With chart success for his album Battles, 2024 has been a standout year so far for Jack J Hutchinson. A UK Tour earlier in the year was followed by playing to sold-out audiences in Spain. With a set at the NWOCR Livefest at KK’s Steel Mill this weekend and a set of UK dates to follow, we caught up with Jack to hear about his arsey detractor, his anniversary show and why there will be no rest going into 2025.
Josiah J Manning is a name that has cropped up frequently at MetalTalk, most recently as part of Thrxnes. With the experience of working together on Battles, Jack J Hutchinson is now part of the ever-growing Josiah fan club. “It was great,” Jack says. “It was a way of working that I had not done previously, to collaborate with somebody. On all my previous albums, I’ve been quite strict about writing the songs myself and being quite heavily involved in the production side of things.
“But it was great to work with somebody else, send a whole host of demos through and then get that feedback that says, well, maybe this song is the album opener, and maybe this should be a single, and maybe this one doesn’t quite cut the mustard. We were quite ruthless with some of this and it was, well, you need to go away and write some tunes that are as good as these other ones. So it was really inspiring working with Josiah and a lot of fun as well.”
I ask about the Manning influence on Love Is The Law. He has a songwriting credit on that. How was his influence on that song in particular? Jack says he wrote the Bullet songs on acoustic guitar.
“When I wrote that track, I was going for a sort of Paul Weller Stanley Road vibe,” he says. “I wanted to make sure that it had a lot of melody in there. But what Josiah was quite good at doing was saying, well, actually, let’s maybe turn it on its head. The section that you think is the chorus, maybe that’s actually the verse and then the chorus bit is this. So you then go away and write perhaps new melodies.
“My kind of stereotypical fallback would be to just stick a massive guitar solo in the middle. But Josiah would say let’s look at the journey to that solo. Let’s look at writing a middle eight and taking people on a bit of a different experience. It’s one of my favourite tracks on the record. It’s a lot of fun to play live as well.”
Road To Hell is the new single, with a lyric video that you can see below. It is a cool track and again, one that would come across well, live. There is a great solo in the middle, which makes the atmosphere of the song a compelling repeat listen. Jack plays as a three-piece live, so you do wonder how the dreamy guitar solo fits in on stage.
“I think with that solo and the song as a whole, we were looking at it as almost being cinematic and thinking about it as a soundtrack to a movie. So the intro has a very much Sergio Leone western vibe. But then I’m trying to think less about showcasing that I can play a lot of notes really quickly, but thinking about things in terms of creating an atmosphere.
‘That’s not to say when I play that song live, I don’t just throw in a load of Zack Wylde/Slash notes in the middle. But I think on the recorded version that sort of restraint worked really well. We just chucked a load of fuzz pedals over the top of it.”
Given the riff that is played under the solo, I had to ask, at the risk of a slap, if Jack would ever think about expanding the sound on stage with another guitarist.
“I always seem to fall out with guitar players,” Jack smiles. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s my ego, or maybe it’s their ego. But I quite like having that traditional power trio vibe. I’ve always loved bands like The Who and Led Zeppelin, who I class as power trio because you’ve basically got bass, guitar and drums. I like the space that creates. I’ve had people suggest using backing tracks to beef up certain elements of songs. That is just my idea of absolute hell because I like the idea of being able to create something brand new with every gig.
“You might extend songs, you might shorten bits, and that glance that you give the bass player and the drummer where you can go off in a different direction, I think, is what creates a magic feel with a live performance. We’ve had a few guests get up over the years. Phil Wilson’s brother Ash Wilson got with us recently, and he’s absolutely incredible. It helps raise your game. I would quite like a keyboard player. A lot of my tracks have keys on, and I always get on really well with keyboard players. So maybe that might be the right route.”
Running On Empty is another great track, too. A good bar room stomper, it is the kind of song which sounds great live. Released as an earlier single, there are some great comments on YouTube, evidence that people have really jumped on board with this new album.
“I think that Running On Empty was probably the first track that I wrote for it,” Jack says. “I wrote the riff for that probably four or five years ago and never had the verse part. I always had that riff, and it was something that I used to play in soundchecks. The band would kind of jam along with me playing it. But yeah, it’s great when you release a track like that, a little bit different to some of the other more high-tempo songs like Constellations and Bullets, which came out as singles. Running On Empty is one of my favorites to play live as well. It’s got one of those solos that is almost like it is lumbering over the hill towards you. It’s got a real kind of groove to it. I was aiming for a Gov’t Mule sort of vibe of that track. I don’t know whether that’s what we achieved, but yeah, I dig it.”
