James Warren, singer songwriter for The Korgis reveals the inspiration behind ‘Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime’ as he prepares to tour with the band.
(Jason Barnard) Hi James – great to hear from you again. So am I right this is the first time for many years where you’re touring across the UK with The Korgis?
Yes you’re right Jason. In fact strange though it is The Korgis have never properly toured! I think we tried a few gigs in about 2014 but for one reason or another it didn’t feel right so we decided to persevere with Stackridge.
Why has it taken so long – was it because previous tours were with Stackridge?
Yes for that reason but also because Andy Davis was always in two minds as to whether he really wanted to do it.
Who’s in the current line-up of The Korgis band and how long have you played with them?
The current line-up is my old mate from the 1990s, Al Steele, on lead guitar and general technological wizardry; John Baker, who I’ve known since the birth of The Korgis in 1978 and who joined the band in 1989 for This World’s For Everyone album, on vocals and rhythm guitar; Glenn Tommey who engineered the first Korgis hit “If I Had You” in 1979 on keyboards; outstanding session drummer Paul Smith, and Ava, Jay and Emmy on backing vocals. Oh and me on bass guitar.
What tracks will you be playing live? Will it just be Korgis material or will there be any of your solo tracks like ‘They Don’t Believe in Magic’ or newer songs from your Innocent Bystander album?
We’re playing a good mix of Korgis favourites, tracks from Innocent Bystander plus a few Stackridge songs. Don’t think we’re doing anything from my Burning Questions album yet but we’ll get round to it eventually.
Are there many songs you’ll be playing live that you haven’t played to an audience before?
I think most of our set will be never-played-before numbers!
Have you learnt anything from playing the Korgis material live that you wouldn’t have realised if you’d just written and recorded it and left it there?
Oh I think so. It’s good to get other people’s contributions and to bring out certain details of the arrangements that I’d probably not paid much attention to. And I like having lots of voices on stage too.
Did you form The Korgis after Stackridge as a conscious effort to write and release pop songs?
Yes, that’s exactly it. I’d always been fascinated by the 3 minute pop song despite all the prog indulgence of Stackridge, so it was a very pleasant change to try and write a bunch of accessible, radio-friendly tunes.
Who as a songwriter do you look up to and what songs have influenced you the most?
As anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a massive Beatles fan and would never have done music had it not been for them. For me, their amazingly varied catalogue is still the best and most influential. Always loved Bacharach as well, plus countless one-off songs down the years by any number of writers – Life On Mars, What A Fool Believes, Daydream, Happy Together and about 2000 other random tunes.
Was there a track you write in that early period of the group where you knew you’d found the sound you were looking for?
Not really – always searching for that elusive sound. Came closer with the Burning Questions album and it’s better now that I know how to record myself properly – as with the tracks on Innocent Bystander.
You spoke about how quickly ‘Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime’ came to you when we spoke on our podcast together. Was it based on any relationship or experiences you’d had; or were you just aiming for lyrics that matched the emotion of the melody?
I was very into Buddhism at the time and the notion that fundamental personal transformation has to be an inner thing as opposed to an outward, political movement and the words echo that feeling: “Change your heart, look around you, change your heart, it will astound you..” Also I loved the simplicity of haiku poems and fortunately the melody of this song seemed to lend itself to that kind of approach. Of course I wanted to find a lyrical match to the melody as well.
There’s many cover versions of ‘Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime’, do you have any favourite covers of it and why?
Yes, an instrumental version by Vitamin String Quartet, a reggae version by The Sunshiners and Beck’s version for The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind movie. Oh and The Flying Pickets did a great version in which they used the second verse of lyrics that we didn’t use on the original Korgis track.
‘Don’t Look Back’ was remixed by Trevor Horn. How did you get to work with Trevor and what are you memories of working with him?
Warner-Chappell were my publishers at the time and they fixed up a meeting. He was the most inventive producer of that period and they thought he might be able to come up with something magical. And actually he produced the whole track – it wasn’t a remix.
He was very pleasant as was Anne Dudley but unfortunately the session was rather tense and the final result not very satisfactory. I blame myself! I like the song but I sort of got in the way of the recording by constantly trying to recreate my original demo. I should have just let Trevor and Anne do their own thing with it. A pity. Not my finest moment.
Out of all the Korgis back catalogue which songs are you most proud of any why?
This World’s For Everyone and Something About The Beatles come to mind but then there’s Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime. I’m still amazed I managed to get away with doing a song with so few words which seems to have said so much to so many people. Also I like the chords. I can’t really play the piano but somehow found that sequence.
Do you have any plans to release any new material?
Started to think of some ideas but recording new stuff doesn’t make much sense right now. Playing live is good though!
Thanks James, all the best on the forthcoming Korgis UK tour.
Mon plaisir.
Details of The Korgis forthcoming live shows can be found at: thekorgis.com
An career spanning podcast with James Warren covering his work with Stackridge, The Korgis and solo material is also available on The Strange Brew.
