Second Part of Mtv interview

[rhill@pnet01.cts.com (Ronald Hill)]

        I: Okay.  I want to go back to when you were signed and everything
like that, sorta back in time a bit.  And do you feel that... you very  young,
and recording very young, and had an album out at a young age, right?  And do
you feel that it was an advantage to you or a disadvantage, that that happened
to you so early?

        K: I think it's been a big advantage.  I am doing what I want to do, I
really want to be involved in this business.  I don't think... If I hadn't
started so young, I probably wouldn't have my own recording studio now, I
probably wouldn't have the kind of control that I have over the situation at
such an early age.  So I think it's been really beneficial for me. 

        I: Um, what role did David Gilmour have in getting you signed? 

        K: I was about fifteen.  My family thought it would be interesting to
see if we could get some of my songs published, I'd written loads of songs.  I
just used to write one every day or something.  And through a friend of the
family who knew Dave Gilmour, we made a contact for him to come and hear some
of my songs.  At that time, he was sort of scouting for talent, looking for
bands that he could produce or become involved in or just encourage.  And I
became one of the people that he was visiting.  I think he liked the songs
sufficiently to feel that it was worth him actually putting up money for me to
go in and professionally record the tracks, because all my demos were just
piano vocals and I had, say like 50 songs that were all piano vocals.  And he
felt, quite rightly, that the record company would relate to the music much in
a more real way if it was produced rather than being demoed.  So he put up the
money, we went into the studio, recorded three tracks, and I got a recording
contract from that.  
        I: Great.  What about Peter Gabriel? How has his music influenced you?


        K: I think anything you like influences you, and I do like his music. 
I think he's very clever, he's brilliant.  And I think he's one of the few
people who is trying to do something interesting with contemporary music. 

        I: Ok, what do you mean by that, by "interesting", "different".  Well,
you didn't say "different", you said "interesting." 

        K: Hmm.  Well I think it's both and I don't think there's much of that
happening.  For me the Floyd were doing something interesting, especially with
the Wall.  Talking Heads are doing something very interesting.  I think David
Bowie certainly was as was Roxy Music way back in the seventies, in fact they
set a kind of formula that people are still copying and getting away with now.
 I mean so many people sound like Brian Ferry, so many people look or sound
like David Bowie.  And I think it's these kind of original stamps that create
an incredible amount of imitators, but it's still these people who leave the
mark and who are doing something really interesting. 

        I: Well you sang with Peter Gabriel, right? 

        K: Say again? 

        I: You sang Peter Gabriel on one of his records.  Can you tell us
about that? 

        K: Um, I was really delighted to be asked to do something and it was a
lot of fun.  

        I: What was the song and what do you think of the song?

        K: I thought it was a great song, I think that that album that Peter
did was one of those albums that actually set a mark in a point in time.  And
I think it was well appreciated, which is good.  I think another album like
that was David Bryne and Eno's Night in The Bush Of Ghosts.  I don't know how
popular that was here, but it didn't really get that much attention in our
country.  And I think that left a very big mark on popular music, particularly
when you look at the charts at the moment.  The things that are happening
again in our country are so derivative of that album.  

        I: That's the sort of album that a lot of people in music or who
really follow music listen to alot.  So it definitely got a lot of attention. 
It wasn't like a top 100 album or anything but...

        K: No. 

        I: .. it really had it's audience.  What have you been able to do
since you started using the Fairlight that you couldn't do before?

        K: It gives me much more control over arrangements, particulary.  And
it effects so may different areas.  As soon as I start writing now I'm working
with a sound that is sparking off a particular atmosphere.  When you sit down
and write at the piano, the sound of the piano is not as different as brass
and strings, etc.  And I think it really effects the whole flavor of the song.
 Like the difference between writing on the piano and a guitar, but maybe
amplified by a hundred times because of all the different sounds that you
have. 

        I: What songs on the album did you write on the Fairlight and what did
you write on the piano?  

