Good morning,
Last Tuesday, at 9:00 am on the dot, I clicked a Zoom link that connected me with a bright-eyed, super-enthused exiled Scouser in the loft room of his North London home. Soon into our chat, he confirmed a hunch I had as an outside observer that there has never been a better time to be John Power, singer, songwriter, raconteur.
Last year’s Youth-produced Love Is The Call album, his band Cast’s first LP in seven years, was both a creative and commercial rebirth for John, reconnecting the trio to a new, often younger audience. Since then, they’ve returned to Youth’s Spanish studio to swiftly record a follow-up. Power is extremely happy with the work. “I think it’s the record of our lives, I really believe it. Just these big anthems with incredible choruses. We’re so excited about them.”
Power and co are probably going to sit on the album until next year all the same, as there’s so much other stuff going on in the meantime. Presently, he’s deep into a long one-man tour, visiting all kinds of theatres in often lesser visited towns across the land, from Faversham to Pwllheli. “I love it,” he says. “It's more theatre than rock and roll, this, because I'm just sitting there on stage alone. No script. Just telling stories, a rolling monologue. There’s Q&A bits, I’ve got a bass and a guitar, and I go from childhood, to joining The La’s [at 18], explaining how I played my bit, how the genius Lee [Mavers] played his bits, then go into Cast, becoming this other John, the frontman, the singer. Doing it, I’m learning so much about myself. It’s like, Hello, I’m John, pleased to meet me…”
Meanwhile, this summer, Cast are the main UK support for Oasis, playing stadiums that are as far removed from The McMillan Theatre, Bridgewater or Aberdare’s Coliseum as it’s possible to get. “That’s amazing, to do those Oasis shows thirty years after our debut album, but just as big is that in September we’re going to America for the first time since then. We pulled a coast-to-coast tour there 29 years ago when [guitarist Liam Tyson] Skin broke his shoulder and never got asked back again…until now.”
And in the midst of all this, he’s also walking his daughter down the aisle in Majorca. “Some years, everything just feels golden. There’s just great energy everywhere and I’m not questioning it, I’m just going with it.”
Perfect time to face up to The New Cue’s Life & Times questionnaire, then. “Bit intense these, Ted,” he decides. “I’ve not even had a coffee yet.”
Let’s nevertheless press on. Enjoy the edition,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of…John Power
What was the first record that you loved?
I don't know whether I was five or six, but I was young, and I was in the kitchen. I remember hearing Love Me Do on the radio, and that made a big impression. I remember speaking to my dad as a real little boy and him saying ‘The Beatles are the greatest band’. ‘Where are they from?’ He's said, ‘From Liverpool, and not only from Liverpool, but they're from this part of Liverpool.’ And it made a massive impression on my psyche, feeling this music wasn't coming from somewhere far away with palm trees swaying, somewhere exotic, it was very much from the roads that I grew up in. I mean, what’s the first song I fell in love with it? It was either that or She Loves You. I was born in ‘67 but they were still getting played on the radio when I was a young boy.
And what was the last record you loved?
Wow, well, I guess the last record I put on was Herbie Hancock. What's it called? Really early, maybe his first? Take something… [Takin’ Off] Takin’ Off. I put that on last night. Been getting into a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, A Love Supreme. I never really appreciated the jazz too much when I was younger, but I kind of really get it now. I think as I'm getting a bit more old I like that feeling of floating like smoke across the room. The last few days, last few weeks, months, last few years I've been putting a lot of jazz on, discovering that that whole side of music.
What is your earliest memory?
I've got some really early memories. When I tell people, it slightly freaks them out. One of my earliest memories is lying in a cot, and it's like sepia light. It's very, very quiet. I can hear my mum and dad breathing in the bed. There’s this golden light above me in the cot…There's another one. I can remember being in a pram, everybody looking in and going like, ah, isn't he gorgeous?
What is your daily domestic routine?
