Music Interview: Zac Starkey

Rock drummer Zak Starkey has an impressive CV that includes stints with The Who, Oasis, Johnny Marr and The Healers, The Lightning Seeds and The Icicle Works, but his latest collaboration seems him doing something altogether different from his Britrock roots.

The 56-year-old son of Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen Starkey, has teamed up with audio brand Meters Music to launch a pair of premium headphones inspired by his love of reggae.

Limited to only 500 pairs, and retailing for around £329, the flagship OV-1-B-Connect Jamaica Soundsystem noise-cancelling cans – Starkey has his own Grammy award-winning record label, Trojan Jamaica – are said to deliver a rich, warm sound and great bass performance.

The Jamaica Soundsystem production team is the result of a tie-up with Starkey and his partner, musician/producer, Sharna “Sshh” Liguz. I spoke to Starkey about his reggae leanings and the new headphones and got him to share some of his rock ‘n’ roll stories.

SH: How and why have teamed up with Meters to launch your new headphones?

ZS: It was via John Entwistle from The Who – I’ve been in The Who for 25 years. Mark [Gooday – who founded Meters Music and its sister company, bass amp manufacturer Ashdown Engineering, after leaving amplification giant Trace Elliot] has been around for ever.

I was in Jamaica, recording with Sly & Robbie – we’ve made five records together. Mark was in Jamaica, and he gave us a demo of some [Meters] headphones – he had six pairs. I felt sick – I had to lie down, because it rocked my world – in a good way. Robbie checked them out and took all six pairs – you wouldn’t argue with him!

The new headphones [the OV-1-B-Connect] are fantastic and they make music really great fun – the bass is tight, and the timing is very good. You can feel the throb of it all – they’re very powerful. They’ve been in development since 2018. Meters also has some great studio headphones – our engineers are the fussiest f***ers I know, and they think they’re good for mixing with. They’re really impressed.

Tell me about the record label, Trojan Jamaica, which you’ve founded with your partner Sharna “Sshh” Liguz, who you also record with, as the duo SSHH…

We lived in Jamaica for three years – we were invited there in 2016 to play at the opening of the Peter Tosh Museum in Kingston, because the curator had seen a video we made for ‘Get Up Stand Up.’ We played there again in 2017, shipped our gear out there and built a studio.

We recorded seven records while we were there – we have a reggae label. We are also co-producing with Sly & Robbie – they’ll cut some tracks, give them to us and we’ll finish them. We’ve got two U-Roy singles coming out – we’re working on his last recordings, which he made a month before he died – plus Sly & Robbie Presents Jesse Royal, Big Youth (Jah Youth) and a second volume of a blues-reggae compilation.

Me and Sshh had a band [SSHH] – it was an electro-punk kind of thing. We put a few singles out and then we did a record [the Issues album] for Teenage Cancer Trust. I met Sshh at an MC5 gig in Australia 17 years ago and we’ve been together ever since – we have a baby together.

How did you get so into reggae?

Through my mum, who played me a Bob Marley live record. My dad gave me a copy of Man In The Hills by Burning Spear and then I got into punk, which told me about reggae. John Lydon was always talking about dub in interviews – it was a really great introduction. I got into glam, then The Who and The Small Faces and then punk. The Pistols taught me how to play slowly – it sounds fast, but it’s not.

You’re known for your Mod /Britrock heritage – playing with The Who, Oasis and Johnny Marr. Are people surprised when they find out you’re a big reggae fan?

In Jamaica, I only play the guitar – I don’t play the drums. Many of the people I work with there don’t know that I’m a drummer – they just think I play the guitar. We’ve cut over 70 songs and I only played drums on one and that was because Sly was busy that day.

Your dad gave you a drumkit for your tenth birthday – it was a 1962 Ludwig four-piece Champagne Sparkle. Do you still have it?

Yes – it used to belong to Peter Sellers. He gave it to my dad.

I’ve read that your dad gave you one drum lesson and then told you to get on with it… Is that true?

Yes – he wasn’t that keen for me to do it, but I kept it up.

Why didn’t he encourage you?

Because there were a lot of drummers about and it was a bit of a hard act to follow, wasn’t it?

Keith Moon was your godfather. Was he a bigger influence on your drumming than your dad?

Completely – I was a guitarist. I saw Marc Bolan – my dad took me to see T. Rex at Wembley Pool in 1972 – and I said to him, ‘I want a guitar and a feather boa.’

I learned guitar, but when I heard The Who’s Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy it changed my world and I switched immediately to drums – that was three years later. Keith gave me a drumkit when I was 11 – it arrived when I was 12.

It was auctioned at Sotherby’s for £12,000, wasn’t it?

I wish I’d never sold it, but, at the time, I owed some drug dealers and the taxman a lot of money.

Did Keith encourage your drumming?

