A while ago on the noticeboard we asked for questions for a new interview. Here it is. Questions by you. Answers by us.
26.02.02
Regarding
the new album "Lost Songs" I’m interested in how the record
developed... Were any of the b-sides rerecorded or were they just
"collected" together on the album? Also, who decided which tracks were
declared as a “lost track“?
Justin:
The project began as a collection of B-sides and other deleted songs. Then we
realised that we had a lot of unfinished material on tape. This dates mostly
from the Strange Brotherhood sessions, because after 1994, we became free of all
our past recording contracts and began to build our own studio set-up... in
other words, we have full copyright ownership of, and easy access to, these
tapes. (When I say “we”, the work was mainly done by Michael and myself,
though we did often consult with Nel, Dean, Dave and Robert).
As
the scope of the project widened, we made a definite decision that we would not
go back and record or re-record anything from scratch, so we only worked on
tracks where we had the major parts already on tape. We then added or replaced a
few vocals and guitar/keyboard parts and mixed the songs. We also improved the
mixes of a few tracks that had been released previously. There were a couple of
songs that we had played live but had never recorded studio versions (FsharpNY
and BD7), so we used basic live versions and added to them. We added the two
tracks previously released by EMI without our consent on their ‘History’
compilation and finally we also decided to use an interesting disco remix of
Over The Wire made by a French producer.
There
must be hundreds of lost songs, especially from the recording for "Strange
Brotherhood". Any plans to release them some day?
Not
hundreds actually. “Strange Brotherhood” has 12 songs, the Lost Songs album
includes 15 other songs from those sessions, “Eight” has two songs that were
begun in that period and Justin’s solo project has at least four. That makes
33. There are only a few more...
At
the Palladium show at X-mas there was a "lost" song to be heard, whose
riff sounded a lot like "vagabonds". Is there a lyrical/musical
reference wanted/done in that? And how do you, Justin, feel about Vagabonds
today - still playing it (in a solo version, though).
The
song you’re referring to is called “Still Here” and contains no direct
reference to “Vagabonds”. As for “Vagabonds”, I am aware that it has
become an anthem, but I didn‘t write it as such. We don’t play it often - a
handful of times with Ed Alleyne-Johnson in the last couple of years and a few
times with the audience singing the melody. Personally, I’ve always liked the
song, which ever way it is performed. The version with the audience singing the
riff is always exciting - especially in London 2000.
There
has been some discussion here a while ago about bootlegs and fans taping and
trading live-CDRs with each other. I wonder how the band feels about this and
what their opinion is.
We
don’t really worry about that at all... We
do worry about people making mass bootleg copies of the studio albums...
I
would like to know what the band thinks the future holds. I admire the
autonomous nature of the band and it is great to be part of its aging family,
but at a time when rock is in revival, should the band be out looking for a new
audience?
Justin:
To be honest, we have never planned a future... the “career” of the band has
developed entirely by instinct, song by song, gig by gig. You’re right that
rock is in revival - which is great and probably why I’m just now recording an
acoustic album... And I’m not sure if, across all of Europe, it is such an
aging family... in December, particularly of the 2000 in Berlin, we reckon that
at least a third of the audiences were under 25. But yes, we will be back
‘out’ before too long...
What’s the worst part about being on the road in one bus with the same
people for weeks?
Dean: The loss of privacy. Being with anyone for weeks on end in
cramped conditions can be irritating - it doesn’t matter who they happen to
be. Being on tour can be very tiring; particularly for the crew who get up early
and go to bed late, but even for the band it is exhausting. The upshot of this
is that small things can become magnified and sometimes you need to recognise
the spaces between friends…
Nelson:
I'm fairly tall and I can't stand up in the Bus without bumping my head - I hate
that. Sometimes it's a little
crowded on the bus but we all know each other now and we've learnt how to behave
ourselves.
Which
one of you snores the worst?
Nelson:
Out of the members of the Band it's a toss up between Justin, Dean and Dave.
I
grind my teeth so I can't complain too much.
Justin:
Don’t know, I was asleep.