First thing I do in the morning is walk downstairs and put the kettle on. I need two cups to see the world. I have to look at the wall and just say nothing and have abstract thoughts. I take the dog out for a walk. I have moments of… I'm at that age where all of a sudden, I'm having real big moments of being in the present, seeing the shapes of everything. You know, the tree shapes, how they expand, I’m very much into the energy being pulled up through the air and the energy being pulled back down. I'm just noticing these real moments of clarity at the moment. I find the world very abstract. I see people in cars, these little squares and wheels scooting fast. There's a low frequency that we can be caught up in and I feel I'm raising myself slightly above it. I think it's all about frequencies: raise your frequency. My domestic thing is raising my frequency by cutting onions, talking to the dog, listening to music, that’s my domestic thing. And life is good. I don’t have a TV. I don't know how people have time to watch it, because by the time I've had the conversations, we've eaten our dinner, it's barely time to read a book and go to bed, where I’ll be dreaming of waking up and having my two cups of tea.
What is your worst habit?
Well, I guess my worst habit would be sometimes I might have too much to say. I've kind of realised that I need to stop, let myself breathe and listen to other people as well. Detuning my energy a little bit to allow it to loosen, as opposed to tightening it. I suppose consistently writing great songs, that’s a habit.
When were you at your most creatively satisfied?
Very, very recently. I've been really in a purple patch. I'm singing better than I've ever sung, and I feel I've just written an album - no one's heard it, apart from me, [manager] Alan McGee, Youth and the band – but it genuinely feels like a high point in our career. It's big, it's majestic, it's anthemic. I think I'm at my most creatively satisfied now. Love Is The Call flickered this renaissance, I think.
Now, we’ve got this massive year. This new record we’ve done with Youth, I really think we’ll have momentum until next year for it. We’ve got the Oasis tour, the 30th anniversary of All Change, the reception that Love Is The Call got has been like a debut record, it’s incredible. It's very rare you get that energy again. I'm in a very, very relaxed but knowing place at the moment. I don't know whether it's all the mistakes I've made in my life, but somehow, I see it with clarity. I know how desperate you can be sometimes in your career to write the right thing and you get it wrong because of that. Like, the universe doesn't do desperation. It meets you halfway when you're in the zone. I’m in the zone right now.
Has anyone you've ever met made you feel starstruck?
I must say, I have never felt starstruck. There's a difference between being inspired, recognising that you're in the company of someone who is a very special person, and feeling starstruck. Like, quivering because you’ve met someone. I don't see people like that. Certain people have a beautiful presence that is bright and inspiring, but I don’t feel overawed by that. I don't doff my heart to royalty and shit like that. I've walked amongst great people. I've met some great artists. I've met some great people, but I've never been starstruck.
What is your pet peeve?
I don't suffer fools gladly. Some people you meet are just in the wrong key. I used to get irritated by lots of things, I guess, people whose opinions jar. I hate to keep coming back to this Zen thing, but now I can't really be held responsible for other people's thoughts and actions. I used to think that we were going to change the world. The world is vicious, and it seems royally fucked up right now. I've got a funny feeling that there will always be economic downturn, wars, injustice, and all this terrible shit that's just out the window, but I can't really do anything about that. I probably had quite a few peeves at one time, but I’ve learned to side-step them a bit.
What was the home that you grew up in like?
I grew up in South Liverpool. It’s very leafy. Lot of great parks. I was brought up in a council house. There was this square called The Quadrangle in South Liverpool. And it was probably where the firemen and all the police lived at one time, a square of council houses, but it was in South Liverpool which at the time in the early 70s was known as a middle-class area. John Lennon lived there, we went to the same school, Quarry Bank. I think there's a special energy in South Liverpool, I do. As I said before, my dad said The Beatles were from our area. Then it was, who's the greatest football team? And he was like, ‘Bill Shankly’s Liverpool.’ I thought I was from the centre of the universe. So, my childhood, I mean, it had its ups and downs, but where I was situated was quite magical, really.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
That was when I was leaving school. My school report, written in hand by Mr. McCann, who was my form teacher and my English teacher. It said, John is full of good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with them. That's the best advice I've ever been given because I understood what he meant: John’s bright, loud, he can converse, but he's doing the wrong things with the wrong people. He's going the wrong way. You can have great plans, but you have to back them up with action.
What's your favourite film and why?
That is a heavy, heavy one, because there's some great movies. Jedis have been very strong. The force has been very strong with me. I could go further back, though, to the spaghetti westerns. The soundtrack to A Fistful of Dollars was huge for me when I was only young. My dad let me stay up one night to watch it, I was maybe nine, but my dad let me watch it, and the music was so, so amazingly thrilling. I just was enchanted by it. He got me the soundtrack for my birthday, we’d been looking for it everywhere but couldn’t find it – but he he did. I used to listen to it over and over, and it was magical. I don't think it's my favourite film, but maybe it's the most poignant.
