{"id":69272,"date":"2021-02-20T09:10:52","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T14:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=69272"},"modified":"2021-02-20T09:10:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T14:10:55","slug":"interview-with-ledfoot-aka-tim-scott-mcconnell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2021\/interview-with-ledfoot-aka-tim-scott-mcconnell\/","title":{"rendered":"Ledfoot aka Tim Scott McConnell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whenever you ask musicians about what they think is the greatest achievement of their career, the answers they give are usually strikingly similar. A successful album or a breakthrough performance at a huge open air festival is what qualifies, unless you chat with a music veteran musing on their longevity in the business they didn\u2019t expect four decades prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Ledfoot aka Tim Scott McConnell, the answer to the question we scribes ask so often is very different. \u201cFinding out who I was,\u201d he says with no hesitation. \u201cI know that if I\u2019m honest with what I do, that\u2019s a good place for me. But it took me a long time to find that.\u201d The music career of this American singer-songwriter and 12-string guitarist \u2013 and a creator of music genre Gothic Blues he pursues as Ledfoot \u2013 spawns five decades, starting when he was just a teenager. And as Tim checks in with Hardrock Haven on the eve of releasing his new solo album Black Valley<\/em>, we revisit his beginnings as well as discuss his Gothic Blues formula, building his Ledfoot persona, his past and future collaborations with TNT\u2019s Ronni Le Tekr\u00f8, storytelling, the American South… and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Recently you\u2019ve released a second single \u201cTake Away The Hurt\u201d off your forthcoming album Black Valley. <\/em>Do you think it\u2019s representative of what we\u2019ll find on the album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: I go to a lot of different places on the record. And it [the single] is indicative of the rest of the record in a sense that it\u2019s kind of no bullshit, you know. So in that way it\u2019s similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And what was the process of making the new album like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: Last spring, when Corona came, I think I had seven months of touring cancelled. So I was up at the studio that I work at, which is Ronni Le Tekr\u00f8\u2019s studio, and we just decided to make the record. Basically every day we\u2019d go in, start a song and finish it. I\u2019m playing everything on the record, so it\u2019s just me and the engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Black Valley<\/em> will be your fifth solo album released as Ledfoot. Why did you decide to create not only an artist name but the entire persona behind it and what led to your defining your music as Gothic Blues genre-wise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: You know, I started performing back in the late \u201870s. I\u2019ve done a lot of record deals and a lot of records and at one point I didn\u2019t really want to be doing this for the wrong reasons. And I play a whole lot of instruments, so I kind of took the whole lot of techniques… I grew up listening to roots music and Appalachian music and shit like that, and I just took elements from everything, like also coming from CBGB and New York in the \u201870s and the \u201880s and my Southern background and decided I was gonna just do that. The reason I called it Blues was because the original Blues guys just had to sit and deliver everything in a room full of people. But it wasn\u2019t that \u201cI gave my love a flower…\u201d (sings) kind of fucking bullshit (laughs). It was like that it moved you, that it was like Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll, that it fucking kicked your ass. And I thought the only way you can do that is present it in a different way, so I kind of took [it all] together and reworked myself. I\u2019m an introvert by nature, despite my job, so after being a solo artist for so long I missed the anonymity and being not known by the name. And Gothic Blues just came about because when I say Gothic, I\u2019m not talking about Victorian [period]. I\u2019m talking architecture, like Gothic period which was about architecture… I didn\u2019t know where to put it, so I just made up my own genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Defining Gothic Blues, reviewers point out not only to the musical formula but also to your image as an artist. How important is the visual side of things to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: You know, there\u2019s just weird thing with guitar players where you spend the first ten years learning to play guitar and you\u2019re trying to find the style, and then you spend the rest of your life trying to get rid of it (laughs). And I\u2019m colorblind, I don\u2019t see colors, so I\u2019ve always worn a lot of black (laughs) and always leaned towards it. My daughter says I look like an undertaker from the 1800s, which wasn\u2019t my intention. But I don\u2019t really think [about it] \u2013 this is how I look every day. I don\u2019t really try to manipulate [it], that\u2019s what I\u2019m naturally attracted to. You know, the way that I\u2019m dressed is the only clothes I have, the only way that I dress. So I try to be honest. I\u2019m gonna be sixty-three in a month and I\u2019m so sick of social media and people disguising who they are. So I don\u2019t like hiding scars in my videos and in the way I present myself. I like getting old and I like being old. So I try to make it really honest that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you think the Gothic Blues formula may become a limitation in artistic terms over time, or maybe it provides endless possibilities in terms of your self-expression?