D-Side Q & A
Hier nun Auszüge aus der englischen Orginalfassung des D-Side Magazin Interviews von Ende letzten Jahres.
Veröffentlichung mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Wayne Hussey! Das komplette Interview gibt`s auf and-the-dance-goes-on.de
The complete transcription of the english Q & A can be found on and-the-dance-goes-on.de
Q.) Your first solo album, titled "Bare", will appear during the final Mission tour, under your own name. How have you chosen the covers and the old songs of The Mission featuring inside in acoustic version ?
A.) Yeah, I've narrowed it down to 12 new recordings. It was a difficult choice as there were over 30 songs on the original list. Maybe, if this first album is received well by our audience, then I may do a 'Part II' at a later stage. It's certainly easy enough to record here at my own studio in Brazil. 'Bare' is a working title and that may yet change but I have a feeling it won't.
The recordings are loosely based on the solo shows I have played over the last few years. It's basically just acoustic guitar, piano, some other keyboards like organ and mellotron, an old beat box, and cello on a track or two. There are no electric guitars, no bass, no 'real' drums. In fact, no band. And yeah, I am planning for this album to appear in my own name.
Q.) Do you think this solo record is the prelude to some other exercices like this one ? Do you finally keep on pursueing a carreer under your proper name ?
A.) In a lot of respects I don't really consider 'Bare' as being my first solo album. It's more an acoustic re-working of part of my past and I would prefer to think that my first 'proper' solo album will be all new songs and will be looking to the future rather than the past and that will, more than likely, be the next thing I work on next year after the tour. I'm hoping that being able to release records under my own name, rather than a 'brand' name like The Mission, will ultimately afford me more artistic freedom. If I want to record a techno record or a jazz record or an album that defies categorization or whatever then I think it'll certainly be easier to do, with no level of expectation from the Mission audience, by releasing them under my own name, or even under an pseudonym.
Q.) We`ve not heard the sound of “Bare” at the time to ask the questions. Can you please describe the global content of the record ? Did you wanna touch something appeased on a musical point of view or are there some more nervous moments ? How have you recorded it ?
A.) When we released the last Mission single, 'Blush', I included an acoustic version of the song as an extra track and a friend of mine suggested that I should do more of that kind of thing, you know, taking a song and stripping it down. I took the idea a step further by deciding to re-record the songs but with very limited instrumentation. One of my favourite ever albums is 'Only The Lonely' by Frank Sinatra and it's a 'mood' album. It's perfect for late-night, having drank a couple of bottles of red wine, lighting some candles and either wallowing in a recent lost love or being 'relaxed' with the one you love. And I wanted to do something similar. So it's a very laid-back, gentle record. I changed the keys to all the songs so that I could sing them in my best 'goth Dean Martin' voice without having to really exert my vocal chords. I'm not nervous about it at all. I know it's a record that only some Mission fans will enjoy but I believe some will really love this album and there may even be people that enjoy this record that have never liked anything the band has ever done. But I've done it more for myself than anything else. You could say it's a little extravagant, self indulgent on my part but it's just something I wanted to do and I figured it was time to do something like this now that I'm finally putting The Mission to bed. These new versions aren't supposed to be better or worse than the originals, it just captures a mood, I hope, and hopefully shows that the songs are just good songs regardless of how they're played. As I've said before, it's recorded very simply with either acoustic guitar or piano, or both in some cases, and voice. It's a lot more roll than rock.....:)
Q.) Will some other personal projects come soon ? Movie soundtracks, for example ? Have you taken the decision to stop The Mission at a period where some other projects had arrived in your personal land ?
A.) I have nothing else planned at this time. But I am constantly being asked to be involved in other projects and until now I have been very limited with time in what I could do. Now I will be able to dedicate myself and my time to pursuing some of these other projects including, hopefully at some point, movie soundtracks. One project I've recently completed is I have contributed lyrics and vocals to a track, named 'Hit Repeat', by Swedish artist, Stisch. It's very techno, almost '80's disco and I believe that is going to be released, funnily enough, in February. Another project that I have recently been asked to do is contribute music to a spoken word album by, again Swedish, an author and that is something that excites my imagination.
Q.) How do you live nowadays with the idea that The Mission comes to an end?
A.) Well, to make the decision was hard and I did feel sad about it for a day or so but then I started to get excited at what I could do in the future away from the band. And now I feel creatively I have a blank canvas to start with.
