There has been many a great player emerging out of the blues scene over the past decade or so, though young Welshman Chris Buck could very well be the cream of the crop. His phrasing is exceptional, he never overplays but still knows when to utilise technique, and every note is struck with the utmost control and no shortage of charisma.
His tones are equally as jaw-dropping, and while he’s been spotted with all kinds of Fenders and Gibsons over the years, it’s his custom Yahama Revstar goldtop that is more often than not seen in his hands, going through an elaborate pedalboard he jokingly refers to as “50 shades of gain” and into a Victory V140 or MK Clean.
A full package in every conceivable way, it’s no wonder guitar greats like Slash and Joe Bonamassa have continually namechecked him as one of the most exciting talents around.
This year he’s back with the second album from his band Cardinal Black, titled Midnight At The Valencia, which benefitted from more confidence and focus in the studio.
What does the title of your second album, Midnight At The Valencia, mean to you?
“I wish there was a good explanation behind it. We were struggling a bit; no immediate themes leapt out from the record lyrically. Out of nowhere, our drummer, Adam [Roberts], was doom-scrolling through Instagram and came across this photo of a place in California called Valencia Club.
“It seemed to represent everything we’d done on the way up, every club and neon-lit dive bar we’d played. The stuff we’d been doing over the years – our 10,000 hours, in essence. It really tied in with the journey.”
How does this material move the conversation on for the band?
“We were conscious of the bizarre circumstances around releasing our debut, starting with the age of the material. Some of it was 12 years old, some of it was 12 months old and some of it was 12 weeks old. Stylistically, in terms of maturity, some of the songs felt like older things we’d written in our late teens and others felt like more recent ideas written by adults. The challenge was making it all sit together as one body of work.
“Our manager joked we couldn’t have worked with a producer back then because we were so close to the songs. It felt like an album of greatest hits that nobody had ever heard! This album felt like a fresh start. We wanted to make a cohesive record with a consistent sound, feel and vibe. It had to elevate us higher up the chain, higher up that level of conversation.”
You’ve obviously learned a lot through touring, too.
“We’ve been touring heavily – as headliners as well as supporting people like Peter Frampton, Myles Kennedy and The Struts. We knew these songs had to be better in terms of craftsmanship.
“There was something weirdly liberating about starting afresh. There was as much focus on the audio perspective as the songs. We spent a lot of time choosing the right studio and producer, thinking about the record from a sonic sense.”
So how exactly did these new songs come to you?
The only thing I could do is go through a drawer and dig out my last four iPhones, and start going through the voice notes. Mercifully, there were a lot of ideas
“I’m not someone who can sit down and write on command. Tom [Hollister, vocals] is like that, while I have to be caught when I’m least expecting it. Ideas might come when I’m watching telly. It’s strange how progressions and melodies can come out of nowhere. But we didn’t have the luxury of time.
“The only thing I could do is go through a drawer and dig out my last four iPhones, and start going through the voice notes. Mercifully, there were a lot of ideas – an album’s worth of material built up over years. Some were more like full demos, others were me whistling in a supermarket.”
That must have been quite amusing to listen back to.
“The funny thing is they always sound great in the moment. I’ll have this big idea that feels symphonic, but then I’ll listen back and it’s just me blowing noises while going through checkout. You wonder what the fuck you were thinking and why on earth you marked it ‘Brilliant, must use.’ I already had the bare bones of Your Spark (Blows Me To Pieces). The same goes for Push/Pull. I actually had more material than I realised.”
Does the experience of engaging with audiences affect the writing process, when you’ve benefitted from seeing the whites in their eyes?
“Not consciously, but it does filter into your thinking. One thing I’ve learned from being in bands is you never know what’s going to get a good response. We’ve had tracks in the past that we’ve felt strongly about, ones which we were sure would resonate with people, but when we got round to it, the songs were met with indifference.
“It makes you think maybe the music wasn’t quite as good as you’d thought. Likewise, there might be songs you care less for that somehow really hit a nerve with audiences. Things like that help you realise you are not the arbiters of what’s good and what’s bad. You have to leave it to the fans. If I tried to write to a brief or on command, I wouldn’t be good at it. I have to write what flows and comes naturally.”
We interviewed Chrissie Hynde recently. She had an interesting take – artists should stick to making what they feel is right. That said, she also recognised why people turn up for the hits. There needs to be balance.
“Absolutely. When we craft our setlists, there are tracks people always want to hear, ones that we couldn’t get away without doing. That also trickles down into my playing. There are some solos where I like to have the freedom to go off-piste every night, playing whatever I feel inspired by in that particular moment.
“But there are other solos like Tell Me How It Feels, which people seem to have connected with. The amount of Instagram covers I’m getting tagged in daily reflects that. If I don’t play it note-for-note, there will be snide comments. There are moments where you have to swallow your artistic pride and play the hits as people want to hear them.”
How does it feel to have so many other guitarists learn and play your material like that?
“It’s surreal. At every juncture, we’ve been taken aback by how much people seem to enjoy us. We did three US shows last summer, having never been there before. We had zero idea as to whether anyone wanted to see us. All we could go off was our Spotify metrics, the people watching my YouTube channel or where merch had been sent.
