Roger Inniss
Barry Middleton (BM) Interview with Roger Inniss (Roger) - June 2010
BM: What were your first experiences of the Blues?
Roger: The First Blues artist I remember coming across was Johnny Winter on his 1971 “Live” recording. I still love that album. Growing up in a black Gospel church, I was exposed to lots of the same rhythms, melodies and harmonies as the Blues without knowing what I was
listen to.
BM: Who were the influences on your musical career?
Roger: All the people I’ve worked with have influenced me in one way or another. Steve Gibbons & The Climax Blues Band come to mind because I started my professional career with them, but really everybody I’ve played music with has affected me in some way, for
good or bad.
BM: Does singing the Blues come from experience?
Roger: From a technical point of view, not at all. Any singer or musician can learn scales, phrasing and techniques to help them to capture the spirit or idea of a blues tune. But I really believe ‘Blues is a feeling’ and even if you haven’t experienced that ‘feeling’ having empathy,
compassion and a caring nature would help you convey the Blues better than having a great technique...but I play bass so what do I know!
BM: What was the first gig that you played?
Roger: It’s been that long I can’t remember.
BM: Do you think that Blues needs to evolve to stay relevant?
Roger: No it doesn’t. Blues is about the human condition. The human condition will always evolve. Blues will always be relevant.
BM: Aims for the future and what do you hope to achieve within the Blues?
Roger: That’s a bit deep. You are talking to a Blues bass player you know. We don’t aim for much more than the next note we need to play when we need to play it. As for ‘achievements within the Blues’ what’s that about? In the future I hope to achieve finding, getting to and getting paid for the next Blues gig. And that may be easier said than done.
BM: When did you start playing (bass guitar)?
Roger: Age 12
BM: How would you like to see music change over the next 10 years?
Roger: Music doesn’t need to change. There are and always have been many wonderfully talented and gifted artists doing their ‘thing’. We the audience need to be more open-minded, take more chance’s and just enjoy the music that’s out there. Most of the time we miss out on great music because we won’t go out to see a name we don’t recognize, or think we won’t enjoy the music because of its label, or
we don’t want to go to the area that the gig is in. If musicians would just pay more attention to ‘the Spirit of Music’ and not ‘the Spirit of
Money’ we the audience could really enjoy some wonderful new sounds, great grooves and uplifting times. Yeah, I know I sound like some old hippy on my soap box.
BM: Why do you feel that young people are not as attracted to the Blues as other Genres?
Roger: I think young people are attracted to the Blues. Oli Brown and many others like him have proved that young people like good music no
matter what it is. I think the way we promote the Blues doesn’t help.
You asked me earlier about the Blues evolving…I don’t think the music
needs to evolve, but the way it’s promoted definitely needs looking
at. We need to look at the music through young people’s eyes. Then
we would have a better idea of how to promote it to them.
BM: What other styles of music have you drawn inspiration from?
Roger: All styles really. A lot of Jazz and a lot of Gospel. But I’ve been
inspired by everything.
BM: If you wasn’t a musician (in a band) what would you be doing?
Roger: When I was younger I wanted to be a painter (like Salvador Dali), an aircraft pilot, or be involved with motor racing. Now I’d love to paint.
BM: What sort of music did you listen to growing up?
Roger: A lot of Jazz and a lot of Rock.
BM: You have played with many named artists, in your mind who stands out from the rest?
Roger: This is a very hard question to answer, Barry. I don’t like this one because I try to make it one of my things not to judge any artist, but to try to enjoy as much of what they do as I can. I feel we all have great, good and bad in what we do. From my experience, the
greater somebody is at doing one thing, the worse they are at doing something else. Having said that I am really enjoying Oli Brown’s vibe. Lorna and Jules Fothergill are great musicians and very funky people, but I have worked with A LOT of people over the past 25
years and 95% of them are equally great at what they do.
BM: If you had the opportunity to play with any blues artist dead or alive live on stage who would it be
Roger: I couldn’t possibly answer this. Too many to list !!
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