Jack Henderson 
Click below to hear tracks
1) Feel Your Heart
2) Slow Driver
How much you like Jack Henderson's music will depend on your view, of the roots vocal. Do you like the sound, of Keith Richards singing his own songs, or does it have to be Jagger every time. Do you get, Leonard Cohen or Johnny Cash while others wonder if you' ve lost the plot. What is sure is that there is a special quality in Jack Henderson's music, and it is sorely missed in today's musical main stream. It's a raw intimacy that you only get, from a performer, singing his own songs from the very heart. We talk to Jack about his new album "Fragile Skin" and his career to date. Before you read on why not download the two tracks above, and get a feel, of what Jack's music is like.
1) Jack, the name "Fragile Skin" seems to suit the music and lyrics on the album. Especially because it's a very sensitive piece of work. What was the thinking behind the title track?
The title 'Fragile Skin' comes from the song "Slow Diver". It seems that, regardless of the personal structures we build to protect ourselves, we're often still vulnerable to the same emotional violations and insecurities that we've always had. Perhaps we carry our own personal demons around with us, and they know us inside out. We might build what looks like an impregnable facade but they still know how to slip round and use the back door.
2) A lot of songs seem to be about loss and longing, were the songs written from a personal perspective?
I think writing is inevitably a mix of personal perspective and the universal. We all have our own stories. Stories that are unique and personal yet woven together by the tenuous thread of the human condition. However, to tell any story convincingly, even someone else's, I think it has to start out from a personal perspective, something that chimes with your own emotional experience.
3) You've flitted between the States, Canada and the UK in recent years do you have a place that you can now call home?
I wish I could say I did. It's not that I wouldn't like that but, I've always been something of a restless soul. Maybe I'm looking for something that doesn't exist. My father was a sailor, Able seaman Henderson. He would always be telling us about different horizons and foreign sunsets when were kids. Eventually he left the sea but it never left him. I think spiritually I've been out at sea for a long time. Yeah I've checked into a few different harbours but ultimately they all seem to be just that. Temporary resting places to hole up in until something draws me on.
4) You've said in the past, that you can be just as influenced by Fellini, as by early Van Morrison, or David Lanois. Which artists have had the strongest influence on you, both as a songwriter and musician?
It's honestly hard to say who I would consider my strongest influences but I guess Van was a big one. "Astral Weeks" still has to be one of the greatest albums of all time. The Band. Tom Waits, a fantastic storyteller. But equally any of the visual artistry of someone like Fellini in say 8-1/2, the dark ambiguity of David Lynchs' work, or the writing of someone like Flannery O'Connor might be hanging around in there somewhere when I'm telling a story of my own.
5) Vocally a lot of comparisons have been made with Johnny Cash, was he a particular influence for you
I'm not sure how much of an influence he is when it comes to my vocal style but, when I was a kid I lived with my grandparents for a while. There was an uncle who still lived at home. He was always playing Johnny Cash, filling the house with the sound of the Man in Black. My uncle would go off to work and I would sneak into his room to pore over all those LP covers. That was really my introduction to music. For a while there as a kid I wanted to be Johnny Cash. I think initially it was more the image and the attitude I was taken with but I grew to love music pretty quickly.
6) Have you seen the Film "Walk the line" if so what did you think of it?
I haven't seen that movie yet but it's on my list.
7) You are a successful producer in your own right, how difficult was it to hand over production duties to Richard Causon (Jayhawks, Kings of Leon, Rufus Wainwright)?
I have produced a couple of albums for other people but I'm primarily a songwriter so when it comes to doing my own album I'm more than happy to hand that job to someone who can be somewhat more objective. Of course I still have strong opinions, and a vision of what I want the overall territory to be but, Richard knows me pretty well and consequently knows when I'm in my stride and when to let things go. I really trust him and valued his input.
8) The music you've created is very atmospheric, and conjures up strong images, I'm thinking of songs like "Trouble" which remind me of the the Mid West in the US. Did you start the project with a strong idea of how you wanted the album to sound musically?
I think making a record is kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle. You know roughly what you want the finished picture to look like but you start off with a pile of odd shaped pieces. Some of them may have even drifted in from other puzzles and they have to go. They're all disparate stories but collectively they tell a bigger story. The sonic backdrop to that is a crucial part of the picture. It's largely an intuitive thing but, you know when it's right; when it resonates properly.
Visit Jack's website for more info and live dates www.jackhenderson.co.uk
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