Music / Get To Know
Get to Know: Classic Trucks
Josh Jarman, the drummer/vocalist in Langkamer who is also one half of indie record label Breakfast Records shares why he’s launched solo project Classic Trucks, what his debut EP Century Songs is about and how a surprise Bristol connection inspired his songwriting.
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I bought a guitar and decided to try to learn how to play.
I had tried twice before but didn’t have the attention span or perseverance. The older I get, the more I understand the power of perseverance. I’m not going to pretend that my attention span isn’t still absolutely terrible. But I do try and take a somewhat monastic approach in certain areas of life.
I wanted to challenge myself.
I like the idea of avoiding complacency, trying to stay creative and progressive. I just want to keep learning new things and keep my brain pliable. Thoreau said (to paraphrase): the core of man’s heart is new experiences. That really stuck with me. When you think about your favourite memories, so often they will be something you’ve done for the first time.
When I had the absolute rudiments down I started writing songs.
It was quite a natural process: I never had any interest in learning other people’s songs. It was also quite a new way of writing for me – more comprehensive and independent than working as part of a band. So the songs started to feel abit different as well – they didn’t have a place in Langkamer.
Everyone creates differently, but most of my best stuff happens pretty quickly.
Any body of work that I labour over for too long tends to grind to a halt. Most songs on the EP came to me fairly easily and fully formed. I wrote Mary Troy, for example, in the time it takes to cycle down Feeder Road.
The story is the most important part for me.
I like the way some songwriters tell stories in roundabout, vague ways – it keeps you coming back because you’re trying to crack the code of their language. I’ve had fun experimenting with the form and learning from my favourite storytellers – like Kerouac, Bill Callahan, Richard Brodigan – in just how opaque their writing can be.
Speaking without trying to think too much about what you’re saying seems a lucid way of working – the thoughts in your head don’t really make sense, they’re not proper sentence structures. I’m trying to leave a little mystery in there.
Place plays a huge role in storytelling.
The setting is integral. With Langkamer there’s been so many place names shoehorned into songs; you’d probably think I’d never left Bristol. But it comes quite naturally to me: usually, at the start of a story or conversation you say, so there I was. And it’s a powerful thing, as well, to omit that information and keep people guessing.
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The EP explores how mental ill health can put a filter between you and the environment.
Whether positive or scary things, your headspace really can frame that experience. There’s been a lot of change in my life over the last few years. It’s interesting to take a step back and think about what you’ve gone through.
There are also references to a family tree that I became fascinated by.
I discovered seven or eight generations of my family, stemming from my mum’s grandmother, lived in Bristol. The thread of that family went back hundreds of years. it was a shock because I was born here, but my parents moved to Bristol from Yorkshire.
There’s a church on the corner of Saint Nick’s by Castle Park that I must have walked past thousands of times, before finding out all these generations of my family grew up around there pre-war when it was a residential area, and were baptised and married there. It fascinated me how strange a coincidence it is. The EP considers the dynamic nature of life, how the smallest change in the wind can blow you one way or the other.
Bristol is a magnet for a certain type of musician.
The ones that end up here are more interested in a close-knit, collaborative nature of living and working – and can’t be bothered to move to London.
It was a real joy connecting with Ryan (Rogers of Mumble Tide) on this record. I owe him a great debt. We didn’t know each other well when he suggested I have a play around at his studio. I was apprehensive but he said don’t worry, it’ll be a super casual thing. Having that space to bring ideas to life was invaluable. That’s emblematic of the community in Bristol. It’s a very nurturing place.
I’m releasing another EP hot on the heels of this one.
There were various offcuts and I knew if I didn’t do something with them promptly, I’d leave them in the fruit bowl to go mouldy. They’re more focused around one of my favourite time-honoured themes: trying to survive under capitalism, being creative while paying the bills. But that’s everyone’s favourite topic isn’t it?!
Century Songs is out now at classictrucks.bandcamp.com/album/century-songs and a second EP is due to be released in July. Classic Trucks play Breakfest at Strange Brew on September 13.
All images: Classic Trucks
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