{"id":60373,"date":"2018-05-21T15:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=60373"},"modified":"2024-01-22T19:17:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T19:17:03","slug":"guitar-interview-blanket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/guitar-interview-blanket\/","title":{"rendered":"Guitar Talk with blanket’s Bobby Pook and Simon Morgan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Marcus Maschwitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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On their debut album, ‘How To Let Go’<\/em>, blanket<\/strong> set out a vivid, cinematic display both audibly and visually. Through a compelling set of ambient rock with towering, harmonious instrumentation, the quartet has created a stunningly beautiful record. Yet, for guitarists, Bobby Pook and Simon Morgan, the path they have individually taken to being part of blanket<\/strong> has considerably been different.<\/p>\n

For Morgan, being exposed to his sister’s broad taste in music spurred him to be in a band. \u201cWhen I was growing up, my older sister, Alex, had a very eclectic taste in music, listening to bands like Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Jamiroquai, Faith No More, REM and Beach Boys, which I heard through my bedroom wall as a youngster and gave me an early interest in music,\u201d<\/em> Simon tells us. \u201cI used to borrow the albums and just sit and listen to some of them over and over.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bobby Pook
Photo Credit: Corey Eyres (@approachthewolf<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Simon’s early influences go beyond blanket<\/strong>‘s hometown of Blackpool, Bobby’s comes in the form of fellow North West band Oasis. \u201cWhen I was about 13, my friend showed me the ‘There & Then: Oasis Live at Maine Road’ video. It blew me away,\u201d<\/em> says Pook. Although his early motivation came during his teenage years, he took classical guitar lessons aged 8. \u201cI think I only lasted a few weeks though, it hurt my tiny hands too much,\u201d<\/em> he jokes.<\/p>\n

Like many young guitarists just starting out, both Bobby and Simon began on reasonably priced guitars. \u201cMy first guitar was an <\/em>Argos nylon strung classical, which I got for Christmas when I was around 12 years old,\u201d<\/em> says Morgan. \u201cI played it for a little while and then just put it down and didn\u2019t touch it for about two years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While Simon briefly abandoned the guitar for drums, Bobby’s first foray into playing the guitar began on his 14th birthday. \u201cMy dad bought me a Fender Squier Strat. It was one of the really well-made ones from the 90\u2019s that you don\u2019t seem to be able to get any more; classic sunburst, white scratchplate, it was amazing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Although some teenagers pick up the guitar as a hobby, Bobby and Simon’s individual aspirations to be in a band meant they would spend hours practising. \u201cI was serious from day one, as soon as I got that guitar I was locked in the front room at our old house just practising,\u201d<\/em> Pook recollects. \u201cI played open chords for like a year before I learnt how to do bar chords. I remember the night I learnt bar chords. I was so happy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In the years that followed, the pair would go on to play in various bands expanding their technique through playing different styles. Most notably, Bobby was (and is again) part of UK heavy pop-punk collective Me Vs Hero. \u201cMVH was literally tuner, drive, noise gate and amp, obviously the playing style is a million miles away,\u201d<\/em> he says. \u201cI was always writing different styles of music all the way through my music playing life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Whereas Pook’s experience is rather different to what blanket<\/strong> serve up on ‘How To Let Go’<\/em>. Simon’s previous bands include Goonies Never Say Die and Midas Fall. Both are more in line with the stirring, layered presentation of tracks such as ‘The Devil Holds Fast Your Eyelids’<\/em> and ‘Worlds Collide’.<\/em> \u201cThe experience of them has grown the way I write and perform parts,\u201d<\/em> Morgan suggests.<\/p>\n

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Simon Morgan
Photo Credit: Corey Eyres (@approachthewolf)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even though his experience leans towards the post-rock genre, Simon is a believer that a guitarist should have a broad range of styles. \u201cTo be innovative on any instrument it relies on the re-synthesis of other styles to create something wholly new or exciting. Otherwise, people are just playing within their own defined limitations, blinkered to any other techniques or styles,<\/em>\u201d he explains. While Bobby’s diverse background has been an advantage to blanket<\/strong>. \u201cI think if I had just learnt a post-rock style of playing, then this band would sound like every other band in the genre.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Having been part of the North West music scene, Bobby and Simon would find themselves living together in a rented house in early 2016. It was here where blanket<\/strong>‘s early ideas would take form yet would come to a sudden halt when Pook suffered 3rd-degree burns on his hands due to a house fire that summer. In the months that followed, as Bobby recovered, he and Simon along with bassist Matthew Sheldon and drummer Steven Pellatt, would flesh out the ideas that would form their debut EP.<\/p>\n

Released in February 2017, ‘Our Brief Encounters’<\/em>, laid down the foundations for what ‘How To Let Go’<\/em> would become. Its five songs seamlessly ebbed and flow with seasoned execution. By the end of the year, the quartet had inked a deal with revitalised rock and metal label, Music For Nations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Whereas ‘Our Brief Encounters’<\/em> creation was mostly overseen by Morgan and Pook, ‘How To Let Go’<\/em> is a more of a collective effort. Both Simon and Bobby agree the recording process for their debut album has made them a better band.<\/p>\n

“All the guys in the band have been playing for years, but with the preproduction and production process we were able to really look at the parts we play, see how they relate to the other parts being played and develop the arrangements that way,\u201d<\/em> explains Simon with Bobby adding \u201cIt\u2019s not so much our technical ability but it\u2019s the tightness and velocities that we\u2019ve improved on a lot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n