Part of the UK’s vibrant, modernist Rhythm & Blues lineage, PM Warson established himself self-releasing 45s in the vein of the independent studios of the ’50s & ’60s.
PM Warson grew up in an English town in the staple suburban musical landscape of heavy rock, the ghost of New Wave, and the fading star of the indie boom of the Noughties. He found his own fit in the form of Rhythm & Blues from half a century before, saving up two summers straight for a Rickenbacker guitar, getting the taste for playing live with an archetypal teenage power trio. After moving to London to study, he started to delve deeper into his musical vocabulary – Delta Blues, Americana, early jazz and rock’n’roll. Meanwhile, via the capital’s blues clubs and soul nights, he discovered a new setting for the music that had enticed him the first place.
A chance audition thrust him into full-time work as a touring musician, serving an apprenticeship, blissfully unqualified, alongside conservatoire-trained jazz musicians and session pros. Becoming more and more interested in production, ever-drawn to the Golden Era of record-making, he befriended the proprietors of Soup Studio, an all-analogue recording facility based in East London. He started moonlighting on production projects and learning the inner workings of a studio environment.
Without any wider ambition, he started cutting sides with a band of friends and acquaintances found along the way, evoking the R’n’B records of the ‘50s and ‘60s in approach rather than emulation. His first effort, the ramshackle “You Gotta Tell Me” became a de facto single, and after being urged to press a few copies to vinyl by a friend, it began to cause a few ripples on the local DJ scene. Meanwhile, a wild, off-the-cuff cover of “Hit The Road Jack” caught the attention of a London music agency, giving his line-up an outlet for playing live. This included house-band sets at London establishments such as the Blues Kitchen, Old Street Records and notably at the opening of the Mary Quant fashion exhibition at the V&A Museum.
His follow up “(Don’t) Hold Me Down”, served as his breakout. The blend of Brit-edged Garage R’n’B and Latin Soul, with a Girl-Group chorus that had developed as a key extension of his live sound, proved a winning formula for record collectors. The independent pressing sold out within a couple of days, and it began to spin at clubs from Toronto to Barcelona, its value briefly skyrocketing on collector site Discogs. The song was later picked up by Fred Perry to underscore their ‘Soul Boy’ short, further establishing PM Warson‘s presence on the UK soul scene.
Having teamed up with esteemed German label Légère Recordings in 2020, PM Warson released the organ-led “Every Day (Every Night)” on 45, backed by Ashford-Simpson-Armstead‘s classic “I Don’t Need No Doctor”, which earned a write-up in Clash Magazine. The collaboration continued into 2021, with his debut LP True Story, out on April 23rd ,2021.– a distillation of what’s come before and perhaps a hint of what’s to come-cut direct to tape, just before the global pandemic
Faced with no gigs to promote it, once restrictions allowed, the UK soul-R’n’B-garage rock singer-songwriter went straight back into the studio – a small room in an industrial storage unit, in Stoke Newington, North East London – to work on a new record. The result is his second album, Dig Deep Repeat, a brilliant collection of raw and soulful songs, albeit with a harder edge to them than those on his debut.
Warson, who is 32, is in thrall to the classic sounds of Ray Charles and Booker T. and the M.Gs, but this time around he’s also paid homage to his love of ’60s pop music, like Phil Spector, as well as vintage garage-rock and the surf instrumentals of Dick Dale, Link Wray and Duane Eddy.
.
Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM plays PM Warson. All part of 50 years of Rock, Blues and More, 24-7 on our station’s stream at K-ZAP.ORG/LISTEN/
Check out PM Warson: