Long-time Porvari fan Stu Lullworth finally managed to pin down Sam and Simon to an interview after the sound check at a recent Brazz gig:

Turning to you, Simon, You and Sam have known each other for 25 years, why did it take so long for you to work together musically?

The opportunity never seemed to present itself as we were both involved in a series of bands for much of the time, for example I played keyboards in Now Zero! for nearly something like six years. We briefly worked together in a scratch band for a charity event during that time but it was only when I invited Sam to play bass in a tentative reunion of the Eight Macbeths in 2002-3 that we actually started playing together regularly and this led directly to what became the 1st XI CD.

Any plans to reissue that album?

No, that represents a phase in our development that in reality bears no relation to what we do now. We have uploaded a few tunes to our website, but the whole CD will not be available again.

I’ll hang onto mine as a collector’s item then?

Yes! (laughs)

You play a selection of instruments - guitar, mandolin, harmonica and I've also seen you with the dulcimer and a ukulele. How do you decide what instrument to play for which song? It's often a snap decision; I suppose you could call that inspiration! Sam tends to play through a new song in a rough form and my first choice of instrument is often the right one. Once I have chosen the instrument I tend to experiment with various tunings/capos and often the basic arrangement of a new song can come together in less than half an hour. However some songs have taken us several months to reach that point when we feel that it is “right” For example?

Shock to the System went through various arrangements till I hit upon the idea of stripping it right back to basics and then Sam provided the lead guitar line which pulls it all together. I think that works as a real contrast to some of the more complex arrangements and also gives the lyrics a chance to really shine.

There's a handful of cover versions in your live set, how do you and Sam go about arranging those?

The whole point of Porvari is that we are different in that we concentrate largely on original songs. You’d be mad not to with such good material, but covers are a useful component of a live set.

Play Something We All Know?

Yes! And covers present a different challenge to playing Sam’s original songs in that there is more of a pre-determined blueprint for us to work on - you can't go too far away from the original! Within those boundaries the process of arrangement is fundamentally the same and the choice of which instrument I use is often guided by the original, such as the mandolin in 'Maggie May'. On the other side of the coin, slavishly copying the original is a bit pointless & we always try to put a Porvari twist on a cover, like the use of a concertina In Paul Simon's 'Only Living Boy in New York'.

Part one of the interview, in which Stu talks to Sam can be found here