Iva in the Underworld
It's two years since Iva Twydell parted company with After The Fire. Now, after the release of his own album, Secret Service, Peter Williams divulges a few offical secrets.
If by chance, you should ever meet Iva Twydell probably the biggest favour you could do him is simply not to ask why he left After The Fire! Not that he's ashamed of the fact, but for any musician the future is the major consideration, rather than a continual explanation of the past.
"I wouldn't mind,"
he says,
"but everyone asks me. There were lots of reasons, really. Partly the frustration of just being the drummer, laying down the beat and nothing else, not being involved in songwriting or backing vocals - not even writing newsletters. It wasn't so bad when the band was a threepiece, but when John Russell joined I found myself less involved again, being that much younger than the others it was very frustrating.
"To be honest, I don't think I was mature enough to cope with the situation. I wasn't a very secure person at the time, with a lot of family worries. My Dad, who was a farmer, died when I was in ATF and for a while I was running the farm as well as playing. It was very difficult and being only 21 at the time it became too much for me. I just wanted to get out of music altogether."
So he left for a variety of reasons, though is careful to stress that a heart-attack was NOT one of them, despite popular rumour. For a few months Iva was content to live in the country doing a regular job with a more settled life-style. However, he was still writing songs and before long was itching to get back into music again.
"I got in touch with the Greenbelt vrganisers, and at Greenbelt '80 was given a spot on Friday night. That was the beginning of getting things going again, and after the festival I started work on getting a record deal together. I was anxious to make sure that distribution of the album would be wider than just the Christian market."
This he has managed to do. The iirst Iva fwydell solo album is entitled 'Secret Service' and due to several distributors it can be purchased in record shops. You might not be able to walk in and see it - you might have to order it, but it is available through ordinary retail outlets. 'Secret Service' comprises fifteen tracks, some of which (as the title suggests) carry a strong flavour of thrillers and espionage.
"I love secret service books, John LeCarre, Graham Greene and all those kind of stories, so it was partly that which inspired the lyric, but as well as that in a slightly more tongue-in-cheek way Christians can be thought of as being secret agents. God knows all about you. He's followed you, got you trailed and blown your cover, so he knows all your secrets. From what I read in John LeCarre when a spy has his cover blown in that way, they say he has been 'turned'. Once his former enemies know all about him they try to get him working for them, as his own side don't want him any more anyway. The parallel is, of course, that when God finds you and knows your secrets all you can do is work for him. On the other hand, though, don't take it too seriously! I mean it's not saying we ought to keep quiet and not let anyone know what we're doing. It wasn't written as a great philosophical comment anyway, more because it was just a good lyric."
"The other songs in that vein were a progression from the imst idea. The track 'Cold War' is a bit deeper perhaps, that really is saying there's like a Berlin wall between man and God. We're on the East side being the ones who built the barrier and will have no contact with the other side, firing at anyone who attempts to get over. 'The CIA and the KGB' is another track simply saying that God's love is so great not even the CIA and KGB can separate us from it. It was just a pop song really. 'I Surrender' is another slightly deeper one. It uses the same imagery, though it's not a concept album as such."
I surrender, I surrender
I lay down my arms and I surrender,
I'm not a fool, I can see when I'm beaten
You're so much stronger than I could be
My defences crumbled when you put on heat
So here I stand at your mercy.
I surrender, I surrender
I put the white flag up and I surrender
On the album, Iva sings, plays guitar, flute and keyboards, but surprisingly, not drums. This is mainly because with producing the album himself drumming too would have been impractical. The drummer for the album is Nick Brotherwood (another ex-ATF drummer!!), with Andy Balmer on guitar, Graham Noon on keyboards and Tony Hudson on bass. Tony and Nick were both members of the Alwyn Wall Band of a few years back.
Iva points out that there are a lot of styles and influences on the album, and says he was experimenting at the time with several musical directions. The next album will be a better indication of his own direction, though that doesn't necessarily mean it will be anything like 'Secret Service'.
"At the moment",
says Iva,
"we still have the old problem of Christians in music doing what was done (at least) a year ago. That's true of my album as much as anybody's, even if some Christians think it's contemporary, I know it isn't in real terms. Very few Christians are playing music which is genuinely relevant to the contemporary British muszc scene."
He acknowledges that the likes of U2, Famous Names and ATF are doing this then speaks of his own future:
"Now I'm thinking along the lines of demoing songs, looking for a single, recording it properly and searching for a deal with a major company to put it out. They're my plans for the next six months - in the future I may do a deal with a Christian company, but that's not what I'm aiming at for the moment. I may have to aim high then lower my sights, if it doesn't happen but I don't think there's anything wrong in doing that."
So, is Iva aiming at the secular market?
"I hate the term 'secular market' I prefer to call it the real world. After all it's so easy to play in the Christian circuit. I mean, if you said to me we've got a gig tonight at so-and-so Baptist Church to 200 young people I'd think 'great'. I could pick up my guitar, get the band down there, we'd have a good gig and love it, but if you said come and play support at the Marquee (a popular London venue), it wouldn't be nearly so easy. I'd still do it but I'd be dead scared"
So what would Iva do if a Christian company offered him a good deal?
"I'm not saying I'd reject it, but it's not what I'm really after. I don't want to make it sound like a Christian company would be the last resort, because obviously that's insulting to them, but the thing is I don't want to just sit on the Christian circuit and milk it. With my ATF association I know I could do that, now my own songs are good enough and obviously it's very tempting, but I don't want to be the next Sheila Walsh (my legs aren't as good as hers anyway!)
It is possible to get to the position of being the next Christian superstar, then you do Europe, Kamperland, go to America, sell lots of albums and you could probabdy make a very nice living at it, but I don't feel that's right. After all, what's it achieving? Nothing, you're just milking the easy Christian circuit to earn your living. If I'm going to be successful I want it to be in the real world, so if I did go with a Christian company, I'd prefer it to be one like 'Ghettout' which is aiming at that too."
At present Iva spends his days working for Social Security in Brixton - a job worthy of danger money if ever there was one. Then evenings and weekends ase spent songwriting, recording and performing. There is a track on the album called 'Part-Time Hero' in which he makes fun of himself and the many others in his position, but hopefully it will not be long before Iva can stop being a part-time hero and enter full time Secret Service.
