|
INDEX MAGAZINE vol 8, #3 (Feb/Mar 2004)
INDEX MAGAZINE vol 8, #3 (Feb/Mar 2004)
$5.95
www.indexmagazine.com"Morrissey" (8 pgs)
writer: Tim Goldsworthy/James Murphy
photo: Wolfgang TillmansTranscribed by Vu.
Interviewers James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy are the cofounders of the New York record label DFA. Their bass-heavy disco-rock sound has attracted such bands as the Rapture and the Juan Maclean to their young, yet increasingly acclaimed label. Late last year, James and Tim made a pilgrimage to the Elizabethan manor house-turned-recordings studio in the Oxfordshire countryside where the master was working on a new album.
JAMES: What made you want to make music rather than listen to it?
MORRISSEY: Well, I was always obsessed by pop music. Not rock or progressive or any other kind of music, only pop. I was a very quiet, shy teenager, and I never knew people who performed. So it was confusing, because although I loved music, I couldn't really see myself playing it.JAMES: Did you have any role models?
MORRISSEY: Not really. I was simply obsessed with the singing voice, and fascinated by singers who stood alone with their microphone on their stage, just belting it out. When you open your mouth and sing on stage, it's so intense - to dress up, to look into people's eyes and say words that hopefully help. But most successful singers in pop music can't sing.JAMES: There are technically good people - the Christina Aguileras - but they oversing.
MORRISSEY: They make a meal of every note - they chew it to pieces. That's not singing.JAMES: The first time you sang in front of people did it feel strange?
MORRISSEY: well, the first time I ever sang I was auditioning for two groups in Manchester, both of whom refused to accept me. I'm happy they didn't, because it wasn't meant to be. But the first time I sang in front of an audience, it felt absolutely right. Even though my voice isn't technically brilliant, I just feel so good when I sing live.JAMES: Better than in the studio?
MORRISEY: Yes, because singing on stage is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. You can't say to the audience, "Oh, I'm sorry, let's try that again."TIM: Do you ever need to get away from music?
MORRISSEY: No, I listen to music all the time. In the car, in the bath - which is the best place to listen to music - before I go to bed. I never stop listening to random bits and pieces very obscure collections.TIM: What have you been listening to lately?
MORRISSEY: Right now, I'm just obsessed with Jobriath. He was a singer who released two glam rock albums in '73 and '74, recorded in New York. At the time, the press either ridiculed him or didn't bother to write about him at all. He died in obscurity in the '80s. I've been through all his archives, and I've just compiled a best-of, which is being released by Rhino Handmade.JAMES: You're almost evangelical about his music.
MORRISSEY: Well, yes, I am. Fantastic pop music. One of those voices that's just being thrown at you.TIM: How did you discover him?
MORRISSEY: In the early '70s there were four weekly music papers - the NME, Melody Maker, Disc, and Record - and I used to buy all of them every single week, without fail. Jobriath got dreadful reviews. Then I saw his first album cover - he's lying down with his legs morphed into a broken statue. It was the most fantastic picture, so I bought the album.JAMES: You bought it because you liked the cover?
MORRISSEY: Well, covers are usually reasonably accurate. In those days, it was pretty standard that almost anything that irritated the establishment of awful writers would inevitably be rather good. You have to remember that rock writers were still obsessed with Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin. Then in the late '70s, Lester Bangs changed everything by writing about more obscure names in rock music.JAMES: Did you go to a lot of shows as a kid?
MORRISSEY: I began going to concerts by myself at an early age. I loved and still love the Velvet Underground. I saw Lou Reed touring behind his first album when I was twelve.JAMES: I have found a certain glamness in both your solo work and the records you did with The Smiths. Were you into other glam music besides Jobriath?
MORRISSEY: So completely. I caught all of that - I saw T.Rex in '72, and Roxy Music twice that year. I had a ticket for a double bill with Roxy Music and the New York Dolls in '72, but the Dolls didn't show up.JAMES: T.Rex and Roxy Music were really anarchic, but their music is so beautiful.
MORRISSEY: My mum's two favorites bands are Johnny Mathis and Roxy Music. That speaks volumes about them. And I saw Bowie in '72, on the Starman tour.JAMES: '72 was a year for you!
MORRISSEY: It really was. I saw all the right things at the right time. But there aren't any pop stars now like Bowie was then. You have to remember his age - he was only twenty-three. Marc Bolan, too - I don't think there is anybody like him.JAMES: When I was young I don't think I completely got your lyrics. To what degrees are your songs governed by irony?
MORRISSEY: Well, I think humor is a part of it, but all my life I've believed that I am a real person. When some people go on stage they move away from how they are in their lives. But, really, there's no artifice with me! It's all true.TIM: Maybe that's why you can write pop that also has depth and content.