Ahead of the album release show in February, Jack J Hutchinson told MetalTalk that his intention was to write a blues album, but that was maybe not quite the way it turned out. Rip It Up is a fantastic song and another example that does not sound like a blues song.
“Well, the irony is that Constellations was a blues song. I wrote that as a shuffle, and it was meant to be a sort of Stevie Ray Vaughan type thing. I sent the demo to Josiah. There is some footage of me actually playing it in Los Angeles when I originally wrote it where I just did it as a blues shuffle. Then Josiah sent his demo back, which was turning it into this full-on sort of rock song. There’s not too much blues on the surface, but all of my guitar solos are rooted in BB King, but just played ten times faster.
“One funny thing that happened back in February was I got this really arsey message from somebody on the day the album came out saying that I had betrayed my blues roots. I didn’t bother responding, but I felt like saying, well, if you just slow the record down to half speed, you’ll hear more of the blues in it.”
With Bullets making waves in the album charts, this is an impressive feat for an independent artist with no record label backing. You can tell Jack is chuffed, but he is quick to explain that this is a team effort. “Obviously, it was a lot of work, and I should say that even though I am an independent artist, I’ve got some great people who work with me on different things. I had Austin (AC Promotions) working on the radio side and Claire at Central Press doing the main press for the album.
“I have always liked this idea of being an independent artist, and I think it gives me a certain freedom to move in directions that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. If I had signed a deal when I was making acoustic blues, I would have probably made five albums that all sounded the same. With the independent route, I’ve made a full-on blues album, but I’ve done a rock album. This one’s more of a kind of blues rock album.
“But yeah, to get it in the charts was an incredible feeling. I didn’t even check because I didn’t think that I would be able to get into the independent chart. But when I got a message that Friday evening saying you’re in the chart, I was really blown away by it. It set us up for a really good six months of touring after that, which was cool.”
MetalTalk caught the opening night of the tour at Londons 02 Islington 2, which is a great little venue. I always enjoy seeing bands there. “It’s cool,” Jack says. “I think it’s a good location ‘cos it’s Central London. I’ve played in so many different venues across London over the years, and the 02 just has this nice vibe to it. The sound is good in there as well. Some of the sound in some of these venues they’ve got PA systems that seem like they were constructed in about 1965, and they don’t sound so great. But it was a really cool gig.
“We played a short run, and this is all down to me, it was like Heinz Spaghetti in terms of the route. We went off to Blackpool, I think, the next day. But it was a wicked week. To have worked on an album for a year, to be holed up in that studio with Josiah and then have it finally out there and also people digging it. You put it out there, and you don’t want people coming up to you going, I wish you played all the old stuff.
“We’ve just been to Spain and done a run which was great, really cool as well. It’s great to see people in a different country knowing the lyrics to the songs, which has never happened to me before. So, yeah, it’s been wicked.”
Jack says he needs to work on his Spanish “cos I’m terrible at speaking foreign languages. With my northwest accent, I’m not quite sure they could understand my jokes. So next year, when we go back, I’ll work harder.”
Were there any issues with Brexit, carnets or any of that malarky on the Spain tour? “No, as I did a lot of research,” Jack says. “It felt like for three weeks in the run up to it, I wasn’t even playing my guitar because I was ringing people up trying to sort out all the paperwork to get us over there. But I was very fortunate. I had some support from Help Musicians. I did an application to them, and again, that took a couple of days to put through. But they supported the tour, which is great, and I think it’s good to be honest about that because, financially, it’s expensive to go over to Spain.
“So I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t have the support because, without that, I’m not sure we would have been able to do it. It was a crazy two weeks. We had one day when we were driving along, and the passenger window on the van exploded right next to my head, which was a lot of fun. We had to find a garage to get it fixed. So it was two weeks of some great shows with a lot of chaos in and around the shows.
“But we didn’t have any issues with the carnets or anything like that. But maybe we were just fortunate. But I would say it is tougher now than it was pre-pandemic and Brexit. I used to hop over to Spain on the ferry, do two weeks and just come back and not think anything of it. Now, you need to go through these official channels. But, you know, it’s part of the challenge, and if you wanna play your music in different countries, you’ve just got to go along with it.”