Dean:
Depends on who is talking the most rubbish - which is probably me after a few
beers too many.
Michael: The cat.
Dave:
The bus driver.
After
playing & touring constantly for 21 years, any opinions on the glut of
reformations & nostalgia tours?
Michael:
I'm not that old! Depends on what era they're/you're from.
Dean:
I think that any band who gets back together and play because they really want
to play music, and put their hearts into it, are fine. If it’s just for the
money then I can do without it…
Nelson:
Do you mean tribute bands? Well it's one way to earn a living... I like AB/CD
and I've seen some good Doors tribute bands and an excellent Hawkwind 'Space
ritual' era tribute.
Is
there ever a time you'll see yourselves coming to America again, even if it’s
a brief tour?
Justin:
Yes. We’ve never stopped thinking that one day we’ll be back in North
America in some form or other. I imagine that it would be an interesting time to
be there right now.
What
bands/musicians influenced the band when it first started? Have those influences
changed at all?
Justin:
The band was started in 1980 by Stuart Morrow and me... looking back, I think
our primary influences were Punk Rock and Northern Soul* music. Of course our
influences have changed since, as so much in the world has changed, musically,
technologically and culturally. We are constantly influenced by everything that
is around us... but perhaps the attitude of our earliest influences has stayed
with us.
[*For
people outside the UK, Northern Soul was a mid-‘70s phenomenon, based in clubs
across northern Britain, where people danced literally all night (sometimes
chemically assisted but alcohol-free) to Up-tempo Soul Music from Chicago and
northern industrial US.... fifteen years later, a computerised version of this
idea, rave culture, swept the world.]
For
Michael & Dean - how's it been carving a niche in a band with such a
history?
Michael:
I‘m a musician, I just make music. That‘s really all I care about.
Dean:
The hardest thing was to join into a situation where everyone knew each other so
well. Even Michael had been working with the band for several years by that
point (as the drum roadie), so I was definitely the new guy… But musically it
was fine, though I hadn’t been playing keyboards for a number of years, which
made things interesting. There is always a temptation with any instrument to
play more than you really need too simply just because you can, and with New
Model Army there are so many ideas within songs that often it is difficult to
play something that will sit in nicely with everything else. The greatest
ability any musician can have is to listen to what’s being played around you,
even when it’s extremely loud, and try and find some space in which to play.
If there is no space, be brave enough to play nothing at all…
For
Justin - What are your passions or interests besides music? What do you do when
not performing, rehearsing or working on new material?
Being
by, in or on the ocean, travelling and getting involved.... People. Life.
A
number of the band are in other bands or collaborate with other artists. Is the
work in isolation or does one influence the other? Any dream collaboration
partners?
Nelson:
The only person from New Model Army I have worked with on another project is
Michael. Actually it was before he
joined NMA during a time when the Band took a year off - I got a band called
'Nelsons Column' together and Michael was the original drummer - We recorded a
rough demo on my Portastudio but Michael left before doing any gigs with us.
However, he did return to help us out on the very last Nelsons Column gig
as Michael’s replacement had decided to leave and join 'Chest' (An amazing
band from Leeds who unfortunately never really got the recognition they
deserved). It was good. New Model
Army did influence the material written for Nelsons Column a bit but I think
it's fair to say that all the other projects I've been involved with have
absolutely zilch in common with NMA.
I've
been writing and recording some pieces of music with a friend of mine called
Geoff Coombs. It's all instrumental stuff for the broader minded listener and we
should have a CD ready for release sometime this decade. I worked out recently
that we only manage to record one minute per month - we've currently got 32
minutes recorded and I'm really pleased with it.
I'm not sure what to do with it exactly as it's not in the least bit
commercial but we are hoping to get a contemporary dance group interested in
performing to it.
Dean:
Actually we all play with other people. I write songs with a friend of mine,
though none have come to light yet. We are musicians, and musicians just like to
play. Wouldn’t mind spending twenty minutes in the presence of Charlie Watts
or maybe Neil Young, but then who wouldn’t…
Michael:
Yes, one influences the other.... collaborations - Jennifer Lopez!
