There’s an old Irish saying about some things being easy listening and hard going. One such easy-on-the-ears and tough-on-the-trail entity has always been pain. We are soothed by the blues because it is the howl of someone else’s eminent hardship, mirroring and giving voice to our own without our having to walk the downtrodden dirt road ourselves – the perfect cake and eat-it-too scenario. Intense pain of any kind, emotional or physical, very frequently leaves no room for contemplation. It is notorious for constructing an involuntary hermit kingdom around its constituents and enforcing an inherent loss of connection to the outside world, as well as a subconscious feeling of ostracization that is wrought by living through something in real-time, right in front of other people’s faces, that is largely invisible to them but all-encompassing to you. As even pain inflicted by identical wounds or idiopathic diseases will be experienced by each individual person in a different way, formal expressions of pain (real or imagined) can produce memorable, monumental poses in many attention-seeking types. On the opposite end of the spectrum is a musician like Manchester-based Jason Hughes, and his first his solo project aptly named The Painkillers, wherein the torn canvas pain can make of a singular life has been transmuted into a sonic tapestry that functions as both sedative and animus.
With Sit Down, a collection of nine unventilated wound-tunes that will leave you smarting in the most productive possible way, Hughes has written a shared killfile of a love letter to the loneliness of our singular encounters with pain, and the rubble and dust it quickly makes of our sensory awareness across the board. Sit Down is an album in the guise of a daydream. It toggles deliberately between poetry and the differential diagnosis Hughes has given himself, meant to neutralize his own worries and those of his loved ones. Pain is pearlized here, and topped by a belvedere – a garden in Hell. Even on freestanding singles such as “Bomb,” it is evident that Hughes can analyze as rapidly and effectively as he can rhapsodize – one of the rarest dichotomies you’ll find in any person, much less any artist.
Trying to explain what hurts you to another person can feel very like falling uphill at the best of times. The Painkillers came about because Hughes was navigating one of the more untenable truths of lingering malady – the way your body may be more stationary or endure newfound limitations while this incites the opposite response in your mind. Your exterior may stay still or go fewer places, but your internal self will travel like a blizzard gathering force – and everywhere.
How we acclimatize ourselves to that which we cannot alter or govern in our daily lives—and that which crushes us like a bundle of sticks but we bear alone—says much about our characters. The Painkillers sculpt injury and affliction into something muted and confessional, like falling water. It is a kind of radical reverie on the reductions and ruminations instituted by staid stings and stitches – and it is also a provocative argument in favor of the beautiful nettle of ache-won insight, the invaluable reward of survival.
If you are sick to fits of the whole idea of lockdown records, try a record that will make you want to stay in your room by yourself and listen on repeat for a few days. Sit Down is not the artificial warmth of an exotic plant kept in a glasshouse winter garden, but rather a travelogue of trauma tipped in quivering mercury, silent suffering set aglow.The fact that you can buy the record on floppy discs (for Mab’s sake!) is the ultimate pink angora wrapped artfully around this gnarly season.
Some writers here at QRO who may or may not walk every street in search of Gallaghers and Roses made of Stone will use absolutely any available excuse to connect with the magic that is Manchester, England. So, when the chance arose to digi-hang with Jason Hughes and get the breakdown on Sit Down, we totally name-dropped Swing Out Sister and jumped straight on Zoom, blasting some Buzzcocks in the background for good measure too! Read on to take in our conversation with Jason on everything from the complexities of seeking musical simplicity to the social versus physical torments of being embroiled in chronic pain, all the way to the reason you may need to sing in your car more often than you are currently doing.
QRO: Good to see you, sir! I’m delighted that you had time to chat with us today because you’ve knocked me out with your latest recordings!
Jason Hughes: Great to meet you, thanks for having me. This is exciting!
QRO: For me too, I assure you! I’d love to get a little background on how you got to this current record. Would you be able to brief us on your musical history, and how long and in what capacity you have been playing?
JH: Yeah, I’ve been playing the guitar since I was tiny. I think that started because my sister was having piano lessons and I was bored during that time, so I ended up getting guitar lessons. I was classically trained for about six years, I think. Then, I did all my grades and stuff – and then I found out about the blues and I bought an electric guitar and it’s all been downhill! (laughs)
QRO: (laughs) Ah, I love it! The blues took you down the rock-n-roll highway, as it always does, my friend! So, is this your first release ever?
JH: On my own, yes. I’ve been in bands forever and am in another band at the moment. We’ve just finished writing and recording our album. I play bass in that band.