        K: THere were very few track on this album that I wrote on the piano -
Running Up That Hill, Hounds of Love, Watching You Without Me.  Most of them
were Fairlight based.  Cloudbusting I wrote on the Fairlight and I just felt
it would be much more interesting with real strings, so we transcribed the
Fairlight arrangement from string players to reed.  And then they redid it. 
        I: THere are other people using the Fairlight now to, like Simple
Minds and Thomas Dolby.  Have you heard their records? 

        K: I've heard some of Simple Minds stuff, yes.  I think the Fairlight
is one of those instruments that is definitely in there now.  When it first
came out it was so expensive that I think it prohibited people from getting
close to it, getting to know it.  But it seems to have conquered that barrier
now, it's available in studios, at least, and people can get to use it.  And I
think it will be on so many things from now on.

        I: We're going to change the subject now.  Do you see a connection
between mysticism and science? 

        K: I don't know, I'm sure there is.  I think there's a connection
between everything, I think everything is linked up somehow, you just got to
find where they meet.  

        I: Do you consider yourself a religious person? 

        K: That's a question that I get asked a lot.  Some people come in,
they're so convinced that I'm of a particular order.  [Laughs]  And I think
everyone has something in them that is seeking some kind of religion, but
whether I call myself a religious person - I don't think so, no.  But I think
I am fascinated by religious imagery, I think most people are.  And it's one
of those things that has an incredibly extreme effect on people and that, from
a writer's point of view, is fascinating.

        I: Are there any writers who've really influenced you alot.  Print
writers like [??? mentions two writers I couldn't figure out names! Bo Gorge?]
that you want to talk about? 

        K: I don't know if there are any writers that have really influenced
me.  Particular books certainly have.  But again they're much on a novel level
rather than a reality level. 

        I: Uh, huh.  Well like let's have a couple of examples. 

        K: I used to read quite a lot of Kurt Vonnegut and C. S. Lewis when I
was a kid was one of my biggest ones.  I also think when you're very little,
like I don't know if you were ever read fairy stories by your mother, I think
those kind of things get in very, very deep.  And when I was really little,
one of my favorite writers was Oscar Wilder and his fairy stories.  And I
actually think that they got in quite deep.  I think his sense of tragedy and
poetry is something that still moves me very much.  

        I: I didn't know he had fairy stories. 

        K: Yes, he does indeed. 

        I: Oh, really? 

        K: Oh yes, and they're beautiful.  
        
        I: Can you like describe one? 

        K: Well one of them.  [Coughs].  Just trying to think what it's
called.  The Happy Prince is one of his stories.  It's about this huge statue
that stands in the middle of a city.  And it's incredibly beautiful, it's
coated in gold, his eyes are rubies, he just sparkles.  He's a beautiful
statue of the prince.  And there's a little swallow who's flown in and nests
at the feet of the statue overlooking the city.  And the statue speaks to the
swallow and says does he realize how much poverty and sadness is going on in
the city.  So bit by bit the little swallow strips the statue of the gold and
the rubies and distributes it around the city to all the poor people.  So
eventually the Prince is just like a lead blob.  He eyes are taken so he's
blind, and he's just left completely alone, all his great finery has gone to
the poor.  And it's winter and the swallow should really migrate or it will
die and the swallow will not leave him.  And the tragedy is the closeness
between them - that the swallow should go or it will die and how beautiful he
was and now he's completely stripped.  The little swallow dies and eventually
they just sort of pull the statue down and stick him in the dump.  [Laughs]

        I: Oh, no. 

        K: But the way it is written and it's so beautiful and so sad!  And
there was one... you know, at the point where the swallow was discovered I
always used to cry as a child.

        I: So you like to write songs like that that are sorta so archetypal
in a way? 

        K: I think his sense of tragedy in telling a story attracts me
tremendously.  And I think it's very similar in a way to a lot of the
traditional music that I was again influenced by when I was very little... by
my family.  My brothers were really into folk music.  And a lot of folk music
is so into telling stories.  And it's in a way something that doesn't feature
so much in contemporary music any more.  I think contemporary music is used to
help relationships a lot of the time.  Like you go to the disco and you meet
someone, so you have a song, and it's your song.  It's more about that then
actually telling stories.  Like the traditional things are.  And I think
that's a big fascination for me.