Dave:
Martin Butler
Justin:
For me there is very little division between what is NMA and my various other
projects - it‘s all writing, performing and communicating. On the (all too
rare) occasions when I’ve been a musician in someone else’s band, I’ve
really enjoyed it. Dream collaborators? Well, my favourite artists and
influences are well-known by now, so I’ll just leave it at that.
You
all really seem to enjoy playing live. Are
there any bits of touring you could really do without?
Dean:
Getting up at four in the morning after half an hour’s sleep, driving to
Heathrow, getting on a plane, being driven across a country for three hours,
setting up, finding the keyboards are knackered, fixing them, re-programming
them for a couple of hours, failing to eat, playing for an hour, packing up,
driving back across country, getting on a plane, and driving back home can be a
little irksome to say the least. But needs must sometimes when the devil
drives…
Dave:
Could do without Mullets.
Michael:
The bus after 3 weeks.
Nelson:
Having to rush off straight after we've just finished playing. We'll just be
about to wander off to a happening party that someone's told us about, and the
tour manager will say 'Hey - where do you think you're going, we're leaving in
10 minutes - it's 750 miles to the next gig'. Also, I'm vegetarian - Some places
don't know the meaning of the word. It is getting easier though. It's a good job I like curly cheese sandwiches and chocolate.
Justin:
I like it all, really. I’ve never minded the travelling, though sometimes in
the festival season, when we always seem to fly from London, we can do up to 30
hours travelling for an hour onstage. But I love tour busses and I love hotel
rooms... and I love the 21 hours a day in which to do nothing but drift and
think.
Anywhere
you're desperate to play?
Nelson:
Australia. I've never been - I don't know about the playing bit though.
Dave:
at the Madejski Stadium
Michael:
Different
countries we've not played before - but I’m happy to play anywhere.
Justin:
Russia especially, but everywhere really - the more obscure and off the beaten
track, the better.
Dean:
I’d like to go to Brazil as I haven’t been there yet, or maybe Japan. We
keep almost going to Russia, which would be great, but it never seems to happen
which is a shame.
Any
gigs that really stand out?
Dean:
Favourite gigs: Valencia 2001 for the version of Vagabonds which was fabulous -
Ed played a blinder; Athens in 1995, when I realised just how frighteningly
intense NMA could really be; the festival in Karlsruhe because there were so
many people there, which was scary; Leeds, Berlin and Koln in December were very
satisfying; Paris in 1998, from which a lot of the Nobody Else album was
recorded... we were so tired and the crowd were so up for it, that we played
fabulously well; The Pepsi Island Festivals in Budapest because it’s such a
great place - either playing or just to be there (particularly the night at the
castle when there were a hundred fans there and we sat and drank and talked
which was nice); Marseilles in 2001 on the Eight tour because we were excellent.
But there are so many more moments I could mention, though often for personal
reasons.
Justin:
This is a very, very long list for me that constantly needs updating... most
recent additions include Leeds and especially Hamburg from the December gigs and
the festival in the Jura (Swiss) three days after September 11th.
Michael:
It depends - anywhere I played well or where there were the loudest crowds.
Leeds Josephs Well (secret gig) stands out as that was the first gig I played
for NMA, the first time I played London Astoria with NMA and the Hamburg
Christmas show 2001.
Nelson:
The first time we played at The Forum Club in Nuremberg, Germany (not the one in
2000). I also remember having a great time at the Metro in Chicago - nothing to
do with how well we played - I just enjoyed it and it always comes back to me.
I
rarely hate playing a gig - In fact I can only think of 2. One at Brixton
Academy when I was really ill and I had to keep running off stage between songs
to puke up. The other was in Grenoble in France when the sound was shit - It
sounded like a double-decker bus reversing into an aircraft hanger - and I ended
up trashing my Bass stack and chucking my guitar in the air and walking off
stage before it landed. Somehow all my equipment survived and we ended up doing
an encore.
What
are you all reading & listening to?
