oliveu2cm
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
I just have all this random stuff floating around in my mailbox- figured I'd share it somewhere! Sorry I can't find the date or source of this, but it's all from the same interivew.
Mebbe I should put this in ZooConf for Larry though! wait till u read what he retracts....
BONO: Actually, with Nellee, the very first thing we did for the Pop album was we went out and bought a van and turned it into a disco bus - filled it with couches and woofers and... (suddenly grins broadly and breaks out in a dodgy Jamaican accent) BEECHES IN DA FRONT! BEECHES IN
DA BACK! I DIDN'T SEE NO MICROPHONE! YOU TELL IM DAT MAN'S A TIFF!! HEES GUILTEEE!
Em, sorry Bono, but I'm losing you there. What's with the Jamaican accent?
LARRY: Don't mind him. He's just been watching far too much Ali G!
BONO: The man's a comic genius! (laughs) Seriously though, we went out a lot during the making of Pop but we went out a lot because we were enjoying going out. And even at home there was a bit of club culture - there was just a lot of music in that period coming from the dance end of things. We were just loving it - loving being alive and, um, 'living it large' I think is the expression. And we wanted to capture that feeling on a record - because that was the life we were having. Though I think we may have captured more of the hangover than the party.
Was alcohol the only thing being used? Pop struck me as being very E'd up at the start and very spliffed out at the end. And Howie has a bit of a rep as a dope smoker!
BONO: Well if I ever smoked anything stronger than tobacco I wouldn't say it to you - or anybody!! (laughs) But no - some great times but some great hangovers as well.
Was Gavin Friday around at all for the making of All That You Can't Leave Behind?
BONO: Gavin's always around. People who have success - for reasons I still can't quite figure out - seem to rid the room of all argument. It's a really astonishing thing, but you see it, and you often wonder why somebody who blew your head when you were a kid has just released a really crap record. You just think 'did nobody tell them?' I mean, it's crazy. And we've never released a crap record. We've released experimental records or
whatever, but we've never released a crap record. That's because we've got people around us. The band, first of all. And then people like Gavin and Guggi. And the people around me - Simon Carmody, Jim Sheridan and so on.
This back to roots approach must have really pleased you, Larry. I know you hated Passengers because you didn't get to play enough drums.
LARRY: Well I didn't really hate Passengers. It was difficult, maybe, because it was just slightly beyond me. I mean, I can see where that album fits in now. At the time, my hope for it was that it would be soundtracks to movies where I could actually see the visuals. But I wasn't able to
see the big picture - that's a different story, but I think the only way you get to make an album like All That You Can't Leave Behind is by doing all those other things. Because you're never gonna get to this place if you haven't visited all the
other places along the way. You know, we did a lot of experimentation on Achtung Baby and Zooropa, had a lot of fun with guys like Nellee and Howie B doing Passengers and Pop and so on. And these things were all really good experiences. It was great, we learnt a lot from all of them.
But now you've stripped most of what you learnt away. There's very little technology or effects on the album.
BONO: That's really the theory behind the whole album. What happens if you reduce possibilities?
Lyrically, the new songs are all quite universally themed - you seem to be mostly writing about love, loss, life and the pursuit of some kind of happiness in the chaos of the modern world. Is there a sense that you make your big political statements outside of music now?
BONO: Maybe that's what it is. Hmmm, that's an interesting thought. I've found an audience to shout at - and they're not the record buying public! They're just prime ministers, popes and presidential candidates (erupts into laughter). Jesus! You may have just sorted it out there!
Actually, I was being serious. There aren't really any big issues being dealt with in the new songs.
BONO: I am serious! Because, you know, people have a lot in them - a lot of anger sometimes. Well, I can really only speak for myself, but there's always been a rage in me. And maybe I have found a
way of... (pauses). I can't live with acquiescence. I can't make peace with myself or the world. I just can't. To me, it's like rolling over. So, in doing things like Jubilee 2000, I do feel better for actually feeling that I'm getting my hands around the throat of something I care about, which may allow me in other areas of my life not to be at '10' all the time.
Are you often at '10'? You recently told Q magazine that you had a bit of a temper on you.
BONO: I don't know why I said that to him. There must have been a really rude waiter (laughs).
also noticed you having a minor altercation with a member of the audience in the Popmart Live From Mexico City video. Do you often get into scraps with the audience?