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: The good thing about this is because I defined the fucking genre, I can decide what it is (laughs). So it\u2019s not at all limiting, because on this record [Black Valley<\/em>] I go to a whole lot of different places and I\u2019m working on some of the music I did as Ledfoot on the soundtrack that I\u2019ve been working on for a TV show, and that\u2019s way different. And I\u2019m also working on the next record and that\u2019s completely different again. You know, I think anybody who\u2019s interested in me isn\u2019t interested in the same formula being repeated year after year after year. That\u2019s not what I think that people would [expect]. I\u2019m thankful I don\u2019t have to worry about shit like that. I don\u2019t worry about limitations. I never think about that. The thing that\u2019s good about Ledfoot is that in the way that I play, I don\u2019t use open tunings and the way that I write and sing is very organic. And these limitations kind of open up windows that I wouldn\u2019t have if I had all the choices in the world. I think being an artist is about being specific and the limits of the tools that you use are a lot of the beauty in what you create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Is digging that deep into Americana as a music genre an effect of your Southern roots?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: Not really. When I say roots, I mean I grew up as a Southerner and I used to talk like this (imitates the accent) and things… But I also grew up playing in biker bars and I was a big part of the CBGB and [the CBGB owner] Hilly Kristal was my first manager. I grew up in the Alternative and the Punk scene and with the Havalinas I toured with shitloads of people and I took a whole lot of [influences]. And I\u2019ve lived in Norway for twenty five years, and all these things go into the melting pot. So it\u2019s not defined by music I listened to when I was fifteen. It\u2019s defined by everything around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. And speaking of touring, you\u2019ve been touring with Bob Dylan in the past and as you two definitely share this storytelling aspect of your music, was he any influence on you in these terms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: I guess it\u2019s about what point you catch up to people. It\u2019s really like the same shit that I listened to when I was younger is the same shit that he listened to when he was younger. And he just seemed like a natural extension of that, if you kind of mixed that with a little bit of drugs. And I\u2019ve always loved storytelling \u2013 that\u2019s what I love about the Southern shit, like murder ballads and that people basically feel like a song has to tell a specific story. Even if it\u2019s not a literal story, at least [it\u2019s] an emotional story. And Dylan does that really, really well. But also so do The Louvin Brothers, so does Hank Williams… everybody tells you a story. And you know, I read like a motherfucker \u2013 I\u2019m compulsive about that \u2013 and I think we learn from everybody. So I don\u2019t know if Dylan influenced me so much, except in the idea that you could take what you knew and fuck around with this as much as you wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So what would you say it is that inspires your songwriting and your storytelling in songs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: The really interesting thing about songwriting that I think a lot of people really overlook \u2013 or look too hard for something bigger [in it] \u2013 is that it\u2019s the simple truths in your life and not the big moments. So in a sense it\u2019s like you can\u2019t go through a day without having something to write about… I mean, it\u2019s really that simple. And because I have been writing for forty-five or fifty years, I can put it in a lot of different contexts. For one, I can pick the literal context and for another, the emotional context… But basically I\u2019m just a twisted sixty-two-year-old motherfucker and I just talk about what\u2019s on my mind (laughs). I don\u2019t have any agenda (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And speaking of exchange of influences, your previous release was a duet album A Death Divine<\/em> with Ronni Le Tekr\u00f8 who we mostly know from TNT and associate with the \u201880s Hard Rock scene. What’s prompted this collaborative effort?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: As I\u2019ve said, the studio where I usually do my records is that studio that he owns and I lived there for about three years, you know, up there… We\u2019re dear friends. And even though we\u2019re from completely different genres and actually have completely different ways of looking at everything \u2013 you need to commit yourself [to it]. You know, it\u2019s like with journalists \u2013 you don\u2019t give a shit if one person is a reporter and writes fact and another person writes fantasy. They\u2019re both the same in the craft of doing that. We both strangely like a lot of the same music that isn\u2019t associated with us. So first we started doing some shows together, because he\u2019s an amazing guitar player and he\u2019s in a completely different world than me. I mean, nobody in the world uses my guitar tunings \u2013 I made them up myself. They\u2019re like crazy. He says I don\u2019t actually play the guitar \u2013 he doesn\u2019t know what the fuck it is that I play (laughs). But it\u2019s just the idea that we can go together \u2013 we both love the craft of songwriting and we\u2019re both somewhere deep, deep down kind of hippies at heart… and because we\u2019re so different, we don\u2019t step on each other\u2019s toes. So it kind of just happened because it was bound to happen, just because we had time together and we\u2019re both compulsive musicians who can\u2019t stop working. So we\u2019re gonna start another record in early spring and he\u2019s working on his solo record now and I\u2019m working on this soundtrack… But again, we don\u2019t have any limits with it. We can do whatever we want \u2018cause we\u2019ve already destroyed everything that people thought we would do together, which would be a guitar record. And it\u2019s not about guitars at all, it\u2019s just a record with songs that