AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD NAIFF, Manchester, October 2000 by Peter Lennie


After the Manchester Academy show in October I got the opportunity to talk to Waterboys keyboard player Richard "Titch" Naiff. I arrived for the concert with a couple of pages of questions and picked up my back stage pass. After a short wait at the stage door I walked into the back stage area and was promptly handed a Kinder Egg by a grinning Mike Scott and met Richard. I'd first seen Richard when he walked on stage to join Mike, 5 months earlier in Greenock. His hair and beard had grown since then but not nearly as much as his stage presence and confidence seem to have grown. I made my way to a dressing room with Richard, set up my recording gear, pulled out my questions and we were off.


Q: First things first, how do you manage to keep positive, despite the burden of being a Spurs fan?

A: Ha, ha ! I've been a Spurs fan now for I think 26 years and after that long you learn to be positive. I go to virtually every home game when I'm around. I'm a huge fan. They're a team waiting to happen, sleeping giants !


Q: Who would you say were your biggest musical influences?


A: I had a very diverse musical background. My Dad was a jazz musician. He played the saxophone so he brought me up on jazz; anything from Herbie Hancock to Charlie Parker. Classical music as well. I started playing piano when I was 4, went to music college when I was about 8 or 9 and learned to be a classical pianist. Classical music was a huge influence on my early background but when I started growing up I began listening to rock music. The first gig I went to was The Damned. There's an album called "I Skip Out Of School To See The Damned", and I did ! And they've been my favourite ever since. I've got very diverse tastes. I love Joe Jackson. He's fantastic. Prince is another one. Not the usual ones - I never really listened to The Beatles, didn't listen to Bob Dylan or anything like that, although I have been recently. Mike's been getting me into Dylan and I've seen the error of my ways ! I listened to The Waterboys when I was growing up. I bought their albums, funnily enough. I would never have put them up as one of the top influences in my musical career but I did enjoy the music very, very much.


Q: Did you ever see them live?


A: First time I saw them live was when I was on stage with them !


Q: When you became one?


A: Absolutely.


Q: Looking at the kit around you on stage, there's a whole array of stuff, what exactly is there?


A: It probably looks more complicated than it is. I have a basic keyboard that I play most of the time which has organ sounds on it, called an RD500. It goes through an amp and gets distorted. The other keyboards are for bits and pieces. The one above that, the K2000, is used for all the things like the brass and choirs. On My Love Is My Rock and Return of Pan there's a choir. The one to my left, the Triton (the big silver one) gets used for samples. There's a few samples in Jonah and in Dumbing Down The World. And there's a little piano module, which gets triggered by another keyboard above that, and there's a Theremin. That was totally new. I'd never played one in my life. When I took it out of the box for the first time, I plugged it in, put on Let It Happen and played along to it and I just put it back in the box again ! But you persevere and work at these things and within a week or two it started to get a little bit better and it came fairly easily after that. I still can't play it properly but I make a good attempt !


Q: Were you confident that you'd be ready with the Theremin for the first show?


A: I wasn't really confident until we had our first rehearsal but when I'd played it once with the band I knew it was going to work.


Q: You said you were classically trained. Did you ever get to do professional classical work?


A: Yeah, I did all my grades. I went up to Grade 8 at the Guild Hall. I did a diploma at the Guild Hall too which involved playing a piano concerto with an orchestra, and yes I played recitals for a few years. Recently I've taken up the church organ, which is something I've wanted to do for many many years. When I had a bit of time on my hands I thought; 'Right I'm going to do it !' so I went and had lessons and I've taken my Grade 8 which is the highest. I'm hoping to go on and do some diplomas and some recitals, so I'm still pretty involved in classical music.


Q: Maybe you'll be able to work the organ into one of the Waterboys records?


A: You never know ! Watch this space. You might see it later on in the tour - I won't tell you where but it's planned.


Q: Have you had any difficulties with you coming from a classical background and Mike coming from almost a punk background?


A: Not at all. As I say going through school I had the usual grounding in rock and punk music. So no, not at all. I think we work on a pretty good level.


Q: I wondered if there weres any difficulties with you talking classical terms and not being understood?


A: No, I don't do that at all in this band; we don't need to. We work more on telepathy.


Q: How did you get to work with Mike ? I heard the story about him overhearing you at the studio. Did he just barge through the door and say come and play ?


A: I was recording an album with Paul Roberts from The Stranglers, doing a song called Lady Grinning Soul (by David Bowie) which has a pretty flashy piano part on it. I was working my way through that, making horrendous errors, and Mike overheard it through the studio door and took my number down. I never really thought I'd hear from him but within 2 weeks he'd phoned me and asked me to come and play on his album.


Q: Did you think it'd just be that album?


A: Yes, at that time I had no idea that any of this would happen. I thought I would go in and play on a song or two. He was getting close to the end of the album so there were only a couple of songs to record. I thought I'd go and do that and it'd be 'Thank you very much, goodbye'. It was a great surprise when he asked me to do the live band as well.


Q: Did you have to think twice before committing yourself, given the fluid nature of The Waterboys ? It's not the most secure job in music !


A: No, I just said yes immediately. It doesn't matter how long it's going to be; two weeks or two years or twenty years. It's a great band to play with and you don't think twice about offers like that !


Q: The band's got a fairly obsessive cult following. Does that add pressure knowing there's going to be people there every night comparing you to last night, last year, the last line-up?


A:That does happen but I don't feel under pressure from it. I like it. I like looking out in the crowd and seeing familiar faces and whether they're going to be comparing to last night's gig doesn't really matter. It's nice to see people who come and enjoy the music every night and give their support. It's fantastic.


Q: Some of the solos people know from the records as fiddle, sax or trumpet solos. You're having to reproduce them. Did you actually sit and listen and listen to try and get them as close as you could?


A: Yeah, that's exactly what I did. For the fiddle solo in When Ye Go Away which I do on piano, I sat down and wrote every note out on manuscript paper. I talked to Mike about it and we knew it had to be the same as the record because it's such a well known solo. It's a wonderful piece of fiddle playing so there's no need to go and change it. I knew it would transfer well to the piano.


Q: You were doing something similar with Fisherman's Blues tonight. Was that a first in front of the public? I know Mike played it in Liverpool but you didn't play on it that night. It looked like he was asking if you wanted to and there was some sort of discussion.


A: We played it together for the first time in Glasgow. We knew we were going to do it some time but you have to be very confident that you're going to be able to pull it off. It's best to be honest and he asked me at Liverpool, and I said not tonight - next time. So he did it on his own that night and I did it with him the time after. He does it great on his own anyway.


Q: Are there any unreleased tracks you've recorded with The Waterboys that you're waiting to come out?


A: All the stuff I played on is on the album.


Q: Have you started any work on the next album or is it just a matter of concentrating on the tour?


A: We haven't started work on it. Whether Mike's started it in his head I've no idea. He may well have done but we've been really concentrating on getting this tour as great as it can be and that takes all our time up.


Q: Do you record the shows each night and listen to them later?


A: Not every show but shows do get recorded and we listen to what's good and what's not so good and make sure we do it better the next night. It's important that you don't just play the same set every night and get stale. It's important to progress.


Q: How are you finding being on the road ? Have you toured much with other bands?


A: I have toured a little bit but this is the biggest tour I've ever done and so far, so good. It's fantastic - hard work but great. I'm really enjoying it.


Q: Are you looking forward to Europe and wherever after that?


A: Definitely. And the band are a great bunch of people to be with. That's very important I think because you're with these people all the time. You don't get a great deal of time to yourself. Everybody in the band is great and we're all friends and I think that's very important.


Q: People have said that this is Mike Scott. That it's not The Waterboys because it's such a new line-up. People hark back to the line-up they remember. Do those comments get through to you?


A: I think it's very understandable that people say this. Everybody has their own vision of The Waterboys and they probably hold that very dear to them and if they see new musicians coming in it may take them some time to settle down with the idea. Mike has taken a lot of trouble to make us feel that we really are part of The Waterboys, which is fantastic for us. We stand up on stage every night and we're responsible for putting over Mike's songs and making sure that they invade the consciousness of the audience in the correct way. To us that's a great responsibility and so we really do feel that we're part of The Waterboys, that we're not just musicians standing on stage and picking our pay cheque up at the end of the night. We really feel that we have a great responsibility to put these great songs over in such a way that the audience are going to appreciate them to the maximum.