BONO: I've had a go at lots of people in the crowd
over the years, I think it's fair to say. Often it wasn't just white flags that got carried into the crowd, there was a lot of baggage and sometimes people would just spark you off. I even remember when we played Trinity here, when we were kids,
going into the crowd and sometimes you'd just stick the boot in. (Looks at Larry and shrugs, laughing) Well, you would, wouldn't ye? It's always been a very physical thing for me - making music. Being on a stage I've always felt a little like a trapped animal. I've never been one to stand on a stage in front of a microphone and, you know, there's a good fella, just sing the song. But I'm working up to that!
And the death of Jeff Buckley. That just made me think about the voice and what it can do if you're prepared not to lie to yourself.
Did you know Buckley well?
BONO: I only met him once. In New York a few years ago. I hate the word 'sweet' but he had a sweetness in the true sense of the word.
...
BONO: Well, Edge has been editor for a long time. It used to be really boring being the lyricist in U2 because no-one could give a shit, including the producers. And so a song like 'Bad' - which was
written on the microphone - you might've said to
the guy who wrote that, 'you're really onto something there - you should finish that'. Ok? Now, the fact that I didn't has certainly pissed me off more and more as the years have gone by. About the material. So Edge, I think, just kind of got interested as a way of, you know, 'this could be good, let's see where this goes'. And we started writing songs together outside of the band. And he's always been an editor, he's been good to work with. But occasionally his editing strays into more real and substantial songwriting, and, when it does, I just put his name on it.
In 'Peace On Earth', you've borrowed that line about hope and history not rhyming from Seamus Heaney. I know you knew Burroughs and Ginsberg, and people like Salman Rushdie and William Gibson are friends. Do you talk to more conventional writers about your songwriting?
BONO: Not really. But I do like the company of writers. They're like actors. They're fascinated to see the words get up from the page and do a run and a jump onto television or onto stage (laughs).
They're interested in that process. And I'm interested in their discipline, because it takes a lot of discipline, I'm sure, to do what you're doing. I never had any of that - sitting at a desk all day. That's just really hard. And I know that. I never did that. I did a different kind of hard. Years later I would meet writers and they'd say to me, "Oh, that opening lyric in 'Where The Streets Have No Name' is brilliant", and I'd be going "fuck off!" - I'd be climbing under the table in embarrassment. I think it's one of the most banal couplets in the history of rock! But they'd say, "no, it's the idea, it's what you're getting at. This idea of the Other Place".
So I do think that, in a way, by not spending time on the lyrics they became more direct, became more un-interfered with. I'm kind of at peace with that idea. With that decade. Nearly. But then in the 90's I started to write a bit more. And now I'm very interested in language because the words will do what I say now and I won't let them get too brainy or too dumb. I know enough now to get out of the way of them.
Do you enjoy doing the promotion?
LARRY: I have to say that it's a very hard part. Because you've just come out of the studio, you've just made somethingand you're not really quite sure exactly what it is you've done. So you're just coming to grips with that and suddenly loads of people are asking you questions about it.
Can doing interviews be a good way of figuring it all out?
BONO: If you're really lucky. If you're sitting around and you manage to have an actual conversation - then yes. You know, I don't take interviews lightly. For me, you're stepping out into the unknown. If you're gonna ask yourself some hard questions - and why should you? why
would you? - then that's tough enough. And if you're being asked the samequestions by an idiot, it's very hard for somebody like me, who's a little bit twitchy sometimes, to go through that. And I try and be charming to cover that up.
Do you have bodyguards?
BONO: I don't need it. I don't feel I need it anyway. I've security at my house, though.
How about you Larry?
LARRY: If you lived in America, there's no doubt that you'd have to have it. Somewhere like Los Angeles, stalking happens a lot. But I don't think Ireland's that kind of place. And when you're living here and your friends are here and your family's here, I mean it's hard enough without having people standing guard around you. I'm a drummer though, so I wouldn't need it.
Free man of the city or not, can you walk around the streets of Dublin without being hassled?
BONO: Yeah. I really can. I've kind of gotten away with it. I've no problem letting people down any more. I've no problem with the idea of manners. I like people who carry themselves with some sense of respect - respect for themselves and respect for others. I don't have to convince anyone now that I have all those things, so if people are rude to me then I've absolutely no problem being rude back. Before, I used to. So that used to make me violent (laughs). You know, I'd go from trying to politely explain the situation to eventual all out war. In fact, one of my last memorable evenings with Bill Graham was like that... (tells lengthy anecdote about a night out with the late hotpress journalist, which ended in fisticuffs when an overly anxious musician attempted to write the name of his band on Bono's hand in a Dublin nightclub).
