| jaqkvade | Дата: Среда, 13.07.2011, 01:09 | Сообщение # 1 |
 the childcatcher
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| received a lovely tip-off about this interview from someone who runs this new website called bangingdrum.com. the word is that it's totally free and it's like a music discovery website which allows people to send and receive music recommendations to each other using links to myspace and youtube etc. apparently their ultimate aim is to rebel against the music hierarchy by building a community that helps fans and artists alike and also changes the way people might discover their new favourite sound.
erm, now i've got the promo bit out of the way, here's the interview they sent!
Winter 2008
Interview by Amie Morris
Patrick Wolf has to go down as one of the most talented musicians of his generation. Capable of playing a huge range of instruments, and the ability to combine them with beautiful heartfelt lyrics, Wolf is a young, eccentric musician with the world at his feet. With this in mind you would have thought we'd catch Wolf hard at work, locked away learning another instrument. Nope.... we caught up with Patrick while he was Christmas shopping!
Firstly, you are a very talented musician, with the ability to play, and I quote (from wikipedia!) - harp, clavinet, harpsichord, guitar, piano, autoharp, organ, mountain dulcimer, clavichord, harmonium, accordion, theremin, ukulele, viola and violin. Well I haven’t mastered one instrument let alone 15 +! Does mastering a new instrument come very naturally to you?
It’s just something that’s been part of my life, ya know, some people wanted to be astronauts or nurses or whatever, but I was always drawn towards instruments. For the first few years of my life I spent hours banging away, making horrible noises, and as I got older I started to get a little bit more in tune and I just went on from there. My dad is obsessed with instruments, he always collected them. So when I was growing up there were always instruments lying around the house. I think it was passed down genetically! I don’t think I could function without music and art (art was Patrick’s mothers love), no, I couldn’t function without music, art and love.
Sorry, but we couldn’t speak to you without asking you about your greatest one liner to date – ‘Mika is a Twat’! (harsh but unbelievably fair!) Can you explain to us, what it is that you really meant that day?!
I think it speaks for itself! I had spent the night before supporting him at a concert, and I’d spent like 4 years on the road having refused to support anyone else, so I was very used to my fan base. It almost felt like going back to square one, cos I was the supporting artist. It almost feels like it’s an ego trip for the person that you’re supporting. The problem is I was forced to do the gig by my record label. So I was doing it through gritted teeth. So I just went out there and did it, it didn’t feel right and I just set off all the wrong chemistry in me. Unfortunately I had a laptop and access to the internet, so I just wrote it. The next morning it was international news that I thought Mika was a twat!
Your previous albums had so many differences in their conception, it seemed that the music press were unable to pigeon-hole you into a specific genre. Was that the intention?
I remember when I was 19, I was asked by the distribution company, who were in the process of putting my album in HMV, “what section do you want to be in?” cos’ obviously they have ‘Rock and Pop’, ‘Electro’, Dance etc, and I was like I don’t wanna be in any of those things! I want people to be able to make their own mind up about what it is! I don’t like this feeling of being labelled.
Do you think the fact that the music press have been unable to pigeon-hole you has led to a lack of more ‘mainstream’ success?
It has made it harder to have a stable career. But I never really wanted a career in music. I wanted a life in music. But to make sure I had money for food, and to be able to put a roof over my head, I’ve had to work much harder. Touring probably three times as much as I would have had to if I had turned myself into a product and stuck to a genre. I’m sure that would have made many other people happy, ya know, the people who want to make money out of me, but I wouldn’t have been happy.
So we hear your next album ‘Battle’ is to be a double album with 2 very distinct sides. Can you explain to us what we can expect from the 2 sides of the album?
The first side is about being a bachelor or bachelorette, and being very alone, you know that thing where you're single but twenty of your friends are all in couples, and everyone’s like “Oh don’t worry you’ll find love soon”, and you're like gritting your teeth going “I fucking hate you!”. It’s about the times when you really detest love and detest Valentines Day, and instead of going out and buying a Valentines card you go out and buy a bottle of gin instead. It’s about the times when you’re not in love, but you have a lot of love inside you. And the second side is about when you actually find that love you have been searching for.
Did the 2 distinct sides of the album inspire the name ‘Battle’? Or is that a reference to something else?
Yeah for sure. But it’s also a battle in terms of sexuality as well. I think the world is becoming a little bit more conservative, misogynistic and homophobic at the same time. But I don’t think we’re realising this is happening. In the best way that I can, I’m trying to wake some people up and show them that this is happening. I don’t think anyone wants to talk about these things. Everyone just wants to make a lot of money, get a big house and watch ‘X Factor’. So I just want to talk about these subjects, for example in Iran, if you kiss a boy you get hung, if a woman cheats on her man in an Arab country she can be stoned to death. I just want to say something.
We read recently in the NME that you are planning to sell shares of “Battle” on Bandstock.com for £10 a pop. Why have you decided to go down that route?
Well it’s like I said before, a lot of people in the music industry say things like “Oh that boy (Wolf himself) is insane, he’s not family friendly, he’s not conservative etc, so we can’t invest our money in these uncertain times in someone like him!” So I was like “Ya know what I’m going to go all pirate ship here, fuck the music industry, lets go back to the streets.” I think it’s a really basic way of doing it. I could easy go and get a record deal to make it, but I’d have to have all these board meetings about what the art should be, who mixes it, what the track listing should be, who masters it, etc. Lets just get it out there to the people, I don’t wanna pay for someone else’s mortgage and health insurance, I wanna pay my own mortgage!
Do you think that this is the future of the music industry, i.e. screw the big wigs at the top, lets get music back to basics and back to the people?
Yeah! I always think about busking. When I was busking, you go out and you have a song, if it’s not good you don’t get any money. But if it’s a good song you get people liking it and they give you money. But then someone comes along and takes it all away. That’s where the music industry is at. I think everyone should stick independent. Especially because I think we’re going to see a very big change in the music industry in the next 5 years or so. I think we’ll see a flip side. All the major labels will lose their power, and the power will go back to the people. Where it belongs.
just sing
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