‘New Album’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Chris Armour. In late 2013, Chris had his prized Telecaster stolen after a night of gigging. News of his misfortune made it all the way to Boston, Massachusetts and soon after Chris received an impossibly generous gift from an acclaimed blues musician; a guitar with an uncanny likeness to his stolen Telecaster, emblazoned with the custom decal ‘Tele-Porter’. It was with this guitar that Chris wrote and recorded his debut album ‘Tele-Porter’.
When/where was the new album recorded?
Dec 11th 2016, the band went up to Whitemans Valley in Upper Hutt in a friends garage-turned studio (named ‘The Stolen Cabasa’). We recorded ‘Kira’ (track 6) at a later date (July 5th 2017 I believe) in Stokes Valley in Richard Te Ones gardening shed. This track was a last minute addition as I felt like the album needed a slower more introspective number to break up the intensity of the other tracks.
Who produced/engineered the album? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
The album was produced by me (Chris Armour) and engineered by Miklin Halstead. The tracks were loosely written and arranged by me, but only in terms of song structures, heads, key melodies and hooks etc. The idea was to capture the vibe of musicians bouncing off each other in a room together, and leave a lot of room for improvisation and spontaneity. In saying that, some tracks were more structured than others, but all had large elements of improvisation.
I was happy to let the songs evolve and change on the fly within the studio. I made a point of not giving much direction for first takes on the majority of tunes, because I feel like it is beneficial to go into a song with a completely unspoiled mind, and react to it in real time as you learn it. Why bother getting a group of musicians with great creative and musical instincts to play on your album if you aren’t going to let them explore and experiment? This led to some really interesting moments being captured. In the case of a few songs, it also changed their feel completely (e.g. someone would play a feel or a figure that would suggest a different treatment or a re-imagining of the song)
How did the songwriting happen? Are there any overall themes within the songs/album?
In a number of ways. Sometimes I would stumble upon a mistake that would lead me down a path to finding a cool melody or sound, and I would sculpt a song around it. Sometimes I would be attempting to emulate the style of a particular guitarist I liked, and in the process would find something new and interesting. And as previously mentioned, some of the songs were almost entirely improvised in the studio with nothing but a simple musical head use as a starting point (sometimes not even that, in the case of ‘Kira’ I just had a chord progression and a vibe I wanted to capture). Overall themes are a certain kind of musical language – 50’s and early 60’s electric blues, soul jazz, and jump blues. There are a few other things that slip through the cracks but predominantly its about exploring that particular sound in a personal way, trying to shape my own voice within it.
Were you going for a different sound/approach on this album?
This is my debut album, and was originally just a plan to record some songs to use as a ‘business card’ of sorts to get more gigs/session work/overseas touring work but over the course of the albums creation I started seeing it as something more. It’s kind of my ode to a time and era of music that I love dearly, and that I see as my musical roots. In terms of the style of the songs and the production, it is all decidedly old school sounding, and favours minimalism, musicianship, live performance over studio wizardy or technology.
I started playing guitar because of the blues, and dug back into the history of the genre, absorbing all I could from age 15 to this day (12 years). I’ve since expanded my musical interests exponentially into other genres, but still look at the blues as my roots. This album is my way of reconciling the relationship between myself (a 27 year old from New Zealand) and a genre of music that is essentially worlds and decades away from me. As I previously stated, I was trying to see If I in fact had anything interesting to add to the musical lineage of the genre. Could I create a voice of my own within a musical language that is over 120 years old? Could I carve out a piece of it to call my own.
Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
We kept it as simple as possible. Four musicians in a room together, no headphones, playing live. We didn’t go overboard with the micing. Obviously we couldn’t take it as far as using the gear that they would’ve used to record in the 50’s – tape machines and analog gear etc. That isn’t financially possible in New Zealand.
I borrowed a specific amp from a friend (Victoria 20112) that would help get me closer to the old school tone I wanted. I borrowed a real tape delay machine for my guitar. I used lots of cool equipment that is modeled after vintage analog gear (flint strymon pedal for trem and some verb, catalinbread topanga spring reverb for some different verb). A lot of it was really just in the musical language though. I imagine Miklin (the engineer) had some tricks up his sleeve to achieve the sound we got, but I left that magic up to him.
Is there a particular single/track that you feel captures the essence of the album?
It’s tough to single out one, maybe Conchos`. I’ve been using that as a ‘single’ (for lack of a better term). Its blues but it also isn’t – it draws on the history of the music while trying to push it in a new direction. I like that
Is there a physical copy available? If not which digital platforms is it available on?
As it stands, it is currently only available on Bandcamp. It’ll be released on a bunch of other platforms a bit later on in the mix. Spotify, iTunes etc.
Are you working on a video/videos for any of the songs?
No.
“This is a terrific album by a killer band. Great grooves, imagination, touch, taste, and tone abound.”
Tom Hyslop, Music Journalist
“I’ve been watching Chris Armour grow-up as a guitarist since about 2008. His debut album Tele-Porter is a world-class instrumental Jump Blues album. Toneful, tuneful, and swinging like a bitch thanks to the chef of the shuffle, Richard Te One on drums, and Steve Moodie on bass.”
NZ blues legend Darren Watson