Q: It's gelling as a band. Each of the 4 shows I've seen seems to get stronger and stronger.


A: I think that's inevitable. You're going to get little teething problems at the beginning of any long stretch of shows and you're going to learn from your mistakes. Things will get better every gig so yeah, it is getting stronger.


Q: I saw you in Glastonbury, how was that with the big crowd and a big festival?


A: A great experience. It was the biggest crowd I've ever played to and it was wonderful.


Q: Did you hang around the festival afterwards?


A: Yeah, I went the next day (Saturday) with my girlfriend. We hung around all day, met some friends, watched some bands. It was brilliant.


Q: If you had to pick one, which Waterboys song do you wish you'd written?


A: My God...well...that's really interesting. I don't know. I could pick any one. I love playing all the songs and I like different ones for different reasons. I wish I'd written all of them. I suppose My Love Is My Rock, the title track from the new album. It's a fantastic track - an epic song. It's got overtones of The Beatles in it; it's wonderful to play and from the new album that would be my top favourite. From the back catalogue I love playing the acoustic stuff with Mike; When Ye Go Away and Fisherman's Blues. We've added Be My Enemy to the main set which is a real rocker and it's great to play. You can really strut out and enjoy yourself on that.


Q: When you play My Love Is My Rock how do you get such a full sound?


A: The keyboard sounds are all overdriven. There's a certain amount of distortion on the organ which gives it a fuller sound but I think it's probably more the way it's written to be honest with you. It has a lot of space and time to breathe and it's a majestic and beautiful song. That's probably why it comes across very powerfully to the audience.


Q: So what's Mike like to work with ? There have been stories that he's 'difficult', a perfectionist.


A: I think that people who say Mike's difficult are probably not on the same level as he is. I don't think he's difficult at all. He's the biggest perfectionist of any musician I've ever played with. He demands perfection I think, and I'm only speaking for my perspective, because he feels so close to his songs and music and wants them to go out and touch the audience in the best way they possibly can. It gives you great inspiration to work with him. I've never worked with anyone quite like him.


Q: What about other art forms; books, films, poems ? Have you got any favourites ?


A: I'd say out of recent years my favourite author would probably be Umberto Eco who wrote Name of The Rose, Focault's Pendulum, The Island of The Day Before. He's an Italian philosopher and probably one of the best authors I've ever read. He's absolutely fantastic. Films ? I'm a huge horror film fan and my favourite director of all time would be Dario Argento. He's an Italian horror director. He's made the most incredible cinema you'll ever see in your life. That's all I can say. Go and watch his films !


Q: You sing along with the songs all the time on stage but you haven't got a microphone. Is there any reason ?


A: Yes, I have a terrible voice. I love singing along because I love the songs.


Q: Does it help you to play or is it just for the joy of singing along?


A: I think probably both but I really do have a terrible voice so there's no way there will ever be a microphone in front of me !


Q: How much of the audience's reaction can you tell when you're up on stage ? Can you hear things like the reaction when you play the solo on When Ye Go Away ? A: Oh yeah, absolutely. You feed off the audience reaction. No doubt about it. They can give you a huge amount of energy to go forward and get better and better through the show. You take an awful lot from what the audience are giving so they're an active part of the show.


Q: Have you had a favourite show so far?


A: I'd never played Glasgow Barrowlands before. I'd been primed by a lot of people to expect a great show and it didn't disappoint. It was incredible; incendiary. The crowd were magnificent. I've got to say I think tonight's audience in Manchester were a very close second. To be honest all the audiences have been great and it's not fair to say one's better than any other but my favourite show was Glasgow.


Q: You seem to have settled in. I saw you at Greenock and you came out shy and quiet, sat behind your piano and did your work. But now you seem to have changed completely, really playing up to the crowd.


A: Yeah, that's probably down to confidence. It's something that's happened gradually. I did the duo shows with Mike which were great but I was feeling my way into the music then and didn't know Mike so well. I wanted to just do my best for him and I was concentrating on that. I still want to do that but going on tour with Mike to Norway and Glastonbury (in June 2000) gave me a chance to get into the music a lot more. Now I love going up on stage and being part of The Waterboys. It's fantastic and that's what pushes me to the heights.