Born in Covent Garden, Londoner Andy Parker has been playing guitar in bands since the late '70s. Running a parallel career as a live-sound, and later recording, engineer allowed him to move between playing and producing music over a long period.
An early exposure to reggae when running a studio in Dalston, particularly dub mixing, left a lasting influence - although this did not come out until much later, when he recorded his two solo instrumental albums for Into The Red Records. Recovering from a hand injury after a motorbike crash gave him the incentive to write the demos for the first album or, as he puts it: '...to see if I could still play the guitar.' Due to the limited musical and recording equipment available to him, he settled around a basic reggae-influenced format that gave him the open spaces he needed to develop both the themes and the solos for the music that became 'Listening at the Keyhole'.
He explains his reasoning behind the sessions: 'Having established that I could still play, the demos showed promise from the very start, so I used these as the basis for the album - I wanted to explore the instrumental side of my playing, since I'd always written them, but had never recorded them systematically. I was after a very laid-back feel, trying to make an album that you'd come in from a club and listen to, rather than one that set-you-up to go out in the evening. The rudimentary nature of the equipment dictated a lot of the sound, but was very liberating: the Lowrey organ was just that and no more, so I had to come to terms with it and just write different tunes, rather than rely on a change of preset to give me variety.'
Having played guitar for so long, his influences are an exhaustive collection of guitarists over many genres. These include: Wes Montgomery, Freddie King, Roy Buchanan, Keith Richards, BB King, Stan Webb, John Fogerty, Slash and Mick Taylor among many others.
'Listening at the Keyhole' also allowed him to work with an old friend from his studio days bassist Paul 'Kojak' Joseph and drummer Rimbim from The Nazarites, plus organist Jim Jessop, another Dalston stalwart of many bands. Trumpet was provided by the golden embouchure of Jim Dvorak.
Still living in London, Andy Parker spends most of his time painting, but intends to revisit his instrumental work again soon...
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