We talked about it, but we never drummed together – he was really encouraging, and he used to play me lots of old records. We talked about girls and surfing, which, it turned out, he’d never actually done. That’s Keith, innit? Me and my little brother used to go and stay at his place in Malibu.

Kenney Jones [drummer – The Small Faces, The Faces, The Who] showed me a few things – more than anyone probably. He was a great friend of my mum’s, and he was at our house a lot, where I had my drumkit.

Andy Newmark [US session drummer /member of Sly and the Family Stone] also showed me a couple of things once – that was amazing. I also had a little jam with [US bassist] Willie Weeks on the same day – that was f***ing fantastic! I was about 12.

Would you have preferred to have been a guitarist rather than a drummer?

I’d much rather be a guitarist, but I love playing drums with people I’ve got chemistry with – chemistry is hard to find. I’ve been really lucky. I had great chemistry with Johnny Marr, The Who, Oasis, Ian Broudie and The Lightning Seeds, and The Icicle Works – they were all acts I liked.

Me and Johnny started The Healers in 1996 – we toured the world in 2003 and we had the time of our lives. We were space-rock – that was our thing. We wanted to be Santana and Hawkwind mixed up. Johnny’s my best mate – it’s like we’ve known each other in previous lives. He and his wife, Angie, are godparents to our child. I would love to play with Johnny again – I’ve heard his new album and it’s absolutely f***ing brilliant!

I loved Oasis and The Who – when they phoned me up and asked me if I wanted to come and do it, it didn’t feel like a job – it was an honour.

When you were younger, you rebelled against your dad and being ‘the son of a Beatle’, didn’t you? In hindsight, did that help or hinder you?

The rebellion helped because I went and did my own thing. For a bit I rejected everything that those guys stood for. Then I realised that I was missing out on something really great. About 10 years later, I realised those guys were pretty f***ing good!

Did you listen to The Beatles as a child?

Yes – I loved them, but then I rejected them. Punk helped me to do that.

Before you played with Johnny Marr and The Who, you spent about 10 years on the circuit, playing smaller gigs, didn’t you?

I also played with The Icicle Works and Bobby Womack. I would do anything – I really enjoyed it. It was the natural way – to go slowly. I joined a band – The Next – when I was 12 and I hadn’t stopped playing since until last year. I used to love playing a place called the Bridge House in Bracknell, in 1978/1979. It was an insane biker bar – we’d play there once or twice a month. I don’t know if it’s still there.

How did you end up joining The Who?

Me and John Entwistle jammed together at a party in the early ‘80s and it was great. When I was about 17, he came to watch my band at Dingwalls, and he asked me to join his [solo] band. I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m in this band.’ Two years later, he asked me again and I joined his band – that was in 1985 and we did an album called The Rock, but it didn’t come out until 1996. When I was 19-21, I was living at John’s for almost 14 months, Monday-Friday. That was a trip! I joined The Who when I was 31.

Were you nervous?

I’d already played with Roger [Daltrey] and John – I was nervous about playing with Pete [Townshend], but he was great. It was a baptism by fire – getting spat at and that – but, after a while, I started to duck. I loved every second of it – it’s bebop with amps! Nothing’s set in stone with that band – Pete will play ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ different every night ‘cos he doesn’t want to get bored, and he wants to make sure everyone’s paying f***ing attention. You have to be on the ball 150% of the time, because Pete demands that – he’s giving more than that and you have to give the same.

How did playing with Oasis differ from The Who?

There were the same amount of challenges, but in a different way – it’s about restraint. Oasis were some of the greatest musicians I’d ever met – no one really knows that. They were f***ing bang on – they knew exactly what was happening all the time. I believe that we were the best live band in the world at the time. Apart from The Sex Pistols, who are number one, The Who and Oasis are my favourite bands.

Why did you stop playing with Oasis?

I chose to do my own thing. I’m happy to be able to do anything I want and not wear a badge that says, ‘I’m in this band and I’m not allowed to do anything else.’

What kind of hi-fi set-up do you have at home?

I’m a vinyl guy and I have Naim with big Tannoy speakers.

How do you feel about streaming?

It’s a necessary evil, but I wish the artists would get given more money for it – I think it’s atrocious, but I can’t do anything about it.

Do you know any good drummer jokes?

A drummer goes into a shop and says, ‘I’d like to buy a guitar, please.’ The guy says to him, ‘You’re a drummer, aren’t you? He says: ‘How do you know that?’ The other guy says, ‘This is a fish and chip shop.’

Was your dad really the best drummer in The Beatles?

He’s the best rock ‘n’ roll drummer in the world, mate, and don’t you forget it!

The OV-1-B-Connect Jamaica Soundsystem headphones are available to pre-order from www.metersmusic.com.

www.trojanjamaica.com

Please note: since this interview was conducted, bassist Robbie Shakespeare, one half of the duo Sly & Robbie, has died. He was 68.

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