Justin:
Reading Colin Thubron - ‘In Siberia‘, Jon Monson - ‘Them‘. Alan Sullivan
- ‘The Passing of Oul-I-But and Other Tales ‘(he was my grandfather, who
died before I was born. Although I’ve always known he was a writer, I’ve
only really just discovered how good he was - thanks to Joolz. This is his most
famous book, published in 1913 - a wonderfully evocative and romantic series of
short stories about the Arctic wastelands of northern Canada where he lived and
travelled).
Listening
to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the “Dynamite” series of early Ska and Rock
Steady compilations, early Leonard Cohen, D12 and Arvo Part.
Michael:
Nothing - too busy working with Justin or Dave. Listening to the crowd at
Anfield [Liverpool FC] & reading about them in the paper.
Nelson:
Books : Tom Robbins - ‘Fierce invalids home from Hot climates‘. ‘Ginger
Geezer’ - the Vivian Stanshall biography.
CD's
: Noir Desir - Des Visages des Figures, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,
Clangers - Original television music, Anja
Garbarek - smiling and waving, Amelie
- Film soundtrack music by Yann Tiersen, Muse - Origin of symmetry
Dean:
Just finished
‘Kitchen Confidential’ by Anthony Bourdain, which is a very good read.
It’s an autobiography written in a Hunter S. Thomson sort of way and is very
entertaining. Another recent favourite is ‘Easy Riders -Raging Bulls’ by
Peter Biskind, which is a wild ride through the New Hollywood of the 1960’s
and 70’s. As for music, I listen to a wide range of styles. I’m currently
listening to a lot of country music such as Gram Parsons, The Band, Neil Young,
and The Jayhawks. I like the emotion involved. Still listening to the Garage
punk from the sixties as well - there’s something so refreshingly innocent
about it. Been listening to the Queens Of The Stone Age, who are excellent, and
quite a lot of ZZ Top (the earlier stuff). Just bought the last Mercury Rev
album, which has some beautiful moments on it, particularly The Dark Is Ring.
Dave:
Emails and Hard drives.
I
recently bought a compilation by the Jam. Musically, some of the very early
tracks remind me of very early NMA [e.g. 'Carnaby Street' vs 'New Model Army'].
Is this my dodgy hearing, entirely coincidental, shared influences or...?
Very
much shared influences - punk and soul music - see the earlier question.
As
we discussed a few months ago on the board, Justin very often writes in the 1st
person. However 'One Bullet' is cited as someone else's story. Is that true in
most cases? Has the proportion changed over the years?
Justin:
Yes, it’s true in most cases and I’m not sure if the proportion has
changed... One Bullet, Green and Grey, Aimless Desire are all examples of me
telling someone else’s story. Most recently You Weren’t There or Flying
through the Smoke, though told in the first person, are not exactly
autobiographical. Truly personal songs like Lullaby are quite rare.
What's
everyone's fave tipple?
Justin:
Coffee, Red Wine & Irish Whisky.
Nelson:
Adnams Best Bitter.
Dean:
Guinness. Bison Vodka & apple juice (though Red Bull is rather pleasant!)
and ‘Yorkshire Tea‘ brand tea..
Michael:
Baileys with ice, Vodka & Orange and Red Stripe (though not altogether!).
Dave:
SMA White
Do
you find the fans painfully embarrassing or did you get over that years ago?
Nelson:
I don't find them embarrassing. I'm happy they’re there and they must all be
highly intelligent if they like NMA.
Justin:
No, not at all... remember that we’re all fans of other artists.
Michael:
No, I just get on with job of playing songs.
Dean:
I recently met Mark Lanagan at a Queens Of The Stone Age gig and couldn’t
speak to him at all! We are all fans of someone and we all embarrass ourselves
sometime… As to NMA fans; on the whole they are very pleasant. I’ve had some
great “lost” weekends with some of them who have become personal friends. As
with all things in life there are some people you like and some people you can
do without, though I try to find time to talk with anyone who wants to talk to
me.
Dave:
No
What's
the current tattoo count?