MORRISSEY: Well, I want to use op music to say something intelligently and memorably. That was very unusual when I started out. Musicians who considered themselves intellectual didn't expect to be popular, so they purposely made music that wouldn't get radio play.JAMES: Was it a surprise when you found yourself massively relevant?
MORRISSEY: Well, the Smiths were never played on daytime radio.JAMES: But still…
MORRISSEY: Yeah, I suppose that we were, yes.TIM: You were on John Peel's show and Janice Long's Evening Session - that was about it.
MORRISSEY: Of course, those were different times - radio stations were playing this expensive ultra-pop, whereas we had a slightly ragged sound. I think programmers had a very strong idea of what sounded professional and what sounded amateur. And the Smiths sounded amateur.JAMES: When I first heard the 12-inch of "This Charming Man", it sounded really rough and punk. But listening to it now, it's actually rather beautiful.
MORRISSEY: These days, we're used to things that sound really batty. But nobody else was remotely similar to the Smiths at the time. We were far from accepted, so the fact that we were successful was itself punkish.JAMES: What were you up against?
MORRISSEY: We were considered obnoxious, snooty, rude, dull, depressing and sarcastic.JAMES: Do you think you were misinterpreted?
MORRISSEY: Not at all. [laughs]JAMES: You were on Sire Records for a while, both as a solo artist and as -
MORRISSEY: -- a trapped artist.JAMES: --and as part of the Smiths. But you had a lot of difficulties with them?
MORRISSEY: The reality of being with Sire was our begging them to release a single from the album. It was humiliating. They never did any promotion. It's the same old story. The smiths released "How Soon Is Now?" and it got a great reception, but Sire just could not get a single in the charts.TIM: It must have been strange not getting airplay but having fans who were utterly devoted.
MORRISSEY: Well, the Smiths became popular simply because of our songs. That doesn't seem to happen anymore. I never just hear a song. Everything that's released has weeks or months of promotion behind it.JAMES: You're working on a new album now. Who's producing it?
MORRISSEY: Jerry Finn. He's produced Bad Religion, Green Day, Blink 182.JAMES: How did you two get together?
MORRISSEY: His manager approached my manager. It doesn't matter to me that the music he's made is very LA, for want of a better description. Often producers are desperate to break out of what they've been doing.TIM: What do you look for in a producer?
MORRISSEY: It's important to be able to speak openly without measuring your worlds. And I'm not the type of person who hangs around in the studio and jams. I won't sing just any old thing, because it feels too personal. I'm nervous about what's going to come out. It's important for the producer to understand that I'm not a technical singer. But I'm not precious - I don't spend a great deal of time doing take after takes.JAMES: Are you hard on yourself?
MORRISSEY: You have to be. It helps to be your own worst critic.JAMES: When you're working on an album, do you worry about how it will be received?
MORRISSEY: Well, I never made music in order to please. It's always been a very personal thing, and it still is. I know I don't fit in - nothing has changed for me in that regards. I don't fit, and I don't want to.JAMES: Yet you still make records that other people want to hear.
MORRISSEY: By some quirk of fate, a lot of people like my music. Lots of people want to talk about it and talk to me. But I've never even remotely tried to court publicity.JAMES: Do you ever think that you should ?
MORRISSEY: No, morally, I couldn't do it. Every artist being marketed now is a "ground-breaking, earth-shattering phenomenon."JAMES: But that hype creates performers who sell millions and millions of records.
MORRISSEY: They're reaching the nonthinking people who will just buy any CD that's familiar to them. All they're buying is the picture they remember seeing. When I see a huge billboard while I'm driving along Sunset Boulevard, I'm instantly turned off.JAMES: Are you still living in LA? I heard you moved there in the early '90s.
MORRISSEY: Yes. I know what you're going to say before you even say it - and you're absolutely right.JAMES: That it's a weird place?
MORRISSEY: Yeah. People always say it's a very peculiar place, and I agree - but it has its good qualities. It's very glamorous visually, which is always inviting. In LA, you can choose which elements of city life you wish to take part in, whereas in New York you have no choice, really. I back away from practically everything. I find the whole idea of celebrity terribly embarrassing.JAMES: But Los Angeles itself is a hugely embarrassing place, where celebrity is valued above all else.
MORRISSEY: It's disgraceful. Celebrities opinions on everything count, even if they clearly have no viewpoint whatsoever.JAMES: But isn't that just part of the modern obsession with fame? People want to know everything about a famous person. You can log onto an artists website and read what he ate for breakfast.
MORRISSEY: I feel sad that there's so much stuff that I've theoretically "signed" on eBay. And you can watch the bidding climb and climb.JAMES: You're in a position where you can refuse the trappings of promotion. You can say, "No billboards, please" you have fans who are waiting to hear your next release.
MORRISSEY: Well, there's generally an extreme reaction when my name is mentioned. Thankfully, enough people buy my records. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here - I'd be working at Kingdom of Leather.