Mebbe I should put this in ZooConf for Larry though! wait till u read what he retracts....
BONO: Actually, with Nellee, the very first thing we did for the Pop album was we went out and bought a van and turned it into a disco bus - filled it with couches and woofers and... (suddenly grins broadly and breaks out in a dodgy Jamaican accent) BEECHES IN DA FRONT! BEECHES IN
DA BACK! I DIDN'T SEE NO MICROPHONE! YOU TELL IM DAT MAN'S A TIFF!! HEES GUILTEEE!
Em, sorry Bono, but I'm losing you there. What's with the Jamaican accent?
LARRY: Don't mind him. He's just been watching far too much Ali G!
BONO: The man's a comic genius! (laughs) Seriously though, we went out a lot during the making of Pop but we went out a lot because we were enjoying going out. And even at home there was a bit of club culture - there was just a lot of music in that period coming from the dance end of things. We were just loving it - loving being alive and, um, 'living it large' I think is the expression. And we wanted to capture that feeling on a record - because that was the life we were having. Though I think we may have captured more of the hangover than the party.
Was alcohol the only thing being used? Pop struck me as being very E'd up at the start and very spliffed out at the end. And Howie has a bit of a rep as a dope smoker!
BONO: Well if I ever smoked anything stronger than tobacco I wouldn't say it to you - or anybody!! (laughs) But no - some great times but some great hangovers as well.
Was Gavin Friday around at all for the making of All That You Can't Leave Behind?
BONO: Gavin's always around. People who have success - for reasons I still can't quite figure out - seem to rid the room of all argument. It's a really astonishing thing, but you see it, and you often wonder why somebody who blew your head when you were a kid has just released a really crap record. You just think 'did nobody tell them?' I mean, it's crazy. And we've never released a crap record. We've released experimental records or
whatever, but we've never released a crap record. That's because we've got people around us. The band, first of all. And then people like Gavin and Guggi. And the people around me - Simon Carmody, Jim Sheridan and so on.
This back to roots approach must have really pleased you, Larry. I know you hated Passengers because you didn't get to play enough drums.
LARRY: Well I didn't really hate Passengers. It was difficult, maybe, because it was just slightly beyond me. I mean, I can see where that album fits in now. At the time, my hope for it was that it would be soundtracks to movies where I could actually see the visuals. But I wasn't able to
see the big picture - that's a different story, but I think the only way you get to make an album like All That You Can't Leave Behind is by doing all those other things. Because you're never gonna get to this place if you haven't visited all the
other places along the way. You know, we did a lot of experimentation on Achtung Baby and Zooropa, had a lot of fun with guys like Nellee and Howie B doing Passengers and Pop and so on. And these things were all really good experiences. It was great, we learnt a lot from all of them.
But now you've stripped most of what you learnt away. There's very little technology or effects on the album.
BONO: That's really the theory behind the whole album. What happens if you reduce possibilities?
Lyrically, the new songs are all quite universally themed - you seem to be mostly writing about love, loss, life and the pursuit of some kind of happiness in the chaos of the modern world. Is there a sense that you make your big political statements outside of music now?
BONO: Maybe that's what it is. Hmmm, that's an interesting thought. I've found an audience to shout at - and they're not the record buying public! They're just prime ministers, popes and presidential candidates (erupts into laughter). Jesus! You may have just sorted it out there!
Actually, I was being serious. There aren't really any big issues being dealt with in the new songs.
BONO: I am serious! Because, you know, people have a lot in them - a lot of anger sometimes. Well, I can really only speak for myself, but there's always been a rage in me. And maybe I have found a
way of... (pauses). I can't live with acquiescence. I can't make peace with myself or the world. I just can't. To me, it's like rolling over. So, in doing things like Jubilee 2000, I do feel better for actually feeling that I'm getting my hands around the throat of something I care about, which may allow me in other areas of my life not to be at '10' all the time.
Are you often at '10'? You recently told Q magazine that you had a bit of a temper on you.
BONO: I don't know why I said that to him. There must have been a really rude waiter (laughs).
also noticed you having a minor altercation with a member of the audience in the Popmart Live From Mexico City video. Do you often get into scraps with the audience?
