Photo by John Patrick Gatta
After traveling hundreds of miles to play the first seven dates of the first leg of the Rhythm Devils summer tour, the members take a break from the press and sleep in. This includes 23 year old Davy Knowles who has made a distinct impression with a ferocious blues guitar that nods to his predecessors yet maintains his own singular style.
“It’s been pretty intensive,” said Knowles two days later when I get him on the phone just as the tour bus heads off to San Diego. “We came out of rehearsals and straight away on the road for three weeks. There’s a lot of travel, there’s a lot of not sleeping as well, but it’s been an awful lot of fun.
Although he apologizes for his state of mind, the exuberant Knowles is quite coherent. “This is monumentally early for me, I’m afraid. Little bit groggy and sleepy and not quite with it. (laughs) If we get up early and go to the hotel. I try to stay in my bunk as long as I can.”
Knowles discovered music as a pre-teen and, as a quick learner, began playing in his homeland, the Isle of Man, located between Ireland and Great Britain. The death of a friend encouraged him to make more of each moment and pursue music with all the passion that’s now found on the two albums by the band he fronts, Back Door Slam, and in the group’s live performances. Fortunately, his enthusiasm and obsessive interest in his work also marks a young musician who has toured the world and shared stages with Gov’t Mule, the Who, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy and Chickenfoot butalso has remained grounded. For him getting on the bus with the Rhythm Devils is just another step in the learning process of a career musician.
JPG: Before we talk about the Rhythm Devils I want to step back and let you know I first saw you play at last summer’s ROTHBURY Festival. People told me to check you out. I happened to be walking towards the Sherwood Court Stage and I must say I was quite impressed. It was blues rock but there was a degree of freshness to it.
DK: Thank you very much. Thank You. That was a fun festival. A different breed of festival. It was wonderful.
JPG: Were you able to stick around that evening and see the Sherwood Forest?
DK: Yeah, where they light up all of the forest. That was beautiful. We left fairly early, but we got to do that.
JPG: When you hear a lot of electric blues players one thinks of someone like B.B. King or Stevie Ray Vaughan or Robert Cray. But while I could hear an echo in there with you, it seemed that you were taking it somewhere else. Is it a conscious thing or natural?
DK: Absolutely, it’s a conscious thing. I have nothing but respect for people like Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King and the people who have gone before and have really done incredible things. They’re heroes, but the fact is no one wants to hear someone just go out and religiously copy that. That’s not a gratifying thing to do, to go out and religiously copy, so I think it’s important to combine your influences and try and make something more of it. Try and put your own spin on it. See, who influenced me is a guy called Rory Gallagher. I grew up in a great Celtic place and when I hear him play guitar —- he was Irish — and to hear him playing jigs and reels and that was the first time that I realized that you can combine the blues with different things that you grew up with, and that was a really cool thing.
JPG: I love Rory Gallagher! Have just about everything he’s put out and I was lucky enough to see him at a small club in Cleveland. It’s nice to see that his stature is slowly growing. In talking about Rory you alluded to growing up on the Isle of Man, so let’s go back to the beginning. I was reading in your bio how you were turned onto music when you heard Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.” How does someone listening to that become the fiery blues guitarist who has more in common with Rory or Steve Ray than then the tasteful style of Mark Knopfler.
DK: Well, that was the thing that first got me going. I was 11 years old. That was just the thing, that rapid fire guitar break at the end. I just became obsessed with Dire Straits, but after about a year I think my parents got a little bit pissed off hearing Dire Straits all the time. They wanted me to switch to something else. My dad had John Mayall, the Bluesbreakers records with Eric Clapton, with Peter Green, with Mick Taylor. So, I was hearing that stuff. The first one I heard was the Eric Clapton “Beano” album. It was nicknamed the “Beano” album. Eric Clapton was reading a “Beano” on the front of it. The comic strip.
It had this Otis Rush song and then there was Freddie King, there was Ray Charles on it. All of those songs by different people. I read the liner notes and said, ‘Hey, this song was written by Ray Charles. I like this song, maybe I should listen to Ray Charles or this song was written by Freddie King. I’ll listen to Freddie King.’ And it kind of happened like that, more and more and more. I just got deep into blues from there; all the way back to the Alan Lomax stuff with the Library of Congress field recordings. I just became completely obsessed with it. Still am. Love it. Love the local folklore behind it, too. Every folk music has a story whether it’s wonderful or awful. And more often than not it’s awful. But it’s massively interesting. That’s what I like.
JPG: Listening to you go deeper and deeper into the history of the blues, it’s interesting, and maybe it’s a result of you being on one side of the Atlantic and those of us being on the other side. I think about that because I interviewed Joe Bonamassa years ago and he said that his style developed with a different flavor to because he was influenced by the English blues rock acts and English blues players such as Clapton.
