Innes Sibun
Barry Middleton (BM) Interview with Innes Sibun (Innes) - June 2010
Innes: Just keep playing & enjoying it. I'm not going to change the world or be rich playing the blues I do it because I'm driven to do it.
BM: Why do you feel that young people are not as attracted to the Blues as other Genres?
Innes: Money!!! Beyonce & Westlife etc have massive budgets to promote their latest album/tour etc. The blues doesn't make money so it doesn't attract money.
BM: What were your first experiences of the Blues?
Innes: Hearing BB King on the radio when I was a kid.
BM: Who were the influences on your musical career?
Innes: Rory, Jimi, Peter Green, Otis Rush, BB King, Son House, Robert Johnson, Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan & a million others.
BM: Does singing the Blues come from experience?
Innes: Yes I think so.
BM: What was the first gig that you played?
Innes: When I was at school, I was so nervous I was sick before I played.
BM: Do you think that Blues needs to evolve to stay relevant?
Innes: Yes & no, Robert Johnson & Blind Blake still sound as relevant as they did when they recorded but you can’t go singing about plantations etc in 2010 so things move on.
BM: Aims for the future and what do you hope to achieve within the Blues?
BM: What other styles of music have you drawn inspiration from?
Innes: Jazz, folk, classical, all good music lol.
BM: When did you start playing (guitar)?
Innes: When I was 12.
BM: How would you like to see music change over the next 10 years?
Innes: Artists having more control over their music which is starting to happen already with the internet, I just released a solo acoustic album which I recorded at home called "Snake wine" which can be downloaded at http://www.facebook.com/l/6999f5o0hVfXvwACLZrXxHlhX6Q;Amazon.com & I did it without a record company so the whole thing from the playing to the releasing it was all my work which is a good thing for artists.
BM: If you wasn’t a musician (in a band) what would you be doing?
Innes: Time probably lol.
BM: What sort of music did you listen to growing up?
Innes: Blues, rock, punk, Django Reinhardt, reggae, I soaked it all up like a sponge.
BM: You are a singer/songwriter. What drives your song-writing?
Innes: Probably women mostly, love, lost love etc.
BM: If you had the opportunity to play with any blues artist dead or alive live on stage who would it be?
Innes: Rory, I would love to just watch Robert Johnson too.
BM: What do you do to relax when you have some spare time away from music?
Innes: Watch football, hang out with my daughters, watch the history channel, cook, I'm pretty dull lol.
BM: Having toured most of Europe and the US which country in your eyes has the best blues scene?
Innes: America has so much great music that it doesn't really appreciate it. I would say Holland has the best blues scene at the moment although several weeks ago we played the Rory Gallagher festival in Ballyshannon & that was amazing.
BM: What is the biggest festival you have played in your career?
Innes: The Hollywood rocks festival in Rio de Janeiro when I played in Robert Plant's band in the 90's, I think it was around 150,000 people but it's more nerve wracking playing in a pub to two people funnily enough. We also did a TV program in Mexico called En Vivo which went out live to 15 million viewers which was pretty wild.
Thank you Innes for finding time to complete my questions.
Barry Middleton
Nottingham Blues Society
You are viewing the text version of this site.
To view the full version please install the Adobe Flash Player and ensure your web browser has JavaScript enabled.
Need help? check the requirements page.
