Hamell on Trial – “It’s Another Era. Suck It Up. Play Live. Learn How To Make A living”

“Picture an acoustic guitar and a bald sweaty fucker with a predilection for punk”. That’s how Hamell on Trial is described on his Facebook page.  Known to friends  and family as ‘Ed’, Hamell plays fast, super-fast, punk-infused anti-folk, with big insight and attitude, on his 1937 Gibson acoustic guitar. With tastes of Iggy Pop, Ani DiFranco, Chuck Prophet, and Eminem, he champions society’s underbelly, pours scorn on our overlords, and pokes fun at all of us.

There is no grey area with Hamell when it comes to using music as a vehicle to comment, or shout, or give a voice to social issues. “For me it’s essential,” he says. “It’s what sustains my life. I named an album, (and am about to get a tattoo that reads) ‘The Chord Is Mightier Than the Sword’. Other ‘artists’ — ahem — not so much, I guess”.

Does he think there is too much protest music, or too little? His response is pretty stark: “I don’t see a lot of ‘protest’ music around, even in the folk community. It doesn’t sell and nobody wants to jeopardize their already meager salaries. Me and my big mouth can’t help it, I guess. There isn’t a bunch of relevant discussion about world issues in the arts, or popular culture, that’s done in a non-preachy way. South Park is about the best example of morality, maybe? But it’s a fine line; we don’t need any more ‘party’ anthems”.

In December past, the 2014 John Peel Lecture on “Free Music in a Capitalist Society” was delivered by non-other than Iggy Pop*. This was no party anthem, and it enthralled Hamell — a longtime Iggy Pop admirer, who is “pretty familiar with the way he (Iggy) thinks”.

Talking about “free music” during the lecture, Pop discussed the various causes and consequences of Joe Public downloading music they haven’t paid for. Hamell’s take was stoical — and funny. “Can’t stop it. It would be like the proprietor of a horse stable at the turn of the century, standing by the side of the road and screaming at cars, ‘Go away! You’re ruining my business!’ It’s another era. Suck it up. Play live. Learn how to make a living. Probably not great for musicians to get too rich, anyway. Ruins them”.

Iggy went on to say he “didn’t really want to go to school and sign up to a life time of drudgery”. Music gave him “hope to go on another path”. Hamell could see some similarities. “I saw my father coming home from work every day, seemingly miserable. I was witnessing a lot of bands which would be considered, at least on these shores, as The British Invasion, and they seemed pretty darned happy. So if, as a young man, I was weighing up my options, my father’s path didn’t seem to be particularly appealing”.

Another similarity was the musical curiosity of their teenage selves. They both worked in record shops and studied their craft there. “Of course you listen and study records”, Hammell says, “but oddly enough I liked to read about music too. I saw a lot of local musicians where I grew up. And I was lucky, as an adolescent to grow up during the ‘golden age’ of rock criticism. Guys like Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Nick Tosches, and Dave Marsh, very enlightening and influential for me”.

Iggy told us in his lecture that “this is a dream job, so dream!” Is Hamell still dreaming? “More than ever”, he says. “I really love to play. I’m very lucky in that I really enjoy every aspect of my career — the writing, the recording, the performing, the traveling etc.”

He travels a lot with his 13-year-old son Detroit. “We’ve been across the country several times and I don’t think playing out live has any appeal to him. I want to keep doing it for as long as I can, and I have to be realistic, I can’t imagine I can do it for more than another 20 years, and that saddens me”.

In his teens, Hamell was listening to mostly rock and roll, and blues. “I don’t think I was ever a ‘punk’. I was an outsider. I was very skeptical about fashion and groups and ‘belonging’. That having been said, I immediately was turned on by The Sex Pistols and then The Clash, The Ramones, Television, and especially Patti Smith, and what it was doing to my local scene. People over here hated it by and large, and I really loved that. All those old tired bands looked as stupid as they were.

“I think there is terrific ‘art’ being made these days” he continues, “some truly rebellious stuff, and the internet is the key to finding it. It’s probably done in more of a hip-hop way, with machines instead of guitars, but so what? Maybe the guitar has had its day like the clarinet. But there’s always going to be subversive art, thank God”.

Hamell himself is a subversive artist on several fronts: music, spoken word, and painting. When asked about the painting, his answer was straight as a die. “I wanted original art on my wall, went into a gallery and realized I couldn’t afford it. Went and bought canvases and filled my walls. Then I stopped, but I had this manager that kept bugging me to do a gallery show and then the stuff started selling. A lot. No one was more surprised than me. Never did it to make money. Now I make as much money with my painting as I do my music. Go figure”.

He is hitting Europe with a 15th anniversary tour of his seminal album Choochtown. “I’ll be doing that album in its entirety. That album was the closest thing I ever had to a ‘hit’ in the UK, so having never performed it in its entirety before; I’m pleasantly surprised, downright proud actually, at how well it holds up. I’ll take requests too so everybody will probably hear everything they want to”.

“My audience is pretty much the same everywhere, kinda sharp, irreverent, fun loving, disenfranchised, etc.” To Hamell though, Europe does seem different from the USA. “I get the impression that because of Europe’s lengthy history of advanced musical form and melody, there is inherent in every man, woman, and child a sense of melody, that is effortless compared to America’s. It’s in the life blood of Europe. On the other hand, probably due to slavery and the genocide of the Native Americans, we can master the blues. Go figure”.

He isn’t overly impressed by his local New York City music scene by the sounds of it, though. Indeed he described it as “non-existent in terms of real relevance, no matter what they would say. I saw The Sleaford Mods in Brooklyn. The audience was made up of hipsters. Read: Over indulged spoiled brats who had read The Mods were ‘happening’ and showed up. It was fucking embarrassing. The real music scene is on-line. Geography no longer matters”.

Who are the authors, poets or artists who have had an influence? “Writers like Burroughs”, he says, “Hunter Thompson, Henry Miller, film directors like Werner Herzog or Cronenberg, Bukowski, Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, Lou Reed still kills me … watched a documentary last night on James Ellroy. The list goes on and on, I need them all like gas in an engine”.

And when it comes to who he is listening to now, he gets “on ‘kicks’, you know like a writer that you never read when you were younger and then I’ll read all his/her works. Like Steinbeck or something, his catalog. So currently I’m on a Nina Simone kick. Also got Serge Gainsbourg’s film scores in the car.  And always Nick Cave. Always Nick”.

As a parting question, I asked if he could give me the name of a band I won’t have heard of, but should have. In character to the same level of detail and passion that he answered all the other questions, he didn’t give a name. He gave me ten. With accompanying video titles. I include this list below, as a parting gift for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

 “You know Aesop Rock? The Uncluded? Sleaford Mods? Fat White Family? Awkwafina? (Check out ‘My Vag’ video from her.) DJ Snake and Lil’ Jon’s ‘Turn Down For What” video. You must know Die Antwoord (‘Pitbull Terrier’ video). Jinx Lennon? Handjob Academy’s “Shark Week” video. Action Bronson … list goes on, lots of cool stuff out there”.

 * “The annual John Peel Lecture invites a notable figure from the music industry to shape a debate and create insight around music and music-related media. Taking its inspiration from one of the greatest radio broadcasters of all time, and a figure who perpetually challenged the status quo, the John Peel Lecture has been a part of the Radio Festival since 2011. The John Peel Lecture 2014 also marks 10 years since Peel’s passing” – BBC Radio 6 Music.

http://hamellontrial.com/
http://hamellontrial.bandcamp.com/album/choochtown

This interview was originally posted on Creative Voices NI