Jack is happy to pay this forward, too, supporting others in the future. “We rented a drum kit in Belgium from a company called Tres Hombres. If anyone who is an independent artist needs some help with this, just drop me a message. It was a lot of work. Once we got to the first gig, there was just massive relief when we hit that stage. We’re here. We just need to play the shows. Let’s just focus on that side of things. But what a brilliant two weeks, and hopefully, we’re going back again this time next year to do it again.”
Obviously, Jack has his arsey detractor, but I wonder, as Bullets can be seen as a less blues-style album, does that change the makeup of the people who were attending his shows.
“I think that the new stuff sounds more kind of cutting-edge contemporary rock,” Jack says. “I think that’s opened me up to a new audience. I think the production on the new album is really, really good. I think Josiah did a great job of making things sound very radio-friendly. We talked a lot about cutting the fat on a lot of the tracks and trying to whittle them down to a three or four-minute tune that would get played on the radio.
“Sometimes people talk about that as though that’s a negative thing. But I don’t think that. I think that’s about being focused and creating really good songs that become memorable. Hopefully every track on the record is memorable in some way. We spent a lot of time creating big choruses that would have good lyrics that meant something as well to me. Hopefully, that will then connect with people. So it has felt different over the last six months, and I feel it’s on the back of putting out what I think is a pretty strong record.”
This weekend, Jack J Hutchinson is playing the NWOCR Livefest at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton. “I’ve been to KK’s in Wolverhampton a few times to see different bands,” he says. “It’s a great venue. I’ve never played it, so it’s gonna be cool to go down there and play our show. What I always love about these gigs is that a lot of the bands I’m familiar with now. So it’s like this big catch-up backstage where everyone’s having a beer and saying what have you been up to over the last six months?
“I’m looking forward to that just as much as playing. Then we move on and do London, Bristol. We’re doing Manchester next week, and then we’re just kind of rolling it out over the country over the next couple of months. So it’s gonna be busy, but a lot of fun.”
If you caught the tour earlier this year, then there is a massive incentive to catch Jack J Hutchinson again. “We’ve changed the set list around quite a bit,” Jack says. “I felt like we condensed the set when we launched the album. We were basically just doing the album. So when we finished that tour, I was thinking we need to put some of the older tunes in and make sure that it’s a bit more of a varied set.
“So some of the shows we’ve been doing are almost two hours, which I think is a lot of fun for us. My attitude was, hang on. We’re driving all the way to these venues and only playing for 60-odd minutes. This is just a ridiculous situation. So we might as well be up there on stage for as long as possible. So be prepared for longer sets on this run.”
The Manchester show is at the Night and Day Cafe, which is where Jack played his first solo gig nearly 20 years ago. “I played this gig, and Elbow were in there,” Jack says. “They were sat at the front. After I played, I went for a piss, and Guy Garvey was in there. He just said, oh, nice set, mate. I was like, oh, cool, man. Then, several years later, they won the Mercury Music Prize and were massive.
“But, I’ve never played there since, so it’s gonna be quite a strange one going back. But when I was looking at venues for the tour, I wanted to play a Manchester show, and then I thought, wow, I’ve not played the Night and Day for so long. It’s a really wicked venue. So, yeah, looking forward to that one.”
Twenty years of memories, and Jack is still feeling enthused and ready for another 20. “When I think back, I was this kind of melancholic acoustic singer-songwriter who kind of treated every single gig as though it was me offloading my heartbreak to people. Now, I’m in a rock ‘n’ roll band, so it’s way more fun. I’m very much more enthused these days than I was back then.”
Jack still gets the itch, so there is new album news. “It’s really early on,” Jack says. “I did two tracks with Josiah a couple of weeks ago. My plan was not to do any recording this year, but then I wrote a few songs over the summer, and I just got that itch to get back in the studio. I think you should do it when the stuff’s fresh.
“We did it very differently to how we did Battles. We tracked everything live, which I’ve not really ever done before. So that was really cool. Phil Wilson, who plays drums in my band, was an absolute monster when it came to laying down the drum parts. So, the tunes are good. I think they’re slightly different to Battles, and there is a bit more blues in them, actually. It’s like blues on steroids. That stuff is way down the line, but it is sounding good so far.”
A bit more blues will be good news to the arsey detractor. “I’ll send him the high-speed copy where it doesn’t sound like blues at all, just to say thank you.”
For now, the tour is the main focus. “I’m really looking forward to seeing people on the road,” Jack says. “It’s been a busy year for me, and people have supported everything that I’ve done, which has been great. I hope to see you at the shows. It’ll be good.”
