Craig Hughes A little Q&A with Craig Hughes. On his new record, Pissed Off, Bitter and Willing To Share, he sings, plays guitar, bass and stomps a bit. Tommy Duffin plays drums and some bass, too. Leicester Bangs: Tell us a little about yourself. Craig: I play alt. blues and roots music, think of myself primarily as a guitarist but have seen the dreaded 'singer songwriter' tag applied, not entirely inaccurately... LB: How did you start out making music? Craig: Started playing guitar at around 12 years old.  There was a good scene where I grew up - everything from blues to metal to punk and prog at the same gig, often in the same band.  Sometimes in the same song.  It was a good atmosphere to learn in. LB: Who did you grow up listening to and how do they influence what you’re doing now? Craig: I first showed a real interest in music when I was a wee boy, and I was really into rock 'n' roll and rockabilly.  Loved early Elvis (had a copy of The Sun Collection which my dad gave me the day Elvis died) and at the time Bill Haley was my favourite - my folks took me to a Bill Haley show at a rock'n'roll revival show at The Glasgow Apollo when I was 9 years old.  That did it.  As the years rolled on I went through a lot of fazes, many of which stayed with me, and ended up in an alternative-rock head-space throughout the 90s - Rollins Band, RHCP, Soundgarden and so on.  Now I'm playing primarily solo blues, but it's with that attitude, I think.  The biggest influences on what I do now are probably Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Skip James, Keith Richards and Chuck Berry.  And Lemmy. LB: Tell us about your latest release. Craig: The latest release is my first album, 'Pissed Off, Bitter and Willing to Share', which kind of picks up where the EP 'Broke, Lonely and Guilty' left off. Where the EP was made up of fairly melancholy slide-heavy blues, and was pretty dark stuff all in, the album is a more aggressive and perversely upbeat affair - although lyrically it still draws from the darker side of life. LB: Do you get out and play your music live, and if so, what can an audience expect at one of your shows? Craig: My shows are solo acoustic affairs, but aggressive and full-on - I break a sweat.  I play mostly my own material but occasionally throw in covers by anyone from Robert Johnson and Howlin Wolf - which you might expect - through Kris Kristofferson and Jerry Reed to Motorhead - which you might not. I put on some promotions in Glasgow under the banner That Devil Music, which is me performing with one or two other acts - I prefer to promote myself in the city as there are so many rip-off merchants at work in the live scene, particularly at the grass-roots level where everybody's trying to catch a break. LB: What aspects of playing and recording music do you most enjoy? Craig: There's a school of thought that has the kind of stuff I do down as some kind of catharsis, which probably isn't far off the mark although I think that's more in the writing stage.  Recording can be quite frustrating at times, but there's that great moment when it comes together and you think: cool - that's a proper fucking record, that is! LB: Where can people find (and buy) your music? Craig: The album is out now - the CD is currently available from the Channel Nowhere site and my website, where there's all sorts of other fascinating gubbins to catch your eye, and will be available from CD Baby (CD/download) from the end of November 2009.  CD Baby is handling digital distribution which takes time to roll out - the EP is already available to download from CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, Lala etc., so look out for the album to start appearing on those stores over the next few weeks. You can also check me out on MySpace, YouTube and Last.FM, amongst others. Lots of links: www.craighughes.net www.myspace.com/craighughesmusic www.channelnowhere.com www.cdbaby.com/Artist/CraigHughes http://itunes.apple.com www.amazon.co.uk www.lala.com/ - artist/craig_hughes www.youtube.com/user/CraigHughesMusic Craig Hughes - You Don’t Care At All