"Groovy Uncle-Mantras With Melody" 

The Medway sound is a rich stream of authentic beat music from the Prisoners though to the Milkshakes and onwards with Billy Childish.
Groovy Uncle is the solo project of Medway musician Glenn Prangnell, the name from a David Bowie review 'prancing around like some groovy uncle at a family disco' we all have them, maybe we're one ourselves? Groovy Uncle was once a trio, but this dissolved and after a couple of years Groovy Uncle re-emerged onto the platform that is myspace. I became aware of them after a recommend on face-book (from Jon Abnett), instantly likable tunes, it was like listening to the Beatles but all their eras at once from Hamburg to lovable mop tops to psychedelic innovators! and they record in mono too! But don't for one minute think this is another Beatles tribute band, oh no, this and the medway sound is far too clever for that trick, go discover, 'dig' and 'groove' a little deeper! and there's also a bit of humour in there too, never a bad thing.............


Glenn has agreed to be my first victim on my blog, and very honoured I am too, I suggest you check out Groovy Uncle now!
Two questions now, more later as I want you to come back!


do your influences change for each recording?

I'm constantly influenced by different things-including stuff I don't like! I don't think one necessarily has to LIKE something to be influenced by it. I'm a huge fan of melody. There is no bigger compliment than someone telling me they can't get one of my tunes out of their head. Obviously The Beatles are a massive influence and always have been but I take in a heck of a lot of other stuff to particularly with regard to melody. If I want to write a particular type of song, then I might use something as a starting point, or point of reference. For instance "Count On Me" is one I wrote at a time when a lot of "naval gazing" stuff was being churned out and it was all getting a bit downcast and earnest for me-I wanted to write something upbeat and life affirming. So, as a starting point I used The Action's "Never Ever" and Tony Hatch's "Call Me" -the latter has very similar sentiments too. It's all smoke and mirrors and trickery. Ask Noel Gallagher

how did you get started on this album, what is your process for recording?

I had-and still have- a backlog of songs that I've wanted to record for a long time and it was with these in mind that I kicked off the whole Groovy Uncle project. Initially I hooked up with State Records to record on a purely "let's see how it goes" basis. As it turned out it all went swimmingly and we all got on well. Marty and Mole (who run State Records) really liked my stuff so I suggested we release a single, which we did in March 2010- "Monkey Trousers"/"Now Your Pain Is Over" (THS-003). On vinyl only, thus far. I knew I wanted to continue to record as much as I could with State because I love what they do and how they do it but I didn't have any grand plan. Then one day Mole said "Let's release an album". It means a lot to me that they think so highly of my songs that they were willing to release a top notch vinyl album!

          As for the process..... Taking into consideration there is no "set-in-stone" line up for Groovy Uncle it's worked out extremely well. I'd decide on which songs to record and we'd do either 2 or 3 tracks at each session. The band line up would depend upon availability and whose style of playing suited those particular songs. I've been lucky to have such good musicians to work with and they've all been enthusiastic and supportive. So we have Ben Jones (lead guitar), Paul Moss (bass), Marty Ratcliffe (lead guitar), Allan Crockford (bass), Ian Snowball (drums), Mole (drums and backing vocals) and Yours Truly (rhythm guitar, vocals, percussion, melodica). We'd record the backing tracks on day one, vocals and overdubs on day two then leave mixing for a separate day, which is always best. I'm happiest when recording. Like a pig in s**t!

http://www.craftweb.org/web/glenn/index.html

http://www.myspace.com/groovyuncle

and buy this now from the website