Jude: A singer/songwriter (aka Julia Pankhurst) working with producer Tony Silcock

Friday 17th January 2003

Singer/songwriter JUDE answers Tony Cummings' questions.

Jude
Jude

Tony: Jude, or even Julia Pankhurst, will be unknown to most of our readers. Can you let us have a potted biography?

Jude: I grew up in a happy, Christian family on the outskirts of London. Had a very artistic and musical father, a musical mother and a grandmother who was an accomplished pianist. My childhood was full of music and thinking back it seemed like all of our extended family and friends could either play an instrument or had a strong singing voice, which meant at Christmas we had an orchestra around the piano. This was all normal to us and so the fact that I had a strong voice didn't mean anything out of the ordinary really. From age 11 it was evident that I had an artistic flare and went straight to art college at 17. By 14 I had also mastered how to cut hair and wherever I went I always had lots of willing guinea pigs to practice my new found skills on. After art college I worked as a nanny in California for a year, which was a time of real spiritual growth for me. After coming home I decided to take an intensive course in hairdressing to qualify me, so that I always had some source of income. Being quite gregarious I found the personal interaction and the instant satisfaction of being able to transform someone very enjoyable, and except for occasionally doing high street portraits the art sort of fell by the wayside. Within the next few years I moved from the centre of London to a church in Kent where I felt God wanted me to work, as they had recently had an influx of newly converted, yet very damaged people. While I was there we had a sort of community house where we took in new converts with quite extreme problems. We would daily pray for and support them and it was exciting to see the changes in their lives. However soon afterwards the church split and things started to fall apart My father then died of cancer which was quite a blow to me and, feeling very alone I mistakenly and impulsively went and got married to someone I had only known 10 days. That was when the real nightmare begun as I had no idea of the man's true character. It turned into three very unhappy years. There were times of total despair and feelings of complete failure. However, I knew that God was greater than my circumstances and soon I was released from the whole situation with relatively little scarring. After the initial feelings of shame, I never looked back and felt like I'd been given another chance at life. As this era of my life ended, quite miraculously, by making just a few enquiries I was offered a barbers shop within the Naval base at Portsmouth. The Navy had only just lifted their restrictions on outside businesses coming in, and I was literally handed a business in my lap. I felt this was an amazing blessing from God and after five and a half years of having the business, I have had the privilege of doing the hair of many thousands of guys! More recently they have been very involved and very inquisitive about my music and the production of the CD and within the last few months I have been able to sell many albums within the shop. It's very satisfying when I hear of officers playing it at their barbecues. Throughout my whole life, up until the present time, I have always been part of worship groups, from backing vocals, and playing percussion to leading. I started writing songs about five years ago and also started teaching myself guitar. I tried to get a band together at various times, but it never seemed to happen, people always seemed to have other commitments, and I had quite a few knock backs. When I heard some of Tony Silcock's work at Redland Studios in Bristol, I knew he was the person I wanted to work with, and I decided that if I didn't go for it now, I never would.

Tony: What were you aiming at with the 'Out Of A Tree' recording?

Jude: I don't think I had any definite idea of what I wanted, however I felt that it shouldn't be overtly Christian, as I wanted it to be sold within the Naval base. But at the same time I wanted a piece of my faith in God to come through. Style wise, I suppose I was aiming at a melodic sort of rock that was slightly different, with a bit of a kick. I wanted it to be engaging, interesting and thought provoking, also catchy and uplifting in places too. It has always been an ambition for me to produce a CD which had quite diverse songs, but at the same time flowed and takes you on some sort of a journey. Working with Tony was great because we're both the sort of people who don't like to work to a rule book, so it was fun working on each song as we never knew how it would turn out, and was very much a case of a bit of this, add a bit of that, mix it all up and hopefully the end result is infinitely more exciting and interesting than following some method. I did enjoy every part of making the album, from the writing of the songs, the production, to placing the songs in order and the artwork.

Tony: What kind of gigs do you do?

Jude: It's me and a band, but it won't be until the new year that we get out and about.

Tony: How did you become a Christian?

Jude: I'd always had a very strong sense that there was a God, I suppose being in a Christian family helped, but I came to a point at the age of 14 when I was challenged to make my own decision about whether I wanted to go God's way or my own, and knowing by that time that God's way was best, I invited him into my heart. Although at that time I gave him just a small percentage of myself, as the years have gone by I have given more and more of myself to him, as I have found him to be a rock and totally faithful in every way.

Tony: Everyone who's heard 'Out Of A Tree' has been impressed by what you've achieved with a small budget. What are your plans for the future?

Jude: My plans? Don't like to make many really. The next step for me would be live gigs, selling more albums, writing more songs. Apart from that it's just pushing doors and seeing which ones open. Doors have already opened for me to go on local TV twice and to do an acoustic set on local radio. This is all due to the commander of the Naval base phoning around all the media for me after listening to my album. The most exciting thing on this path is that you never know what God's going to do next. It's a bit of a wild adventure I suppose, which is how I like it. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
About Tony Cummings
Tony CummingsTony Cummings is the music editor for Cross Rhythms website and attends Grace Church in Stoke-on-Trent.


 

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