Talk The Talk: James Sugg
For many years now, James Sugg has been the Pig Iron Theatre’s secret weapon. Part sound designer, part musician, part actor, he’s been at the core of the group’s surrealist delight. He’s also been a member of The Brothers Suggarillo, the lecherous (yet funky!) cabaret duo that’s plays around town a bit ‚Äî and do so tonight, in fact, as opening act for The Sea, Sugg’s one-man rock opera about the high, lonesome seas of the fishing trade. A smash hit at this year’s Fringe Festival, the play gets a reprise tonight at Johnny Brenda’s. After the jump, James talks about what it is to rock, the fisherman’s life, and more.
Come along for an exclusive interview…
Hello, James! So, as I understand it, The Sea is a “rock opera.” What’s rock about it?
The Sea was a chance for me to write music that i wanted to hear and not something that was in service to someone else’s play or vision. The music is not all rock, it spans quite a few genre’s, but it most certainly rocks when the powers are called upon. It is a great ride.
…and I’ll ride you till you fall.
Which must have been freeing for you, as most of your work - public work, at any rate - up until now has been for plays, correct?
Yes. I entered into composing through sound design for theater, eventually finding that music that I composed myself was often better or more quickly accessed than rooting through existing material. When beginning to compose for The Sea, i found it was a scary dark place in the privacy of my own imagination, but the songs turned out solid and most definitely appropriate to the story telling aspects of this piece. I couldn’t completely shake the theater.
Well, I think that’s a good thing - and precisely what a lot of rock n roll right now lacks. But at the same time, are the songs written in a kind of like sea-shanty-type medium?
I couldn’t deny the desire for some kind of rousing shanty moment. Thus the song, “Dirty Weather,” which is a sing along tune incorporating words in sea terminology that could be easily misinterpreted by a land lubber. The chorus hook is “bring that hooker home.” Hooker, a dirty word indeed, meaning a cargo vessel for hire. You do the math.
Owie. Did you learn that during your time on the freighter?
No. I learned that from some old shanty in the sea of sea literature i found myself in.
Sea terminology is greatly dead.
Well, there’s plenty of it out there. And I gather you got pretty immersed in it?
I went down to Panama and talk with a bunch of sailors and captains at the canal. I wanted to see how the old met the new and not the squeaky clean of the freighting vessel voyage. I also spoke with fisherman and one family in particular about fishing off the coast of Nantucket. That became the setting for this piece. Truly a place where the tradition is being fought for every day.
Gotcha. And what exactly is threatening that tradition? Just, like, modernity itself?
The methods of fishing have changed, long lines now, and have made the livelihood of swordfisherman almost impossible.
But is that necessarily a bad thing? I mean, this seems like a grueling life for anyone.
I guess in that way it is like many other modern shifts, from the family business to something less graceful and perhaps more damaging. Casting for fish is a more time consuming and difficult way to catch, but doesn’t kill randomly like a long line.
Define “long line”?
Long Lining is where one long line has many shorter hooked lines attached to it. You cast many hooks with one long line. Then, hours later, you reel that line in and see what you have caught. Controversial to some.
Why?
You can catch fish and kill fish that are to young to harvest, sea turtles and other endangered species.
Oh, I see.
God, i didn’t expect to get on the environmental high horse today.
The Sea brings many things.
And takes them away.
And I thank you!
James Sugg’s The Sea, Friday, September 29, 9:30pm. With The Brothers Suggarillo and T. Griffin Coraline. Johnny Brenda’s, Frankford & Girard Aves. 215.SEXY.MUG. Advance tickets can be purchased here.