QRO: Nothing more useful than a multi-instrumentalist, says I!
JH: Well, I play guitar, bass, and a little bit of piano…(laughs)
QRO: Love it. Which of them do you tend to write on?
JH: It’s either the guitar or bass. I use Logic to make my drum beats, so everything on The Painkillers album I’ve programmed. I do that and get the bass going and kind of just jam with myself.
QRO: I find it fascinating and cool to think of you encountering your melodies for the first time in the bass clef.
JH: I tend to record rhythm and bass, then I’ll take it out to the car. I’ll just put it on the radio and I’ll sing in the car, and if it sticks I’ll sing it into my phone or whatever, and it just grows from that, really.
I tried writing music on my own just slightly before lockdown started, but it sort of bummed me out because I thought, “I’m never going to gig this.” But then this year, I feel that I’m in a better place, mentally, to do music.
QRO: I love that you do the car test because not only is that where I think a lot of people listen to most of their daily music, but also because if a song doesn’t sound good in the car, you already know something about it isn’t up to snuff! It sounds like you have music pretty much pouring out of you in all sorts of ways, Jason. What made you decide that you were going to release this Painkillers record at this time?
JH: I used to be able to gig as a musician but I can’t now because I’ve had surgery on my back and it has limited me in terms of what I can and cannot do, physically. I tried writing music on my own just slightly before lockdown started, but it sort of bummed me out because I thought, “I’m never going to gig this.” But then this year, I feel that I’m in a better place, mentally, to do music.
I wrote “Night And Day” about my other half, and driving back from her house is when I came up with the vocal melody. From there it just snowballed, I started really writing music, and ended up with nine songs. I thought, “Well, that’s enough for an album so I’ll stick it out and see what people think.” I wasn’t expecting anything, to be honest. I just thought I’d put it out, put it on Twitter, and a few people might like it. Loads of people have told me they like it, and I’ve been selling merch and all kinds of stuff.
QRO: You might be surprised, but I’m not! I think it’s the authenticity that’s speaking to people, to be frank with you. For myself, I won’t listen to anything in which I cannot smell the truth. That can be any format at all, and it can occur bright as neon or quietly flickering like low candles, but it has to be there. I believe what people are hearing in your music, Jason, is an immense amount of necessary truth. People respond to that and will continue to do so. Which leads right into my next question: where do you want to take this project? What’s the dream here?
JH: To be honest, I feel like I’m kind of old now. I’m 40 so I keep thinking that I’m past the age….
QRO: I will absolutely tap your chin with my wee fist through this screen, sir. I’m 44! (laughs)
JH: (laughs) Well, I suppose you don’t feel like you did when you were 20, for me I guess! You don’t think, “Yeah, I’m going to gig and be famous.” But what I’ve had off of this so far, just selling the CDs that I have and such, it’s been great but I hadn’t really thought of this in career terms before. I’m just trying to be realistic and I don’t really see myself selling loads of songs and albums or anything. My other band, they’re going to be gigging and I might be able to go and do a bit of that with them, but just good feedback and selling a couple of The Painkillers CDs has made me really happy so far.
QRO: Do you know what I call that statement you just made right there? I call it “Famous Last Words!” (laughs) Because when I talk to you next and you tell me you’re at 100,00 records, I’ll go, “Remember that time you said…” Tempting fate, Jason, but in a good way! So, let’s say the good feedback continues, will you continue creating under this moniker and do you foresee expanding the project at all?
JH: Oh yeah, definitely! I’ve been thinking of maybe doing a couple of singles off the album and doing some B-Sides because I’ve got some other songs and ideas that I want to put together, so I can see some future releases. Then, I’ll just work toward doing another album because when I get in the zone of “I’m going to make some music,” I can’t stop. I’ll have these ups and downs where I’ll go from not making any music at all, then I’ll just go mad and end up with like nine songs, so I’m definitely planning to give it another go.
I’ve spent years in bands when I was younger, trying to come up with prog-rock classics with 10-minute solos, but I’m at the place now where I know that simple is just as good as anything else.
QRO: I’m so glad to hear this because your first try being this good tells me that you’ve got a lot more music in you and that it’s likely to outrun your expectation as the snowball continues. I can also absolutely hear your music making its way into the cooler, more hip television shows that actively hunt out lo-fi lushness like this – shows like Sex Education and Euphoria in particular. Have you thought about publishing or livestreaming?
JH: Yeah, I’d love to get into publishing next. I’ve also thought about messing about with Twitch and doing some sort of live stuff. I’ve been working on some acoustic stuff where I could program bits of the songs to come in and out.
