Q&A with Johnny Thirkell: Trumpet Extraordinaire
Our friends at Mouthpiece online were lucky enough to spend time with one of the world’s most recorded trumpet players, Johnny Thirkell!
Our friends at Mouthpiece online were lucky enough to spend time with one of the world’s most recorded trumpet players, Johnny Thirkell! John has performed on over 6,000 recordings (including 23 No.1 records) with legends George Michael, Phil Collins, Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue, Eric Clapton, Buddy Rich, The Who, and even Tina Turner.
For the last 10 years, John took a self-imposed break to focus on other areas of interests, but now he’s back playing and most recently worked on the Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson smash, “Uptown Funk.” We were curious to know what John has been up to and have posted our favorite quotes below from Mouthpiece Online’s interview. For the full Q&A, check out Johnny’s artist profile on Mouthpiece Online.
Why the trumpet?
JT: Well an old friend of mine from school in the North-East of England made me want to start. Ken Brown, now 2nd trumpet with the Hallé Orchestra was a boy-wonder cornet player at school and I saw the kudos that this got him at school. This piqued my interest, and then when I found out that band practise was the same time as 2nd period maths, I thought “I’m in, where do I sign?”. I loved it immediately, and there was nothing that I wanted to do more from that point onwards.
Incredible chart success
JT: I was on at least one album in the UK charts without a break for 13 years and 4 months. This was with dozens of different acts through that period. At one stage there were 11 albums in the top-50 that I was playing on at the same time!
Playing flute on a Kylie Minogue record
JT: That is not a typo! Steve Anderson was the producer on that track and booked me on trumpet. We were at Olympic studios in London, I was the last instrument to go on and they needed rough mixes by that night. Steve was struggling to find good flute samples in a hurry so I said, “If it is not too difficult, I’ve got my daughter’s flute in the car!”. I went and got it and played one bar of flute, for no extra money I might add!
Practice tips
JT: I certainly have a strict-ish 20 minute warm-up routine that I do when I am busy. I will vary it though. I love to be organized with my practice and use various apps to keep track of what I have been doing. I suspect that I am rather OCD with it all, but it works!
Career advice
JT: Treat your career like a business and don’t worry about what other people think!