From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-moderated-digest) To: seven-seas-moderated-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #129 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-moderated-digest Friday, May 2 2003 Volume 02 : Number 129 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 07:09:09 -0600 From: "K. F. Smith" Subject: seven-seas-moderated interview from Soundgenerator http://www.soundgenerator.com/village/features.cfm?articleid=1874&page=1 In Conversation With: Ian McCulloch Ian McCulloch has a kind of iconic status as the frontman of classic UK band Echo And the Bunnymen and also as a successful solo artist. His songs are some of the best of the 20th century and we were lucky enough to speak to the songsmith about his life and works. Hi Ian thanks very much for taking time, in what seems a very busy schedule to speak to us. It is almost 25 years, in fact it is the 25th anniversary this year of your first gig. November 19th! So it is true. What plans do have to celebrate the event? Warners are going to re-master the first five albums. In a way it should be the first four because that is the spades, clubs, diamonds and hearts of the Bunnymen. It is probably going to go through Rhino as they did such a good job with the box set. They've never been remastered so it going to be almost like a new band coming out. Are you going to be heavily involved with that? I think anecdotal stuff I want to be involved in with Will. All the lyrics will be on for the first time ever on those first five albums and loads of rare photos of pictures that Will took. He brought what was almost like a carpet roll, a big sheet of card with hundreds maybe more thousands of photos of us. I have checked out some of the photos of me, I thought 'oh God, there will be some beauts there'. But no extra tracks. Warners came to us and said are there any extra tracks? It was like 'No'. Even if there were the reason why they weren't on is because we didn't want people to hear them. So it is going to be as it was Yeah, it's like when I get re-mastered Ziggy or other CDs I don't want them, I just want the eleven tracks as the original. I don't want to know that tracks were recorded two years earlier. For me I like to think that Ziggy Stardust was done in a two-week period with his hairdo the way it was wearing the boots, even though I know he had long hair when he did it Ziggy, I'd rather not have known that. You know I just think that certain mythical albums or classic albums should retain that. Yeah I know what you saying. They are done at a certain time, at a certain moment in time and that kind of retains it The good news is with the Bunnymen I pretty much had the same hairdo and a long overcoat. Can you tell us a bit about what you remember from that first gig? We only had one song. We were on stage a total of forty minutes, coz we made the song last about twenty. It's probably a slight exaggeration but we were on stage for twenty minutes because nothing worked. And the drum machine... Will had his headphones and a foot pedal and he was going to start it coz he'd be able to hear the drum machine clicking in his headphones and he'd press the button. There were only three of us and then I heard Will say, "nothing is working". It was like twenty minutes and Will said, "do you two wanna get off while I fix it". It was like "no chance I'm up here now and not only do I like it, if I walk off people will think we're crap". If we just butch it out. So what did you do, just did nothing until they fixed it? Yeah we did sod all, just kinda looked great and stood there. What was the venue, can you remember? Yeah it was Eric's. Have you retained any of those original fans? Pete Wylie, I'm not sure if he was ever a die-hard fan but still likes I'm sure what I'm doing and he's still a mate. Jane Casey, she was probably there. Jane still loves us. Coming back to the present you have a new single and a new album out again full of strong songs, would you agree with the term that you are a 'song smith' and that is what is most important to you? Yeah I mean early on I think the notion that.. well I know that our management and the record company would say, "if only you could bloody write songs" But they were I Know. They were brilliant songs But I think they meant more 'Heaven Up Here' time. But they are songs but songs of different types of styles. Sometimes you write a song that is very bandy and based on a riff. But I do like the song smithery, I like crafting the stuff now and I think that as I have got older I've got more melodic. It's usually the opposite way round. If you listen to Bowie or Lou Reed now they've got no tunes. But I think mine are more melodic. What has been the process with making this record? Obviously it is away from the Echo and The Bunnymen but has it been a different process and one that you have enjoyed more or in a different way? Yeah I love recording it is probably the most enjoyable recording session that I have ever had in my life. Which is another great sign that, for me things feel better. You know I have had great times with the Bunnymen in recording studios and the next one will be as well. But it just feels that I am more at home with what I do. Is that because there is more control? Possibly, I tend not to analyse it like that. I think I just knew that I had a collection of really good songs. I think some of them are absolutely great. I always had in my mind that it was going to be my 'Transformer'; a couple of' throw away' things, a couple of love type songs with a lyrical edge that makes you feel that you don't quite know where I am coming from. Like 'Slidling' it is basically a love type song but the weird type. It's basically in sickness and in health but more the sickness bit I suppose. I guess that he Coldplay support and the links with Chris Martin has helped put the band back in the news, what have the years been like after the initial split in and have you welcomed the new found interest in you and the band or has it never really changed? The hardcore are still there. But we were split for nine years