James Bagshaw (Temples)
Singer/guitarist James Bagshaw founded Temples with Tom Warmsley in the summer of 2012. They have received considerable press attention during their short existence and have been cited by Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher as the best new band in Britain. As you can see James also has great taste in music...
Selected releases
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The Music Machine
I heard a song of theirs, I think it was 'Talk Talk', on a pyschedelic comp about four years ago, I’d have been 20, and it just really stood out, and so I tracked down their 1966 debut "Turn On" and was just blown away by it: the raw energy of the rhythm section combined with this youthful charm, even if they weren’t particularly young, and their really sleazy guitar sounds and riffs. It was the way they had this garage punk thing going on but they were really melodic too, that made them different and got me. If I had to pick a favourite song it would be 'Trouble'.
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Dion
It was Dion’s voice that did it for me, his range, he has this really soft vocal but when he wants to shred he can sing proper soul. The music is this seamless mix of genres, you’ve got jazz and soul in there, and you can hear the inspirations but the way he combines them, it becomes something of his own, something really cool. And the musicianship, you can separate out the instruments and say just listen to the drum parts on their own and still you’d be dancing to the whole song, he makes such infectious grooves.
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The Zombies
As soon as I heard the Zombies I was just taken with them, they sounded different to me, I was used to guitar-oriented bands and they were keys-oriented with the organ and piano, they had these amazing vocal melodies, there’s no filler, every one is arranged as if they were working with horns and strings and that they had this youthful energy yet wrote so intelligently, they had these beautifully crafted pieces but they’re not metronomic but really natural and Colin Blunstone’s vocal delivery is so sincere and moving and utterly charming. You can imagine girls weeping at his soft, angelic voice. 'Goin’ Out Of My Head' is the one for me.
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Goin' Out Of My Head
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Les Paul and Mary Ford
When I first heard Les Paul, well it was the most mind-blowing thing I’d ever heard. And when I read up on his history, his use of multi-tracking, how he invented this whole way of recording, he was just amazing and the sounds he created still sound really fresh and modern today. From a guitarist’s point of view you can tell he wanted to do it all himself, so he’d arrange a horn part and then play it on the guitar making his guitar sound like a horn. And his songs, you can’t play along to them in your bedroom, they’re not just E, A and D, and then you’ve got Mary’s vocals and they are the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.
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Chet Atkins
An excuse to talk about Chet Atkins really, but because of my fascination with Gretsch guitars, I came across him time and time again and when I listened to him I couldn’t believe it was just one person playing the guitar because he’d be playing the basslines and the chords and the melody all together, it was ridiculous. And he was using slap back echo like Les Paul and it just makes his songs sound so vibrant, they twinkle. My favourite: Ochi Chornya (Dark Eyes)
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The Turtles
They’re a recent discovery, about two years ago The Moons’ keyboardist Tom Warmsley played me 'You Showed Me' while we were in his car and I was astounded. I mean the way they use the strings, they get this really grand orchestral sound, they’re so lucid, a little like a John Barry soundtrack, and then they mix this with these skanky trill guitars, they’ve got these beautiful vocal melodies, the strings, they’re amazing, I see them like the Zombies Part 2, they’re both doing similar things but in different ways. 'Elenore' is a near perfect song, it’s just incredible, also a song like 'You Don’t Have To Walk In The Rain', it’s like a boygroup being a girlgroup. They’re amazing.
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Paul Anka
I bought a 50s box set on vinyl from a charity shop, Paul Anka was singing 'Earth Angel', then I investigated some more and I developed this kinky love for him because I’m guessing his fanbase was originally made up of young females. I can listen to the backing as much as his voice, you’ve got him singing his sweet lines with these trill, borderline surfy guitars behind him and I’ve never heard a crooner like him, he’s like a schoolboy crooner with his uplifting, sincere delivery and you can tell he’s trying to pull every girl he’s singing to.
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Love Me Warm And Tender
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The Sonics
It’s the raw thing they’ve got, these disgusting guitar sounds that make your ears ring, it’s the heaviest guitar sound without being metal, and they play this noise but you can still hear every note they play and then you’ve got Gerry Roslie’s vocals, they’re angsty and aggressive, and you’ve got a song like 'Shot Down', it’s distorted and you’ve got clapping all the way through following the hi-hat and I’ve never heard that on a song before. And it sounds like they’re proper mates, they’ve gone in the room and just gone, “Lets just press record” and away they go.
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Jack Nitzsche
You’ve got this producer, arranger, songwriter, film composer who’s got such a tremendous ear and such talent who can capture every sound I’ve ever wanted to get in music. His use of tremolo and reverb on the bass, the way he records the drums with such ambience, the way he crafts things so beautifully, and you can get an instrumental like 'Lonely Surfer', it’s this massive, grand soundscape, it’s really rich and incredible sounding.
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Strawberry Alarm Clock
They’re from Glendale, California, and really embody that Summer of love feel, they are the perfect soundtrack to any psychedelic film, in fact they were in Psyche Out with Jack Nicholson, and they’re great to listen to before you go to sleep because they inspire such weird dreams with their unusual guitar sounds and erratic percussion playing. Fave song has to be 'Incense And Peppermints' of course.
