Today, we sat down with Peter Lawson to discuss his inspiration to write music, heroes, and much more!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your
surroundings?
My inspiration comes from several sources; I can be reading a book, or watching a film and a theme suddenly comes to mind. The Witchfinder is based on my love of late middle ages history and the fact that supposed witches were being executed in England as late as the 18th Century, this under the revised witchcraft act of 1542, that date being referenced by one of the tracks on the album. Matthew Hopkins (a self-proclaimed witch finder) was one nasty individual, driven by lies and superstition and was the scurge of East Anglia and beyond in the 17th Century, so I based some of my latest music on tunes from around that era and used him as chief subject matter.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
I was aged 11 in 1972, so I was massively into T.Rex (which is where the name “Venus Loon” comes from), but I was also lucky enough to have been introduced to German underground music (in particular Can and Amon Duul II) around the same time, as well as Jimi Hendrix and music like Gong, Kevin Ayers, Yes, Gentle Giant etc. I still love and regularly listen to all those artist mentioned. Given my age in 1977, I got massively into punk and some of the post-punk bands, in particular Wire, Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, XTC, Husker Du and in particular The Fall (thank you John Peel!). During this period I permanently damaged my hearing going to and/or playing in gigs. Favourite albums of mine from the early to mid-70’s include Can’s Tago Mago, Kevin Ayres’ Dr Dream and other stories, Wolf City by Amon Duul II, Electric Warrior and Tanx by T.Rex, Royal Bed Bouncer by Kayak, Freehand by Gentle giant, Close to the Edge by Yes and many others.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
Musically, my heroes were John Peel, Jimi Hendrix (of course!), Chris Squire, Jaki Liebezeit, Holgar Czukay, Kevin Ayers etc., although in the ‘90’s Tim Smith from Cardiacs was the go to genius (and, as far as I’m concerned, the late Dr Smith remains the most innovative musician of the last few decades).
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
I’m recently retired from my day job; I was a Registered General Nurse with post-grad qualifications in neurology and behaviour management, so I guess it would be something along those lines.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create
music?
Get your laptop, buy an interface and download a copy of Audacity, then plug your guitar in; it’s much easier with modern technology and costs waaaay less than spending time in a studio and is much easier too; if I can do it, you can!
Buy album here: https://oob-records.com/shop/
