News

Mar 08 2018

RECORD STORE DAY 2018: Spirit Level on Vinyl!

SPIRIT LEVEL ON VINYL!!!

As Record Store Day approaches we are excited to announce the imminent re-release on clear vinyl of Marty’s 1992 album SPIRIT LEVEL through SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS out of North Carolina.

Only previously available on CD and long deleted, the album comes with a gatefold sleeve and features lyrics and photographs taken from the original artwork (Photos by Håkan Lindell).

This super limited release of 500 copies can only be purchased at participating stores on April 21st, 2018 and only in the USA.

Stores listed here: http://recordstoreday.com/Stores
http://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/9948

Spirit Level:

I Can’t Cry
Will I Start To Bleed
Turn Away To The Stars
Luscious Ghost
Scandinavian Stare
Can’t Ever Risk An Openness With You
Even Though You Are My Friend
Adelle Yvonne
The Saddest House In Stockholm
Kiss You To Death
Melts My Heart

“SPIRIT LEVEL was recorded at Dream Machine Studio in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early nineties with trusty friend, Noctorum collaborator and producer Dare Mason. On the previous album Rhyme we took the tape recorder into a room, unpacked it and set it up as a temporary creative space. This time we went into a proper studio and were grateful for having a sofa and a kettle.”

“We befriended Stockholmer Anders Hernestam who plays drums with two of Sweden’s most well-known acts, Thåström and Weeping Willows. Anders also played with the more recent MOAT project (the collaboration with German-Swede Niko Röhlcke). Recently relocated, now Swedish resident, American ex-pat Michael Blair who had played with Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Tom Waits also contributed drums along with bass sessioneer Matts Alsberg on I Can’t Cry. Other Swedish luminaries appear throughout the album, including Mats Ronnerstam on the rest of the bass and Martin Rössel on slide guitar on Even Though You Are My Friend.”

SPIRIT LEVEL is a more organic album than its predecessor and includes the atmospheric Scandinavian Stare, fan-favourite Luscious Ghost and the aforementioned I Can’t Cry (covered by the high-cheek-boned Charlie Sexton, presently Bob Dylan’s long time guitarist). A French setting for Adelle Yvonne and the gentle catharsis of Will I Start To Bleed, back to Scandinavia for The Saddest House In Stockholm and to warmer climes and the River Nile for Melts My Heart with its hypnotic primitive beat, exemplifying an eerie yet accessible beauty that pervades all of the songs on this captivating album.

Jan 20 2018

Texas Music Weekend

After a beautiful interactive night in Jackson, Mississippi, we are heading to Texas again for a weekend of poetry, laughter, In Deep Music Archive’s latest vinyl additions discussed, deep conversations and loads of music. If you missed out on tickets for the DALLAS show, come join us on Thursday, 25 January for an EXLUSIVE GET TOGETHER!

Texas Schedule:

Feb 25 – Exclusive GET TOGETHER, DALLAS (See below!)
Feb 26 – PLEASANTRY LANE STUDIO, DALLAS (Sold Out!)
Feb 27 – BARRACUDA, AUSTIN (Tickets.)

EXCLUSIVE GET TOGETHER IN DALLAS – here’s what’s in store for the night:

Songwriting & Guitar Guidance – Feel free to bring your guitar!
An in-depth Q & A retrospective of Marty’s career in music conducted by Bucks Burnett (with audience questions as well!)
Songs performed live that will not be included in the next night’s performance as well as Marty’s stories behind some of these songs
Three song preview of Noctorum’s fourth album with MWP and Dare Mason
A 14 Records display of MWP/Church archival items for sale
Marty will also be available to sign all of your MWP items from your collection
Photos, conversation and meet and greet with Marty

Ticket & Event Info: bucks1414@mac.com

Marty Willson-Piper in Dallas

Jan 14 2018

The Willson-Piper’s @STEVE’S in Jackson, Mississippi – 13 Jan 2018

BY MICAH SMITH. Marty Willson-Piper sat in a booth at the back of Steve’s Deli in downtown Jackson, lifting a finger to trace a line between the records on the wall.

He owns many of them, which is not all that surprising. As the founder of the In Deep Music Archive, he has collected more than 40,000 entries in different formats, including vinyl, laser disc, cassette and reel-to-reel tape.

“The thing about it is I really have no problem listening to the Carpenters, followed by Black Sabbath, followed by, you know, FKA Twigs,” he says. “I just have always liked the idea of eclecticism in music.”

That passion for variety in music has permeated Willson-Piper’s own career as a performer and artist. Many people will remember him as the guitarist for Australian rock band The Church in the 1980s and English alternative group All About Eve throughout the 1990s. However, plenty of his fans have latched on not to his past successes but his current creative streak.

