David Rhodes, Peter Gabriel’s guitarist-of-choice for the last three decades, is explaining why it’s taken him so long to take centre-stage and record the first record under his own name.
He’s typically modest and ‘quite strong’ is something of an understatement. The songs on Bittersweet, released through the B&W Society Of Sound, reveal a hidden talent, someone whose clear songwriting skills fully deserve any belated limelight thrust in their direction.
“It just felt right to do. I was never writing songs with a purpose in mind. It was more ‘What am I going to do today?’
“I had a small collection of songs that I’d worked on for the last two or three years and once I’d got them into a good enough state, I just thought ‘These ten tunes are quite strong. Let’s see what people think.’”
Until now David’s been more than content to be the supporting artist in the shadows, a few paces back from the main attraction. As well as his lengthy tenure on the shoulder of Peter Gabriel, David’s also been an in-demand session player, his fluid guitar lines adorning the records of Tim Finn, Talk Talk, Paul McCartney, T-Bone Burnett and even Roy Orbison. Then there’s the sizeable soundtrack work he undertakes with musical partner Richard Evans, much of it for documentaries on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. But Bittersweet is the turning of a crisp new page, a fresh chapter whose plot has yet to be written.
So why the title Bittersweet?
“We all have dark feelings and dark times but we also have great feelings and great times. I always thought of Bittersweet being the last song on the record so it seemed appropriate to call the whole thing that. There’s always that balance of light and dark that runs through the record. Hopefully there’s enough colour in the music to offset any miserable lyrics!”
Bittersweet was recorded in four days at Real World Studios, David calling on the services of tried and trusted musician friends, among them drummer Ged Lynch, bassist Charlie Jones, keyboard player Dean Brodrick (“a great free spirit who throws in some crazy stuff”) and a cameo from Peter Hammill on backing vocals. Having such a dependable band around him made the step up to bandleader an easy one.
“They’re all solid characters, confident enough in their abilities to go ‘Actually I’d like to do that again’. That makes it easy. The problem when producing a record is if you’re trying to draw performances out of people and they’re not certain what they can do. That can end up being a tussle.” Similarly, David allowed his string arranger, Stephen Barber, fairly free rein. With Stephen living in Texas, David “didn’t hear any of the arrangement before they were done. I just had to trust him – and he did some beautiful things.”
“It’s been very kind of the B&W Society Of Sound to help finance the project. They deliver a very diverse package of material to their members – some classical, some jazz, some world, some rock. I hope their members enjoy it. I played it to a friend and he said ‘It’s rock music’. And I suppose it is! I didn’t intend it to necessarily be that but that’s how it’s come out. I love to make a noise. It’s what I live for!”