        I: Well is this a recent thing?  Like on your last couple of albums
I've noticed a lot more like jigs and stuff and folk instrumentation.  Is this
a direction that you're going in more? 

        K: I think I've always been really influenced by it, but I haven't
been able to express it through my songs.  It's weird, trying to talk about
the process of writing.  But it does actually take over you and you don't have
control over it beyond a certain point.  And it's only really, I suppose, the
last couple of albums, where I feel I've had enough control over the process
to be able to express the influences that are in there.  And particulary the
Irish ones.  I've wanted to work with Irish musicians and the pipes and
fiddles for a long time but haven't really had anywhere in my music for them.

        I: Could you talk about your brothers for a bit and how they've
affected you in you're being a creative person, not just like in the sounds
that have come out on the album?

        K: We're a very close family and they're my friends.  My parents as
well as my brothers are friends.  And I think they're a very creative family. 
And I think being brought up in a situation where music is there, people are
being creative, it feels natural for you to do that to.  So I think that was a
very big opening for me at a very young age to have that kind of energy around
me.  And in fact, the energy that I'm in now.
        And I think they have been a very big influence on me.  When I was
very little it was their music that I used to listen to before I got my own
record player and then could play my own music.  And I think older brothers,
sisters can't help but be an incredible influences. 

        I: So when you were younger you were much, like, closer with your
family then with people outside?  I mean, were you a shy person to people
outside the family? 

        K: Yes, I think so.  I think I'm still quite shy.  It depends on the
situation, but I can be very shy with people.  But I think it just depends on
the situation and the person.

        I: Ok.  Do you feel you're a reclusive person or social person? 

        K: I think I'm really fighting between the two.  I think there's a
side of me that really loves being social and really loves being with people
and there's another side of me that doesn't, that finds.. for instance most of
my creative work I couldn't do with people around.  I couldn't write a song
with someone else in the same room.  It's a very private process for me.  I
think I've probably got a bit better about it, I mean when I first used to
start writing, even if someone walked in, it would just completely blow my
concentration.  And at least now I can keep it going maybe if they're one
person in the room.  But yes, I think there's a strange struggle in there
between those two areas, for me.

        I: What records did you like when you were younger.  Like when you
said "You know until I got my own record player and had my own music."  What
was that?  

        K: Well I used to listen to a lot of singles that my brothers had
bought that weren't out when I was there.  Songs from the early sixties that
actually I wouldn't have heard had it not been for there collection.  And I
suppose I started buying all the singles that were out, I was very singles
orientated.  All the hits.  [Laughs]

        I: So you liked the singles.  Were there like any that you can
remember that you still have now? 

        K: Well one of the first records I ever bought was called They're
Coming To Take Me Away, Hah Hah by Napoleon the 14th.  I thought that was
great!  I thought it was really interesting.  I suppose it was one of the
first rap records really. [Laughs]  I think the first album I bought was
Bridge Over Troubled Water.  I liked the songs on that.  I think again that's
been a big attraction for me.  I'm sure stimulated by traditional music, the
thing of the structure of songs and having a story, it does attract me. 

        I: [to cameraman] Now you're saying there's two minutes left on this
tape or what? 

        Cameraman: Uh, huh! 

        I: So maybe we should [tape cuts]

        Cameraman: It's awfully dark out there.  [Pause, Kate looks at the
blue screen behind her].  Steadily change.  

        I: Don't jump cut to much.  That'll look weird if you jump cut back
and forth.  It would drive people crazy I sort like....

        K: Hmm.  You could have completely different weather in every scene! 
That would be great! 

        I: That's a really good idea.  We should sometime.  You could probably
do that with...

        K: Yeah!  Have it snowing and then brilliant sunshine.  That would be
really good wouldn't it!  

        I: Sat In Your Lap, like could you, that seem to be about like
knowledge and not getting it and not knowing if you've got it?

        K: Yeah, the search for knowledge.  And I suppose the thing of
people...

        I: Okay, could you say "Sat In Your Lap that's about the search for
knowledge" you know, say something like that. 

        K: Yeah.  

