by Mark Kadzielawa

Strawbs are a great progressive rock band from England. Throughout the four decades of its existence the band went through different phases and as many line up changes. The most popular Strawbs’ alumni include Rick Wakeman. Now, Wakeman’s son, Oliver, occupies the piano stool in the band. Despite the changes the band never stopped progressing and moving forward, and consistently released quality records.
Over the last few years the most successful line up of the band reformed. Namely: Cousins, Lambert, Cronk, Coombes, and Hawken. The result of that line up getting together was Broken Hearted Bride album. Recently Hawken decided to retire making room for newly recruited Oliver Wakeman. Strawbs didn’t waste any time and already completed a follow up.
Dancing To The Devil’s Beat is the latest release from Strawbs. Echoing the excellent Broken Hearted Bride, the new album solidifies the great momentum. There is no stopping in the Strawbs camp; the show simply must go on.
Songwriter, David Cousins, discusses the latest changes in the line up, and teaches the cautious steps when dealing with the devil’s beat.

Looks like you had another line up change. Keyboard player, John Hawken is no longer with the band. What happened?
David Cousins: Since the release of our last record, John Hawken, decided to retire and leave the band. So John Hawken is gone his own way, and we’ve recruited Oliver Wakeman. Oliver is Ricks Wakeman’s oldest son. He is 37 years old, and he’s currently sharing keyboard duties between Yes and us.
It seems like Oliver is picking up a lot of his father’s previous assignments.
I’m not surprised. He is a very fine player. He’s more than capable when it comes to keyboards. It’s very interesting. I phoned his dad up and asked him what do you think? He said I told him he should definitely do it. You’ll have more fun here than you’ll have with Yes. And Oliver agreed with his dad. He gets more freedom to play what he likes with us than with Yes. He doesn’t have to play note for note, and just play what he’s told.
It is surprising that John Hawken would leave at this point, especially when this incarnation of the band finally got back together.
I can’t dictate to somebody that they’re not gonna retire. When he wants to retire that’s what he gonna do anyway. He wanted to retire and spend more time with his grandchild, and who am I to stop him. The Strawbs is ever revolving unit. It never stands still. Then somebody new comes in, and brings their own identity to the band, and brings their own changes. It is very interesting actually how this process works. New players often ask me to tell them what to play. And that’s not the point of this band. In this band you play what you feel. As long as you play the basic arrangements, what you play within those basic arrangements is up to you. That’s how you bring your own personality into the band.
In this case, what did Oliver Wakeman bring into the band?
He’s brought youth and vitality. Whole band has changed in essence. We’ve become much rockier than we were before. Suddenly there is much more aggressive edge to our music. We’ve introduced different songs because we got bored playing the same material over and over again. We went back to songs that Oliver’s dad played when he was in the band with us. That’s even before Oliver was born. He loves the songs, and he loves playing them. He gets total freedom of expression to play solos or interpret what his dad played before him. He is totally enjoying himself. The whole band has a freedom of expression, and we have a new feel about it. In fact, as soon as Oliver joined the band, we did some touring in Canada, and went straight into a studio and made a new album.
What I’m getting from you is a serious switch in dynamics within the band.
Yes, it’s a much more powerful band than it was in years.
Let’s dig into this new record.
The new album is called Dancing To The Devil’s Beat. Well, once we got Oliver in the band we might as well make an album with him. Many of the songs were written alongside. I rented a cottage in the country in England right where Oliver lived. He came there, brought his piano along, plugged in, and we got started. I sat there with him and Chaz (Cronk,) and we got through the basics of the songs that we got together. He then put his own interpretation on them. These are very dynamic songs, and they were being written as we were going along. Now, we got three part suite called Pro Patria Suite. This is a very great three part piece linked by glorious piano playing from Oliver, but it has me playing banjo on it as well. So it’s hopping back to what we did in years gone by. By the same token, we got a very aggressive modern sounding song called Dancing To The Devil’s Beat. That track has Oliver playing hunkiest organ you’ve ever heard. It’s very uptight sounding. We got another great track called Revenge Can Be So Sweet, and we’re very excited about that one as well. What we really got coming up is the 40th anniversary show in England. There will be five different line ups of the band playing, and we’ll be looking back and looking forward, both at the same time. We’re reflecting on how we used to make records, what instruments I used to play back then. I mean we really used some instruments that other people just don’t use. On the other hand, we see how modern things got with this new record. I mean we have great synthesizers, violin, and the usual component of the instruments we play. It’s just really an astonishing record. Then we get acoustic, we play a song called Copenhagen, reflecting the time when we made a record with Sandy Denny in Copenhagen. Talking about those days, but the sound is totally modern, yet the lyrics are retrospective. It’s a very political album in a way. There is a lot of unrest in England in regards to what is going on in Afghanistan. Our troops are not sufficiently equipped, and many lives are lost. There is a lot of anger directed at the government for that. We have this song called Where Silent Shadows Fall. Which reflect on the life of a soldier in the front lines. Leaving his family behind and eventually being killed in action. But that’s his duty, and that’s what he sets out to do. It’s a very melancholy song at places, but then it turns into a glorious anthem. We have two former marines splay horns alongside the orchestra. And Oliver did the orchestration.

