The Median Man spoke with Liam Naughton and the Educators about the band and the music.
The Median Man spoke with Liam Naughton and the Educators about the band and the music.
RELEVANCE
What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?
When I do something I always like it have relevance and not just drag something randomly out of the sky. That’ll do, no it won’t do, there’s
got to be a meaning to it. All of the other musicians in the group are music teachers, hence The Educators. My late dad was also a teacher so
I thought it was a good fit. I’m influenced by artists that do things their way and not follow any particular trend. Musically, my get of my arse moment was when Danny Murphy hit the play button on Harvest Moon in the background at work. When it finished I asked “Can you play that
again?”. I thought it was brilliant, the way Neil Young put down his lyrics. After years of bull shitting myself I bought a guitar and practised 4 hours a night, 6 hours on weekends for 6 months straight. So he’s my personal hero.
But artists like Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain. Radiohead, Sex Pistols, John Lennon, Lou Reed, Vincent Van Gogh; just people thru history who take risks and don’t follow the crowd
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Sit down with my sometimes friend / sometimes enemy Mr Acoustic Guitar. Wrestle with him, grab him by the throat and force him to the
ground until he gives me something that I like, something fresh and interesting. Then I play him over and over and over and over until he
makes perfect sense and drags a lyric out of me that I can develop into something that makes him and me good friends again…..until the
next time we sit down again (and have a chat). I write about the things that I see and feel, things that are close to me personally or
not far removed. I’ve written about mental illness, addiction, love, loss, the world around us, and put myself in someone else’s shoes and
think how they might feel. I tend to write in the first person cause I’ve a great deal of empathy for people
MR ACOUSTIC
MR ACOUSTIC
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
Sit down with my sometimes friend / sometimes enemy Mr Acoustic Guitar. Wrestle with him, grab him by the throat and force him to the
ground until he gives me something that I like, something fresh and interesting. Then I play him over and over and over and over until he
makes perfect sense and drags a lyric out of me that I can develop into something that makes him and me good friends again…..until the
next time we sit down again (and have a chat). I write about the things that I see and feel, things that are close to me personally or
not far removed. I’ve written about mental illness, addiction, love, loss, the world around us, and put myself in someone else’s shoes and
think how they might feel. I tend to write in the first person cause I’ve a great deal of empathy for people
ORIGINAL
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
I don’t try to write in a particular style. I never learned a playing style like blues, rock etc and I thinks that was good cause I wasn’t
ever inclined in any way from the outset. I wait patiently to find a chord progression or timing progression that interests me; something
that’s original, or far enough removed from anything I’ve heard before and develop the structure and lyric from there.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We normally play the 35 min set and try to vary the set from gig to gig. It’s pretty much what you hear on the recordings get played. OK,
if we know were going to be playing in a packed house who ya know are half cut and want to get ruckus then the entire set is all the fast
tracks and give’em what you know they want. They’re parting with their hard $$ so give them that respect. Sounds fair to me. I also do
loads of solo acoustic gigs and just back off a little to suit that vibe.
VIBE
VIBE
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We normally play the 35 min set and try to vary the set from gig to gig. It’s pretty much what you hear on the recordings get played. OK,
if we know were going to be playing in a packed house who ya know are half cut and want to get ruckus then the entire set is all the fast
tracks and give’em what you know they want. They’re parting with their hard $$ so give them that respect. Sounds fair to me. I also do
loads of solo acoustic gigs and just back off a little to suit that vibe.
2020
What plans do you have for the future?
2020 I had taken a year off my day job to move to the bright lights of London from Perth Australia, hook up with Cameron (our lead guitarist)
and launch an assault on the Irish and UK music scene. I mean, what better place to test your wares against all of the up and coming acts
in one of the main centres for music. I wasn’t fazed either, I felt that I had some good horses in my stable and was ready to bang some
doors down. I’d a bunch of shows lined up so what could possibly go wrong???? Holy Fuck, for once I didn’t derail my own train, Covid-19
did it for me. The pandemic showed me though that you could get good work done without being in the same country. To finish off the Cut On
A Cut EP it was an international collaboration with Cameron (lead guitarist) and George (drums) in The Animal Farm’s London studio, me
in a Perth studio (returned to Perth cause of the pandemic), producing and mixing in London with The Animal and mastering in Sydney. So
touring now is a bit hard to plan with this virus still flying around, border closures and God knows what’s next. I have another album ready
to go so I’ll get some quality demos done on my home recording studio, stay focused and onward march