6qs for Jim Sanders of Tinyfish
It is the return of the 6qs and whom better to feature than Jim Sanders, guitarist in my favourite band Tinyfish.
Who are your musical influences?
My musical influences or Tinyfish’s musical influences? Errr… mine would be, in no particular order (guitarists first) Steve Rothery, Dave Gilmour, Scott Gorham, Brian Robertson, Gary Moore, Reb Beach, Michael Schenker, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Ty Tabor… really, the list is huge. Jimmy Page, Micky Moody, Ry Cooder, Frank Zappa. I could go on. As for Tinyfish, I think it might be easiest to list the influences for each band member that perhaps are brought to bear on our music the most. They would probably be Andy Summers or Andy Partridge (Simon), anything by King Crimson (Leon), Geddy Lee (Paul) and Tom Waits (Rob. But that’s a massive generalisation.
What has Tinyfish been up to latley?
Well we’ve been pretty quiet since we did the last handful of gigs at the end of 2010 but there’s been stuff going on behind the scenes. Most of it is gearing up for writing and recording another album (please don’t ask me when that’ll happen because I really don’t know) and preparing for the mini tour in April/May and sorting logistics for going to the USA for RoSfest. The guys who organise RoSfest are amazing and really on the ball but there is quiet a lot that needs to be sorted from our end, not least of which was getting Simon to renew his passport! We’re going to need to go to the US Embassy in London soon as well for a work visa interview. I just hope Leon can hold his language in check while we’re there! And when we go through immigration in Philadelphia!
What’s your favourite song to perform live?
Right now I think it’s either “I’m Not Crashing” or “Wide Awake at Midnight”. “Midnight” I think, might be turning into our new “All Hands Lost”. “Crashing though… I just love the thing. There’s a crafty simplicity to it. It’s quiet and gentle but rocks where it needs to. And I love the guitar sound I have for that song. I managed to make maximum use of a piece of kit that allows me to have two completely different guitar sounds simultaneously. So there’s a massively overdriven, reverby, big delay lead sound, mixed in with a heavily flanged, heavily compressed, auto-wah’d clean sound. Lovely!
How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?
Well you have to remember that we first started playing together when none of us knew how to play at all. So how has it evolved? Not much!
Seriously, it’s evolved a lot. The biggest evolutionary leap has been from Simon, stepping out from behind a drum kit and becoming a terrific guitarist and fantastic lead singer. As our playing has improved over the years we’ve been better equipped to express ourselves musically. But conversely, as we’ve become better players we’ve actually stopped trying to play complex stuff for the sake of it. We’ve become far more mature songwriters.
If you could play a concert with a band of your choice, who would it be?
As the support band or me, with that band? Actually it’s the same answer. I’d like to do a gig with Marillion. I think a lot of their audience would really like what we do. And one ambition of mine is to play “Easter” alongside Steve Rothery. That solo at the end does me in, every time.
What’s your favorite board game?
Easy. Backgammon. My girlfriend and I play just about every day. It’s a little ritual that every day, about 3.00pm I take a break from whatever I’m doing once she gets back from doing whatever she’s been doing with the horses, we make a huge pot of coffee (keep that instant muck away from us please!) and play a few games of Backgammon. We’ve developed a points-scoring system and play “Championships”, first to 1000 points. We’ve finished 10 “Championships” over the last 3 years and I’m currently having my arse handed to me as she leads 7 to 3 but I’m currently only 1 point behind (582-581) in the 11th face-off!
Tinyfish’s The Big Red Spark is out now and it is a must. Buy it now!