VOTE PEDRO DANGER

Interview with Pedro Danger: Bass Player; Guitarist; Singer.

The live music scene in Norwich and Great Yarmouth is hotting up.  After being locked into the chrysalids of bedrooms, apartments, shared houses and student halls, a whole new generation of Norfolk musicians has emerged.  There is so much going on locally it is hard to keep track.


 

The Norfolk-based musicians who used lockdowns to experiment, learn new instruments and fine-tune their skills, are now out and about, playing an almost overwhelming quantity and quality of music.  Naturally some spread their wings and headed to London, but others have returned after finding the capital too expensive, not to their taste, or less collaborative than they knew Norwich to be.

 

For example, this past month I have been made aware of a flock of women musicians calling themselves Murmurations who are bringing an angelic, harmonious element to the local contemporary music scene.  I can’t wait to see them singing and playing at the Norwich Puppet Theatre on 16th May, where they will perform alongside Eliza Delf, and others.  Norwich is vibrant with musicians meeting, collaborating and making new music.  All sorts of places are also prepared to try out as music venues. This is a tremendous place for music lovers to be based these days.

 

The prolonged move of Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom to London Street left a large spindle shaped hole in the city centre music scene for a while, but that has happily been filled by the venue’s re-opening in what is an even more central location.  Voodoo’s is rapidly rebuilding its reputation as a gathering point for local musical talent, who happily mingle with others from touring bands that are passing through.  Voodoo’s has also improved its reputation as a pizza bar, because the seating space has decent light at ground-level, enabling customers to actually see what they are tucking into.  I for one, do like to see what I am eating.  The pizzas are as tasty as ever. 

 

Pedro pic (c) Lewis Gant
A regular face at Voodoo’s is Pedro Danger, he of the Bob Dylan hair c.1966.  He is one of the home delivery riders of Voodoo’s pizzas, but he is much better known for being an enthusiastic supporter of his fellow musicians, contributing a lot more than some very classy bass lines to a variety of groups and musical combinations in the city.  He is regularly working with Gabby RiversKitty Mae and is a key player with the ground-breaking UFO Rodeo.  UFO Rodeo is a new venture that brings together the imaginative powers of musicians from the Molee Shakes, the Silvers and the fuzzy, hairy, loud, melodic, psychedelic Waxx! Pedro can also be found at various open mic nights, jamming in coffee bars, or improvising in impromptu partnerships with buskers, such as “Fingers” Wilson, the accordionist.

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Pedro’s music is his work as a singer-songwriter.  He will happily park his his bass and head out with an equally well-travelled acoustic guitar.  His Onesprout and Lod EPs took me by surprise, because they revealed other aspects of Pedro’s musical abilities, not witnessed elsewhere.  Then there is his singing voice, (also a bass), that comes straight out of peak, late-1960s, jazz-rock-West-Coast-hippydom. Pedro is an exceptional talent.

 

I met with Pedro on May Day for a chat about his musical life and hopes for the future. We sat in the warmth of some late-spring sunshine on a bench outside St Gregory’s.  I wanted to hear where all this musicality is taking him, particularly because I believe he epitomises the musical future of the country. He is a creative talent who identifies as a musician; he does what he has to do to underwrite his music career; he is someone who will not defined by the hourly rates of work on a day / evening / night shift.  Music comes first for Pedro, then how to pay for it follows.

 

Pedro Danger is his Norwich name, his musical name.  The Danger element came with him from his North Yorkshire birthplace. 

 

Coming to Norwich to study maths, Pedro is now determinedly working towards being a professional musician.  He is meeting lots of people, playing at every opportunity in bands, at parties, gigs and impromptu sets.  If anyone should be able to make a good living from music, I vote for Pedro.  I think for the good of us all, becoming a professional musician still has to be possible in the 21st Century, despite the financial debasement of creative talent by the Internet, something the recently withdrawn Apple advertisement unconsciously reinforced.

 

Where does your music come from, Pedro?

 

My grandad had been in the army, based at Catterick.  I am a second, or third generation army brat, brought up on base, but not strictly army.  We just never left the bases to live somewhere outside that environment.  My dad played in a band (The Spunky Boys) that was booked to play at birthdays, weddings and wakes, at all the army bases. We went everywhere, wherever he played.  Music was always important, but it is wasn’t everything. 

 

What did your dad’s band play?

 

They were a Dad-rock covers band.  They played what people knew. 

 

So, did he teach you guitar? 

 

No, my brother and I just were dragged along when he had a gig.  He didn’t teach me to play.  It wasn’t until I got to secondary (school) that I started to learn music.

 

How did you become a bass player?

 

The school wanted everyone to choose an extracurricular activity and at first, I wanted to do skateboarding, as I thought I was good at that in primary, but they only had one battered skateboard.  The music department happened to have four really tatty, well-used double basses.  I thought it would be fun to learn how to play one of those.

 

What happened after that? 

 

Well, I was studying GCSE music and the teachers, who had taught me a lot, began to focus on grades.  I had this idea of writing and performing a grand piece on guitar, an Enrico Morricone-style number.  They kept knocking it back.  I was determined to follow my path. I felt the teachers weren’t listening to what I was doing. They wanted me to write a structured, formulaic piece that was easy to mark.  I was disillusioned with the way exams drove what we were taught.  I wanted to write my own music.  So, I left and went to college.

 

I got together with friends I found there and we formed a band.  We were a Cantina Band like the Star Wars (IV) bar band.  You know all those freaky aliens?  Like them.  We played in the college café, when all the students were eating lunch.

 

With the double bass?

 

Yes.  I stuck with the double bass right through to leaving home, but a double bass is a big thing to lug around.  I had no space to have it with me in rented accommodation.  An electric bass guitar is easier to live with.  Since coming to Norwich, I’ve had the electric bass guitar. 

