Newsgroup: it.fan.musica.rem
Titolo: Intervista a Peter-Rockdelux

Altra bella intervista questa volta con Peter...
da 
murmurs.com
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Interview with Peter Buck in Rockdelux. 
There's an interview with Peter Buck in this month's issue of the Spanish
magazine Rockdelux. They don't have an on-line version and even though I
know that it can be bought in other countries, I don't know exactly where
and where not.
This is a translation that I've written, please notice that these are not
Peter's literal words and don't pay too much attention to the mistakes.
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R.E.M. Fit dinosaurs. 
By Víctor Lenore. 
Well, no, there was not much fluency in the interview with Peter Buck. The
truth is that it is quite hard to connect with any stranger in just half
an hour, much more with a premier division rock star who's talking to you
only for "professional imperatives" and who doesn't take off his
sunglasses (a not very polite gesture, as we were in a hotel room, the
afternoon was cloudy and the window was behind his back). From now on, I'm
going to take my sunglasses with me, to put them on when the interviewee
goes too cool. I suppose that it will make him laugh (even if that's not
my job) and at least I'll break the ice. Anyway, Buck was warm and
cordial, and even if we didn't have a proper "chat", I got enough
information.
Mike Mills and Michael Stipe's band mate speaks with extremely good
manners and a certain air of "being back from everything", but he gets
upset when he criticises the US foreign policy and reveals a slightly
guilty trace when he justifies the two extra songs of "In Time. The Best
Of R.E.M. 1988-2003" (Warner, 2003). "Well, 'Bad Day' is an old song, from
1986, that sounds more or less as it sounded then. I still like it.
'Animal' was recorded in 15 minutes, but I don't say it as if it were
something bad. It sounds spontaneous, psychedelic: its lyrics are one of
those 'polaroids' that show what happens inside Michael's or one of his
characters' head. In fact we have included them because it's necessary now
in a compilation. If you don't do it, you don't get aired on the radio".
Speaking clearly.
That's what I got during my thirty minutes with Mr. Buck in a hotel in
Madrid, the day after the exclussive concert that R.E.M. gave for 'Los 40'
and 'Canal +'.
THE FIRST CONNECTION...
"The first connection with Michael came with the New York bands of the
late 70s: Suicide, Ramones, Television... you know. The critic usually
links us more with Talking Heads, but the fact is that they weren't among
our favourites. Already as a teenager I liked coarser things, the Iggy Pop
kind. I'm a fan of Talking Heads, I've played with some of its members and
I think that they made a very important contribution to raise the level of
the lyrics in rock music. But I still prefer something more visceral.
Since the very beginning we were more moved by Patti Smith, because she
had all the roughness of rock'n'roll and also those lyrics that spoke of
transcending your own body, of going beyond reality.That was a very direct
influence. In R.E.M. we play rock music, but we are an unusual band, more
impredictable than the average: when we release a single nobody knows
whether it's going to be a hit or a failure. We've placed in the Top 40
some of the strangest songs of the last decade. You could say that we have
widened the boundaries of pop music."
WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ROCK MUSIC?
"I think that rock'n'roll has been there for so long that it's becoming
harder and harder to define it. If you go to a shop, you find under that
label artists as different as Bryan Adams, The Strokes or Mercury Rev.
Who's 'more rock' for you: Bryan Adams or The Chemical Brothers? Howe
Gelb, for instance, plays country, but in essence he's a rock artist. Five
years ago, I thought that the gender was going to disappear; I'm not
exaggerating. Well, I thought that it would be like roots music, something
that would just interest people over 40. That's why I find it so
surprising that the new generation has gone back there and that they make
it sound so great: I speak of the Dirtbombs, The White Stripes, The
Detroit Cobras... But, as a listener, I don't limit myself to rock. I also
listen to electronic music, things like DJ Shadow. I also like hip hop
quite a lot, for the richness of the rythms, but I find boring 90% of the
raps (too uniform, besides I don't connect with the lyrics). What I just
can't stand is commercial pop. You have to move piles of garbage to find a
decent refrain".
PLETHORIC DINOSAURS (THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE)
"How have we managed to avoid the credibility problems that are facing U2?