Nelson:
I don't have any. That's not
because I don't like them though. I have seen some amazing ones. I did think
about having some done years ago - I remember doing some of my own designs but I
decided not to rush out and get them done straight away. Instead I pinned them
on the wall where I'd see them everyday to see if they would stand the test of
time and if I still liked the designs 6 months later. I was never 100 percent
satisfied so I never got one done.
Justin:
It’s been a long time since I had a new one but I have got a design in mind...
It's
been a long time ago NMA played in Sweden, why?
The
Justin Sullivan show in Stockholm last year was actually promoted by someone in
Demark because no Swedish promoter believed that there was an audience for that
show or for NMA. There was (it was packed out) and there is... But
these days, large corporations dominate promotion as well as the record industry
and the media... and they tend to opt for a series of easily definable (and
therefore marketable) “styles”. The end result is less and less variety (see
“No Logo” by Naomi Klein). Having said all that, we might suddenly arrive to
play in Sweden at any time.
One
thing I've wanted to know for a long time: why were the lyrics of Vengeance
changed?
Justin:
Several years ago, they were changed two of three times depending on my thoughts
of the moment. Then the last version stuck. It’s not a song we’ve played
much recently as, however “emotionally true” the sentiments are, there seems
to be enough vengeance in the world right now...
I
heard a while back that Knife was the track that made Sony sign you up. Having
heard a live version of the track I was wondering why you scrapped it at the
time... it seems like perfect single material ?
Justin:
1992 was a difficult time personally for both myself and Robert. As the writing
and feel of the album (Love of Hopeless Causes) developed, it became a darker
and darker project - the only light being a kind of out-of-reach sense of
spirituality in the wake of my near-death experience at that time. Knife just
didn’t represent how either of us felt and so we abandoned it. LOHC remains
one of my favourite albums partly because it is such a true representation of
our feelings at that time.
How
do those brilliant bass-lines come to life? Lots of trying or are they
"there" when the song is written? Who brings them up?
Like
all the writing and arranging within the band, there are no hard and fast rules
or patterns for working. Sometimes they are written entirely by
Nelson/Stuart/Moose (or occasionally by Robert or Justin) at the genesis of the
song... more often they have been put together later, while everyone in the
studio hums melodies and ideas at the poor bass player. We have been fortunate
in always having technically brilliant players (especially Nelson) who can play
anything and accommodate any number of ideas and styles.
A
question to Justin, as the only remaining 'original member': if you look back on
more than twenty years of New Model Army, what would the Justin of 1980 have
thought of NMA and its history and development?
Interesting
question. I think he’d have been surprised at almost everything.
Would
NMA ever consider going back to a major label? Maybe under a distribution deal?
What would be the factors that would or would not make that happen?
Justin:
My main problem with major corporate labels is that when you are signed by a
company in one country, you are automatically assigned to that label across most
of the world, whether or not each separate country actually wants you. The way
we work now, is to have our own label and distribute or licence only to
different individual companies that want and understand us. Like all modern
corporate business, “Majors” are increasingly dominated by the lawyers and
accountants rather than by the creative people and they have such huge expenses
(most of which is vanity and waste), that they are not interested in artists who
are not platinum or, in their very limited view, possible future platinum. ...
A
lot of artists are driven back to Majors because they need advances in order to
record. Thankfully, we are not in that position. Also, these days, the Internet
allows a band like us to have a form of global distribution without having to go
“Major”.
Will
there ever be a NMA biography? If not, why not?
Because
we don’t know how the story ends...
Will
there ever be a chord book straight from the horses mouth? How about a lyric
book though Lost Songs or the upcoming solo album. If not, why?
The
problem is that none of us write music or know the proper names of the various
weird chords that are often used. However, we are aware that there is a demand
for such a book, so we hope one day to find a way to do one.
How
does one get a job with NMA?
Being
in the right place at the right time with the right attitude and extraordinary
talent.
What’s
the band’s feelings on being the best kept secret - as in thousands of fans
with little or no press coverage
Ssshhh....
To
the best of your memory, which NMA song was finished the quickest, took the
longest and which went through the most changes?
