We sat down with Longplayer for the release of new single 'I Saw You Turning Around'. Be sure to check out the track at the bottom and follow Longplayer on socials!
Thank you for sitting down and talking to FLEX, can you tell us a bit about how you got into music?
Hello FLEX! Thank you for having me. I got into music from my mom playing Marvin Gaye and James Taylor around the house as a kid, although my becoming a musician was really all my doing. My love of the guitar got me into playing music. Ever since I can remember I would see guitars in the windows of shops and they would mesmerize me. I was born in upstate New York and I remember walking past this guitar shop in New Paltz and seeing a black Strat with a maple neck for the first time and looking at it like it was Excalibur’s sword or something, I must have been 7. I started playing at 14 years old though, I loved Johnny Ramone at that time.
Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?
I’ve always been big into the guitar heroes, not quite sure why that happened but I went from loving The Ramones into diving deeper into players like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix once I started getting better at guitar. I also just love great songwriting. Brian Wilson, Judee Sill, Bowie, Fading Yellow… I’m really into artists that can do it all, I suppose Prince would be the pinnacle of that and one of my biggest influences.
Congratulations on your brand-new single 'I Saw You Turning Around' —what inspired this particular release?
I was spending last summer throughout Southern California and was listening to George Harrison’s “Crackerbox Palace” on repeat. George is a big influence on my playing and I just loved how the slide guitar is happening the whole time but doesn’t get in the way of the vocal melody. I wanted to produce something in the style of that. I suppose it has some Mick Ronson (Bowie’s guitarist and string arranger) influence as well, melodic phrasing on all the instruments really.
How do you channel personal experiences into your songwriting, and what do you hope listeners gain from connecting with your music?
This song is actually a great example of me channeling personal experiences and putting it into the music and It doesn’t always work this way. I started writing “I Saw You Turning Around” on an acoustic guitar after spotting an ex lover after not seeing them for a while. The song is about relationships – about what could have been, moving forward, belief in yourself and the stillness to let go. I spend a lot of time writing and more often than not I’m sure it comes from a subconscious level. I hope my music connects with listeners and helps them in their day and they connect it to whatever is going on in their life at the moment, that’s what the Beatles do for me.
Each aspect of music—writing, recording, practicing, and playing live—offers something different. Can you share a particularly meaningful moment from each?
I’m always writing and my favorite part of it is the surprises. Sometimes you’ll be working on something for a while and the bridge just seems to fall out of the guitar, even when you have a clear idea of something, sometimes the song seems to come alive and take it somewhere else.
Recording is a similar thing, a lot of happy accidents happen all the time. You might happen to improvise something at the end of a take and that becomes the part of the song, or maybe you forgot to turn off the synth and it creates some arpeggio part you didn’t plan for, those are exciting.
I’ve been hanging with a lot of friends that are incredible jazz players, and they’ve really inspired me to practice in different ways. I think the most amazing thing about music is that everyone plays differently, every single person. So it’s really fun and important to me as a musician to expand and learn from other people, I try to really enjoy myself though and have fun with the music. I think that’s the most important thing. I’m also always writing and just noodling around and that’s practicing too, there’s a lot of overlap with these topics.
Playing live is where it all comes together, I actually have my first solo show in London tonight with my band Longplayer and I’m really looking forward to it. There’s nothing like playing live, it’s a completely different beast.
Is there a song in your repertoire that holds a particularly deep personal meaning for you? Can you share the story or inspiration behind it?
I really love playing “I Saw You Turning Around” it’s really easy and fun to play live because it rocks. I saw an ex lover by chance walking down the street and wrote that song about it. It’s about trusting yourself, understanding you made decisions for a reason and letting go.
What are your goals for the future with your music?
My immediate goals are to put out a couple more singles in the upcoming months and put my album out next year. I also just want to continue to write and record all the time and play as many shows as possible.
What message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from your music?
I just hope to connect with listeners the same way I connect with the people I listen to. I hope to inspire and continue to grow and improve.
To wrap things up, is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I feel very fortunate to be able to put out music and focus on the things I love to do. I suppose I’d just like to share with the readers if they love something to just go for it 100%. It’s all about the music. Thank you so much for reading.
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