“We booked a Nashville venue called The Basement, which holds 150 people. It being a guitar player’s town, I reckoned there would be a fighting chance we’d get a crowd down. It was all done direct, with no agent or promoter. It was basically me phoning the guy at the venue asking how much and him telling me, ‘Your funeral if it doesn’t work out.’”
So what happened next?
“It sold out in two hours. The guy called back asking, ‘Who the fuck are you guys? I’ve never heard of you. How come people have bought every one of your tickets?’ I didn’t know what to say. He then suggested we add a matinee slot or move up to the bigger 600-cap sister venue The Basement East.
“It’s very indicative of our journey in this band. We hope for the best, things go better than expected, and we figure: ‘Let’s keep doing it.’ Whether it’s covers of my solos or full bands tackling entire songs on YouTube, we can’t believe it. We saw one recently of an Arkansas group who had chosen to cover an obscure song, rather than one of the ‘hits’. It’s bizarre and awesome.”
You mentioned how much thought you paid to the producer and studio for this album. Who and where did you end up choosing?
“We went to a studio just outside of Zurich called Powerplay because Switzerland is famously cheap to live and work in [laughs]. We did a live session there in late 2022 that was filmed, cut to tape and then pressed to vinyl for the 50 people watching. Quite an intimidating experience, but we had such a blast. It was a beautiful place with amazing accommodation.
“Our first album wasn’t residential. Every day we’d roll out around midnight and head home, wake up and do some daddy daycare before trying to reinvigorate ourselves, heading back around midday in the hope of tracking something good. This time we were invested in the idea of getting away and fully immersing ourselves into the process, hoping it would be reflected in the music.”
Well, it seems to have played out rather well…
“Everything about the studio was perfect. It’s situated on a lake and the manager Cyrill Camenzind, who engineered and produced the record, genuinely loves us.
“In terms of gear, you’re not going to get anything better. Cyrill is a big guitar head, so there are Blackguard [Telecaster]s and a lot of pre-CBS stuff knocking around, plus old Gibsons.
Even the desk at the studio was a big old Neve that originally came from Disney before Stevie Nicks bought it and then whoever bought it from her sold it to Cyrill
“One guitar that got used a lot was an ex-Keith Richards 1956 TV Yellow Junior. It sounded awesome. I know it falls into the cliché trap about old Gibsons, but it was just a fucking great guitar.
“Even the desk at the studio was a big old Neve that originally came from Disney before Stevie Nicks bought it and then whoever bought it from her sold it to Cyrill. There’s so much cool gear in there. Not that gear is the be all and end all, but it’s nice to have a vision for a track and then be able to bring it to life without restriction.”
So you found that there were more restrictions with the first album, then?
“The debut was done in a local studio that didn’t have much gear. We were begging, stealing and borrowing to get what we needed. One friend would have a Neumann mic, someone else would have old preamps in a lockup somewhere, and someone else would have this or that. This time we were drowning in amazing gear.”
What were your other go-to guitars for the sessions?
There was a 1963 Jazzmaster that was awesome. I felt insanely guilty because it was quite reliced at the time, but it’s now heavily reliced because of my sleeve button ripping it to pieces. Sorry, Cyrill
“It was an eclectic mix of guitars. There was a Harmony Stratotone, a black sparkle thing that was a 60s catalogue guitar with Gold Foil [pickups]. My Revstar got played a lot. My Panucci goldtop came with me; it’s a bit like a Les Paul, basically. Maybe that’s the only hole in Cyrill’s incredible collection: he didn’t have a great Les Paul.
“He had a couple of 70s Deluxes, but nothing that was like, ‘Okay, that’s the Les Paul.’ But there was a 1963 Jazzmaster that was awesome. I felt insanely guilty because it was quite reliced at the time, but it’s now heavily reliced because of my sleeve button ripping it to pieces. Sorry, Cyrill. He was cool about it, saying I’d left my marks and its story was now part of the record.”
And what kind of guitar amps did you plug into?
“It was pretty much exclusively a 1965 Deluxe Reverb and, just to throw some unobtanium in the mix, a 1963 Vibroverb – which was awesome, though we nearly blew it up.
“Again, in testament to Cyrill, he was like, ‘It’s there to be used, turn it up,’ even though he knew we might need to worry in an hour’s time after all the fuzzy solos.
“I definitely rattled that thing half to death because we went to record a quieter track later and there was the sound of a bird chirping coming from inside the amp. Again – sorry, Cyrill.”
There’s always some rustling to be heard and fussing to be had with old amps.
“Bizarrely, we sent the tracks off to be mixed. Push/Pull had this super-sensitive quiet riff and the first thing we noticed was the rattle that sounded like a bird chirping. We were all wondering where it was coming from and Cyrill suggested switching to the Deluxe, but we were like, ‘No, it sounds too good with the Royer and 57, that’s just the sound of the amp breathing.’ Probably a bit of a romantic take.
“David Benyamin is an incredible mixer and engineer who won a Grammy for the [Blood Harmony] Larkin Poe album. We left it on, but he did some magic to get rid of it. Part of me thought the noise was cool, but the other part knew it would’ve annoyed people, so it was probably for the best!”
- Midnight at the Valencia is out now via Jump In.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
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