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| Photo credir: Hennessy Artistry |
📢 “Well, that's the challenging equilibrium you try and strike every time you make a new record: trying to push the boundaries and limits of your sound without repeating yourself. You have to try to do something new, exciting and fresh with the band's sound and play with the band's conceived identity, but at the same time not disregarding what makes you uniquely 'you'.”
𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗢 𝗔𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚?
📢 “I think so! The greater the body of work, the more difficult it becomes to write a fresh song; it becomes a lot more challenging. As far as longevity is concerned, I think if you look at the careers of the likes of The Cure or Depeche Mode - I use those examples because they both released albums this year, 30 years into their career - well they've made music, since day one, purely on their own terms, unaffected, unconcerned by trends, movements and fashion in music. They followed their own path and stuck to their guns, and I think that's why they're still making records which are still worthwhile listening. We're 15 years in, and that's where I'd like to be in another 15. It's not like we have any other options; we're basically unemployable, you know, so this is it.”
𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢'𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘, 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗦, 𝗦𝗔𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗘, 𝗛𝗘𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗠 𝗘𝗧𝗖. 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗭 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗘𝗥?
📢 “I started looking back on my career around the time of Meds [fifth studio album, released in 2006]. As a lyricist I thought I was using a great deal of gimmicks. For example, the whole chemistry/medicine cabinet routine that is Commercial for Levi or a song title that screams 'Look at Me!' that is Nancy Boy! I made a decision that I wanted to stop using gimmicks and address the bigger questions in more everyday language where possible, and try and simplify it, I suppose. Say more by saying less, that's kinda the trip I'm on right now.”
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| Photo credit: Scarlet Page |
📢 “Everybody who writes wants to write stuff that's timeless and doesn't date, really. I think you have to be very careful if you want to do that. You have to tap into the spirit of the age but at the same time write something that transcends it. I don't think that using incredibly culturally specific language enables you to do that. So, I'm trying to transcend that and write something that can stand up to the music that I grew up listening to. Take Leonard Cohen, for example. There's a universality in his music and a simplicity which makes it appreciable and meaningful in any decade, any century really. I think that's what I'm trying to do, hopefully in some way making a difference.”
𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘'𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗖𝗛 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧?
📢 “Right now I'm just wondering how the hell am I going to survive the next two years of this touring schedule and pull out of this in one piece.”
𝗢𝗡 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗧𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗩𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗔𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗦, 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗞𝗘𝗡 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗨𝗦 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗬. 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗗, 𝗜𝗙 𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗟𝗟?
📢 “It's good to have an intelligent person running one of the most powerful countries and someone who generally cares. I'm less sympathetic towards the economic problems that exist right now than some people might be, because I have never been able to understand the whole culture of living beyond your means. I mean, I've been unemployed for a long time, I've been homeless, I've slept in train stations and I didn't spend money that didn't belong to me. So I find it difficult to be incredibly sympathetic with the culture of avarice that has got us into this position.
The other thing that annoys me about this whole focus on our economic woes is that nobody is talking about the environment anymore, and if anything is going to get us in the ass, it's going to be that. The hole in the ozone layer is still there, 20 years after they discovered it, and it's getting bigger and bigger, yet this isn't news. I want to be involved in the world. I think it comes from being a parent; you want to try and contribute to make a place for your children to grow up in that's hopefully a little bit better than where you were. Unfortunately, it seems that we are heading straight towards some form of environmental armaggeddon, and perhaps we deserve to go the same way as the dinosaurs for our treatment of the planet.”
(The Skinny, November 24th 2009)
Post by Silke