Today, Willson-Piper splits his time between five projects. In addition to duo shows with his wife and violinist, Olivia Willson-Piper, he is active with Swedish progressive-rock act Anekdoten; Noctorum, a collaboration with friend of 50 years, Dare Mason; and a collaboration with Swedish songwriter Niko Röhlcke called MOAT. He also records with husband-and-wife duo Atlantaeum Flood.

He is currently in the process of working on a fourth album with Noctorum and the second MOAT album, both of which are scheduled for release in October of this year.

“The glue is the eclecticism,” he says of the different projects. “I don’t want to jump straight into The Beatles, but jumping straight into The Beatles, I love all of them—all their songs, all their voices, all their styles, all their albums, all their eclecticism, all the silly stuff, all the dark stuff. The eclecticism of it is the appeal.”

Whether it is a spiritual connection to the lyrics, the rhythm or even the look of the artist, the point is to have the music move you in some form or fashion, he says. That is something that he also tries to pass on to others. When not on tour, Willson-Piper teaches music lessons online. Rather than focusing on music theory, scales or cover tunes, he tries to help his students develop their love of creating music.

“When I first do a lot of these sessions, when I start getting involved with people, the first thing I say is, ‘Well, we have to have a Skype session to figure out how I can help,’” he says. “Usually, at the end of that session, I say, ‘And by the way, before we start, I want you to go away, and I want you to listen to Al Green’s greatest hits,’ because that’s where it’s at.”

It doesn’t matter whether someone thinks the lyrics are overly romantic or sentimental for their tastes, he says. It is about taking a moment to recognize just how powerful music is and what it can achieve.

Marty and Olivia Willson-Piper in Jackson, Mississippi – Photo: Kirk Giessinger

“You write a song, and there’s nothing happening. There’s nothing in the room. The room is empty. There’s furniture, there’s a breathing creature called a human, and there’s an instrument there, which has got strings and wood,” Willson-Piper says. “You pick it up, and you can write something. Then, in a year, when it has been recorded and released, it can be 20 million people’s favorite emotional mood-enhancing creation. People can be crying because of it. That’s amazing. It didn’t even exist, and it can drive people to ecstasy and bliss!”

What brought Willson-Piper and his wife to Jackson on a Friday afternoon was not a show at a big local venue, a music lesson or a record excursion, but rather an intimate performance in honor of a friend and former student’s birthday.

William Buras, a former Jackson resident now living in Houston, first met Willson-Piper while studying at the University of London. He learned that the singer-songwriter, who was based in Cornwall, England, did lessons and asked if they could arrange them in person. Despite being six hours away, Buras began taking lessons with Willson-Piper, and when his 50th birthday was approaching, Buras made plans to bring his teacher to the U.S. for shows in Houston and Jackson.

Willson-Piper and his wife will perform tomorrow, Jan. 13, for a sold-out crowd at Steve’s Deli, with all of the proceeds going toward the In Deep Music Archive. For more information, visit martywillson-piper.com.

“Many thanks to William, Denny, Steve Long, and all others who helped get Marty and Olivia to Jackson. Marty and Olivia played beautiful music that was punctuated by Marty sharing stories, reading poetry, and enthusiastically showing us a very small part of his vast and still growing music collection (check out his archive project indeepmusicarchive.net). The man is a walking encyclopedia of all things music and plays the heck out of a 12-string. His wife, Olivia, can play the strings off of a fiddle, too.” (Kirk Giessinger)

Jan 09 2018

Impromptu Tucson-Piper

So we spontaneously played in Tucson on 7th January 2018:

“In their heyday, with chart topping hits like “Metropolis” and “Under the Milky Way,” Australian neo-psychedelic/dream poppers The Church became a staple during the MTV Era of the 1980s into the early ‘90s (when MTV actually played music videos back-to-back). Saturday, a small gathering of devotees were privileged to a rarified event. An intimate performance by Marty Willson-Piper (co-founding member of The Church) accompanied by his lovely bride Olivia Willson-Piper on violin. The newlyweds, on a cross country trek, made a stop in The Old Pueblo. The venue: The inviting living room of close friends. I must say, in this context, to hear Willson-Piper’s rich, resonant voice sing “Spark,” a song that he penned off of Starfish (Arista, 1988), while slashing away on twelve-string acoustic guitar was just too much to bear. Overstimulated neurotransmitters flooded my brain with epinephrine, unable to fully process the surreality and sheer awesomeness of the moment, resulting in a Cheshire cat grin that remained affixed long after the final chord rang out.” (Xavier Omar Otero)