QRO: That would be lovely to see and hear, and I think that would be a fabulous way for this must-hear music to be experienced in new ways. What about influences – who is in your head as you’re creating this subterranean sound world?
JH: Well, I don’t really listen to too much contemporary music. I’m a huge Hendrix fan. I love the ‘60s and ‘70s, so anything like The Doors, Bowie, and that kind of stuff. That’s my go-to music. I’m a big fan of the early punk days. People have said that they hear a bit of Joy Division in what I do, and I love them as well. I love the simplicity of their music.
I’ve spent years in bands when I was younger, trying to come up with prog-rock classics with 10-minute solos, but I’m at the place now where I know that simple is just as good as anything else. If you can get it right – get the right melody or hook – you know that that’s something people are going to want to listen to. So, I’ve tried to take it down this avenue but I’ve also tried to add as much as I can like with the lead guitars and the cool drum fills that have taken me hours to figure out how to do.
I guess I’m still trying to show off in certain areas, but I’m probably just a little bit more clever where I do it these days rather than, “Look at me!” (laughs) I’ve done that! It’s great and it works, but I just love the simplicity and even some of the repetitive things you get as well, like repeated melodies, that get stuck in your head in a good way. That’s what you want, really, isn’t it?
QRO: For sure and certain! And to do it in the way that you’ve done, which is that I see you using this stripped-back format but the lyrics and the melodies are counterbalancing because you’re talking about some fairly serious things, to my ear. You know, you’re not singing about flowers in the field; it’s some heavyweight material done in a way that is very ear-friendly.
That’s a tried and true equation, whether you’re talking about Nile Rodgers, Bowie, Hendrix – that’s what they all did. I do hear the Joy Division and the New Order in your work – the melancholy. Not necessarily even their sound, just the way it makes you feel. I love any artist that knocks all of the way things have been done right off the table.
JH: Yeah, I think that’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it, as a performer.
QRO: No doubt, and I worry endlessly about how short we’re getting on people who can actually do that. When you said you didn’t listen to a lot of contemporary artists, that was you being characteristically U.K. polite and I’m about to be predictably American crass and say, “That’s because there’s barely anything to listen to, comparatively speaking.” You and I grew up in a time when you could turn any radio dial and hear legend after legend after legend, in all genres. Now, you have to curate that experience for a kid to even know about the bands that built history with their bare hands.
JH: Yes, I know what you mean; I’ve got four kids.
QRO: Holy wow, so you’re a working Dad on top of all of the rest of this that you’re doing. That’s extremely impressive.
JH: It is hard work but it’s so rewarding. My oldest daughter is going to university for sound engineering and all of my kids have grown up with me going, “Listen to this!” and telling them why they should be listening to it. When they get in the car with their playlists, you’ve got to be able to really go, “Hang on a minute, this is better.”
The monotony of having that same conversation, I wanted to try to get that into the song – you know, it’s always going to hurt kind of a thing.
QRO: I am forever relentlessly hopeful that the next true musical revolutionary is going to appear – and they really can come from anywhere at all so I’m vigilantly scanning the horizon at all times! That is why, when I encounter music like yours that is truthful and unique, that’s all I’m ever really wanting to find. I think that’s all any real listener wants, so I just want to encourage you to continue your momentum because it’s no accident that people are taking notice.
JH: From all this happening that I never expected, I’m definitely going to be a bit more confident in what I’m doing and get it out there.
QRO: You’re also in one of the best music cities in the entire world, don’t forget – Manchester! So many groundbreaking and iconic bands we couldn’t even list them all if we had the rest of the year to do it!
JH: Oh yeah, and I’ve been lucky enough to play in all of the cool venues where people like Oasis and The Happy Mondays played out, and I managed to do that before they shut them all down! (laughs)
QRO: Man, I would be able to just call myself a success right there, if I did nothing else at all – soaking in the magic those bands left in the walls! There are people who think such things are the “small things” in life.” They’re actually just the opposite – following in the footsteps of your heroes is as big as it gets! Speaking of superstars, which tracks on this album are you most proud of and why?
JH: I really like “Night and Day” because I think that’s one of the ones where I was really pushing to keep it simple. As I was saying, I was driving back from my girlfriend’s and, as soon as I left, obviously, I started to miss her so I thought about how I could get that into the lyrics. I really like that song, just thinking about what it is that I miss about being with her, putting that out there, and trying to put that simply. I find that difficult, trying to break that down to just a couple of words and syllables. That’s probably harder than writing the music, I find.
