Steve Bingham
One-time No-Man touring musician pioneers looping for solo violin.
Violinist Steve Bingham’s flirtation with the progressive rock community began in 2008 when he took part in No-Man’s short live tour, followed by a stint with Tim Bowness. However, it’s the classically trained musician’s eclectic solo career that largely informs his conversation with 'Prog'. A performance by Bingham involves extensive usage of looping to create layers of sound, incorporating bass pedals and hand percussion to add sonic variation. How did looping become his principal solo tool? “Some years ago, I was looking to do less orchestral work, and I was strongly influenced by bassist Steve Lawson, with whom I played in a band called Ragatal, who was already doing some looping. I explored the possibilities of doing it live and realised that there was a way to perform solo without resorting solely to the wonderful yet limited solo violin repertoire. You can open yourself up to doing arrangements of all sorts of things.”
A live performance might include composed pieces, like the minimalism-influenced 'Cuckoo', commissioned especially by Bingham from composer Rowan Alfred, which also features looped bird call to great effect. However, he also includes arrangements of classical and rock pieces – his live set includes Michael Nyman’s 'Time Lapse' and he has also recorded and performed a remarkable version of Peter Gabriel’s 'Signal To Noise'.
“I recorded that on my album 'Touch' during lockdown. I got the members of my own string quartet and a double bass player friend to record all the parts, and we added some hand percussion, plus my solo violin on top. Then I had the dilemma of deciding who was going to sing it, and having got so close to the song, I decided to do it myself, which was a strange decision. I'm not a singer, but I'm pleased I did it.”
Looping can be a challenge, as the musician must decide whether to continue playing after a mistake, given that they may have to play over the error dozens of times. Bingham seems at home just chatting through his process with the audience to keep them on side in such instances.
“If you error occasionally, you say sorry, I'm going to start that one again, and people realise that the person on stage is human. I remember years ago I turned two pages at once in a quartet and didn't realise quickly enough. When I did, I explained to the audience, and we started the movement again, getting the biggest standing ovation that we'd had for ages when we finally got through it.“
Bingham’s latest release is the album 'Cuckoo' in 2024, and he now has ambitions to record in the progressive rock genre, while recognising that the complexity of the music doesn’t always lend itself to live looping. “I'm throwing around a few ideas in my head about whether I try to find some way of doing a solo set that is in the progressive genre, or whether I try an album which has a few other musicians that's more band-oriented.”
- Stephen Lambe
Prog File
LINE-UP Steve Bingham (violin, percussion, bass pedals, vocals) SOUNDS LIKE A one-man string ensemble performing rock covers and original compositions CURRENT RELEASE 'Cuckoo' is out now via Bandcamp WEBSITE stevebingham.bandcamp.com