DK: Yeah, the basis of that, a lot of the Chicago blues, a lot of the Texas blues I think they’re trying to copy it and got it wrong and at the same time got it right. It was more aggressive and that appeals to guitar players somehow. That’s one of the reasons.
JPG: There’s a more rock ‘n’ roll flair to it. So you started listening to music at 11 and then put together a version of Back Door Slam at 16?
DK: I started playing every weekend from when I was about 12. I got right out there, but it was always with people older than me. I just went around various kinds of blues bands around the island. I had a little band and we played at an annual blues festival. Stuff like that. Really kind of got going then. It was pretty much about a year before I first started gigging.
With Back Door Slam we just pulled out of school to do something for the battle of the bands. I was playing a lot with people and I wanted to start singing. It was that kind of thing.
JPG: You were so determined creatively, and then it took off so quickly. Were your parents musically inclined or was is this some recessive gene in your family tree that exploded?
DK: My dad played guitar. He finger-paints. He was into that, but not professionally. He was a deep sea diver and my mum was a teacher. There wasn’t a huge musical thing there. Music was always about though.
JPG: Do you have any idea where you got it from?
DK: Absolutely no idea. My sister is a wonderful, wonderful artist. It must have been a recessive gene. She can do pencil drawings you swear were photos. Wonderful with oils too and she’s really cool. We both don’t really know where it came from.
JPG: During those early days did your parents travel with you, did you have a guardian or were you mostly on your own?
DK: Well, we were gigging on the Isle of Man at 16, so we could gig in the pubs and it would be fine. Then, it was pretty awful. We lost our rhythm guitar player, another one of friends in a car crash. He was 17. That put things on hold for awhile. Really, that spurred me on to take it a little bit more seriously. After high school I moved out and over on to the mainland at 18 with my manager who I had met at 16. I moved over to England and stayed there for awhile. Then, that bass player left. He decided it wasn’t for him. That’s when we got Adam Jones in. He was the original in the band that we took over to the states.
JPG: I know that other guitarists such as Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Derek Trucks, when they were younger they were accompanied by one or both of their parents just to make sure that they weren’t taken advantage of.
DK: I have a manager who I have known since I was 16. And when I started touring at 19, absolutely I had that. He’s like a second father to me. He’s wonderful. I was lucky to get involved with the right people early on.
It’s funny you say that about Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang and what have you, everyone started young. Actually, the blues has this misconception that it’s old man’s music. Listen to Eric Clapton, when he was doing stuff with John Mayall he was 20, 21. When he was in the Yardbirds he was younger than that. Buddy Guy, when he was a session musician for Chess records and the Chicago scene, he was a teenager. The blues has always been something that people have started out with young from a long time ago. Robert Johnson died when he was, what, 27? It’s got a bit of a misconception that…it’s not a novelty anymore for young people to play the blues or it shouldn’t be.
JPG: Probably, at the time that they came up, the blues; most famous artists – Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy to name a few –were adults. Then, a new breed came in and everybody was like, ‘What?!?’
DK: Absolutely. That’s probably how Muddy Waters felt when Eric Clapton was coming out, Peter Green and what have you.
JPG: Speaking of one generation to the next, on your second album, Coming Up for Air, you were produced by and co-wrote with Peter Frampton. I read that it was simply a matter that you put the word out that you were willing to work on material with him.
DK: We have a mutual friend in Nashville. He was like, ‘Peter’s about town and co-writes. I thought I’d stick your name in the hat.’ ‘Absolutely great, I’d love to.’ Not expecting to hear anything. And then probably six months to a year later probably, I got a phone call from Peter saying he checked out my stuff and he really liked it and would I like to work on some songs. It was just incredible. I didn’t think that was going to happen. When we got in the room together, it was interesting; it was just a wonderful connection. He’s such a wonderful guy and we got on personally so well. The songs just really came out. We wrote three songs together, two of which went on the album. It was just wonderful. Really wonderful.
We wrote “Keep on Searchin’” and “You Can’t Take This Back” together. I was really stoked about that. We’re both guitar geeks. We were talking about sounds and I was thinking, ‘This guy’s describing how I want my album to sound.’ So, I asked him if he’d be up to producing. He jumped at it. It was wonderful. Really came together great.
JPG: Working with him was a great time for you on an artistic level, but on a personal level, he’s somebody that for years, you listened to his material and see how he plays, and it’s obvious that he was somebody who just wanted to just play guitar. Suddenly, his career exploded with Frampton Comes Alive and having to deal with not only that but a commercial downturn afterwards. Did you offer any advice or did you pick up on anything from him?
DK: Just being in the same room as Peter was a lot of an education. He’s been through an awful lot and then he’s a wonderful person for it as well. He’s a really nice guy. I think one of the biggest things he said that a lot of the mistakes that happened with his career were because he was listening to other people when he probably should have been listening to himself. He was very keen to say, ‘Make sure you do what feels right and not what people breathing down your neck….’ Trust your instincts.
