Finn Blythe: There’s a real eclectic mix here, I guess we could start with Hendrix. When did you first get into him? 
Connan Mockasin: I got very in to playing guitar when I was around ten years old and I hadn’t heard of Jimi Hendrix, but it was around that point I was watching a film with my mum, it was Under Siege or Under Siege 2, one of those, do you know the movie?

FB: Steven Seagal, sure.
CM: Yeah, well I think it was the scene with the view over the top of the ship, Jimi Hendrix was playing and it was just amazing, I had never heard anything like it. I asked mum who it was and she said, “We’ve got a record of his in the cupboard.”

FB: Nice.
CM: And that was Band of Gypsy’s. So I remember dubbing it off the record to cassette and I would listen back and rewind constantly listening to parts that I was trying to copy.

FB: So he kind of influenced your earliest memories of playing guitar?
CM: Yeah, I really liked blues guitars, before him I liked B. B. King and Eric Clapton and then I got really into that Band of Gypsy’s record. So I got obsessed with the guitar, I would sit and obsess over things but then I just stopped and the only time I ever play now is to record or play live.

FB: Right, so you wouldn’t just pick up the guitar in your room?
CM: Not really no, I think I just played too much. I was playing several hours a day, just whenever I could. Now I like surprising myself when I do play it because I just get bored very easily with things – does that make sense?

FB: Sure. But what replaced that void?
CM: I always enjoyed making things, I was obsessed with carnival rides for a long time, ones that fold up on trucks. And, well before music I loved drawing and I loved painting, but those sorts of things feel very similar, in that groove I guess when things are just happening with your thinking.

FB: Right, a mind state?
CM: Yeah, I like that feeling.

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