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 While classmates spent time tuned in to Metallica or Britney Spears, Knowles “was more into the vintage music.” So were his eventual bandmates. “Ross initially liked indie rock, though he’s really into blues now, and Adam has wide tastes; he likes Jeff Buckley and things like that.” Nor has Knowles pigeon-holed himself; if blues is his bailiwick, he’s also inspired by “English folk music, like Bert Jansch and [Jansch’s Pentangle guitar partner] John Renbourn” and classic soul singers (“Marvin Gaye and especially Ray Charles, who is just incredible and irreplaceable”).
All these elements come into play on ROLL AWAY, which was recorded at DAM Studios in Douglas, the principal city on the Isle of Man, with producer Dave Armstrong (whose credits include fellow Manx music export and renowned songbird Christine Collister). It’s an impressive set, full of stirring blues, bruising rockers and affecting minor-key ballads, that marks Back Door Slam’s as one of the year’s most stunning arrivals “We wanted to make the record as raw as we could,” Knowles says. “Not too many overdubs. We tried our best to get a real live sound.
“We recorded the album on and off over the course of a year, as we were also doing gigs across the U.K., and in France. Some of the songs we’ve had kicking around for a year or more, so this album sort of provided ‘closure’ for a lot of the things we didn’t have a chance to record earlier.”
Among such songs is “Too Late,” whose arrangement alternates between a sparse acoustic-guitar sound and full-blown band dynamics. “That was the first proper song I wrote,” Knowles says with a laugh. “I was on holiday with my parents and didn’t have a guitar for two weeks, so I made friends with this French gypsy guy who hung out at the restaurant we ate at. He lent me his guitar, and I wrote that song.” Of more recent vintage is the somewhat folk-bluesy title track, which shares a similar genesis. “It’s the first song I wrote without a guitar,” Knowles adds. “I was out on a dog walk, and I just got the melody and all the lyrics. Then, I had to put the guitar to it when I got home.”
“Roll Away” addresses the dilemma, he says, of living in such a desirable but off-the-beaten-path locale as the Isle of Man (“Roll away/Maybe I’ll return to this island some day”): “It’s a beautiful place and so nice, but it’s also small and insular in its thinking in a way. I feel lucky to have grown up there, but you can’t forget there’s also a world out there beyond it.”
Other highlights of the program are the tough-riffed “Outside Woman Blues” (the album’s one track not written by Knowles), “Come Home” (“an older one, kind of my first attempt to write a big electric blues”) and “Heavy on My Mind,” which suggests the muscular amplified style of Albert King. “That’s a funny one, actually,” says Knowles. “We were staying at our manager’s house, and it was the creepiest house, with a graveyard and an old battlefield next to it. The line ‘My mind is playing tricks on me,’ came from walking around that house. You know how [in a spooky place] you know there’s nothing there, but you keep looking behind yourself anyway to see if someone’s following you? It was like that.”
“Stay” addresses a more serious subject: the death of Back Door Slam’s rhythm guitarist, Brian Garvey, and another friend, in a car accident in 2004. “It just devastated us,” Knowles recalls. “It took a long time to come to terms with that. Writing ‘Stay’ was a kind of therapy for us.”
As much as the band enjoyed recording its debut long-player, playing live is “definitely where it’s at,” says Knowles. “It’s all I ever wanted to do: go on tour and keep playing.” Which is what Back Door Slam did throughout the spring and summer of 2007. On their Austin stop at SXSW, the musicians ran into a fellow artist with Isle of Man connections. “We got to meet Pete Townshend,” Knowles enthuses. “He was really nice and took time to speak with us. He went to school on the Isle of Man for a bit, and I think he’s still got relatives there.”
The hook-up with the Who man further underscores just how far the young trio has come in such a short time. At the end of May, Back Door Slam performed on the same bill with The Who, as featured guests at the Isle’s first annual Peel Bay Festival. It’s not at all unlikely that their performance on that stage, and on the 11 tracks that comprise the ROLL AWAY album, will wind up affecting music fans just as deeply as “Sultans of Swing” touched Davy Knowles. A tradition continues.
Official Website:
www.backdoorslam.com
MySpace:
www.myspace.com/backdoorslam
Click Here To Order Your Copy
Tour Dates – Support Slots with Rusted Root
July 7th Aggie Theater Fort Collins, COLORADO
July 8th Ogden Theater Denver, COLORADO
July 9th Belly Up Aspen, COLORADO
July 11th Marquee Theater Tempe, ARIZONA
July 12th House of Blues San Diego, CALIFORNIA
July 13th Hard Rock Hotel &Casino Las Vegas, NEVADA
July 14th House of Blues Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA
July 16th The Depot Salt Lake City, UTAH
July 17th Fox Theater Boulder, COLORADO
July 19th Voodoo at Harrah’s N. Kansas City, MISSOURI
July 20th Old St Pat’s Church Block Party Chicago, Illinois
Provided by The Student Zone (United States)
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