Snowy White The Way It Is

Snowy White has had an extraordinary career over the last forty years. He has played with a diverse group of artists ranging from Peter Green through Pink Floyd,Thin Lizzy and currently as part of the Roger Waters band. he has also more importantly led his own band for almost thirty years and recorded and released many successful albums and even enjoyed a massively popular hit single with Bird of Paradise. The interview below was conducted just before he embarked on a series of his own dates and subsequently re joined the Roger Waters band.
An in depth DVD interview and documentary is available to order directly from the Gonzo website

http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/14862/Snowy_White-Introspective_.html

Snowy White:
The Way It Is

British born guitarist Snowy White (Born Terence Charles White) first became interested in music at the age of eleven when he was inspired by blues musicians Buddy Guy and B.B. King. He pursued his blues style in a number of bands however during the seventies Snowy made a reputation for himself playing numerous sessions for a wide variety of musicians such as Al Stewart, Cliff Richard and Peter Green. More famously Snowy toured as second guitarist with Pink Floyd augmenting the bands sound on the tours to promote the Animals and The Wall albums. By late 1979 however tiring of the session scene Snowy accepted the offer to join the rock band Thin Lizzy. Snowy recorded two albums with Thin Lizzy (Chinatown and Renegade) and completed a number of successful tours before deciding that the bands music and more importantly their lifestyle wasn't to his taste.

He formed his own band featuring drummer Richard Bailey and bassist Kuma Harada. With this band he recorded his first solo album entitled white Flames. A single lifted from that album (Bird Of Paradise) became a surprise hit reaching the British top ten in early 1983.

From here Snowy White recorded a number of blues based albums all of which were warmly received by the blues audience his records are aimed at.
His latest album The Way It Is was released in 2005. Jon Kirkman spoke to Snowy about his career and the new album.

Jon Kirkman
You released your most recent album The Way It Is at the end of 2005 and one of the songs featured on the album is the song Bird Of Paradise which was your debut solo hit. Why have you chosen to re record that particular song?

Snowy White
Well the basic reason why I recorded Bird of Paradise again was because I wasn’t happy with the sound on the first recording and although I liked the performance and I liked the atmosphere, I though it came out well, the actual track was recorded in a rehearsal studio and it never sounded the way I wanted it to sound. I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about it over the years and I just decided for my own peace of mind really to have another go at it and make it sound a bit more like I thought it should sound. I changed it quite a lot and it sounded ok so I decided to put it on the album. So it was really just for me.


JK
When Bird Of Paradise was first a hit in 1984 it was totally different from the sort of music people had previously associated with you having been a member of Thin Lizzy. First of all briefly tell us why you left Thin Lizzy and was it a surprise when the single was such a big hit

SW
Well the reason I left Thin Lizzy was that I was getting a bit frustrated. The reason I joined Thin Lizzy was because I thought they were a great band with good songs, Phil was a great front man. They had a good future in front of them and there was talk about giving me some space to do my thing in the band, being the sort of blues musician type but it never came about. Phil got into more and more drugs and became more difficult to work with and I just got more and more frustrated with it in the end. When it came time to start recording the third album with me I knew that when I got to the studio Phil wouldn’t be there and so I didn’t bother to go in and decided I had had enough. I didn’t see Phil again.

As for having a hit single. It was a big surprise when Bird of Paradise was a hit. When the record company wanted to put it out I didn’t really like the way it sounded; as I said I felt I could make a better job re-recording it. I agreed to have it released because they said nobody would actually hear it! So that was obviously wrong because Radio 1 started playing it and in those days Radio 1 was the place where you got your music played to get hits. It surprised me and I think it surprised the record company and everybody.


JK
I notice that Bird Of Paradise is conspicuous by its absence on the new live DVD (The Way It Is Live). Was there a reason for this?

SW
Well,I find that Bird of Paradise is not a good song to do live and I don’t actually enjoy playing it live to be honest and it is a really old song. When I have got a four piece band there aren’t enough musical instruments to give it the full sound it really deserves. There are many other songs I would prefer to play live other than Bird of Paradise. I have done it occasionally when I have had desperate requests from somebody who has travelled three hundred miles to hear it or something like so I will try it. But it is not a track that automatically pops up onto the set list when I am making them out.

JK
There are a couple of well known players on the album in addition to your regular band like Max Middleton and Rabbit Bundrick, presumably you know these guys from the numerous sessions you guys have played over the years.

SW
Yeah, Max Middleton and Rabbit, Richard Bailey on drums are my band at the moment. I have known Richard since he was fourteen years old; in fact Richard played on the first version of Bird of Paradise and all my first albums. Kuma Harada plays for me a lot – I have known him since he first arrived in England in about 1970. Walter Latupeirissa ( however is my current bass player, I have known Walter for about ten years so in fact I know and respect these guys, I love these guys. They are great musicians who play because they love playing music and we have got a good atmosphere going whenever we get together. I thoroughly enjoy being on the road with these guys, and I love the gigs we do so I think I am very lucky.


