Prog Me: Andy Jackson

OK COMPUTER?

I have an iPhone 3 which does the job and I don’t need anything else. Bizarrely for someone who constantly works with technology, I’m quite a luddite and I don’t feel the need to have the latest of anything.

MASTERMIND?

Music and music technology but that would feel like cheating because it’s my job! So, maybe trees. I grew up in Epping Forest and forests are important to me – I always like to be near green spaces.

RELICS?

Apart from guitars, I am perversely unattached to the past. I don’t keep photographs or keepsakes of that I don’t use anymore. The oldest thing I own is a magnifying glass; it’s nothing special but I’ve had it since I was a child.

SOUND & VISION

My favourite show is Breaking Bad but I don’t watch TV much, I prefer to poke around the internet. As for music, I’m still very attached to the stuff I was into in my teens like Pink Floyd and Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, which is just a terrific album. Early Soft Machine and Zappa, too – he was huge for me.

SUPPER’S READY!

I’m teetotal and I can’t drink caffeine anymore so it would have to be fruit tea. I’m a vegetarian as well and I tend to eat simply as rich foods don’t agree with me. I mostly eat vegetable stir fries because they’re easy.

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.