![]() ![]() PG spoke with Chapman about recording his new album, his decades-spanning career, discovering his style, and what he’s learned over the years. “I’ve got it down: It’s me, a guitar, a lead, and a packet of sandwiches. “I just keep pushing the envelope,” he says, “to see what’s out there.” These days, Chapman lives in Northumberland, just south of the Scottish border, and although he’s something of an elder statesman, he still likes to take risks. But I’ve got used to it now and I think it’s great.” It took me a while to get used to it, because it’s absolutely not the record I would’ve made. “One day I was feeling great about it and the next day I was damn near suicidal. “It was swings and roundabouts,” Chapman says. The project was very much a collaboration, but the process was sometimes frustrating. Singer/songwriter Bridget St John also vocalized on the album, which puts Chapman’s timeless acoustic and electric guitar in a contemporary musical framework. “The last five or six albums I’ve done, I done near played everything apart from the drums.” 50 features Gunn, multi-instrumentalist Nathan Bowles (Pelt, Black Twig Pickers), guitarist/keyboardist James Elkington (Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson), bassist Jimy SeiTang (Rhyton), and guitarist/bassist Jason Meagher (No-Neck Blues Band), who engineered the sessions. “One of the things we thought I should do was to give away control,” he says. It was produced by Steve Gunn and is a departure from how Chapman usually does things. His latest release is called 50 and, as the title implies, is a nod to his half-century on the road. He’s also collaborated with a disparate array of artists-or, to paraphrase his publicist, “Name another musician who has played and recorded with Mick Ronson, Elton John, and Thurston Moore.” He’s toured with a floor full of pedals and a worn Fender Bandmaster, although nowadays travels with nothing but a guitar. He’s tried everything from synths to New Age to howling feedback to ambient soundscapes. Over the years, Chapman, whose primary instrument is fingerpicked acoustic guitar, has combined his penchant for songwriting with an adventurous spirit. ![]() “But I do the English verses and he does the Hebrew verses.” ![]() “We sing the same songs,” Chapman says about the project. He has a spring tour planned, recently released an album of solo guitar improvisations, and has an English/Hebrew collaboration in the works with Israeli singer/songwriter Ehud Banai. He is still working, recording, and this year he’s celebrating his 50th anniversary as a touring musician, with almost as many albums to his credit. Legendary British radio personality John Peel called it his favorite album of that year, and its title was somewhat prophetic.īecause today, at age 76, Chapman is still at it. It was an important milestone in his career. English guitarist and songwriter Michael Chapman released his second album, Fully Qualified Survivor, in 1970, when he was still in his 20s. ![]()
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