices as Carter explains,
“Sleazy and I had worked together on ways of developing a sort
of artificial singing using software and hardware. This was me
trying to take it a step further. I've taken lyrics, my own voice or
people's voices from a collection that I'd put together with
Sleazy, and I’ve chopped them up and done all sorts of weird
things with them.” These moments sit alongside tracks where
melodies have a dissonant, noisy, awkwardness that ties the
music on CCCL Volume 1 back to the Throbbing Gristle legacy.
As a founding member of Throbbing Gristle alongside Cosey
Fanni Tutti, Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson and Genesis Breyer P-
Orridge, Chris Carter has had a significant role in the
development of electronic music - a journey which has
continued through his releases as one half of Chris & Cosey and
Carter Tutti and a third of Carter Tutti Void - as well as with his
own solo and collaborative releases.
He is also credited with the invention and production of
groundbreaking electronics - from the legendary Gristleizer
home-soldered effects unit through to the Dirty Carter
Experimental Sound Generating Instrument and the sold-out TG
One Eurorack module designed with Tiptop Audio (issued to
commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Throbbing Gristle’s
Second Annual Report) - Carter has created the means to make
sounds as well as making the sounds themselves.
The 25-track album was recorded in Carter’s own Norfolk studio
and the artwork and accompanying videos were self-created,
taking cues in part from battered old experimental BBC
broadcast LPs.

Despite having been worked on over an extended period
between various artistic projects in a variety of different moods,
situations and circumstances, CCCL Volume 1’s experiments
never feel like Carter noodling around aimlessly in his studiolaboratory.
Instead there is an inner coherence and a
distinctively Chris Carter approach to sound and execution that
showcases the sonic scientist’s restless, questing creative spirit
forever scouting for new ideas.
You can pre-order the Album HERE
The first single to be released from the album is ‘Blissters’, which
you can see HERE

Ezra Furman
9
th of February sees the release of ‘Transangelic Exodus’
the new album from singer songwriter Ezra Furman. To
celebrate the impending, Ezra has released a wonderful
new single in the shape of ‘Suck The Blood From My Wound’
which is, as Ezra explain,
"It's a song with enough situational detail and imagery that it
could be adapted into a film or a novel. Not that it necessarily
should be. It started with me writing a whole album about me
and my illegal transangelic hospital-escapee partner running
from a hostile government. All of my deepest concerns as an
artist whirling into a bizarre dream of perpetual narrow escape."
The album itself, we will cover more fully in a couple of weeks,
but it is something quite special in its intensity and covers an
incredible amount of distance whilst somehow remaining
entirely cohesive.

Talking about the album, Ezra continues,
“(It is) Not a concept record, but almost a novel, or a cluster of
stories on a theme, a combination of fiction and a half-true
memoir, a personal companion for a paranoid road trip. A queer
outlaw saga.”
The music is as much of an intense, dramatic event, full of
brilliant hooks, with an equally evolved approach to recorded
sound to match Furman’s narrative vision. In honour of this shift,
his backing band has been newly christened: The Boy-Friends are
dead, long live The Visions. In other words, the man who
embodies the title of his last album ‘Perpetual Motion People’ is
still on the move… Or, in the vernacular of the new album, on
the run.
“The narrative thread,” Furman declares, “is I’m in love with an
angel, and a government is after us, and we have to leave home
because angels are illegal, as is harbouring angels. The term
‘transangelic’ refers to the fact people become angels because
they grow wings. The have an operation, and they’re
transformed. And it causes panic because some people think it’s
contagious, or it should just be outlawed.”
“The album still works without the back story, though,” he
vouches. “What’s essential is the mood - paranoid, authoritarian,
the way certain people are stigmatised. It’s a theme in American
life right now, and other so-called democracies.”

Ezra has also announced news of a number of UK live dates for
May 2018, including his biggest London headline show to date at
Brixton Academy… Dates/info below:
Saturday 3rd February – LEEDS – Brudenell Social Club
Sunday 4th February – LIVERPOOL – Arts Club
Saturday 10th February – FOLKESTONE – Quarterhouse
Wednesday 23rd May – LONDON – O2 Brixton Academy
Thursday 24th May – BRISTOL – Colston Hall
Sunday 27th May – MANCHESTER – Albert Hall
Monday 28th May – GLASGOW – O2 ABC Glasgow
Tuesday 29th May – DUBLIN – Tivoli Theatre
Find Out More:
Facebook Twitter Pre-Order

La Contessa Presents…
T
his week sees La Contessa widening the scope, with a
beautiful song from Fairport Convention, the rather cool
Pilot, the surprisingly groovy Maisonettes, the cornflake
girl herself, Tori Amos, the be-hatted Badly Drawn Boy before
finishing with Of Monsters and Men.
You couldn’t make it up.
Enjoy!

1960s: Fairport
Convention

1970s: Pilot

1980s: The
Maisonettes

1990s: Tori Amos

2000s: Badly Drawn
Boy

2010s: Of Monsters &
Men