Tinyfish FAQ

Q. Who are you?

A. We are Tinyfish; four - no, five musicians from South London who love to make progressive music. Simon Godfrey sings and plays guitar; Jim Sanders plays guitar and occasionally sings; Paul Worwood plays bass and bass pedals; Rob Ramsay speaks, triggers samples, writes our lyrics and occasionally plays the harmonica. Leon Camfield plays the drums and assorted percussion for our live gigs in a smaller, whiter Chester Thompson way, and has now officially joined the band to drum and help write for the next album.

Q. When and why did you get together?

A. Tinyfish had it’s origins in an acoustic quartet called "Men Are Dead" which was formed in 1997 which played the open mike spots of London for several years. However as the millennium came and went, the band became frustrated with the limitations of playing purely acoustic music. An e-mail back in the summer of 2004 started the Tinyfish ball rolling when Simon asked if Jim would like to form a new band that concentrated on a more progressive approach.

Q. Who are your influences?

A. They are many and varied but the main ones would be; King Crimson, Marillion, Tom Waits and Rush.

Q. Why do you have no keyboard player?

A. For two reasons; firstly, we were keen steer clear of as many progressive clichés as possible and a keyboard player might give the band too much of a traditional prog sound. Secondly, we didn’t want to upset the writing chemistry which had evolved over the first six months of the band’s life. We use guitar synths and samplers to obtain any exotic sounds beyond the reach of our six strings. That’s not to say that we would never use a keyboard guv’nor. Just not yet.

Q. Your first studio album took two years to complete and your most recent one took three. Why do you take so long to record your albums?

A. None of us like to rush things.

Q. Why then did you decide to sign with Festival Music for your second album?

A. Because there just weren’t enough hours in the day to make the music and attend to all the administration that goes with maintaining a band. David Robinson who runs Festival Music, saw us play at the 2007 UK Summer’s End festival and approached us a few weeks later with the notion or releasing our second album through his label. Festival has released some of the best progressive music in the UK over the last decade (Magenta, Solstice, Manning, Credo etc.) and we were keen to raise our profile within the scene (something that we do not have the logistical clout or time to achieve under our own label). David genuinely loves the music which he releases and we like working with him.

Q. What do you think sets you apart from other progressive bands?

A. Maybe it’s not for us to say but in our opinion, it’s because for us, the song is king and everything else is secondary, be it technique, arrangement or concept. There are lots of bands out there who can play mini moog solos a lot faster and better than us, so why try? Tinyfish try realy hard to emulate our heroes aims not imitate their sounds. We use space, texture and spoken word passages as a way of putting our message across without having to resort to dry ice and wizard’s hats.

Q. Is Tinyfish your first Progressive band?

No, Simon, Jim and Paul were in a prog band in the late 80’s/early 90’s called Freefall, along with Frost member Jem Godfrey.

Q. Are Simon and Jem related?

A. Yes, they are brothers.

Q. Do you play live?

A. Yes, we’ve played quite a few shows now. We undertook a mini UK tour in 2007 which was very well received and culminated at the Summer’s End Festival. Since then, we’ve played regularly in the UK and in Europe as well.

Q. When did you play outside the UK?

A. We’ve recorded a DVD ("One Night On Fire") in Poland at the Wyspianski theatre in Katowice, and got such a good reception that we will be trying to go back as soon as we can.

We played RoSFest 2011 and that was an amazing experience. We really want to go back there in the future, either as punters or players.

Q. When will we expect a new Tinyfish record?

Give us a chance to finish promoting our most recent album first guv’nor! After that, it will simply be a case of looking for the right time and place. First the phone calls and will start to fly about between band members like angry bees, then unofficial writing sessions will be scheduled and finally, demos will begin to emerge. Once that occurs, there will be no stopping the machine from kicking into life again.

tinyfish
Men Are Dead
Simon's guitar synth (with ‘keyboard’ written on it in felt-tip)
Simon's Ovation semi-acoustic
tinyfish not resorting to wizard hats
Freefall
credits >