“Truth is indeed stranger than fiction in this strange world of ours. Sometimes the impossible happens. Sometimes, unexpected treasures do, indeed land on your doorstep (literally).
Last Saturday evening, we were visited and charmed by a travelling minstrel and his beautiful bride. What followed was a night of enchantment, melody and magic that I will never forget. Thank you Marty and Olivia Willson-Piper for filling our home with your very special brand of ethereal, spellbinding, mellifluous wonder. It was as beautiful as it was surreal.
To have followed the career of such an exceptional musician and to have held him in such high regard for so many decades, to watching in awe as he painted the air with mesmerizing, haunting melodies and poetry in the comfort of my own home, was a full circle, very personal experience for me.
I met Marty the first time at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater backstage, after The Church (on their “Heyday” tour) had just opened for Echo & the Bunnymen. In those moments just after their performance, they informed my band at the time (Rex Estelle, Paul “Arki” Wolfe), that the following night they would be playing in our home town of Tucson at a place called “Nemo’s” (they meant Nino’s). Knowing that the boys would be in shock transitioning from a concert performance to nearly 50,000 people to a sardine can-sized watering hole that barely held 75 people with the assistance of a crowbar, we decided to jump in the car, fuel up and race back home to the Old Pueblo to meet them there to assist and show them around town (I was living in the Valley at that time with The Watch). We arrived at their sound check the following day at Nino’s, took them to lunch at the Blue Willow then shopping at Aardvark’s before their show, where Marty purchased the famous captains jacket he wore in the “Under the Milkyway” video. Thirty years later, he spent the evening at my house, delighting us all in my very living room.
It’s not every day that we are given the opportunity to meet and spend quality time with our heroes. You will always be my favorite guitarist of all time, Marty. Your violin was heavenly, Olivia Willson-Piper. Congratulations to you both. I wish you both much prosperity and bliss!” (Dennis “Spyder” Rhodes)

Dec 21 2017

US Winter Tour 2018

Welcome to the new website, we have lots of announcements to make but the first thing we’d like to announce are US dates that will see us visiting the coasts and Texas with a merry band of minstrels that will include Hannah Moorhead on bass and vocals, Don Piper on guitar and vocals and Olivia Willson-Piper-to-be on violin, cellolin and vocals. Our special guest on all dates will be Edward Rogers, although Austin will be just Olivia and I. Ex Spacehog drummer Jonny Cragg will join us in Seattle and Portland and we hope for other skin beaters and shakers at other shows.

This might also be an opportune moment to announce that Olivia and I will be getting married in Las Vegas tomorrow (on the 22nd December)!

We have a new mailing list and we will be sending out messages as events come to fruition. You can sign up to our mailing list on my new website martywillson-piper.com or via the indeepmusicarchive.net website. If you don’t want these notifications simply unsubscribe at your leisure.

With two new albums on the way through Schoolkids Records in 2018, that is Noctorum 4 with Dare Mason and MOAT 2 with Niko Röhlcke and another surprise release pending, we are looking forward to seeing you out there on the road at the beginning of the year. Also my involvement with Swedish Progressive band Anekdoten continues with dates already announced in Europe in 2018.

The Songwriting & Guitar Guidance sessions will be continuing into 2018 and feel free to contact me (mwpindeepmusicarchive@gmail.com) or Olivia (olivia@martywillson-piper.com) if you are interested in taking part.

They are a great last minute Christmas present!

I haven’t been able to write about music lately with travelling and with recording being a priority. If you miss reading about treasures from the collection – The In Deep Music Archive is in the steady hands of serial blogger Aram Delgado.

Happy Holidays to all and hope to see you next year!

MWP

US 2018 Gigs:

Jan 13 – Steve’s, Jackson, MS (without Edward Rogers) (SOLD OUT!)

Jan 25 – Meet & Greet at Pleasantry Lane Studio, Dallas, TX

Jan 26 – Pleasantry Lane Studio, Dallas, TX (without Edward Rogers) (SOLD OUT!)

Jan 27 – Barracuda, Austin, TX (without Edward Rogers)

Feb 08 – Highline, Seattle, WA

Feb 10 – Jack London Revue, Portland, OR

Feb 11 – Genghis Cohen, Los Angeles, CA (SOLD OUT!)

Feb 12 – Genghis Cohen, Los Angeles, CA (SOLD OUT!)

Feb 13 – Hotel Utah, San Francisco, CA

Feb 17 – Stage On Herr, Harrisburg, PA

Feb 18 – Get Hip Headquarters, Pittsburgh, PA

Feb 20 – World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA

Feb 22 – The Cutting Room, New York, NY

Feb 23 – Colony, Woodstock, NY