Peter Gabriel |
 |
|
Fri. September 27.2002 5:14 PM EDT |
||
Peter Gabriel: Had a Nice DecadeNew record, new tour, big ideas, same old genius. by Franklin Cumberbatch |
||||
|
||||
 |
Peter Gabriel (VH1.com) |
|
||
When Peter Gabriel hit record store shelves with Us in 1992, George Bush was president. When the follow-up finally arrived, George W. Bush was president. Some things never change. The 10 years off have been well spent for the prog
With the “Barry Williams” video soaked in more blood than Sam Peckinpah ever imagined and Canadian theatre guru Robert LePage designing the forthcoming tour, Gabriel continues to tickle the mainstream with avant-garde ideas. VH1 put the former Genesis singer in the hot seat to explain his Rip Van Winkle-like absence, working with Sean Penn and the possibility of ever again singing “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.” VH1: Us is your first studio album in ten years. What took you so long? Peter Gabriel: Well, it’s quicker than a hundred years! The tour/album/tour cycle is a little like a dog eating its own tail. After a while, you get to know the taste pretty well. I wanted to do other projects. During this period I had about 130 ideas that I was working on. Some went into my Ovo record, which didn’t get released in America. Then I did the soundtrack for the film Rabbit-Proof Fence. Then I did some other stuff for this current album, Up, and the next one, which will be called I/O. VH1: How did you pare down everything you recorded to the final ten songs? Gabriel: Using the songs that got finished made it a little easier. Then there were songs that seemed to fit together. There was a journey emerging. VH1: What kind of journey? Gabriel: It felt like the lyrics have more to do with the beginning and end of life then the middle. I was surprised to see four or five songs talked about death in one way or another. That’s not the normal pop subject! VH1: And yet you called it Up? Gabriel: I have an anti-title attitude. Originally I wanted just pictures on my records. I remember my records by the pictures, not the text. After a while it got confusing and Geffen said that they weren’t going to put out my records unless I gave them a title. So I called my fifth album So and then carried on with two-letter titles. I generally think of them first, so they’re like a notice board on which I stick up the songs. Like many random things, once they fall in together you start seeing ways in which they make sense. With the birth and death themes, there was a sense of up and down-ness. VH1: What inspired the single “The Barry Williams Show?” Gabriel: I’ve watched quite a few reality TV shows and talk shows. It’s a little bit like going to the Coliseum and watching guys getting chewed up by the lions. It’s entertainment, but it’s also like junk food. You go in there really wanting it and feel sick at the end of it. It’s good to watch what we consume, because it reflects who we are. VH1: Did you come up with the concept for the video? Gabriel: I was getting the tour ready, so this is very much the director Sean Penn’s baby. He heard the song, and sent me some ideas. There was a line in the song where I say, “This display of emotion is all but drowning me.” That reminded Sean of a line from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, where he talks about being on a boat in an ocean of blood and watching his family float past. Nice, cheerful stuff! So that was put into the TV studio. VH1: Do you feel a lot of pressure to top your ground-breaking videos like “Shock the Monkey” and “Sledgehammer”? Gabriel: People always expect a lot, but I just get on with it and do what I can with the people I’m working with and hope they like it. I like putting people together from different backgrounds. On “Digging in the Dirt,” the director John Downer worked with these amazing science films called Supersense. He created the sense of how animals perceived the world. VH1: You’re going on a full-fledged tour for this, doing theatrical shows and then shows in a more traditional format. What’s the theatrical show going to be like? Gabriel: I worked with Robert LePage, a visionary theatre and film director from Canada. We’re using two stages. Last time we had a male and female stage with a conveyor belt linked between them. This time it’s more of a heaven and earth thing. There will be two stages, one above the other. The motion will be more vertical. VH1: How do you make up the set list? Gabriel: We’ll play a lot of the new stuff; because like all artists, I want to have it heard. It has a different life when you start playing. People have been making requests on my Web site, too. There’s one person who has voted around a thousand times for an obscure track called “Curtains”! Maybe he’s just written a software program to keep voting. VH1: Do you prefer scoring for films or being Peter Gabriel the rock star? Gabriel: The rock star thing is rather fun for a weekend or two, but not something you really want to live in. I’m a songwriter first, and that’s my main craft. With soundtracks you have a chance to create ambient environments that don’t depend on lyrics. On the one hand you have a lot of freedom, but at the same time you’re working for the director, so you’re an employee. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. VH1: Would you ever do a reunion tour with Genesis? Gabriel: Most old guys only do these reunion tours when they’re broke. Touch wood, I haven’t hit there. Reunion tours are like going back to school. It’s fun to meet up with these people you’ve grown up with, but it’s not necessarily where you want to spend your future. If something extraordinary came out or there was some benefit that we all felt very strongly about, maybe. It’s quite a lot of work. Last time we did a week’s work for one show and it wasn’t enough. So I’m not anticipating it! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  |
 |
Guns N' Roses Songs, Chuck D's Call To Arms Highlight Rock The Vote Awards |
|
Chuck D, Alanis Morissette, Peter Gabriel To Be Honored By Rock The Vote |
|
Peter Gabriel Begins Minneapolis Show Darkly, Ends By Bouncing Inside A Ball |
|
Peter Gabriel's Up Is A Downer, But In A Good Way |
 |
 |
 |
|
Receive Free Music News Daily Via Email |
|
Receive Free Artist Updates Via Email for Peter Gabriel |
|
All news for Peter Gabriel |
|
Breaking Music News |
 |
Add VH1 News to My Yahoo |
|
