From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-moderated-digest) To: seven-seas-moderated-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #167 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 30 2003 Volume 02 : Number 167 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 07:46:18 -0600 From: "K. F. Smith" Subject: seven-seas-moderated Blender.com http://www.blender.com/articles/online/020522_mcculloch.asp Blender Buzz: Ian McCulloch Legendary Echo and the Bunnymen frontman proclaims himself "King of Cool" By Tony McMenamin Blender.com Ian McCulloch is on band hiatus at the moment, giving him plenty of time to gab with Blender.com about his solo career and recently released album, Slideling. Also on the menu: his thoughts on Echo and Co. receiving long-overdue Brit music rag accolades, his relationship with Coldplay, and his take on today's breed of rock upstarts. This is your third time going solo. Seems like you have a fear of commitment. This is like going solo but riding shotgun with the Bunnymen at the wheel. This is the first album I've done while I've been in the Bunnymen, but I've done it on my own 'cause obviously I'm a musician, so it feels more confident. It just made the whole thing easier. Especially on the back of the Q [2002 Inspiration Award] thing. When that came through, I thought, "Aw.em, thanks." The more I thought about it the more I thought it was good, 'cause Q has never really been popular champions of what we do. But editors change and staff change, and it seems the staff in there now are all Bunnymen-heads, or at least some of them are, and the Coldplay connection definitely helped. And it was good picking up an award. If we'd of started in 1992, we'd be fuckin' doing Madison Square Garden now. Do you think it's easier now for bands to get exposure and break into the industry? I think bands like us, and I suppose the Smiths.Joy Division create something that takes a while to maybe kick in. From your own experience, is it healthy for a band to break up or take a breather? Yeah, it was for us. I just think an album after that fifth one [1987's Echo and the Bunnymen] would have been crap. And I wanted us to split. Friction is good, but when it becomes factions, I'm not a bit keen at all. We've always had our differences, but we've always been quite different people, and that can make great music, because we were mates as well. One of the few positives I can say about U2 is that they always seem like a unit; they've wanted the same things and had a belief in something other than themselves. They believed that they were doing something good, and I thought we were but in a kind of take-the-piss way. Do you consider your solo material much of a departure from your Bunnymen fare? I've said this in pretty much every interview, just because I knew that when the question came, "Why's it different?" I had to have an answer. I've always wanted to do an album somewhere between Hunky Dory [David Bowie] and Transformer [Lou Reed]. For me, they're the two records that I'd take, and an Elvis compilation.and Frank Sinatra. But I don't do Elvis and I don't do Frank, although I can croon like a bastard. I wanted this album to be somewhere between [Hunky Dory and Transformer]. I know it's sort of high on ambition, but it's the difference between, say, Transformer and Loaded [Velvet Underground]. It's, like, definitely Lou Reed and Velvety, or it's Lou Reed kind of steering the wheel. Would you say your music is more reflective than speculative? Yeah, I suppose so. But then again, for me, the golden moments of the Bunnymen are the reflective ones. Maybe because that's what I feel I bring more to the band than the others. It's like, this is what I do, this is lyrical. I never saw the Bunnymen just as a rock & roll band.Attitudes not platitudes! Interesting remark! I've always wanted to use that. I thought of it in 1981, but I was always too banged up to use it. How close is your relationship with Coldplay? Fairly close, considering we've only known each other just over a year. How did your meeting come about? They were recording in Liverpool at Parr St. Studios. They had done Parachutes at the same studio as us and had done most of Rush of Blood to the Head, or what they thought was most of it, and then added a month to reflect on it, thought, "It's not good enough," came to Liverpool and wrote another batch of songs. Did you have much input in A Rush of Blood to the Head? Apparently, yeah. Not in terms of the music or anything, but just turning up. Chris [Martin, Coldplay's lead singer] said to me, "Y'know, there's only two people that I feel intimidated by that I've met." And I said, "What? There's another one?" Gwyneth Paltrow? No. Maybe three now. The other one was Liam Gallagher. And I thought, "Well, that's not bad, because Liam's part of the lineage." I took from Lou Reed's Lester Bangs interview the basic call of my approach: Just talk about things you know a little bit about as though you know the whole thing. Not bluff your way through but just scouse your way through interviews. Run it like you talk it before you've learned to walk. That's a good quote waiting to get out. What's your take on the new batch of punk/rock bands like the Hives, the Strokes, the Vines, et al? I like it a lot, but I still prefer the New York Dolls and the Stooges. I think it's all good, though, because they do rock. Great punky rock, and they do it much better. There's more stuff coming out and I like that. The only punk bands worth thinking about were the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and the rest of 'em's crap. But at least, with this scene, there's the White Stripes doing their thing, and the Libertines.I like some of their stuff. But it looks right, scruffy little bastards, and it's rockin', and there's tunes you can sing. It's derivative but then again so is everything else. Do you think Echo and the Bunnymen have influenced other bands through the years? Bands like the New York Dolls and the Stooges see their kind of influence come through. And with us, our influence is being shown in the Coldplays of the world and Radiohead as well, around the time of the Bends and stuff. So it's kind of good that we still exist. Hence, the Inspiration Award-it wasn't a Lifetime Achievement. People have asked me what that means to the Bunnymen, and I said, "What it means is that our music is this week's music." As far as I'm concerned, if Coldplay get across to people, there's no reason why we cannot, because we haven't crumbled into leather-faced bastards. What's up next for Echo and his furry friends? Well, the next record I make will be a Bunnymen one. Warner Brothers is going to remaster the first five Bunnymen albums, and it's our 25th-November 19th is 25 years since we played our first gig in Liverpool. We've still got a really strong fan base here, and we know we can come and do 1,500 in New York, 2,000 in L.A., and we want to up it next time. We want to make this 25-year thing and the remasters really special. So that will be the next thing until the end of the year, when we'll write songs for the next Bunnymen record, do it really quickly, get it out by the April, and we're off on another road tour. Sounds like the perfect plan. What do you think of your American following? It seems you have achieved a kind of cult status here. Love it. That's what we always wanted. You seem to be a band that never sells out, that tries to push the boundaries but stays true to your roots. Well, U2, they sell millions of records but they're not cool. I'd of just hated to be in a band that wasn't cool. They try not to be mainstream; they try the little mad things. It's like, you don't start doing that when you're in your mid-30s. Start off with the weird shit and it stays weird, y'know. You don't discover irony when you're fucking 40! They have written some good anthemic songs, but it's like, look at the fucking shoes. Women always look at a bloke's shoes, and he's got cloven hooves and stirrups. Are you cool? I'm the king of cool. Cooler than De Niro. He only acts; I have to sing the fucking things I write myself. May 22, 2003 ====================================== The Official Seven-Seas Web Page. www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-moderated-digest V2 #167 ******************************************