Have you ever been arrested?
I don't know if I'm allowed to say. I've had a couple of run ins with the law, when I was a kid growing up, you know, probably been drunk and I probably got myself into a few situations. I've never been a criminal, shall we say. I might have suffered from hijinks. The only job I've ever had is I got a job for three months in the Home Office working in Immigration, and I had to sign the Official Secrets Act. So I think I'm still bound by that contract. I wouldn't be able to divulge any information. To answer that question, I'm a bit of a cheeky lad, but it doesn't go any deeper than that.
When and why did you last cry?
Oh tears, yeah, well, I mean, tears come and go quite often. If you want to get me, it’s not hard. I cry. I lost my father a few years back, so I cry quite often. The funny thing about mourning and loss is that once you get over the main thing, it changes. My relationship with my dad is still very much active. I talk to him and think of him just like he was alive, because I didn't live in Liverpool anymore and therefore he wasn't in the room all the time with me anyway. A lot of my relationship would have been like he wasn't in the room anyway, so in some ways it hasn’t changed. He’s still in my thoughts in the same way. Difference is now I can't jump on a train to see him. But I can also be brought to tears by the comprehension of how beautiful and amazing things are in life, you know? I can be poked by music or art. Sometimes I look at the world and it just blows my mind. I mean, I look at my kids, I look at my wife, that brings me to tears quite often.
Can you cook and what is your signature dish?
I’m a cook, alright, but I’m a free jazz kind of cook. My wife will quite often cook amazing recipes, but I’m more of a kind of look in the fridge to see what’s in there and let’s build something chef. Mostly, I don't quite know what I'm actually going to make at the end, where it's going until I get there, but it will start, obviously, with an onion, with garlic, a leek. I’m very good with things that go with a roast. I probably do the best roast potatoes. A lot of people are proud of their Sunday dinners, but I can do a great Sunday dinner. My spuds are spot on. Obviously, you can’t just have a meal of spuds, but mine are great. I’m not saying there’s a connection, but I do have an Irish passport.
What is your desert island disc?
Wow. Impossible! Can I have a bit of a moment… when I was a little boy, my dad first took me to watch Liverpool, stood on The Kop, early 70s. This writhing mass of people singing [starts to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone]… That song has got so many emotional ties to me, and it's not just about football. Maybe I'll take that with me.
They used to sing Beatles too, on The Kop, you know. So maybe I could take that as a B-side, you know.
Who or what is the love of your life?
My wife. She's such a great person. She's creative, she's spiritual, she’s never negative about anything. I've never heard her say a bad thing about anyone. She's a ceramicist. She does sculpture. She's got a great eye for form and art and all that. It's been quite an inspiration. She's allowed me to be this calmer person, more compassionate and appreciative of other people's faults. The love of my life, definitely. I'm very lucky. For a lot of people, I think that maybe relationships are a compromise, and I understand that. My mum and dad were at each other like cat and dog, but that’s how it worked. I feel I've just been blessed to have found someone who I genuinely feel balanced with. She made me see that love is a real thing.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I think my art, my music, being open to the fact that I can do that for the rest of my life. To really become yourself, you have to view yourself fully, know when you've got it wrong and know when you've got it right. My greatest achievement, it's got to be following the musical dream, nurturing it when it was just a bitty, bitty, bitty speck on the horizon. Over time it gets bigger and bigger and all of a sudden, it's as much a part of me as I am of myself. That is an achievement, isn't it? I mean, I hope to go further and to make my peace with it. Music has been such an inspiration in my life, from the very early days of listening to The Beatles, Love Me Do, through my dad’s rock and roll tunes, Chuck Berry, to meeting Lee at that certain time in my life when I was so impressionable. How lucky was I? Meeting Lee Mavers, one of the most gifted songwriters of a generation, my first band being The La’s… being in the presence of Lee at certain times was such a brilliant thing. Such an inspiring guy.
I've never put that little feeling down. And you know what? It's grown, it's grown, and I feel I'm closer today to it than ever. So, my greatest achievement is being here, talking to you with a new album that's just being recorded and really feeling that I'm closer to the essence of life now than ever. We can't put it into words, so we sing it. We can't put it into words, so we paint it. We can't put it into words, so we shape it. That’s what it’s all for.