From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-digest) To: seven-seas-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-digest V5 #20 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-digest Sunday, January 29 2006 Volume 05 : Number 020 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:36:56 +1300 From: "Kristin Smith" Subject: seven-seas xpressmag.com.au (2 of 3) 2 of 3 Are you planning to release Scissors In The Sand as a single? I'm not sure, it depends on what territory. A lot of it is led by what we choose in England, but I do love it. It's hard to tell because we thought of all the obvious singles while we were doing the album, but the one everyone has mentioned is Parthenon Drive, which wasn't one of the choices and now you've mentioned Scissors In The Sand. So it's a bit like 'fucking hell!', the longer it goes on the less you know. I've kind of left it up to other people, which is weird because I normally always pick the singles but so many people have mentioned Parthenon Drive so maybe that should come out. You have to second-guess all these people you don't know and second-guess yourself. At the end of the day I think singles to us are just little promotional things and if people want to hear more songs they'll most likely go and buy the album. They'll probably just go and buy the Greatest Hits anyway. Working with producer Hugh Jones again, did that take you back 20 years? Kind of but we did the album in Liverpool, when we did Crocodiles it was in a residential studio. It did, but it was so familiar that we just got on with recording and there was never any stress. Well, there was stress for Hugh because he was always moaning about patch bays and fucking tape machines and stuff, but that's what producers do and it means we don't have to bother worrying about that. Because, we when self-produce it's like 'fucking hell, what's going on?!' But, with Hugh doing it, it's like 'that's why you're the producer, to have a nervous breakdown while we go to the pub'. It did take us back in that way as well because whenever there was a problem it was like 'we'll see you in three hours when you've fixed this crap' and then come back totally bevvied up and record. In those days it was easier to be a little bit drunk and work than it is now. Now it's just like 'I'm not arsed tonight, I'll just carry on bevving'. That's a lie actually, because Hugh would always say 'get in there and do some fucking singing!'. I don't drink a lot though, I don't get drunk. How do you feel about the director's cut of Donnie Darko replacing The Killing Moon with an INXS song? I think it's shit! What a fucking way to ruin a film! It's like having Elton John singing on The Godfather, but mind you, I like Elton John. Or like putting KC And The Sunshine Band and I like him as well. Totally ruined it, I hate the fella! But isn't that the nature of a director's cut, to make the film different enough to be worthy of releasing again? Yeah, but that was the song he wanted initially. He just couldn't afford INXS so he paid us a pittance. He used the bunny creature the whole way through and the whole film is about The Killing Moon: pre-destiny. I think we got about three pounds for it, which is fair enough. He got in touch and said 'it's a low budget film, Drew Barrymore is in it and we really want that song.' When I saw the original I was like 'this is fantastic!' He may as well have had She Bangs by Ricky Martin. Do you remember much about being name checked on The Young Ones by Rik Mayall? (supposed anarchist Rik chooses to write a letter of complaint to the lead singer of Echo And The Bunnymen, rather than his MP). I do, even though I hated the programme. At the time people told me. Why did you hate it? Well, I didn't hate all of it; I hated the character with the ginger hair, the nihilist, the yobo (Vyvyan; played by Adrian Edmondson). Everything he's done since is crap! It was one of those things I couldn't get into, it wasn't my wacky humour. I did like that though because I was the person you should write to anyway at that moment in time, I probably still am, too. ow are you approached these days? Do people regard you as some sort of unapproachable, enigmatic icon? Usually on foot (laughs)! In Liverpool it's like 'alright Macca'. They see me as the Lord Mayor in waiting. You do get the odd person who's a little bit in awe. I try to deflate that by taking the piss out of them and myself. I just talk as I normally do, so I make them laugh. Some people are just nervous. I was nervous when I met Leonard Cohen. I try to act normal. People say 'you still live in Liverpool?' It's the funniest place on the planet. For all its faults it's just so funny and people understand the humour. It's the quickest witted city in the world. I'm pretty quick myself. I'm getting it a lot lately at off-licences (bottle shops) and chip shops from