Simon Davies was the bass player in Steve Diggle’s Buzzcocks FOC along with underrated melodic Manchester kings THE HIGH who released the timeless album Somewhere Soon along with hit singles Box Set Go, Take Your Time, Up and Down and More… . After the stretch of over 30 years away from the music spotlight he has released an album of exquisite beauty under the guise of Davies. Gigslutz spoke with Simon to exclusively discuss the process for releasing new material:

Hi Simon, we know you best from your days playing bass guitar with Buzzcocks FOC and Manchester’s melodic underrated kings THE HIGH, but we now find you’ve created fabulous new music of your own. What inspired you to create new music?

I’ve been writing songs since I was fifteen years old, so as long as I can pick up a guitar and pen, there’s no reason to stop.  Recording songs to release is obviously different.

When I joined my first band at school, I believed a musician should record at least three albums.  I recorded two albums with The High, but when the band imploded and I came to London, I was too busy trying to get on, to even contemplate making another record.  I always kept writing though.

Suddenly, I’m in my fifties sitting there one day thinking about that third album.  It felt like the time had finally come to make it, which is what I did.  Calling it, Better Late Than Never, would have been horribly cliched, so I decided to call it, Better Later, instead.

Have you written music since the days of THE HIGH splitting in 1992?

As I say, I wrote my first song at age fifteen.  I’ve never stopped writing.

How much material do you have? Are you a person who keeps diaries/demos of ideas or do you prefer spur of the moment creations?

I’ve got lyrics and bass lines lying around all over the place in old notebooks, on defunct computers and redundant mobile phones.  The majority won’t ever see the light of day, but I think it’s important to always write down every song idea that comes into your head.

Regarding the spur of the moment creations, in a way all my material is like that.  I’ve never been able to sit down and consciously write a song.  I envy those who can though, because I think it’s a real gift.

What name are the tracks being released under?

Davies.

Where did you record the music?

At home in Essex on a laptop (yeah, I’m an Essex boy now, lol).

How does the process of you writing and then recording your material come to fruition. Do you have a firm idea how a song should sound or are there any elements of jamming?

It’s difficult to jam alone, but as I said above, writing for me just tends to start off with the Universe dropping an idea into my head.  My arrangements are pretty standard, so I usually know quite quickly how I want the song to sound.

With that said, I always record a verse and/or chorus first then leave it a few days before listening back.  By doing this I find I can hear the additional parts I think the song needs.

What can fans expect, a stand alone single or do you have an albums worth of material?

I’m not sure there are any fans out there (!) but I’ve recorded an album called, Better Later, which is ten songs; three of them intended for single release.

Do you play all the instruments on the tracks? If so, how have you come to learn all the instruments?

I ended up playing all the guitars and MIDI keyboard instruments myself.  I did initially approach a couple of old musical acquaintances to ask if they were up for collaborating but they weren’t interested.

At that point, I couldn’t face the idea of trying to recruit musicians I didn’t know, and besides, given that I’ve always dabbled with a bit of guitar and piano (enough for writing purposes at least), the option of trying to record those parts myself was the more realistic one going forward.  I’d already been thinking about framing the project as an album of “well-mixed demos”, so in that respect, the decision didn’t seem hubristic.

Drums was much more of a compromise.  One of the reasons I’ve always loved house-music and hip-hop is, the synthetic thump of the drum machine.  But when it comes to guitar bands, I can’t imagine that kind of music without a live drummer.

I tried to recruit a drummer, and even did a few online recording sessions to see if working that way could be a realistic solution, but unfortunately it never felt right; the vibe just wasn’t there.  So in the end, with time constraints becoming a bit of a problem, the only viable option left was to try and sequence acoustic-sounding drum samples myself, which for better or worse, is what I did.

Very late on in the project there was one song (ironically probably one of the simpler ones in drumming terms) that refused to sit right with the music, so I hired a drummer in the USA called, Martin Evans, to record some simple MIDI patterns that I could edit later.  Martin’s the only other musician playing on the record aside from me.

When did you first start singing?

Fifteen years old.  I’m an OK backing vocalist but definitely not a lead-singer.  Obviously though, if you make a solo-album you’ve got to try your best and sing it.

With that said there are two tracks on there called, “Loving An Angel”, and “Why?”, that proved way beyond my ability to sing even remotely well, so I hired a couple of vocalists; Ben Pryer and Henrik Johansson, respectively.  I think they did a great job.

Can you pinpoint any specific influences on how your material sounds?

Better Later, is just a very straightforward guitar album.  In that respect you could cite every guitar band I’ve ever listened to as an influence.  It’s difficult to pinpoint specific references because I’m too close to the material, but I’m sure anyone that listens to it will hear loads of references.

In terms of the overall sound, I wanted to embrace the fact it was recorded at home on a laptop using only stock plugins.  To do that, I kept everything very simple and was fortunate enough to find a talented mix-engineer in the USA called, Will Melones, to bring it all together.  I think he did a great job of that.

Do you have any favourite tracks you’ve created?

I think the song called, “Why?”, that Henrik performed, turned out well, even though I was never able to get the drum part exactly how I’d envisaged it.  Regardless of that, the song gave me an opportunity to record the acoustic bass that my dear old mum bought me, so that was nice.

What are your plans for the material? Sole digital release or will there be a physical release of some sort?

It’ll just be a digital release.  I wouldn’t rule out a physical release, but I don’t have any plans for that at the moment.

Will you be playing any live gigs?

Unfortunately, no.  I’ve had a lot of problems with my hearing over the years, and my ears just can’t take the volume anymore.  It’s a shame, because I would have loved to play a few gigs.

Do you have plans to write and record more material?

It’s unlikely I’ll ever record a full album again, but singles and EPs; definitely.  I’m the happiest I’ve ever been with my music, but I want to improve my production skills.  If I ever feel that what I’ve recorded deserves to see the light of day, I’ll go ahead and release it.

When you look back to your time with THE HIGH what immediately springs to mind?

It was an intense period that was over quickly.  I think we wrote some good songs though.

Finally, what’s on your turn table at present?

Nazz’s first album.  I keep returning to it.

 

Davies music can also be found on Apple Music