Newspaper Page Text
October 16, 1991
Page 18 . > Flagpole Magazine
Creating a commotion
A few weeks ago Lloyd Cole called
Flagpole to talk about his new album, Don't
Get Weird On Me, Babe; his upcoming tour;
being on his own; and the great brush he
bought the last time he was in Athens.
Flagpole: This is your second album
without the Commotions. How do
you feel about being on your own.
Lloyd Cole: It's alright. I mean, there's
good things and bad things about it. The
good thing about it is my life can be organ
ized exactly how I want it organized, you
know, to as great an extent as that’s pos
sible if you're in "Show Business." I don't
really have to worry about the right kind of
career decisions that the rest of the band
might think we should have to do, or I don't
have to worry about freaking out one week
and ...if I fuck up it's only me that suffers. It’s
not that you ever do it, it's just knowledge
that you can do it that makes it feel sort of
slightly oppressive being in a band. And
the longer it goes on the more it feels like
some kind of weight, which is kind of unfor
tunate. On the other hand, if I have a cool
idea for a song in the middle of the night, I
can't just call the guys up and say “hey, let's
work it out tomorrow." I've got to work things
out in a fairly methodical fashion at home
with a guitar and a computer. Which is.. you
know, it's okay but there is that element of
spontaneity with a band that sometimes
can be great, and I try when I make the
records to try and do that by just not letting
the other guys hear the songs until shortly
before they’re going to play ’em, so that we
can then rehearse them live. I had to be
come kind of a techno bore to be able to
learn how to do all these things.
FP: Where did you come up with the title,
Don't Get Weird On Me, Babe?
Cole: It’s what Raymond Carver used to
say to his girlfriend shortly before he died.
He'd had a pretty difficult life, in terms of the
way he abused himself with alcohol. He
finally cleaned up and became very famous
and was able to become a full time writer
and then he found out he had a terminal
iliness so...(chuckles). I think he said in one
of his poems.. he alluded to the fact that the
last years of his life were kind of like gravy,
that you’re entitled to the meat and pota
toes, but the gravy’s just extra.
FP: How does that relate to the album?
Cole: It’s just kind of a phrase that I just
thought could sorta’ just tie my songs to
gether in a way and I like it because it’s
kinda' ubiquitous, I mean, only you guys are
going to know the Raymond Carver story for
the most part.
FP: The press release you wrote said you
record a lot of stuff
in Capitol's L A stu
dio, where Frank
Sinatra used to rec
ord with Nelson
Riddle How was
that experience 9
Cole: Well, in terms
of timing, there’s no
body whose close,
maybe Nina Si
mone. But, you
know, to be able to
be so cool and be
hind the beat and
yet there at the same
time is a very, very
difficult thing to do.
To listen to him
smg...it’sencourag-
mg, because...he's
plowed a lot of the
time, but it doesn’t
matter. And it was
not so much inspiring because of him, but
the actual process of recording forty five
guys all playing at the one time .n a big room
was kinda neat, for want of a better way of
saying it, and the people themselves, the
musicians, they're not what you'd expect
classical musicians to be like, these guys. I
mean they were your typical guys who do
film soundtracks. It's kind of rare, these
days, for them to get an opportunity to do
anything like this, so maybe they appreci
ated it.
FP: The second side of the album is obvi
ously not your basic pop/rock and roll. In
fact it seems to owe a bit to people like
Frank How did these songs come about?
Cole: Actually, the songs that we were
working on at that time, Blair (Cowan) and
myself, they just seemed to dictate that I
couldn't just play them on an acoustic guitar
like I usually do. Normally Blair would write
the tune with synthesizers or samplers, and
then I would pull it apart and restructure it
with guitars... this just wasn't possible on
these songs, it seemed like it would be a
travesty to do such a thing because I liked
the way they sounded in the first place. So
instead of using
synthesizers I just
thought it would be,
uh, fun to try and use
an orchestra.
FP: So how will
those songs be
worked out live 7
Cole: “Half of Eve
rything" and
"Margo's Waltz" are
both impossible to
play live unless you
have an orchestra.
We’re going to do
"Butterfly" definitely
and "The Bossa-
nova" and "The Bal-
ladoftheAnt". We're
going to simplify
some of the parts
and the band will
play along with a se
quencer playing
some of the orchestral parts.
FP: Would you ever like to do a show with
a full orchestra 7
Cole: Oh, it'd be so cool, I'd love to do that.
Given my "status" worldwide, it's not really
practical right now. I'd have to charge people
an awful lot of money to see the show. I
know what these guys cost, having paid
them on this last record it's a fortune. So it
would have to be one-off concerts around
the world.
FP: The Tour begins in October?
Cole: It starts in Europe in October, comes
to North America at the end of November,
through 'til Christmas
FP: Do your tour plans include Athens?
Cole: No. We’ll be in Atlanta, but we’re not
going to get to Athens. The actual tour
schedule is pretty short this time. Major
cities only, for the most part. The shorter I
keep the tour, the greater the chances are
of me continuing to have fun, and continu
ing to play well. But I had a cool time when
I was in Athens. I was here only once back
in '85,1 think. We played the place with the
dressing room upstairs, the sorta famous
place...what was it called....the something
o'clock club?
FP: The 40 Watt?
Cole: Yeah, the 40 Watt Club, that was the
place...and I brought a really cool brush
(laughs). I remember that. I've sort of al
ways wished I could get back, I remember
the main street, and kinda walking in the
direction from where our hotel was, there
was like a little side street and then another
street parallel to the main street that had a
bunch of small shops. There was a very
cool record store and right near there was
this pharmacy that had very cool nail
brushes. I've never seen this nail brush
anywhere else. So maybe I'll try to get
around there soon. Did you read this book
that’s just come out about Athens, I forget
what it's called...
FP: Party Out of Bounds 7
Cole: Yeah, that’s it. My friend Matthew
Sweet was telling me the other night how he
was made out to be some sort of monster in
it.
FP: Well I haven't read it, and I probably
won't.
Cole: I guess it's good not to get caught up
in the “believing your own myth" syndrome
I've got Neil (Clark) from the Commotions
playing guitar again.. We're not going to get
into this, "Here’s my new album, I'm promot
ing it" bullshit, we're just gonna piay what
ever songs we feel like, from whatever period
we fee! like, so I think it'll be a fun show. I feel
closer to Cole Porter than to R E M. these
days. That’s kinda the way I’ve been feeling
recently, I've been getting further away
from feeling like I’m any part of the rock
business as you get older, the whole com
petition shit gets old
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