JK
Away from the album for a moment and looking at your influences many guitarists over the years have been fans of one of the 3 Kings so which if any are your favourites is it Albert, BB or Freddie King

SW
Well, Yeah, one of the first guitar players I ever heard playing blues was B.B. King and I loved it, I really loved it. I listened to Albert King and Freddie King, Otis Rush and J.B. Lenoir, all these guys. They were all great; they all influenced me. So I sort of dived into that area of blues music and I knew that was how I wanted to play. I just wanted to play that sort of thing. That was my ambition when I started playing the guitar actually, to just play blues and earn a living playing it.


JK
We’ve already mentioned your live DVD but there is a limited live CD as part of the package and there are a couple of Peter Green tracks on there and on The Way It Is you have re done Black Magic Woman. You also played on Peter's solo album of the seventies In The Skies. Do I take it Peter Green is also an influence?

SW
I have always loved Black Magic Woman which was a Peter Green Fleetwood Mac song back in about 1968. It was great and although a lot of people think that Santana is the original version of course Peter’s was. It has been one of my favourite songs since then and I have always wanted to do it and I have. A Columbian guy I know came up with an arrangement for it which to me really worked and we tried it and it sounded ok. I enjoyed it and I thought I would put it on the album. I thought it would come out very well. Peter Green is obviously a big influence on me. He was wonderful with beautiful, soulful guitar playing; it was a lovely sound – yeah, he was a big influence on me as well.



JK
Most of the album is self written so how easy or hard is it to come up with an entire albums worth of material in the modern blues genre?

SW
I don’t find it too difficult, not really. Writing music for albums is a pleasure. I have got so many ideas in my head and when I am thinking about how a song will sound I am always imagining my guys in the band playing it and interpreting it. That gives me a lot more inspiration when I think of it like that. When we get to the studio I don’t fix on it – before hand we kick it about as a band. It becomes a band song. It is a pleasure; I really enjoy having all these ideas and trying to get them down. The only frustration normally when I record albums is the fact that there are financial restrictions and that I can only spend so much money. So even though I may feel like re-recording some of it and make a better job or have a new idea quite often I can’t go that far. I have to be content with how it is at the time. It can be frustrating that but generally I am very pleased with the way things go because really it is just further steps along the road where I want to get to and I am playing great music with my band. It is all positive stuff.



JK
With your solo career stretching to over twenty years now do you have time to play any sessions anymore as you have in the past worked with the likes of AL Stewart, Pink Floyd, Peter Green and obviously more famously Thin Lizzy.

SW
I don’t do any sessions. Very occasionally I will play on a friend’s album or something but I have never been a session player. I don’t know where that came from. A session player to me is someone who can go in and play all styles of music, pick things up quickly and play other people’s music. I can’t do any of that. Nobody really asks me to do any of that any more. I am very happy doing my own career and just doing my own music.



JK
You seem to play a great many live gigs and you play a great many of those gigs in mainland Europe but where do you see your main audience. Is Europe and particularly Germany a particularly good market for you?

SW
Yeah, Europe is a good market. That is where we do most of our live stuff. I thoroughly enjoy going over there; it isn’t very far away and it is easy travelling. When I am with my band, touring around and playing gigs every night it feels like it is where I should be. I am totally content so I consider myself to be very lucky to be in this position.


JK
Aside from your recent album and DVD there is also another DVD out at the moment entitled Live From London which dates from an early period in your solo career and comparing the two it can be seen that you have been incredibly consistent throughout your career. You seem to have found exactly where you want to be and consolidated that position through sheer hard work would you agree with that.

SW
Not sure whether I have been incredibly consistent throughout my career. I am also not sure I am where I want to be. It feels like it is a journey and I don’t know where it is going to. I don’t really know what I am looking for – I know I am looking for something but I don’t know what it is. It is an endless journey and it is an exciting journey. It makes it exciting and it just goes where it will. I feel I have got a lot more travelling in me yet and I am up for whatever the future brings.


JK
Well the album is out and you also have a couple of DVDs on the market as well which kind of book end your career so what's next for Snowy White?

SW
Well Snowy White and the White Flames, our next thing is to carry on and try to do more of the same – more playing, more gigs. As I said before I have no trouble with material for albums, I have a lot more in my head for a new album when the time comes for that. In the meantime I am looking to put a lot more live work together in 2006 and getting out there and playing my guitar, playing my music. Hopefully people will enjoy it because I will and that is what I am looking forward to. That is what I do and what I hope to continue to do.

© Jon Kirkman 2006 and 2011