we put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So we look forward to the next one a lot… And looking back, which of your achievements has been most important to you as an artist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: Finding out who I was. You know, just like finally getting through all the bullshit and all the influences and all the turns that you take… Being in a band is a lot like being in a marriage, and it\u2019s like when you get out of the marriage, you kind of realize that you\u2019re not the person that this relationship made me \u2013 you\u2019re somebody else. And I\u2019m a social cripple, so it took me a long time to just get to a place where I really don\u2019t give a shit. I know that if I\u2019m honest with what I do, that\u2019s a good place for me. But it took me a long time to find that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You started your musical career at the age of 15. What kind of impact do you think starting out so early had over your artistic and perhaps also personal life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: When I started out, I was in Florida and I was playing in biker bars and that was like forty-five-minute sets with no repeats, playing Blues and Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll and shit like that. And it actually taught me a lot of discipline \u2013 I mean, you just had to have your shit together. But I think by the time I was like seventeen or eighteen and I went to music school for a couple of years… I already knew what I wanted to do and I never questioned what I was going to do. So in that way it was a huge influence and I don\u2019t really why… I really had to be an idiot, because when I was playing the biker bars when I was fifteen and sixteen, it wasn\u2019t fun. It was like scariest shit (laughs). So I don\u2019t know what attracted me \u2013 maybe that I wanted to be a pirate, but there were no pirates in the \u201870s, so I became a musician (laughs). I don\u2019t know. It probably wasn\u2019t for any noble reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: I can\u2019t think of any other region in the world that would be as influential in terms of music as the American South you come from. There are people who say the southern musical tradition belongs in the South, and artists from elsewhere picking up Blues or Country or Southern Rock are inauthentic as they didn\u2019t grew up surrounded with this tradition. What do you think about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: I hate that shit. I hate that pure shit. I think that\u2019s such bullshit \u2013 excuse me… You know, my first instrument was banjo and that comes from Africa, where  banjar and shit like that [was used]… So it\u2019s like Metal coming out of [Led] Zeppelin and shit like that, and all these Blues riffs… Half of the music in the \u201860s that was \u201cwhite Pop music\u201d was completely ripped off from Black music. The idea that music isn\u2019t supposed to evolve is like saying that human beings aren\u2019t supposed to evolve. It\u2019s like you hold on to something that was discovered forty years ago and deny the next discovery, and the next discovery, and another one. Why the fuck did you stop there…? Why don\u2019t you just go back to spirituals…? Why don\u2019t you go back to somebody beating a rock with a goddamn log…? (laughs) So give me a break. I don\u2019t believe in that stuff  at all. If someone comes up and uses their influences in an inspired way, then I\u2019m there and I\u2019m their fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: There\u2019s obviously been a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes around the American South. Do you think celebrating the heritage of the region, as you do with your music, can help change it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: Well, I think education can change it. Changing things through something like music is such a small piece of the puzzle \u2018cause the issues are so much bigger. And it\u2019s about this long ingrained problem. You know, I\u2019m an Irish and Cherokee Indian and in the \u201870s, I was there during the riots all over Boston and shit like that. I was getting the shit kicked out of me by the white people \u2018cause I was Cherokee and I was getting the shit kicked out of me by the black people because I was white (laughs). So that\u2019s the root of the problem. It\u2019s that there\u2019s this desire to kick the ass of somebody because they\u2019re different. And I don\u2019t know what can change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Unfortunately… So back to music, you\u2019ve mentioned different things being in the works…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell:Like I\u2019ve mentioned, I\u2019ve done a soundtrack for a Norwegian TV series called Exit <\/em>and we\u2019re releasing music with that also, so I\u2019m working on finishing that right now. In early spring, Ronni and I will start on a second record and I\u2019m also working on two different projects with Ledfoot in two completely different directions and we\u2019ll see what Frankenstein comes out of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Surely it will be something special. And is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Scott McConnell: No, I don\u2019t think I wanna incriminate myself anymore (laughs). Thank you very much!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits: Carl Eek Torgersen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit Ledfoot online<\/a> and on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist Whenever you ask musicians about what they think is the greatest achievement of their career, the answers they give are usually strikingly similar. A successful album or a breakthrough performance […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":69275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15334,203,15332,15333],"class_list":{"0":"post-69272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-gothic-blues","9":"tag-interview","10":"tag-ledfoot","11":"tag-tim-scott-mcconnell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}