Are you calling us dinosaurs? I guess we are. Maintaining your prestige is
partly a question of luck. It's also quite evident for us that we must not
take ourselves very seriously (only our songs). Every time we've gone into
politics, it's had to do with some subject directly related to our every
day lives: installing alternative energy in our office, supporting some
social cause in our country, raising people's awareness of AIDS... We try
everything to be natural. Another important thing, in the artistic side,
is that we always look forward. I don't know, I've always believed that
'Green' needs a re-mix, that it sounds to 'big' to be R.E.M. It has too
much wrapping. I will never re-mix it though, I don't have that need,
because I always have new songs to work with. I would hate becoming a band
like The Rolling Stones, touring to play what used to be our repertoire
thirty or forty years ago. Collaborating with bands like The Minus 5,
Wilco, Tuatara or The Long Winters keeps me stuck to reality. During the
last year, counting R.E.M.'s concerts and the collaborations, I think I
have played approximately one hundred gigs in small venues".
THE BEST GUITAR, THE LEAST NOTICED
"What quality do I admire most in a guitar player? No one in particular.
The ability to integrate into each song. More or less what good musicians
have been doing since George Harrison: not placing your own conceit over
the final result. I don't need soloing to express myself. Big bands
usually have a 'hit' that identifies their guitarist's style, the typical
'riff' that defines them. Our most famous song, 'Losing My Religion', is
based in a mandoline arrangement, which is by the way the only thing that
I can play with that instrument. Emotion is the valuable thing. I'm
addicted to guitars, anyway. I play six days a week, several hours, not
scales, but searching in order to write. I play mainly at night, when my
children are aslept. When I'm on holiday, I try not to take the guitar
with me, but sometimes I miss it so much that I buy a cheap 70-dollars one
to play a while".
USA AND THE FASCISM OF THE MEDIA
"As a matter of fact, 'Bad Day' speaks of how fucking difficult is living
in the United States now. We have a fraudulently elected President; a guy
who invaded a country for reasons that were exclusively personal (both of
his and of his oil producer friends). Besides, due to the mediatic system
in which we live, people do not have truthful information and they can't
take rational decisions. There are very heavy data: for instance, a recent
poll says that 70% of the country is convinced that Irak was directly
reponsible of the 11-S, when that does not have more foundation that the
propaganda produced by the White House. We are fighting in a war without
motives, with casualties in both sides. The situation is so tense that
some soldiers commit suicide. Besides, nothing guarantees that all this
will convert Irak to a democracy. Neither we have been legitimised to do
that work. The big media in the United States are right-wing when not
directly fascist. For example, we have the case of Rush Limbaugh, a
rightist broadcaster with about twenty million listeners. Many people
adore him, although he was fired from his post of sports commentator for
having made racist observations. Last September, an investigation forced
him to recognise his addiction to a drug called Oxycontin. But he's still
massively supported, probably by the same persons who depised Lenny Bruce
for being a dope fiend".
THE NEW ALBUM (THE PART I CAN TELL)
"We've already written around thirty songs for the new album. I want it to
sound raw, unrestrained: better on the first take than on the second one.
Michael and Mike's tendency is one of refining very much all we record.
They spend enormous amounts of time in details. My goal is the opposite:
to keep the crudeness. As usual, we will meet in some intermediate point,
but I'm going to bet on keeping everything as natural as possible. I love
'Reveal', but it carried to the limit the orchestral parts, the numberless
overdubs, the layers of overlapped keyboards. We want a change. Besides,
we don't need all that to sound well. After more than twenty years, it's
indisputable that R.E.M. are a very 'cool' live band. In our concerts
there's a feeling of immediacy that perhaps we haven't captured in any
record, well, partially in 'New Adventures In Hi-Fi', of which we are very
proud. In this new album we will concentrate on being direct; there'll be
very primary rock, but also some quiet acoustic pieces, as it's usual in
our records. It will come out in 2004, in time for going on tour".
---
Ciao!
Vero
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 take rational decisions.
Sta parlando solo dell'America?
Ciao,
Valentina

Sta parlando solo dell'America?
Certo, Berlusca mica ha invaso l' Iraq! 
La parte a sinistra della chiocciolina e' inROT13 e sostituisci 
dante.it
 con 
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