BY PHOENIX JAY
Stetsons and spurs are hardly common sights in the British midlands, yet the post-industrial landscape of Stoke-on-Trent – more commonly associated with football hooligans – has somehow spawned this thoughtful, softly spoken country singer clad in jeans, plaid shirt and, yes, a slightly battered cowboy hat. Joe Wrigley, the 33-year-old former bass player from “now moderately successful indie band” Fists, talks quiffs, cowboy credentials and writing odes to Johnny Cash.
As a small child you were sent to your aunt for singing lessons, but she nixed the whole idea on the spot. And yet here you are. Have you considered suing?
[Laughs] I love my auntie! To be fair, I couldn’t sing – in a normal, classical sense. Over time I managed to evoke some kind of voice which ended up being quite different. The songs I like and can sing happen to be country songs, because they lend themselves to a thin, nasally voice: Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Johnny Cash. I wrote a song about Johnny Cash, that simplicity and rawness; that’s what I always wanted to sound like. I knew I could do simple, direct songs, stuff from the heart, but not flowery songs. Definitely Hank Williams.
When did you start wearing the cowboy hat? You’d get beaten up for that in your native Stoke-on-Trent, surely.
[Laughs] I did have cowboy boots and a hat when I was 18, studying in Nottingham. I dropped politics to do an HND in music. It was a war of attrition: 26 people started the course; six people finished it! But the decision to make music my mainstay didn’t happen until after I arrived in Asia. I started gigging in Thailand on Koh Samui, but there wasn’t much of a music scene there, so I Googled ‘music scene in Asia’ and up comes Phnom Penh – with a rockabilly band called Tango & Snatch, and Grass Snake Union? That sounds interesting. I came for a week and people kindly gave me gigs, just from an email, so I decided to stay. That was it! This is more than just a good place to be: it’s the reason I’m happy now.
Have you rubbed Stetsons with some of the other roots-Americana artists here yet?
I got here too late to see [the now defunct] Grass Snake Union or Tango & Snatch, but I really like Ziad [Samman] and his Two Shots & A Chaser. They’re really good. The guy who connected us is RJ Marshall, who’s very much country and sings in a country voice. They call it ‘Americana’, but it’s a postmodern mixture.
And we have The Wanderlusters here this weekend, too – 21st century hillbillies from New Orleans via Saigon, no less. The Wild West seems to be picking up and moving wholesale to Asia – and everyone loves it.
It’s because everybody recognises it, it’s fun for random people who want to see live music and it’s quite easy music to play. Same for punk; not the same for jazz. My ratio of covers to original songs is two to one, but I’m getting more originals. A lot of the covers are things people wouldn’t recognise anyway, like a Jimmy Rogers song or a Hank Williams song. I found out I can sing Buddy Holly as well, so I’m looking for people for a Buddy Holly tribute band! [Laughs] Unfortunately, though, I’ve cut all my hair off. I used to have a quiff.
Me too! Let’s talk about your original stuff.
I’m starting to learn more about where I am, so I’ve started to write about that a little bit. I’ll play you one in a sec. I wrote a song called Shiva recently, which is trying to get at some of the darkness of this place. My writing’s quite figurative; a little abstract. There is a lot of love songs, a couple of funny songs and a couple of songs that are so vague I don’t even know what they’re about yet, to be honest.
STOP! Are you really wearing a cowboy hat with a plaid shirt and white plimsolls?!
[Laughs] Where can I get cowboy boots in Cambodia?
I bet you’ve never chewed dip, either.
Sorry?
Chewing tobacco! Cowboys keep a wad of it jammed between their cheek and gum, periodically spitting on your shoes, from what I remember of my time in Oklahoma.
Umm… No.
Driven a pick-up truck? Lassoed a horse? Kept your boots on in bed? Good grief. So how would you define a 21st century cowboy?
A throwback to a more simple, direct way of being: it’s just music; nothing else for me.
And finally, where DID you get that hat?
[Laughs] I bought it in Siem Reap about six years ago for six dollars! Do you want to hear some songs? I’d never say this was a song about Cambodia, but it’s inspired by the darkness you find here… [Picks up Ovation guitar and launches into Shiva]