Edinburgh's original open mic night

Big Jim

in his own words

Describe your first OOTB

Terrifying. I once played to an audience of eight thousand people, and my first OOTB was scarier. Something about playing to a room filled almost entirely with (mostly excellent) musicians and songwriters, sitting in absolute silence, watching your every move. Actually, I’d been coming to OOTB for over a year prior to this, sitting by myself, plucking up courage. The first song I played was “Live Feed”, which at that point was less than a week old.

Which OOTB performers really rock your boat?

I really like most of the acts – I’ve never before been involved with a music night that has so much talent going around. That said, in terms of my own musical tastes, and people who make me think “shit, I wish I’d written that…” my top five (in no order) consists of:
Terry Savostanos
Lindsey Sugden
Neil Pennycook
Jed Milroy
The Victorians

What's the best piece of song writing advice you've ever been given?

“We’re only writing songs – don’t lose sleep over it.” … Steve, the singer / co-writer in my old band.

Who would be in your fantasy band?

I’ve played in bands for years, which is why I’m loving doing solo acoustic stuff again. That said I’m now starting to miss playing my beautiful Les Paul. Actually, I do plan on getting a three piece together in the near(ish) future, and will soon start the difficult process of tracking down a decent bassist and drummer. Ideally, this would be the bassist and drummer from my old band – two of the finest musicians I know and two people who know me inside out – both personally and musically. They are, respectively, my younger brother and the father of my godson. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), both now have families - the first now lives in France and the second in New Zealand.

What's the worst, nails-down-a-blackboard musical experience you've had?

When I was at school I tried learning the violin, and looking back on it, I was able to recreate the sound of fingernails against a blackboard almost perfectly. I practiced diligently every night for nearly five years and don’t think I ever really made much progress. My mother however (a saint, by any standard … even if she was lying through her teeth) always heaped encouragement on me and made me believe I had enormous musical talent. Eventually I swapped the violin for a guitar, which seemed to suit me better. If I do have any degree of ability now, I’d put it squarely down to her and her ability to inspire self belief in her children.

The consumer question: album, book or film you've enjoyed recently?

Album: Easy! Lou Barlow’s new solo album “Emoh”.
Film: I really liked “Sin City” actually.
Book: I’m not reading as often as usual for some reason. Last time I went to my Mum’s though, my 13 year old sister produced one of her books, telling me she thought I might enjoy it if I wanted to borrow it. She’d clearly given this some thought and that brought a bit of a lump to my throat! I would’ve read it cover to cover even if I hadn’t enjoyed it, but as it turns out, I got right into it. It was called “Stormbreaker”, and it’s about a 14 year old boy who becomes a spy.

Who is the funniest person you ever met?

So many to choose from…
For a natural, born funny kinda funny, it would have to be my old mate from Uni, Little Jim. He’s the reason I became “Big Jim” – it was really just to distinguish us. We did a kind of comedy stage duo loosely involving guitars, imaginatively named “The Two Jims”. I think he actually found it difficult to say stuff that wasn’t funny sometimes.
Speaking of which, I’ve been doing some stuff with OOTB funnyman Tommy MacKay recently, in the form of our new supergroup, “Whyte & MacKay”. I swear to god the man’s a genius…

Which of your own songs is your favourite?

Believe it or not, I’ve never given that much thought. At the moment I think of my songs as kind of practice runs – little by little, the more I write the more I like what I’m writing, so I try and keep producing songs in the hope that I’ll eventually come up with the good stuff. That said, I still find it really difficult and write incredibly slowly. At the moment, I enjoy playing “I Found Love” – I like its musical simplicity and the melody’s fun to sing. People often think it’s a song about being gay, because I refer to the other character as “he” – actually the “he” is love itself, and love and I become mates for a while. To my own mind, in this song I kind of rebuke myself for being a shoe-gazing emotional retard. Conveniently the lyric “forgets” to mention the other person in the relationship, who ultimately and unsurprisingly leaves me. I always thought that bit was dead clever.

at OOTB

(May 2004)
Who is Big Jim? Well he did three songs giving a meaty rendition of the disturbing "Live feed" - "pull myself in, make myself small, rearranging myself till I'm hardly there at all". Fragile lyrics on break-ups and push-ups and states of mind and Jerry Springer. Then "Slowpoke" or "Slow Folk" as it has been described in previous reviews, not as you might think about granddads in their Honda Civics but about struggles in relationships. Far away vocals, discords and drama are this songs strengths. The final song 's title escaped me, but by now Jim was creating a warm and mellow atmosphere, exploring ideas on Déjà vu and containing the repeated line "I'd like to get to know you".

(Aug 2004)
Big Jim was the final performer and unashamed back catalogue burglar starting with a song he'd written at the tender age of fourteen. With subject matter like old school pals drinking Thunderbird on a port Glasgow golf course and a title like "Drink the Rain" you know it's going to be good. In fact I don't believe he wrote it at fourteen at all, most likely last week at Prestonfield or the Deer Park. "Penicillin" was allegedly written at eighteen and a half (who was ever eighteen and a half?) maybe he' s telling the truth here as it was about being in love and not being able to tell the person - can happen I suppose. Bored by now with nostalgia Jim ended the night with probably his best song "Slowpoke" a particular favourite of mine, which I hope he'll record soon if he hasn't already. "Best Back Catalogue Revivalist of the Evening" Award.