GoGo Penguin (l to r): bassist Nick Blacka, drummer Jon Scott, pianist Chris Illingworth Photo: Emily Dennison
As our lives grow ever more digital, pianist Chris Illingworth remains devoted to his acoustic piano.
But the keyboardist with English band GoGo Penguin loves enhancing that old-school sound with new-school technology.
Speaking to Bryan Crump from his home in Manchester, ahead of the band's visit to Aotearoa for the Wellington Jazz Festival, Chris extols the wonders of reverse pedals and the blessings of using the Superego synth engine by US audio effects manufacturer Electro-Harmonix .
The latter allows Chris to create the sort of loop sounds on a piano that guitarists have been doing for years, even a permanent sustain.
"It'll just hold that sound, creating almost synth-like pads under the music," he says.
A 'reverse pedal', as the name suggests, enables Chris to reverse piano notes live in performance.
But despite wires coming out of his instrument in all directions, Chris remains devoted to an acoustic keyboard. And ideally that keyboard will be a Yamaha.
It's the tone, he explains.
But what if no Yahama is available?
"I'll make do. We always push for one, but sometimes that's not possible."
Chris started off learning classical piano at the age of eight. His parents tell him he was inspired to become a concert pianist after seeing a performance by the great Peter Donohue.
However, through his teenage years Chris found himself playing in bands and feeling increasingly constrained by the classical approach to things.
Once he'd learned the rules, the jazzer in him wanted to break them.
However, the classicist in Chris is still likely to be heard playing Debussy or Rachmaninov in private.
GoGo Penguin's latest album is called Everything Is Going to Be OK.
But does Chris really think so?
"Well, we all know the truth is, it isn't. It's a little bit ironic calling it that, but we needed to keep telling that to each other, reminding ourselves things will go wrong, but it's more that you're still there for each other."
It's a sentiment that goes beyond the band to its audience, a hope that the shared experience of listening to the album maybe helps create a sense of community, no matter how dark the world might seem.