 

What about singing?  I was surprised by your singing on your L.O.D. EP.  I didn’t think your songs and voice would sound like that.  It’s a jazzy, melodic recording.  When did you start singing?

 

The first time I sang in public I was sixteen.  Some girls were doing an acapella cover of an Adele song and they asked me to make up the numbers for a four-piece.  I did that one song with them.  We didn’t perform together again.  I don’t even know why they asked me.  Perhaps I was the only one they asked who actually said, “Yes.”

 

That was seven years ago.  Since then I have started writing my own songs.

 

Yes, that EP.  Your voice and the music reminded me of the Getz / Gilberto album from 1964 on Verve Records.  You have a great singing voice and the guitar playing is really subtle.  It’s a great recording.  I don’t think anyone would imagine that you would sound like that after seeing you rocking the bass with Vieira and The Silvers.

 

Thank you.  I don’t know that album, but I will look it up.  It’s kind of you to say that about my guitar playing too. 

 

The lead song is a delicate.  A quite beautiful number.  Have you written much solo material?

 

I think I can only write about people that I know.  L.O.D is written about somebody I briefly met who provoked me to write that song.  The guitar playing is simple finger picking that I taught myself.

 

It has been getting some very favourable and justifiable attention. 

 

Yes, it has been well received.  Which is lovely.


 

What has influenced your song writing?

 

I listen to a lot of Bob Dylan and I am a fan of Terry Reid, who has been around for a long time.  He is local to Norfolk and played with Peter Jay & The Jay Walkers.  They toured with The Rolling Stones when they first made it big.  Terry was friends with Jimmy Page.  It’s said he was going to front Led Zeppelin, until Robert Plant came along. 

 

I have started writing with two guys from Suds.  Writing as a trio is different.  We are writing big songs.  We are working through, learning how to go with the flow and learning how to say ‘no’ to each other when bits don’t fit.  There has to be compromise, but is balanced with the quality of the music.  It is important that we work to the same end.  I love it. 

 

When we met a few months ago, you told me that you were going to try and earn a living as a musician full-time.  How is that going?

 

I see myself as a musician. It's what I am.  I work at Voodoo's so I can play music.  The more I do musically, the less I will need to work at a job.  I only want work that is flexible and helps pay me to be a musician.

 

How are things working out?

 

Well, I have moved to Great Yarmouth now, so I can afford somewhere to live.  I come up to Norwich to work at Voodoo’s a few evenings a week, then make sure the rest of my life is about music.

 

I have played in sessions with about twelve bands, for a little money.  When I do a gig with someone I get my peanuts, after accounting for all the time spent rehearsing.   Studio recording sessions are better. When I am asked to play as a session bassist, the PRS rates kick in and that’s okay. 

 

What about musical projects of your own?

 

Sam Eagle, (a local singer featured on the recent Lowell Records compilation vinyl LP “The Bitter End") approached me during a Robin Evans Esq. / Voodoo’s open mic  night and we did five shows as part of the 2023 Science Festival.  We are going to play with Jake Taylor on drums at Wildfields and other shows this summer.  I am playing Red Rooster with UFO Rodeo at the end of May too. 

 

How is the UFO Rodeo band going?

 

It’s a great working with Gavin Bowers and the others.  We are creating something good.  I will have to see where that goes, but it's nice to be working with a dedicated, professional band.



The Pedro Danger extrovert character seen on stage with Vieira and The Silvers is not apparent in your own songs and performers.  Your voice, acoustic guitar playing and the love songs, are not what I expected to hear, having seen you with shirt-off, standing on Nik Booty’s bass drum and rocking out.

 

That is what happens on stage.  I am a shy lad from Northallerton, until I jump on stage.

 

by the way, the Silvers thing, as far as I am concerned, is finished.  The LP is done.  No more tweaking.  It was great to be involved at the peak, but it’s behind me.  My priority is to develop my own music career.

 

As we sat there with the flint wall of St Gregory’s reflecting back the Sun’s heat, we had been talking with half an ear on the accordion and penny whistle playing of Fingers Wilson one of the regular and highly-talented Norwich buskers.  Pedro told me that another local busker Henry Lewis Spencer (no relation) has influenced his attitude to life as a musician.  Apparently Henry comes to Norwich from time-to-time, plays his music for a few months, then heads off on his travels again, until the next time.

 

I would love to go to Spain.  Just take my guitar and head off.  Now I have finished the mathematics, there is nothing to stop me.  I am twenty-three. 

 

With a guitar and its hard-case, there should be nothing to stop Pedro heading south to Spain for a while.  He has the talent to play in any number of bands, whether on a hired double bass, electric bass guitar, or his acoustic guitar.  If the sums aren’t quite adding up here yet, sometime on the continent is an exciting prospect for him.


For now, Pedro Danger has more than enough to keep him busy here.  He has a clear vision of becoming a musician who takes a basic job to make ends meet.  His focus is completely on his music.  He is an undoubtedly gifted musician, who is always in welcomed by his contemporaries.  His dedication to music reminds me of artists I have met in other disciplines, such as painting and photography.  Their long-term success came from total dedication to their art, taking every spare moment to learn more about their specialism.  Pedro has that focus on music.


Which is why I feel Pedro Danger epitomises the future of music in this country.  Quite simply, this easy-going, personable musician puts his music above all else.  That can be the only path to follow.  The mundane reality of our everyday existence can only be enriched by such dedicated artists.  


If you need a damn fine professional bass player for session work, or to tour with your band, vote Pedro.


To contact Pedro Danger please use Instagram @pedrodangermusic


 Interview by Spencer Ide

11th May 2024

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