JPG: When you worked with Frampton you were living in Los Angeles. Are you still there?
DK: I live in Chicago. Pretty soon after we finished the album, I moved there. I love it. I much prefer it there. L.A., it works for some people but it didn’t work for me. I wanted to move there because it was so glitzy and so far away from what I grew up with, then as soon as I got there I thought, ‘Oh no, what have I done?’ (laughs) I moved to Chicago which is actually where my girlfriend is from, born and bred there. I absolutely adore living there. It’s such a wonderful town.
JPG: I never felt really comfortable in the L.A. area. I’m not much of an LA/Southern California person. I can’t understand English musicians moving there.
DK: I think a lot of it is because it’s so far away from that part of the world, and it’s palm trees, beach, slick, glamour kind of thing. I would say it works for a lot of people and it’s wonderful for a lot of people, but I absolutely hated it. Absolutely didn’t enjoy it one bit.
JPG: You’ve played on a number of other tours, opening for some amazing people and getting to jam with some of them. I’m looking at Gov’t Mule, Chickenfoot and my absolute favorite guitarist, Jeff Beck.
DK: I’ve been very, very lucky.
JPG: Were there specific things that you pulled from those opportunities?
DK: The Jeff Beck Tour, unfortunately, wasn’t a big education. It was a solo acoustic tour for me. It was fun going out there and doing something different, trying to play acoustic and hold the crowd that way. To be honest, Jeff Beck’s crew was less than friendly towards me. I never got soundcheck. The crew kind of made sure that there’s no interaction. So, I got to speak to Jeff twice in the month long tour. I never really got anything from that and it was disappointing. But in the same term, it’s my job as opener to stay away and make sure I do my job and get out of the way.
With Gov’t Mule it was one of the biggest educations for me. I was getting a bit of a big head at the time, ‘Yeah, I’m out in the States playing guitar. I’m getting pretty good at this. Record Deal, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ The first night I saw Gov’t Mule was Halloween and they played two hours of their own stuff. I thought, ‘Holy crap! That was incredible.’ They took a break and then played an hour-and-a half of straight Pink Floyd. I was just shot right down thinking, ‘Oh my God. That’s how you do it. That’s how you play guitar. That’s how you sing. That’s how you write songs.’ It was just incredible, and that was a big thing for me. And Warren, every single night would push me and push me and push me to the point where they’d invite me up onstage wouldn’t tell me what key I was in, what song they were doing, nothing. I just had to follow along in front of 2,000 people. It was absolutely brilliant! It was a great kick up the ass that I really needed.
And with Chickenfoot, those guys going out there and doing it for all the right reasons. They’re not doing it to try and change music. They’re going out there because 30 years of their career or however long is their career they still have fun and they want to have fun and that’s what I learned from that is that you just got to go out there and entertain and have a great time. And that rubs off. They went out there and they did it for all of the right reasons. And that’s what I love and that’s what I hope I’m doing. When I’m at 50, I’d love to be doing the same thing.
JPG: Bringing matters up to your current tour. There’s the impression gained from seeing you at ROTHBURY and understanding how you could easily fit in with Gov’t Mule. How does the Rhythm Devils fit into this because it seems like a different area for you?
DK: It’s absolutely a different area. Wonderful. It’s something completely different. Not a world away from what I was doing but still it’s just a huge education. It’s fantastic. (Mickey Hart walks by and says, “Tell him how you met Mickey Hart and your whole career fell apart.”) (laughs).
The first time I met Mickey it was amazing. Me and my tech had driven down from Seattle. We’d just driven like 14 hours straight. We pull up to Mickey’s ranch and we end up seeing Mickey just coming out of the house and we have food on the top of Grateful Dead road cases. We ate dinner on the top of all these old Dead road cases. It was really cool.
JPG: How did you end up getting the call to do this?
DK: I’m not altogether that sure. I think it came from Mickey’s manager had seen me in Boulder a couple years ago. I think that. I just got a phone call from my agent saying, ‘Would you be interested in doing this?’ ‘Of course. Abso-fuckin’-lutely.’ It just came out of the blue. Wonderful.
JPG: It’s funny that you gave an ‘abso-fuckin’-lutely’ because I wondered if there would be even a tiny bit of hesitation, thinking about what you were going to get yourself into.
DK: I think that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to keep pushing yourself and pushing yourself and throw yourself into unexpected circumstances. I think that’s how you learn. Either you learn, I don’t ever want to do that again or like this, you learn ‘Wow, I’ve really pushed myself and I’m a better musician because of it.’ If you never take chances I don’t think you ever get anything out of it.