The Pro Patria Suite is an intriguing piece of music of epic proportions. Can you describe its contents?
The Pro Patria Suite is written about visiting the battle fields in northern France. It’s before and after the First World War. It’s not the First World War in seven minutes. We could never possibly cover that sort of subject. What it is that peaceful feeling of being at home. It could be in England, it could be in Germany. Who knows, this could be German kids talking as well. I was gonna call the hero of the song Willy or Wilhelm if you please. But, I called him Billy because it’s easier for me to sing. But it really doesn’t matter. These kids didn’t know what they were fighting for as much as our kids didn’t know. They were fighting for their countries as far as they were concerned. And just as many Germans died as English soldiers, perhaps even more. So, it’s looking back just before the war. Meeting your girlfriend, and going away to war and have startling experiences of the battlefields. Then Billy gets killed, and then we switch to a church somewhere in England. The piano is playing a sad song, or rather a sad hymn then a congregation joins in to sing the hymn. It’s one of the best pieces of music we’ve ever made.
For you to say that so late in your career is very refreshing.
Well, it is. We always move forward. Having Oliver in the band gave us a chance to try something different, something new. There is another song on the record that backs it up. It’s a shuffled, sleazy, and Texas blues if you like. It’s a big departure for us, and it sounds like you’re in a saloon somewhere down in Texas. You get that feel of stairs everywhere, a drunken piano player in the corner, and a half-drunk harmonica player occasionally joining in. And there is a bit of jazzy guitar on it. It’s very old-fashioned jazz vibe. The lyrics are very funny, and the whole thing is not intentionally serious. It’s just that we enjoy doing different things every now and then, but it sounds incredibly authentic.
Who will release the record?
We released it ourselves on Witchwood Media. It is distributed through Ryko. At the same time, we have another DVD coming up. The DVD is the acoustic Strawbs. It’s Live at The Hampton Court Palace. Rick Wakeman joins us for a few songs there, so it’s an extraordinary time to have a new album and a DVD coming out simultaneously. It represents both faces of the band.

Let’s compare the acoustic Strawbs to the electric Strawbs.
Electric Strawbs is a powerful rock band. For the lack of a better word it’s a stadium rock band. It always had that large sound to it. It’s just how the guitars mix with the keyboards. It’s a big powerful noise. The acoustic Strawbs is much more intricate and much more sensitive band. The audience can actually hear words better than they can with the electric band. It’s none the less powerful because the strings make heck a lot of noise, and the foot pedals that Chaz plays give us a big sound. It’s just a totally different approach to the songs. Sometimes we play the same songs, and you wouldn’t think they were the same songs.
What’s the secret to Strawbs’ longevity?
Desperatism (long set of laughter on behalf both parties.) I just love playing, and I will carry on playing music. I will carry on making records because I can’t stop writing songs. I’ve always written songs. In fact, I heard another song coming out tonight. As I was sound-checking I made a mistake on guitar. I played a wrong cord, but it sounded interesting. Then I played another chord, and that’s the beginning of another song.
So taking chances is part of your regular routine.
Yes, a lot of the songs that we write come out of the mistakes that we make. Sometimes a wrong chord will present itself, and we just develop it into a brand new idea. The songs about the Texas bar I was talking about earlier was written out of a mistake like that, and it turned into a piece.

Links:
http://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/index0.htm