and in 1997 when we came back luckily we had 'Nothing Lasts Forever' as the first single, which went straight in at number 8. So that was kind of like 'there you go!' So it doesn't matter how long you are going to be away. This is going to work Yeah. With the next record with the Bunnymen I want to combine that kind of song writing thing that I do with Will's more.. I don't like to call it psychadelic but it's that kind of weird touch kinda thing. He does things that no other guitarist does but I do want him to harness it in a song like he did in say 'Killer Moon' or with 'The Cutter' and I do find that I want him to come up with the killer intros and the killer middle and that is all I expect from him. And if he can do that combined with the great songs then we've got the template for the next one. Well you've done it before so.. But I think that if I just make him understand his role within the song there will times where he can just freak out. But if I want to write a proper song I want him to obey. Coz otherwise it will be pointless .it will just be clashing all the time. You know the 'Killer Moon' the beauty of that is the voice and the melody and then Will doing his 'wow wow' (Ian sings his version of Will's guitar riffs) and then the solo in the middle is one of the greatest guitar moments in the history of rock. And then on the outro he does another one; it has two solos that song. You know I just want him to harness just how brilliant he is. When you talk to a lot of bands you and Echo seem to be a source of inspiration for many. Bands like Radiohead, Iceland's wonderful Leaves. Oh yeah I've heard of them yeah They are fantastic.. and many more all hail you as sources of inspiration or would at least make references to you. How do you react to those comments? To me, when we got the inspiration award form Q, which is such a stupid rag I can't even get an interview with them four months after picking up the Inspiration Award. So I never really rated Q in the first place, so that's why when I went and picked up the award I said 'Not before Southern Time' and I thanked Chris and Coldplay rather than the mag. Because it took Chris talking about us to make Q realise who the sods we were. But that's corporate stuff for you Yeah Q might as well be Music Week. But I do think that all those bands that ..it does feel fantastic and it does mean that whatever music that we did then is what we always thought twenty years ahead of it's time.. You know that if it is influencing Chris now who happens to be in the biggest new rock band in the world then it means that the Bunnymen are contemporary. It means that we are not only contemporary now but what we did twenty years ago is still contemporary. Like the Velvets were or The Doors. You know and that's a sign of being a great band I think. Oh definitely Now U2 don't get cited that often you know with their influences.... maybe a band who conquer stadiums in the way they do it. There is nothing on their first albums that would inspire. As they went along their melodies became a bit more apparent. When you look back at your first album they contain classics and to do it first time round and to not have to try and work out what to do. You did what you wanted to do and that was that. Like 'This is what we are'! See with U2 I do think they got better and they started writing better tunes but it is almost like assembling bits from somewhere else and obviously Brian Eno helped a lot. But we just did it because that's what we were born to do. And I much prefer those kind of bands. Like the Velvets and the Doors, you know instant chemistry from the word go. Do you have artists that have inspired you? Velvets, The Doors, Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Iggy Pop. For me the two greats, I love people like Dylan but I don't know whether he's influenced me musically. People like that just affect you subconsciously Yeah it is more the iconic way of things. You know I've always known that Elvis was a dude, Dylan was a dude. And you know The Stones on block were dudes. But that was what kinda influenced me to walk it like I talked it and to always have a decent tune to go with your thoughts or indecent thoughts! Yeah quite Is there anyone that you would like to collaborate with that you haven't yet played recorded with? I'm probably gonna write some stuff with Richard Hawley, I don't know if you have heard his album 'Low Edges', he used to be in the Long Pigs. It's great it's like Elvis- Orbison. It's heart-breaking stuff. Maybe Chris .who knows? Lastly how did you get involved with the One Big No gig? There's been a lot of artists who have spoken out and have suffered because the public seem very much against artist and actors speaking out particularly against the war, did you worry about that or was it never a consideration? Nah! What you mean all my millions of fans would . No not that! The only thing that I was worried about was that I was anti-war enough. I was asked to do it and I thought, "oh sod it Why not?" But I also said to the girls doing it I said ' If this was 1939 I hope you wouldn't be putting the same crap on because there had to be a war" I did it because I was anti the way that war came about with George Bush. If it had been Clinton advocating we did it I think people would have thought well he doesn't seem to lie, apart from when he had the blowjob. But it is the whole thing that surrounds it Yeah you know George Bush he comes across as a cartoon figure. Ian has been constantly interrupted during the interview by people collecting sofas, skip deliveries and so on. He is interrupted again and although neither of us want to finish the chat I suggest we finish off for his sake and sanity. Ian explains that it is that spring cleaning time and that he also hasn't been home for ages so there is so much to do around the house. Well Ian thanks very much for your time good luck with the new album and all the gigs over here and in the states. Really appreciate you taking the time Cheers ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #129 ******************************************