JPG: With the rehearsals and the nine dates you’ve done so far, with the material that you’re doing — Grateful Dead songs and new Robert Hunter songs — what are you learning about yourself and what are you learning the Grateful Dead music that you didn’t realize before you got here?
DK: Well, first, this massive library. Obviously, I’ve heard of the Grateful Dead. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t. I’ve heard tracks. I liked it, but I’ve never actually delved deeply into it. Become a Deadhead. Now I’ve just found this huge body of wonderful, wonderful music that I hadn’t found before. And then I’ve heard Jerry Garcia properly now. I just realized what a genius guitar player that guy was. Just incredible. From a purely technical point of view, I’ve had to go back and learn a lot of the stuff Jerry was playing. That’s expanded how I play now and, obviously, I want to take what we were talking about before — paying tribute, but not copy. So, there’s that aspect of it and from a songwriting point-of-view too, I mean, in stuff like “So Many Roads,” “Ship of Fools” and songs like that those are just heartbreaking beautiful. I’ve just been exposed to this whole new body of music that is very different from what I was used to and that’s just a wonderful thing for me.
JPG: As far as taking it in another place, when you listen to him and think about his background there’s a bluegrass root to his style…
DK: Yeah!
JPG: …whereas you’re coming from a blues root in your style.
DK: Absolutely. Well, he was a banjo player, wasn’t he?
JPG: Yes.
DK: And you can hear that in his guitar playing, not a lot of string bending. Wow. It’s very different. It’s made me change tack a little bit or try to incorporate that into what I’m doing. Honestly, I was talking about Gov’t Mule but this is just as much a huge kick up the ass. It’s wonderful to sit down and learn and listen. It really is.
JPG: I heard a stream on archive.org of the July 17th Horning’s Hideout show where you’re singing “Not Fade Away.” What else are you singing?
DK: Quite a few. I love doing “So Many Roads,” “Ship of Fools,” stuff like that. What’s really nice is Keller [Williams] is doing some of the bluesy stuff, too; try and change things up. Keller’s used to the bluegrass thing more than I am but stuff like “Cumberland Blues,” we’re splitting down the middle, “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” I think I’m singing that one. He’s doing stuff like “Easy Wind,” which is really cool to hear him sing that, and “New Speedway Boogie.”
JPG: Well, you know, Keller’s a Deadhead so he’ll already knew all the lyrics…
DK: Oh, absolutely. He’s been great. He’s been able to teach.
JPG: Now, you’re working with Keller on this leg of the tour and then with Tim Bluhm of Mother Hips on the second leg. For someone who normally leads his own band how do you adapt to sharing vocal duties as well as what else is going on?
DK: The hardest thing for me is definitely harmonies. I’ve never sung harmonies before, ever, because I’ve always been the only singer in the band or not singing at all. I can cope, sharing the vocals is great. It’s wonderful. I can sit back and play guitar and really concentrate and knuckle down on that without having to tap my head and rub my belly. With harmonies I’ve never had to do it before so this is, again, another wonderful learning curve. Keller has been great in teaching me that as has Tim. So, that’s one thing I’m still feeling my way around. I’m sure there are some really terrible moments at that Horning’s Hideout show, harmony-wise, probably everything-wise on my part (slight laugh). But, it’s definitely a huge learning curve.
JPG: This is related to another thing I wanted to bring up. When you’re with your own band you can tear it up live, but here in this situation you have to be more aware of what’s going on.
DK: It’s definitely something that I’m going to take back and apply with my band. The wonderful thing that I’ve learned is that jamming something out doesn’t necessarily mean soloing (laughs). That was how I first took it. And Mickey and Bill and Keller and Sikiru [Adepoju] too, they’ve all helped me with that and the fact that you can play parts or solo or play guitar and stretch something out without it being just one gigantic solo. You can all play together and that’s a wonderful thing when that happens. On a good night everyone is playing together and it really feels right. That is a really great thing. I’ll be taking that back with me.
Also, tonally this is very different from my band. Normally, I’ve gone ahead with a straight overdriven amp, not a lot of pedals but with this you’ve got a chance to branch out and try different sounds, try different things to make it more interesting. And again, that’s something that I’m going to take back and apply with the band. And I’m having such a great time doing it.
JPG: In that sense do you need to pay more attention to Mickey or Keller or everybody?
DK: You have to be on your toes and you have to listen and watch and be attentive or get lost and left behind. It’s such an interactive thing you can’t be on your own.
JPG: For 2010 the Rhythm Devils tour runs through mid-September, what happens to you after that. Back to Back Door Slam?
DK: After this run I’m going to go out and do a quick European thing. I think we have a gig in Amsterdam with Joe Satriani and we’re going to put some dates around that. I’d love to start recording another album soon. Got lots of new material poking about, so it would be nice to do that. But I’m addicted to the road. I love touring. Absolutely love it. I’d like to get back out there as soon as possible.
