10/11/02

NORTH LONDON

What was your latest record?

Latest record was the Ellis Island Sound compilation which came out on Heavenly label in August 2002 but some of the stuff on that was released in 1996 on ten inch vinyl by the label that did the first Calexico and Bonnie Prince Billy records also on vinyl. We sent a tape to Thrill Jockey in 1995 and this guy Howard at Thrill Jockey picked up on it after Thrill Jockey passed on it. His little subsidiary label All City did release it - they also did Kingsbury Manx as well and he now does Overcoat Records which is more CD based.

Taking you back to the beginning of your second career ..

The second career came about because of the first career coming to a slow and embarrassing end really :-). I always found it amusing when doing interviews for Ellis Island Sound that people said 'you went underground' 'you rejected the music business' …no the music business rejected me. It wasn't like there was some sort of plan. I suppose what I should say is yes I decided to step aside for a while. I didn't really have a choice in the matter. One thing that was good about it was I realised that it took me back to liking the music I'd always liked which was everything from Can to Public Image. I think it made me get back into music.

Going back in time what was the last Weather Prophets record? Was it actually the live one on Creation?

I don't know what the last one released was …there was also the solo stuff. I was kind of big in France for a while. So I was still playing in France…

You were set aside here but you still had a career there?

I went on holiday in France a couple of years ago and we visited this small town where I'd played to four hundred people. So I thought hold on to play to four hundred people in a place this size must have meant we were quite big. I did actually leave the Danceteria ( French Label) after two records - I left Creation to go to them. I didn't deliver another album to Danceteria and the option kind of lapsed. I made a conscious decision in 1993/4 that this was pointless to me and I was like I don't want to do this. I'm fed up of being a singer/songwriter and being a boring old bastard..No seriously it felt like diminishing returns and the best I could possibly hope to be was David Gray.....:-)

Despite him being quite successful nowJ It was that kind of vibe ..I didn't just grow up on Bob Dylan…I grew up on Can and Faust and I thought I want a bit of that stuff..and with the advent of the technology.
Another thing I did and a bloody scary thing was learning how to use the computer ..the Atari…and learn how to make music…sequence music which suddenly all the people I knew in studios..( about one and a half :-) )..suddenly told me no sorry really busy so I was stuck sweating …I ended up with a spot on my head from rubbing my face whilst trying to understand the manual…over a period of months…
It was brilliant because when I finally learnt how to use it instead of being out of it..the last Weather Prophets recording we did with John Rivers and we wanted to use sequences and it was an awful waste of time because it was very expensive and it was us basically..because I loved New Order..and it was that thing that because we couldn't use the technology it was a real waste of time in the studio trying to get him to make us sound a bit like 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan'. He's going well what's that…that's an arpegiator …and ..what that meant was I took control of the means of production myself so I didn't have to stand over somebody's shoulder going make it sound like this.

It took a long time. Now I can just use it as a tool basically..I don't have to think about it. Now I use very little computer it's mostly live instruments. It's all done live to tape, reel-to-reel. For the next record I will probably use 'recorded with what you would imagine' - I find there's a lot of snobbery about analogue and digital - I mean what I'm recording now could be recorded on a laptop or a five hundred year old reel-to-reel ( well a more recent one actually ;-)) Some of the sounds on it are programmed but you wouldn't think they are. 'what you imagine' I like because there are things on it that sound completely live and they're not live at all. still using the rhythm-ace drum machine and modulators and samples ..found sounds ..concrete sounds..toy sounds ..

You mentioned Can and Faust but also Derek Bailey used to use toys..in fact we went to one of Derek Bailey's gigs together at Bethnal Green Library..

I'll always remember that gig and I still have a Derek Bailey CD which I still play and I still don't like it but I still find it fascinating its almost like colonic irrigation almost. Some times you have to listen to Derek Bailey or Evan Parker to clear everything out ..I find Bailey endlessly fascinating. He's done this new record 'Ballads' which is covers and he uses chords and tunes……but that gig was quite memorable. I think that's quite an important thing..an important punk rock thing to do with gigs and hopefully when I go out again I'll make something memorable.

So you're planning something different for your next gigs?

No I just want to try and make it memorable….

Punk rock?

Well punk rock in the sense of not being well-behaved..but that doesn't mean saying 'fuck' because that in itself is a cliché.

You mean as opposed to singer-songwriters being too well behaved?

I don't like things that are too 'grown-up' in a bad way..

Not taking chances?

No the only criteria for me in any music is that you ..well the only music that really moved me wasn't the The Pistols..and The Clash it was the Raincoats and The Fall and Subway Sect that was the punk that really moved me. In a way that was the real punk because that was the bands that formed doing what The Pistols told them to do..they were a great British rock band ..like The Who. They weren't musical anarchists at all..they were an incredibly tight focused British mod band. Public Image were actually new..weird..they made ..the music Lydon always said they made.

Pere Ubu…Red Krayola

Scritti Politti…early Scritti…yeah all those ..trying to be true to those ideals..Young Marble Giants. Trying to do something interesting and what that means is if you're English living in the world you live in..it would be completely bogus for me to do country music ..I've only been to America once. My music has to be what I am which is a combination of everything from Slade to whatever..Slade to T.RexJ.

Are you a totally 'English' singer-songwriter?

'English' - well me and the family went and stayed in the countryside- first time I'd ever been in the real countryside..no street lights no nothing..no village pubs..no traffic..just walkers..It was like a bloody mountain. The two records I listened to the whole time I was there was Anne Briggs - The Time Has Come ( 2nd LP) and Boards Of Canada. they were both 'country' records in the truest sense and they were both brilliant in the countryside. in some senses they are quite different but in others really similar and that's what is significant to me. Boards of Canada are people who live in the middle of nowhere and so is Anne Briggs. Boards of Canada make great music for the countryside. Is what I'm trying to say even though they are electronic and on the Warp label. The folk thing does work there but to be an 'english' singer-songwriter …I saw Derek Bailey when I was 24 and I liked him and I was interested and I grew up on The Fall so I can't pretend to be 'pure' in what I do..

So you're not Richard Thompson?

No not at all..Good God no..neither is Richard Thompson..he's not pure in what he does and he understands that as well. His music is not generic.

You now have three children - does this affect you and your relationship to the 'music business'?

Well it makes you a little bit realer about things ..you get a little bit tougher about things . Like give me the fucking money…NOW! ..because you need it more.
When you don't have kids you are living from hand to mouth but its not the same now - then it was how much booze and fags can I afford. Now there are slightly more important things than booze and fags and jeans….or CDs.
Kids put things in perspective..there's something childish about being convinced that somebody is interested in your 'muse' which is foolish and arrogant and which I've still got of course. That ridiculous belief that anybody would be interested in what you have to say..it makes you do the things that are important..the thing with kids is it has never stopped me doing music but it has stopped me doing some things which I'm not interested in any more….like shopping :-)

The things that are important you continue to do..I wouldn't dream of stopping music but other things do go by the board. Kids are fascinating and they also give you a sense of your own mortality which is quite hard work because when I didn't have children I was in some kind of permanent arrested teenage-hood at the age of 39/40 and when ( points to Otto on lap) he is 40 I'll almost certainly be dead and that's quite..sobering.