PSYCHEDELIC HEARTS CLUB

Psychedelic Hearts Club are inspired by The Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album, Cream and other 70’s blues rock bands, the blues of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, and early soul and R&B hits.

They were formed in Brighton in 2015 and after several personnel changes (and a previous fateful Guardian Soulmates internet date in Winchester!) evolved into a duo playing venues and festivals in UK, France & Spain.

Singer and guitarist Simon Tittley started playing at the age of eleven. After a chaotic childhood travelling all over the world he began playing in bands from the age of twelve. After attending drama school in the early seventies he studied with BBC session guitarist Alan Shuttleworth and worked as an actor and guitar player.

In the mid-eighties he worked as a songwriter and producer for WEA International in Bangkok, Thailand. He produced three critically acclaimed albums with Thai artists that received extensive national radio airplay.

Simon was signed to an indie label based near Philadelphia during the early nineties and played all over the East Coast of the USA. Since then he has worked as a producer developing aspiring artists and as a musician in theatre. He has taught guitar, bass and music production professionally since 1994.

Susie Wellings plays keyboards, flute and sings. She was born at London's infamous modernist Dolphin Square landmark. She studied piano and flute as a child. Her father, producer and entrepreneur Bill Wellings, founded the 60’s Hot Hits label.

Susie remembers attending sessions with her dad where top UK session musicians Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page and Elton John played on cover versions of American and international pop hits. The band currently appear as a duo using bass and drum tracks recorded at their Planet Zog studio.

Visit www.psychedelicheartsclub.com for more information about the band and their music.

Paul Gunn musician and composer

Based in Tunbridge Wells, Paul writes music for his five piece band. His personal taste in music includes Latin rhythms, the baroque, the modern era and popular culture of the 60s and 70s. His band is made up of musicians from the four corners of the Commonwealth and Europe. ingénu/e recently quizzed him about his music.

Hi Paul. So, tell us little about yourself and your music.

Music connects people. It has been the most important thing in my life, it offers solace and euphoria. Also beauty and exhilaration in an increasingly ugly world. I am self-taught which means I am probably composing from an unconventional perspective.

On first hearing your music I was reminded of Frank Zappa and other talented 60s bands. It’s extremely difficult to put a label to the sound. You do seem to have many diverse musical influences. Tell us about those and also what are your earliest memories musically?

Thank you for comparing me to Frank Zappa! I have also been compared to Bowie, Rick Wakeman and the Andrew Lloyd-Webber Variations album, so quite a mix. I have always liked the popular culture of the 60s, there seems to have been a freshness and innocence which has been lost.

My earliest musical memory was the Aristocats film. Only now do I realise how significant that cartoon film was for me as a child; the Paris Jazz scene with the cool cats playing riotously in the old house. I suppose I unconsciously wanted to be that. In my 20s I went to study at the Theatre Studio of Gaulier-Pagneux and lived in Montmartre, Rue Lepic where Edith Piaf lived, so I fulfilled my unconscious wish. It was the best of times!

You have assembled a talented set of musicians. Have you gelled quickly or has it been a gradual ‘coming together’ as it were?

I have a five piece band with cello soloist, improvised saxophone, Guyanese drumming and six-string contra-bass with me on piano-vocal. I have been very lucky to play with such amazing musicians: Helen Thomas of LPO on cello, Josephine Davies, UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards Instrumentalist of the Year on sax, David Rohoman (formerly with Ian Dury) on drums and top bass player Leslee Booth. We don’t have much time or resources to practise so it has to happen fast.

Is all your music and lyrics self composed? Or are there pieces created as collaborations?

I write the piano, cello and vocal parts. The sax, drums and bass are left to the musicians' interpretation. Sean Jefferson, who does our visual art, helped me with the lyrics to 'The Dandy Dogs', a story from pre-Christian mythology.

Tell us about ‘The Ludwig Suite’ album.

It has four tracks. 'The Dandy Dogs' has particularly lush vocal harmonies and a gritty cello solo. People would lie in bed at night hearing migrating geese calling and thought they were the Devil’s hunting dogs out to get them. 'Rattle My Cage’ is my response to being locked down; a creative cry for freedom! It features an amazing sax solo by Josephine Davies. ‘Gaby of the Green Eyes’ celebrates the memory of Gaby Lhéry, the lover of Claude Debussy. ‘Ludwig's Nice Bottle of Red’ marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was partial to a snifter. Anastasia Stahlmann guests on violin.

What are your plans and projects for 2023 and onwards?

I am currently negotiating some festival gigs, it would be nice to find an audience for this unusual music. We will go out as Paul Gunn Collective. The Ludwig Suite makes up the first half of an album I would like to finish this year and release on vinyl.

You are invited to purchase it for any price from £0 upwards, it’s up to you. You can find it at www.paulgunn.bandcamp.com.