        I: Say the title and then what it's about. 

        K: Yeah, Sat In Your Lap is very much a search for knowledge.  And
about the kind of people who really want to have knowledge but can't be
bothered to do the things that they should in order to get it.  So they're
sitting there saying how nice it would be to have this or to do that without
really desiring to do the things it takes you to get it.  And also the more
you learn the more ignorant you realize you are and that you get over one wall
to find an even bigger one.  [Laughs]

        I: How bout the video, is that on ice, the video, or what? 

        K: No, it's roller skates.  That was a lot of fun.  I don't think we
felt it was a serious video, you know, it's meant to fun.  We thought the
roller skates needed an airing. [laughs]

        I: Ok, how about Suspended In Gaffa.  Like what's the song about and
then I'll ask you what the video's about.  First the song. 

        K: Suspended In Gaffa is I suppose similar in some ways to Sat In Your
Lap - the idea of someone seeking something, wanting something.  I was brought
up as a Roman Catholic and had the imagery of purgatory and of the idea that
when you were taken there that you would be given a glimpse of God and then
you wouldn't see him again until you were let into heaven.  And we were told
that in Hell it was even worse because you got to see God but then you knew
that you would never see him again.  And it's sorta using that as the
parallel.  And the idea of seeing something incredibly beautiful, having a
religious experience as such, but not being able to get back there.  And it
was playing musically with the idea of the verses being sorta real time and
someone happily jumping through life [makes happy motion with head] and then
you hit the chorus and it like everything sorta goes into slow mo and they're
reaching [makes slow reaching motion with arm] for that thing that they want
and they can't get there.  [Laughs]

        I: And is like the video a dance interpretation of that? 

        K: Well, that video and the one that went with There Goes A Tenner,
quite honestly, were rushed.  There was very little time to do them.  I had to
do three videos in something like two months and I don't really think that if
we'd had more time that we would have done that. 

        I: So what takes the most time for you, the ideas or the execution? 

        K: I'm sorry? 

        I: What takes the most time for you?  Is it the ideas or is it the
execution?  Like is it making the video or coming up with what you think is a
really good idea to...

        K: It does depend on what you're doing, but I think the ideas are
probably the most time consuming thing.  Because if you can have as much
organized before you go into shooting then it's going to be that much quicker
and that much more efficient.

        I: Ok, and I guess finally, could you just tell us about your one
performance in America? 

        K: Saturday Night Live? 

        I: Yeah, that one. 

        K: It was a lot of fun!  It was really good.  I was asked to come over
here by Eric Idle from Montey Pithon, who was hosting the show.  And it was a
great honor for me and a real pleasure to do.  Complete madness! 

        I: Oh, yeah?  What did you do, what songs.

        K: I did, The Man With The Child In His Eyes and Them Heavy People. 
That was a while ago now that was '79.  

        I: That's right, that's a long time ago already. 

        K: Hmm. 

        I: Um, what about Wuthering Heights, what inspired you to write that? 
That sounds like an obvious question, but maybe it's not an obvious answer, I
don't know. 

        K: I think it is an obvious answer.  [Laughs]  It was very much the
book.  The idea of a relationship that even when one of them is dead, they
will not leave the other one alone.  I found that fascinating.  Not unlike the
energy behind the Houdini song that we did, where the strength of love... I
mean it's incredibly romantic.  But a very nice story and the sense of how
even when she's dead she has to come back for him.   Possessive lady. 
[Laughs]

        I: Have you ever been in love in that way or that much? 

        K: Yes, I think love effects you in a funny way and I think everyone
loves something or someone so I think everyone understands at least on some
level the experiences.  I wouldn't say I was a terribly possessive or ...
[Laughs]  I mean I would hate to think that I was like Cathy!  But I think
everyone certainly has shadows or little tinges of those things in them.  

        I: Ok.  I think that's about it, we should probably just shoot little
a couple of cut aways.  At which point we'll probably think of a couple of
other questions, just see how it goes. 

        K: OK, great. 

[This is where my tape ends.  According to end, there is a tape that has
another question about the ninth wave in it.  If anyone has this final
question please post.]










        
        




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