International call connections can be a bitch. The Vine was given 15 minutes yesterday with Warren Ellis. At 15 minutes on the dot - boom - the line went dead. Nothing.
Not even enough time to finish exchanging pleasantries – “My little heart went pit-a-patter-a-pit when I heard it was Everett True on the other end of the line,” Warren exclaimed. “It was the most exciting news I’d heard all day.” (It was early morning.)
“I read that little
tribute you wrote to Rowland” he added. “It was very moving – and very true.”
There wasn’t enough time to ask him about any of the following subjects … Grinderman, busking in Europe, death, internal dialogues, Marianne Faithfull,
The Assassination Of Jesse James,
The Proposition, Loene Carmen, France, kids, being haunted, controlling sound, his dad’s recording career…
There wasn’t even enough time to discuss The Dirty Three’s decision to cover the haunting
Ocean Songs in its entirety for their forthcoming tour of Australia (their first in four years, with support in some cities coming from the Greatest Live Band In Rock’n’Roll Ever, Period – Brisbane’s incredible jazz-flecked Laughing Clowns)…
Some of the questions on the screen were: What made you choose
Ocean Songs – as opposed to (for example) the equally memorable 1995 debut
Sad & Dangerous, or 2003’s totally excellent
She Has No Strings Apollo? Is it particular to a time or a place? What do you visualise while you’re playing it? Did you need to get together to rehearse it at all?
We didn’t talk about any of that shit. We got cut off mid-sentence just when Warren was telling me whether his kids listened to his music or not. (I still don’t know.)
Ah well, whatever. We talked. And sometimes it makes you feel good about yourself, conversing with a genius.
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Are you satisfied?
I’m never satisfied. Briefly and then I’m not. If you’re satisfied then you’re happy and if you’re happy then you get bored. It comes and it goes. I get glimpses of it, but when you get glimpses of it, it’s time to move on. Does that motivate me? I think so. I’m never staying particularly happy with anything I’ve done. I enjoy doing stuff, there’s a reason for doing it, but I don’t make things for my own enjoyment, it’s a very short lived satisfaction.
There’s a point during the act of creation where I need to feel satisfied, then you play it and then you’re not satisfied and then it’s time to make something else. Dissatisfaction leads to creativity. And you’re always looking to better what you’ve done and you always feel like if you’ve done something that’s really great you wouldn’t be inspired to do anything else… [Warren becomes momentarily distracted] …man, Bobby Gillespie just sent me the most fantastic clip of The Heartbreakers doing ‘Born To Lose’…”
Do you ever watch or listen to recordings of yourself?
I never used to. I certainly don’t watch things. That’s a real problem watching stuff. Since the year 2000 I’ve started listening to stuff a bit closer because up until then I was always a bit unsure about what I would find if I listened too closely, and so I would leave it to other people to make sure it was OK to go out. But now I do, but never for my own enjoyment. With each thing I do there’s a certain amount of enjoyment, but then it’s time to let it go and then it’s done and then I move in. I certainly don’t feel nostalgic about stuff.
How were the recent Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds shows with [The Saints and The Laughing Clowns guitarist, and Brisbane icon] Ed Kuepper?
They were really good. Mick [Harvey] had started to leave and because Mick had always been there – you’d look over and he was always there – it was very different. Ed was great, though. He came in and bought something new to the band, his own angle, and that was really good because it put everyone else on their toes. I’ve always loved watching Ed over the years so it was a real thrill to watch him over there on stage, chugging away. It was strange because we knew that Mick wouldn’t be there anymore... similarly when Blixa [Bargeld] left. You’re used to seeing that person all the time and then you just don’t see that person anymore. Fortunately Ed came in a very dignified way and just went for it.
How do you set about soundtracking a movie? What do you need to avoid? What do you need to do? Do you see the music as telling another story in parallel with the first?
The music in most cases should be there to support what’s going on. It shouldn’t be distracting unless it’s there to distract attention from excess in
Driller Killer or it’s deliberately taking control of some mad scene. It was possibly easier for us [Nick Cave and Warren Ellis – the pair have collaborated on several soundtracks] because we’re not classically or traditionally trained film composers so we don’t have the classic pitfall of making the music to order. We just improvise music and then find a spot it fits into –like the way it worked with [the Bob Dylan soundtrack for]
Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid. It’s not like we try to find some exciting dialogue and then add percussion. A lot of the time we leave it up to chance – and the rest is hard graft trying to come to agreement with everyone involved.
What made you choose the film adaptation of [Cormac McCarthy novel] The Road to soundtrack? What appealed to you about the book?
We didn’t pick it. John [Hillcoat] got asked to direct it, and then he asked Nick and I if we’d like to do the music for it, as we’d worked together before [particularly on 2005’s
The Proposition]. Absolutely we wanted to – it’s an amazing book!
Explain The Laughing Clowns to someone who’s never heard them.
They should have heard them already. If they haven’t they’re idiots because there’s no excuse for it. It’s funny that people who love The Saints, for instance, won’t have heard of The Laughing Clowns, but people don’t always follow through on music. It always seemed to me like The Laughing Clowns were saving music. They were bringing all these different influences together – amazing drumming from Jeff, free-form jazz, rock. There was this insane cacophony going on that was very free and very controlled, with a floating narrative going across the top. They were the greatest band around of their time.
At the time I loved free jazz and rock’n’roll, but the two never mixed very well together. When the free jazz guys tried to do it they’d think rock music too banal. Alice Coltrane was the only one who would get it – get on a groove and wig out for five minutes. The jazz guys couldn’t stick on the one thing, and whenever the rock people went freeform they’d either go progressive or didn’t have the chops. The Laughing Clowns were majestic and extraordinary – hearing them on PBS in Melbourne in the early 80s I thought that this was the way forward for music. It was so exciting and engaging, and liberating too. And totally at odds with what was going on… I know you agree because we both danced our little socks off to them [at ATP, Mount Buller, January 2009].
How’s not drinking treating you? How did you reach that stage?
It’s one of the best things I ever did. I drank enough for one lifetime. I wouldn’t be able to function the way I was before with what I’m doing now – and what I’m doing now is important to me, so drinking isn’t really an option for me. Even if there are certain aspects that appear attractive to me. All I have to do is remind myself of that fact.”
What music are your kids into? Are they aware of who their dad is and do they listen to your music?
Nirvana, The Stooges, Ramones… We hit a certain hiccup when they started listening to Muse after they found them on YouTube, but we seem to have got over that. A bit of AC/DC, a little bit of that techno kids like to listen to, but they love that
Nevermind album and you…
*click*
THE DIRTY THREE - AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2010
Jan 21 - The Forum, Melbourne, VIC
Jan 22 - Fowlers, Adelaide, SA
Jan 23 - TBC, Hobart, TAS
Jan 25 - Tivoli Brisbane, QLD
Jan 26 - Sydney Festival - Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Jan 30 - Laneway festival, Melbourne, VIC
Feb 1 - Laneway Festival, Auckland, NZ
Feb 11 - International Arts Festival, Perth, WA