The latest single from Jason McNiff is, in fact, two singles: it’s a double header, with ‘If you Could See Me Now’ on the A-side, and ‘Mary Jane’ as the other A-side. ‘If you Could See Me Now’ is what you could call a bit of a downer – as Jason McNiff explained: “‘If You Could See Me Now’ is about an alcoholic who has really come to the end of the road with their drinking. The hero is left with a simple choice; Life or Death. I hope to convey in this song that, although this seems like a no brainer to the healthy and sane of mind, it can be a slightly more complicated choice to make for the person in that position.”
Jason McNiff learnt his finger picking at the feet of a master – literally, having completed studies at the University of Nottingham, where he fell in with the Folk & Blues scene, he moved to London in the mid-nineties to do another degree in English Lit. He was just in time to catch the Bert Jansch residency at the 12 Bar club. For 6 months, every Wednesday night, McNiff would be in the front row of Soho’s tiny club learning fingerstyle.