BONO: I've had a go at lots of people in the crowd
over the years, I think it's fair to say. Often it wasn't just white flags that got carried into the crowd, there was a lot of baggage and sometimes people would just spark you off. I even remember when we played Trinity here, when we were kids,
going into the crowd and sometimes you'd just stick the boot in. (Looks at Larry and shrugs, laughing) Well, you would, wouldn't ye? It's always been a very physical thing for me - making music. Being on a stage I've always felt a little like a trapped animal. I've never been one to stand on a stage in front of a microphone and, you know, there's a good fella, just sing the song. But I'm working up to that!
And the death of Jeff Buckley. That just made me think about the voice and what it can do if you're prepared not to lie to yourself.
Did you know Buckley well?
BONO: I only met him once. In New York a few years ago. I hate the word 'sweet' but he had a sweetness in the true sense of the word.
...
BONO: Well, Edge has been editor for a long time. It used to be really boring being the lyricist in U2 because no-one could give a shit, including the producers. And so a song like 'Bad' - which was
written on the microphone - you might've said to
the guy who wrote that, 'you're really onto something there - you should finish that'. Ok? Now, the fact that I didn't has certainly pissed me off more and more as the years have gone by. About the material. So Edge, I think, just kind of got interested as a way of, you know, 'this could be good, let's see where this goes'. And we started writing songs together outside of the band. And he's always been an editor, he's been good to work with. But occasionally his editing strays into more real and substantial songwriting, and, when it does, I just put his name on it.
In 'Peace On Earth', you've borrowed that line about hope and history not rhyming from Seamus Heaney. I know you knew Burroughs and Ginsberg, and people like Salman Rushdie and William Gibson are friends. Do you talk to more conventional writers about your songwriting?
BONO: Not really. But I do like the company of writers. They're like actors. They're fascinated to see the words get up from the page and do a run and a jump onto television or onto stage (laughs).
They're interested in that process. And I'm interested in their discipline, because it takes a lot of discipline, I'm sure, to do what you're doing. I never had any of that - sitting at a desk all day. That's just really hard. And I know that. I never did that. I did a different kind of hard. Years later I would meet writers and they'd say to me, "Oh, that opening lyric in 'Where The Streets Have No Name' is brilliant", and I'd be going "fuck off!" - I'd be climbing under the table in embarrassment. I think it's one of the most banal couplets in the history of rock! But they'd say, "no, it's the idea, it's what you're getting at. This idea of the Other Place".
So I do think that, in a way, by not spending time on the lyrics they became more direct, became more un-interfered with. I'm kind of at peace with that idea. With that decade. Nearly. But then in the 90's I started to write a bit more. And now I'm very interested in language because the words will do what I say now and I won't let them get too brainy or too dumb. I know enough now to get out of the way of them.
Do you enjoy doing the promotion?
LARRY: I have to say that it's a very hard part. Because you've just come out of the studio, you've just made somethingand you're not really quite sure exactly what it is you've done. So you're just coming to grips with that and suddenly loads of people are asking you questions about it.
Can doing interviews be a good way of figuring it all out?
BONO: If you're really lucky. If you're sitting around and you manage to have an actual conversation - then yes. You know, I don't take interviews lightly. For me, you're stepping out into the unknown. If you're gonna ask yourself some hard questions - and why should you? why
would you? - then that's tough enough. And if you're being asked the samequestions by an idiot, it's very hard for somebody like me, who's a little bit twitchy sometimes, to go through that. And I try and be charming to cover that up.
Do you have bodyguards?
BONO: I don't need it. I don't feel I need it anyway. I've security at my house, though.
How about you Larry?
LARRY: If you lived in America, there's no doubt that you'd have to have it. Somewhere like Los Angeles, stalking happens a lot. But I don't think Ireland's that kind of place. And when you're living here and your friends are here and your family's here, I mean it's hard enough without having people standing guard around you. I'm a drummer though, so I wouldn't need it.
Free man of the city or not, can you walk around the streets of Dublin without being hassled?
BONO: Yeah. I really can. I've kind of gotten away with it. I've no problem letting people down any more. I've no problem with the idea of manners. I like people who carry themselves with some sense of respect - respect for themselves and respect for others. I don't have to convince anyone now that I have all those things, so if people are rude to me then I've absolutely no problem being rude back. Before, I used to. So that used to make me violent (laughs). You know, I'd go from trying to politely explain the situation to eventual all out war. In fact, one of my last memorable evenings with Bill Graham was like that... (tells lengthy anecdote about a night out with the late hotpress journalist, which ended in fisticuffs when an overly anxious musician attempted to write the name of his band on Bono's hand in a Dublin nightclub).