INTERVIEW TO J.J. MARSH

Giampiero Frulli has just reached out Joackim “J.J.” Marsh, Glenn Hughes guitar player. He’s not simply a guitarist, but is Glenn’s teammate in the songwriting of many GH songs, and can be considered the “brother-in-soul” of the Funkmeister. That’s the result of the long pleasuring dialog that they had by the phone on January friday 10th 2003, at 9:15pm, Italian time.

GF. Can you tell us something about the last tour with HTP?

JM. The HTP tour was very successful, and I think we had a great time playing, expecially in Italy. Joe and Glenn were superb, at their best. The whole band was great, Joackim Svalberg on the keys, Thomas Broman on drums. That’s the right alchemy we’ve transmitted to the audience: a band that rocks! It was also great to perform the Rainbow songs… I grew up with Rainbow, and playing their masterpieces is always a great emotion to me.

GF. As it was for us, listening to their songs! You have come to Italy for the first time in this occasion, and during the Italian gigs you told me of a particular feeling about that. Did you like Italy?

JM. Yeah, I really hope we can go back and play in Italy. It was amazing, it was the first time for me, I had really a good time there, as I already told you in the backstage in September. And it was a special night for me too… because I met a beautiful girl. Well, Italian women are really fantastic beauties! So I will not forget that so easily, and I hope really to come back and meet again the Italian friends.

GF. You are very well involved with Mr. Hughes, after some years that you play with The Funkmeister. How have been your progresses in music with him in the last years?

JM. The long that we work togheter, the better that things come up. We really started to tune into each other. I know what Glenn thinks, I know what he… well the tracks we worked on for the new album speak for themselves! I know what he thinks, I know what he likes. We work very good togheter now, I mean, we always understand each other… and there was a good chemistry from the start, but now we are really blended togheter, we have started to work really fast. We’ve just finished the new album. I went over to L.A. and we put up some work, we were short of songs… and we wrote four great songs! I mean, the songwriting gets better and better. And expecially Glenn has found the sound that he wanted, it’s long time before it could be a simple pop, rock, or funk groove…

GF. As the "Shape 68" style?

JM. Well, that’s great American pop. But in his solo albums Glenn’s able to mix togheter different styles, you know. But now I think that we really tuned into more sound, the sound that Glenn Hughes loves. All the albums are great, but in the new album you will listen really cool things about that. I like the fact that as long as it’s really heavy and pop, we always have been able to manage that different colours, expecially in the new album.

GF. Well, we know that you are also a guitar teacher. Do you find time now to teach?

JM. Not too much anymore, I’m really tired… I don’t care to do it so much, the greatest thing to me is playing on tour, now…

GF. In the last November you had the chance to play with Legends Of Rock. Tell us your impressions about this experience.

JM. Oh, that was a great tour too, I made two great tours this year… Legends Of Rock turned out actually even better, the response to Glenn was unbelievable. You know we played in theaters, that are beautiful places, but the weird thing about them is that everybody’s seating down, because there are chairs! We didn’t use to do that, we use to do… like in Italy, people standing, cheering, screaming. It’s strange, but that’s the way it is in England. So everybody was sitting down, when Frank Marino started, when Uli played… but when Glenn screamed the word “Stormbringer”, a lot of people raised from the chairs. There was a great response, everything was superb, Frank and Uli, Jack Bruce… well, they’re legends in their home country! You know Frank’s fans were really more than Glenn’s fans. There were also a lot of Jack Bruce fans. Everybody played a little bit togheter with everybody. I played with Frank Marino, I played with Uli, Glenn, I played Cream stuff with Jack Bruce… it was a cool thing.

GF. What is your hidden dream about music? A solo album, or playing with some other musician, or something else?

JM. Well, the solo album it’s not a dream, it’s actually a reality. I’m working on a solo album right now, I think it’s time now for me to do that. Everybody makes solo albums… it’s going to be a great thing because in your solo album you don’t have any boundaries, you can play whatever you like, it can be weird stuff, it can be rock stuff, you are free to express yourself. Yes, there are a lot of artist that I like to play with, but the important thing for me is being able to play music I love, that’s my goal, I don’t have any other target.