Then, I like Track 4, the “Oxytocin” song. Since I’ve had surgery a couple of years ago, I suffer with chronic pain. It just never lets up. That, for me, I just wanted to get that into a song. My girlfriend always tells me she wishes there was something she could do to help but, of course, there’s nothing anybody can do. I’ve been to all the doctors, gone through all the medications and stuff. And I always have to have the same conversations with people – like, if I go to work and people know that I’ve got a bad back, they’ll always be like, “Oh, how’s your back? Are you feeling any better?” The monotony of having that same conversation, I wanted to try to get that into the song – you know, it’s always going to hurt kind of a thing.
QRO: A really important set of sentiments inside a gorgeous song, and one that I feel anybody who has experienced a medical event like what you went through can freely relate to. I didn’t realize before this conversation that you were dealing with chronic pain but I now don’t think I have to ask you about the title you chose for this project!
JH: Yep! I was thinking to myself that if I was going to put the music out there as “Jason Hughes,” I felt like that was a bit too vanilla and it might be taken the wrong way. I was just playing around with my iPad and drawing little pictures of a band. I put my actual painkillers on the screen to make a little crowd. My daughter thought it was hilarious so I thought, “Well, that can be the band name and I’ll pretend that I’m a band!” (laughs)
QRO: Hey, you’re once again just doing what some of the greats do, Jason! That’s exactly how Kevin Parker came to call himself “Tame Impala” in the beginning when it was only him and his equipment. He has said that he was terrified the record label would find out he wasn’t a band but just one man!
JH: I can see where he comes from because I get really sort of anxious about putting music out. Before, whenever I was healthy enough to do gigs, I used to have to get really drunk to go on stage. I’m just not comfortable doing that, and even now if I was to get my acoustic guitar and start singing to my girlfriend, like “Do you know what, I’ve got this idea for a song,” I wouldn’t even be able to do that – I’d send it to her on WhatsApp! (laughs) I’m terrible with stuff like that.
QRO: I completely understand! As a person who can historically get drunk from just observing a droplet of beer on a tablecloth, I had to slam two glasses of red wine to send my first bit of singing to one of my very best friends and collaborators when I started! I so get that hesitation, and I think it comes through in your music in the best way. There’s a really breathtaking self-awareness in what you’re doing – just you thinking around your position in those songs. What about the rest of your life layout – walk us through your day-to-day as an artist who is also working full-time because I think that needs to be noted for what it displays about your dedication.
JH: So, I’m lucky enough to have a job where I can work from home. Basically, I work and then on my lunch break I’ll write music. On whatever nights I’m not spending time with my partner or the kids, I’ll work on music a bit more, but all of this Painkillers album has been done on lunch breaks and such.
QRO: My word. I’m so glad I asked you this because it’s revealed that you’re now in company with none other than Tolkien as well, who wrote every bit of The Hobbit and quite a bit more on his planning period when he was teaching at Oxford, all for his five kids he had at home! That is honestly so inspiring. Please keep at it because, as much as it is therapy for you, it also makes a lot of other people feel better and feel happy.
JH: Thanks, I plan to. It’s mad to me that people have paid attention, or even that I’m speaking to you about my music, for example!
QRO: Oh, my goodness, I just thank you so much for giving us a chance today to catch up with you about all the cool work that you’re doing. This has been a special joy and I’ll be stoked to see what’s next for The Painkillers!
JH: Thanks so much for this; it’s been awesome to talk to you.
Definitely don’t ‘sit down’ on the manic fun of keeping up with The Painkillers, even if you have to do it via the brain-numbing agent that is Twitter. Just as surely as tempus does always fugit and it seems like the smooth days often come in ones, more sit-up-and-pay-attention music, devilishly irreverent doodles, and vibey videos from Jason Hughes are certainly on the way. We prescribe outlandishly large doses.
{This article and its author owe a significant debt of gratitude to the immeasurable kindness and humble ingenuity of Rhys Griffiths – the most wondrous of all Welshmen (after Kelly Jones and Joe Talbot, of course…Bahaha!), a trusted friend, an admirably devoted husband and father, and a man with a natural ear for all things that matter most in this life. Without such men, many of the beautiful connections and writings of this world would never exist, and women artists such as myself would be much the worse off in every category of life inside and outside art. Thank you, Rhys – with all of the brightest grunge-glitter of my wings – for this and so much more. Your priceless support here and everywhere may sometimes go unseen by the world at large, but it will never go unsung on my watch.}
