| Conjuring Acoustic Alchemy |
| Written by Peggy Hogan | |||
| Tuesday, 12 June 2012 01:05 | |||
 Acoustic Alchemy is a rare breed of band that has stayed true to its unique approach to music and survived a quarter-century of shifts in the pop world by essentially paying very little mind to what's happening outside their creative vision. The band has recording over twenty albums, the last of which they put together independently after having been dropped from a major label. Times Square sat down with one of the band's front men, Greg Carmichael to talk about what brought the band to where they are today. Times Square (TS): Acoustic Alchemy is unique in its usage of the acoustic guitar as a lead voice – what is about the contrasting sounds of the acoustic and electric guitars that inspires you as composers? Greg Carmichael (GC): You have to kind of back track a little bit to when Acoustic Alchemy started in 1981. The original concept was – Nick Webb's idea was to combine the steel-string guitar with the sound of the nylon string guitar, because that was quite a unique combination. Most guitar duos were either two nylons or two steels, so this was unusual and it works very well because although they're both acoustic guitars their sound is very different and they both complement each other. He kind of got the ball rolling in 1981 and it really wasn't working out here, because that was sort of the height of pop music and whenever they'd try to get a record deal, record companies just weren't interested because not only were they jazzy, they didn't sing. Simon, the original nylon string player decided to do his own thing because he got a bit fed up with it, but Nick decided to keep it going, and that's when he met me in 1985 and we sort of hit it off. He had started writing some stuff and I thought it was very interesting and we became Acoustic Alchemy. It wasn't until we started writing together and making demo tapes and brought them over to America things started happening, because when we brought the demo tapes to America, we got a record deal. Nick sadly passed away in 1998, which was very hard for me because we were very much a duo, and I wasn't sure at the time if I was going to be able to carry on. The fans really wanted it – by the time he died we were on our 12th CD, so it was that that really kept me going. It was at that time that Miles, who was playing electric guitar, more in the background, decided that he should pick up the steel string guitar and learn how to play that, so he in effect, at that point stepped into Nick Webb's shoes. Since then, we've made about another seven CDs, so that is a very brief history of Acoustic Alchemy. TS: You mentioned Acoustic Alchemy didn't really take off until you went to America with your demos. Is that a question of audience, or timing? GC: That was a question of really being ever so lucky and timing. Nick and I were just playing in London in little win bars and pubs and stuff like that. We were playing the stuff we were writing together, but basically sort of sitting in the corner while people were – well, we weren't being ignored, but we weren't the feature of the evening. One evening, Nick came in, and he'd seen in the back of the London Evening Standard this sort of box ad on the back page that said, "In-Flight Entertainment Required for Virgin Airlines – Jugglers and fire-eaters need not apply." We thought that sounded pretty interesting, and what it was – Richard Branson had just started up Virgin Airlines and they were looking for something a little different to attract customers. The idea was to have musicians on the plane going up and down the aisles playing to entertain them. We had to do ten minutes in economy and 20 minutes in First Class. So what we had to do, just before the film started and dinner was finished, Nick and I were to run down the aisles strumming our guitars entertaining people – in return for that, we got a free return flight to New York. So that's what got us to America. The guy who picked us up from the airport told us that this sort of music was just happening in America and it's called New Age. We'd never heard of that. He introduced us to Tony Brown in Nashville and he was just bringing out a series of six records that were all instrumental, and he had one spot left. So he heard our stuff, he really liked it and about eight weeks later we got a call from Nashville telling us that they'd like to sign us. TS: You have an upcoming three night run at the Iridium, June 19 through the 21st. What can your fans expect and how will you be keeping each show fresh for your audiences and yourselves? GC: We played The Iridium last year for the first time and we really, really liked it. It's got a lot of history but it's a very interesting club, but it is what I would call a sort of jazz club. So – what you just said about keeping it fresh – people, perhaps being more a jazz audience, they expect to come in for the first set, and the second set is completely different. That's something that we're not really used to because we're not really a jazz band – we tend to have a show, and if it's two shows normally we'll do the same set as the first show because normally they turn the house and it's a different audience. But obviously after playing there last year e definitely got the vibe that it's more of a jazz club, so we'll have to adapt, which means that – we've got a huge catalogue, so the first set will be different from the second set, because that's the way jazz clubs do things. It's an interesting club – it's got lots of history, it's really fascinating. We're looking forward to it and we're really happy to be back there. For more Times Square articles like Conjuring Acoustic Alchemy, please visit the Music Interviews Section of TimesSquare.com
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