GF. Tell us something more about your solo project, then!

JM. Oh, yes… I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of years. I have a lot of unfinished material lying down here at home. I hope really to find the time to finish this work. I don’t know really when it will be ready, because I’m working with Glenn, the studio sessions, the tours, but I probably will record it in a year. I want to take my time because I want to make things good.

GF. You played also in another band called Orange. Can you tell us something more precise?

JM. …that’s actually not real. They contacted me as a sessionman, a friend of mine plays the bass, and another guy left that band, so he needed a guitar player and called me up. Yes I’ve played in Orange but I’m not, and I wasn’t, officially in that band.
But I have another thing. I have an original band with Swedish guys called Spellbound. That’s an old band we had in the Eighties and we recorded three albums. We reformed last year, and we are about to record another album that will sound really good. Everybody plays great in that band. The songs are really heavy, different from Glenn’s style, and they sound like… symphonic. We don’t have any keyboard, and it’s not properly symphonic, but there is some tendency to that… I don’t want to say the word “progressive”, I can’t explain it, it’s both heavy and melodic, but…

GF. Well, I think you made it clear however. We hope to listen to this new work as soon as possible! Another question. What is the most important performance you remember, in your musical career?

JM. Well, it’s really hard to say… let me think… it’s been a lot of great gigs over those years, but yes… maybe the most important show in my life was that when I invited Glenn to sing on the stage the first time we met. It was the wedding of one of my best friends, and he was also a very good friend of Glenn. We met there, because I was playing with my band at the wedding party. I saw Glenn and I invited him to sing with us some Trapeze and Deep Purple classics. And that’s how I met him. I think that this is the most important gig in my life.

GF. How is the musical movement in Sweden at the time?

JM. It’s getting better. Rock is coming back expecially among teenagers. They’re turning more into rock’n’roll than before. You hear a lot of bullshit music, and for me this is a great satisfaction, that the boys think with their own head, without boundaries, without already given schemes.

GF. A question for guitarists. What is your current gear?

JM. Currently I’m using the Peavey 5150 Mark II, the Van Halen head. The Mark II sounds better. I usually use two cabinets, Marshall 4x12 vintage with Celestion cones. On tour I have my own Marshall with me, one or two cabinets depending on what sound I need. And I got a couple of Marshall modified heads, but the 5150 II sounds really great, it’s very reliable. I got an old Cry Baby Wah Wah pedal, modified by a friend. I use also a Boss Octaver, Digital Delay, a Boss Chromatic Tuner, so I can tune my guitar on stage in real-time. I got some really cool other pedals but I don’t use them everytime I play. The gear I change depends on the tour I’m doing. With Glenn I don’t need too much stuff, I need just the basic good guitar, my Fender Strat custom, and the wah wah.

GF. Some words to the Italian fans.

JM. Well, I hope to come back in Italy as soon as possible. The Italian HTP shows were really fantastic. I DO liked the atmosphere that you fans created during the three gigs. And I hope you will like the next GH album, it will be a great experience, as it has been for me making it. Keep up the faith and see you soon in venues. And I think is necessary to thank Giampiero and Roberto for the great hard work on the Italian Funk-Lab, thank you to spread Glenn’s music over Italy!

Photo credits:

Photo n°1 (from the upper): Enrico, JJ and Giampiero - backstage Pontoglio HTP tour 2002

photo n°2: Joackim Svalberg, Thomas Broman, JJ Marsh - backstage Oberhausen HTP tour 2002 (courtesy of glennhughes.com)

photo n°3: JJ and Glenn - Legends Of Rock tour 2002 (courtesy of ghpg.net)

photo n°4: JJ and Glenn - backstage Marghera HTP tour 2002

photo n°5: the pedal setup that JJ used in the R.O.C.K. tour 2000

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