Justin:
Poison Street had five different choruses in different keys before Glyn Johns
picked the one that was recorded (I’ve now forgotten the others so it must
have been the right one)... I wrote the chords, melody and words for all the
parts of I Love the World six months before I finally came up with the right
chorus... Robert and I came up with the basics of Wonderful Way to Go five years
before I came up with a way of taking it in an orchestral epic direction, as
opposed to the obvious R&B route... Someone Like Jesus began life as an
electronic didgeridoo dance track (honest)...
The
Quickest... No Rest, Vengeance, Bad Old World, Space, You Weren’t There... and
many others. But the quickest of all was Lovesongs, written from scratch,
arranged, recorded and mixed in the same day.
What
is each band members favourite and least favourite NMA song to play live, simply
listen to or favourite album?
Justin:
Favourite Song to play... Here Comes the War, Flying Through The Smoke,
Snelsmore Wood... oh hell, all of them. Favourite Albums... equally - Thunder
& Consolation, The Love of Hopeless Causes and Eight.
Nelson:
Favourite NMA album - The Love of Hopeless Causes
Favourite
NMA song to play live - Here Comes the War.
Dave:
I can't hear anything on stage with earplugs in.
Dean:
My favourite song is Liberal Education and I’m very happy we’ve been playing
it recently! But listening to NMA depends on what mood I’m in, which is the
same I guess for most people and most types of music. There are times when the
last thing I want to listen too is NMA (particularly after a tour), and to be
honest I don’t tend to listen to the CD’s that much in any case - I get to
play the music in the band, so listening to albums kind of pales in comparison.
There are two songs that I both love and hate to play live. The first is Brave
New World 2 because it’s feels so exposed and if you make a mistake it’s extremely
obvious. The second is You Weren’t There for the same reason. The reason I
love them is that because they’re so nerve-racking you get a fantastic rush
from playing them! Being terrified on stage is good fun at times…
Michael:
There are a few favourites and a few not-so-favourites but these can change
I
remember reading an interview with Dave, saying that he thought music and
politics don't mix, I'd like to know if the band feel how big the impact of
music is on people, politically speaking. Can it really make a difference in
society, or is that just vanity of famous musicians (like Bono, who makes me
sick) to think that every project they do is going to change the world?
Dave:
I love music and hate politics.
Justin:
People have different ideas about “politics” and music but the idea that
they cannot belong together is bizarre, after the hundreds of years in which
people have used songs, in every culture in the world, to express their rage at
injustice and desire for a better future. Artistically, sometimes it works and
sometimes it doesn’t - but then that’s just a matter of personal taste
anyway. Asking if it changes anything is missing the point. I have never
believed that just because you sing about a desire for change, means that
somehow change magically occurs. What “political” music can do, is to unite
people that feel the same way, give us strength, make us realise we’re not
alone in how we feel and perhaps energise people into making the small changes
that they can.
Dean:
The problem with music and
politics is that brainless fools who have an overblown opinion of themselves and
their personal philosophy have diluted the impact. There is something rather
irritating about being told by some rich rock star that we should do something
to help the poor, the homeless, the disenfranchised or whatever. In some ways
it’s patronizing, as though we didn’t realize in the first place. Their
hearts may have been in the right place, but their naivety and inarticulation
often result in the debasement of the argument, if only because we have become
so cynical about the over-commercialisation, marketing, and publicity involved
in popular music. And in this sense you can see it as the vanity of the famous -
“I am important because I managed to write a catchy number which sold
shed-loads, therefore you should listen to what I have to say…”
However,
music has been an effective way of conveying a message in the past. Think about
the counter-culture expressed through music in the late sixties in America. That
did have an effect in shaping peoples opinion about Vietnam, the Civil Rights
Movement, ecology, amongst others, and many good things have come about because
of that. Music is a fantastic medium for expression - Nietzsche, whatever your
feelings about him, was entirely accurate when he wrote, “By the means of
music the passions enjoy themselves.” It is almost unique in the Arts in its
ability to move people, to manipulate emotions, and anything with that kind of
power can be used to change people’s opinions for the better or for worse and
has been in the past. Think of rise in national anthems in the Nineteenth
century, they were a way of conveying a sense of identity and also a way of
conveying a point - for instance, there are many in Scotland who refuse to sing
the British National Anthem, with good reason, because of the words
“rebellious Scots to crush” contained in the verse that has mysteriously
vanished from all the official sites (check it out on the web, it’s no longer
part of the lyrics! An interesting re-writing of history I think…)
As
for Bono, and I speak from an uninformed stance, personally I am not a great fan
of his political “posturing”, though I would say that he has seemingly been
attempting to do something about his convictions not for his own personal gain,
but because he believes he is in a position where he can (whether he is or not
is another question) - and the fact that is at least attempting to should be
commended. If you believe in something passionately enough do something about
it.