students saying 'I've just gotta shake your hand, we're not jumping the queue, you're a legend!' Do you ever think back to your days at school and hope that the teachers that gave you trouble realise just how well you've done with the band? Most teachers didn't even notice I was there, I was just dozing around. I was a bright kid at school but I was also dozy. So anything I didn't like, I didn't do. But the things I was good at, basically involving words and drawing, I was fine with. I remember meeting Mr Miller who gave me the big blackboard ruler over the arse a lot for being too funny in class. He was only a music teacher as well. He was always red faced, 'Windy Miller' we called him. I met him at a supermarket recently and my trolley was full to the brim and he had a little basket full of meals for one, which is fair enough because people do that, but he wasn't as smug now. So I kind of said "hello Mr Miller, what are you having for dinner tonight?!" Even with ex-teachers I still get a little tongue-tied and nervous so I was nice to him, but he still went red. ===================================================================== Bunnymen Online Presence: http://www.bunnymenlist.com * http://www.bunnymen.info * http://www.bunnymen.com * http://www.fotolog.net/sgtfuzz/ * http://www.villiersterrace.com * http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/discog/ * http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-887128-89-6 * ====================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:42:27 +1300 From: "Kristin Smith" Subject: seven-seas xpressmag.com.au (3 of 3) 3 of 3 Do you ever see kids from school? No, it's weird. Not for ages, though once on a train going to London in the '80s. I'm not really that interested (reconsiders), well I would be interested if I found one. I see more of my brother's friends to be honest, just around town. They're weird. Ex-school kids who didn't join a band were weird because they just changed. They've gone bald, grown moustaches, gotten fat and wear shit clothes. I would have expected you to have known a lot of people who were into music at school, but as you mentioned you were the only Bowie fan. No, they all liked shit. Real middle-of-the road crap. Whatever they played in discos at the time, which wasn't disco music, it was like Hall And Oates, Chicago and all that. Or the long haired brigade who were into prog rock, which I hate more than white soul. Everyone loved me at school because I was funny and I could play football, so as usual I got away with murder even then. When your eyesight went, was that something you kept quiet about at school? Totally, specs in those days were so crap. There was no Dolce & Gabbana pair of specs to pose around the schoolyard in, it was National Health crap. So no one knew I was blinded they just thought I was dozy and aloof. I couldn't tell anyway. I think when I was 17 I finally got a pair of specs and looked quite the rock star even then. Do you think you did any permanent damage from not wearing them for so long? Probably yeah, but then the shades thing has become a part of my look. I would like good eyesight but I don't fancy the laser thing and contact lenses are wrong. I don't believe that that's what I look like when I stick them in, you can see inside your head and all your blood cells and that. I got this new pair of glasses months ago that were fantastic, but the nose bridge is too narrow for my nose. I'm such a lazy bastard I still haven't taken them back. I'll go this week. Didn't you notice they weren't right when you bought them? No, because I was away when they came through and my mate picked them up. But the ones I tried on fitted perfectly. (Remembering) Oh, that's what happened to my other ones; they went flying off my head into a river in Cornwall accidentally (laughs). I had only had them a day and they were like 300 quid. I was just looking in and it was night time on a steep embankment. I got my mate to pick me up a pair exactly the same though obviously they aren't. I don't even think they are the same size or anything. The good ones are lying in a riverbank somewhere in Cornwall. That's like something that would happen to a kid, having new glasses and then losing them the same day That's me totally. I'm rubbish at being an adult. Posted on November 23, 2005 05:52 PM ===================================================================== Bunnymen Online Presence: http://www.bunnymenlist.com * http://www.bunnymen.info * http://www.bunnymen.com * http://www.fotolog.net/sgtfuzz/ * http://www.villiersterrace.com * http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/discog/ * http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-887128-89-6 * ====================================================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-digest V5 #20 *******************************