I
don’t think the question is that music and politics do not mix, I think it’s
more of a question of whether they should mix, and I personally find no problem
in anyone finding a medium for self-expression - after all, you don’t have to
listen to it! It does not matter where we gain our opinions from, only that we
have formed an opinion. If music has been the medium through which this process
occurred then so be it, but it must be remembered that it is just one opinion.
To blindly follow some one else’s ideas because you happen to like the music
is grotesquely shallow.
Nelson:
When I go out to a gig or whatever it's because I want to have a good time and
enjoy myself. I want to forget about all the problems in the world for a while.
I don't usually pay that much attention to lyrics at gigs anyway so it doesn't
bother me that much. I know Justin likes to write about some of the problems in
Bradford etc. but he's got to sing the songs so it's best if he picks subjects
that mean a lot to him so he can express himself and get into it and therefore
give a good performance. There's no point writing about stuff you don't really
feel something for..
Michael:
There is a time and a place and it also depends what the issue is and how much
you care about it.
In
the song "Brother", could Justin elaborate on the closing lines:
"I - I accuse you, you want so much but you give nothing of yourself,
and I - I believe you, you want so much but keep nothing of yourself..."
If
I understand these words correctly, which I find very strong in sentiment, does
Justin ever have to compromise his writing to be politically correct in the fear
of his meaning being (dangerously) misunderstood?
These
lines are deliberately ambiguous and can mean a whole host of different things.
In this setting, at the time of writing, they just seemed right. As for
compromising my writing for fear of being misunderstood, no, I try not to do
that. There are songs that are deeply “politically incorrect” - most
obviously “My People” or “The Hunt” - but they express genuine emotions,
so I’ve gone ahead with them. Often lyrics that I had thought were very plain,
have been misunderstood anyway. As I have said many times, NMA lyrics are not
part of some overall philosophy, they are always written from an emotional point
of view and, of course, emotions are contradictory. I’m often asked for
details about the stories I tell (for example, in this latest set of questions,
people asked about “Brother”, Marrakech”, “You Weren’t There”) and I
understand why people want to know. But each listener’s imagination fills in
the missing pictures and events differently, and feels the music differently...
that’s the point of songs (which is one reason I’ve never really liked doing
videos).
And
on an individual basis for each member: name 3 things you would like to
accomplish or acquire in the next 5 years.
Dean:
Wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a Wurlitzer organ, or maybe a Rhodes, but I
feel money might be the key to that… I should also get all the songs I’ve
written finished and recorded at some point, but there always seems to be
something else to do. And then there’s always the musical, “Saucy Jack”,
to get finished…
Nelson:
I joined in January 1990 so that's 12 years of playing and touring. I've always
wanted to appear on a decent music programme on British TV - something like
'Later with Jools Holland' and to play at one of the 2 Big English Festivals -
Glastonbury or Reading. My Bank account is in the red - it'd be nice to be out
of debt. I'd like a new van that will start first time every morning and that
wasn't rusting away underneath.... and a slightly bigger home.
Michael:
Play regularly and carry on playing for as long as I can...
Justin: To visit some new countries, to live somewhere else (at least for a while), to cross an ocean by ship, travel by dog-sled and see the Aurora Borealis
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