productionhutchence

Slug Magazine Vol 7, Issue 9 no. 83, December 1995 - Pictures / Tribute / Audio Download

SLUG: The seminal Gang of Four released their new album SHRINKWRAPPED in September. This is the group's first recording since 1991's MALL. The Gang of Four has reappeared with the core songwriting duo lineup of guitarist Andy Gill and vocalist Jon King intact. Curve's Steve Monti pounded the skins, while Iggy Pop sideman Phil Butcher played bass. The eleven new songs see them return to the simple, driving bass lines and savage neo industrial guitar of their critically acclaimed early releases. I talked to Andy Gill over the phone while he took a break from writing. This time with Michael Hutchence of INXS wailing in the background...

Well, we're big fans and have loved the band since day one. Plus we always try and put a band that nobody else is putting on the cover. We try to do somebody that's cool.

AndyG: Well you got the right ones here.

SLUG: Tell me about how Gang of Four formed. Mostly it was you and Jon?

AndyG: Jon and I have been friends since we were 14 or something and we both went to art college together when we were 19 and that's where we started the band. He and I lived in the same house and we were just sitting around playing chess, drinking gin, and writing songs. You got a lot of time as an art student in this country. YOu have about 3 hours of things per week that you have to go to and beyond that it's all you own time. Which is probaly why so many bands have come out of the art education system in this country. And then at some point we started looking for other people to play drums and bass.

SLUG: You released ENTERTAINMENT in '79, obviously you didn't know at the time how big of a record ENTERTAINMENT was going to be? As far as influential albums go?

AG: I knew I was making something that was really good. I kind of said as much at the time to the other guys in the band and to friends. I got a fair amount of scorn heaped on me. But I knew it was something hot.

SLUG: When that record first came out, it seemed like some people were saying "This is really weird stuff" and everyone else was saying "Oh my god, this is just a great album". And then, years later you get voted number 41 in the top 100 albums of all time.

AG: Which book was that in?

SLUG: Virgin books number ENTERTAINMENT 41st of the 100 best LPs of all time.

AG: Virgin books?

SLUG: And then Rolling Stone magazine also, 100 best LPs of the '80s and I think it was number 64.

AG: Is Rolling Stone a book as well?

SLUG: It's more of a bathroom utensil really. I would probably stick it up there in the top 20 records of the '80s. It's a great record. Is it weird for you knowing that you influenced all these other bands and guitar players and song writers and basically made careers for all these people?

AG: Yeah, I know, fuck. God, cheques please.

SLUG: No shit, they should start sending you royalties.

AG: I know they should be really if they had any conscience. They don't. I'm writing with Michael Hutchence at the moment.

SLUG: What are you guys doing?

AG: Well, at the moment he's trying to tune the guitar, not very well. We're doing his solo album.

SLUG: You're playing guitar on his solo album?

AG: Well, we might do some of it together. It's really interesting cause I've always really loved his singing. I haven't always loved INXS but I've always loved his voice and his performance you know.

SLUG: I've got to agree with you on that one. But you could say that about many bands. Including U2 and REM which I think is kind of weird because I can see it from REM because they were your opening band for so long. But U2, he's on the other end of the spectrum of guitar players to you. He's the comercial wide open guitar player, and you're the original idea innovative guitar player.

AG: He did do a few things that were kind of in my style for awhile. And finally Bono says to me that we were the main influence on U2 in the early years you know. He's totally out front about that. He's probably going to be writing some sleeve notes for the third album.

SLUG: Well, that's nice of him to say, isn't it?

AG: Yeah, exactly. Especially as Flea was so rude about The Edge on the first album.

SLUG: Well, let's get into your guitar playing then. How exactly did you learn to play guitar like that? Why didn't you become an average guitar player?

AG: Because I've never had any interest in playing like other people and I can't. That thing of sitting around and working out how to play such and such a solo and all that stuff was never interesting at all. I never did it and it's too dull. Having said that there's certain things which I sort of learned and which have kind of affected me, for example Eric Satie, the French composer from the 19th century. He's this fantastic French composer, definitely my favourite classical music, and he wrote on the piano and I eventually learned to play one or two, I'm talking about much more recently, and things like learning some of that stuff has showed me a couple of things.

SLUG: There's no mistaking your guitar playing. So from an outside point of view it's hard to imagine how you came up with your style.

AG: I was basically obsessed with Hendrix in my early teenage years. I didn't really play anything else for about two or three years. I was thirteen, fourteen that was all I listened to. After that I found out that the blues guys and that used to love this stuff passionately and you kind of love its character and you identify with it. But all these things they belong to that time, to that place, to that person, to that situation. And I always feel slightly, you know the whole retro thing I find suspect. I can understand saying what's happening right now in music isn't satisfying, there's something wrong, there's something fraudulent about it. But the response to that is to create something new and do something which the other stuff isn't doing. Not to go back and rehash an earlier time.

SLUG: Anyone else you would quote as an influence?

AG: Well I suppose Muddy Waters, you know, just cause of the simplicity of it and the drama. The drama and simplicity of Muddy Waters was quite an influence. I've always wanted to make the guitar work, the guitar should be the narrative protagonist in a drama, in a play. It's like another character along with the voices, you know. And it should work in there with it and not just be playing over the top of it or just filling in chords. It should be like one of the lead voices. In essence not thinking of Gang of Four songs as being .. the best ones I think are like.. it's like a little play. There's maybe one or two voices, there's maybe a character, a narrator and the guitar. It's the way they work together which makes it fascinating to me. (Yelling in the background.)

SLUG: So what's Michael yelling about?

AG: Well we haven't got any words at the moment, it's just like oohs and ahs.

SLUG: How did you get to produce the Chili Peppers' first album?

AG: They just contacted me and said was I interested in doing it. And I went to see them live and I thought it was great and at that time they were like 3/4 punk rock and 1/4 of this funky stuff. And I just really, really encouraged them to do the funky element which is quite well documented that was a stressful effort to make. But we get along fine. I saw them the other day and Flea's a quite sensitive guy and for years he's been sort of trying to apologize to me for it having been a difficult time and them being assholes as he puts it.

SLUG: Tell me what's happening now, you doing this thing with Michael Hutchence. INXS is not finished are they?

AG: No they're not.

SLUG: So it's more of a solo project for him or is it a duo thing?

AG: Yeah, basically it is. There's a couple of Gang of Four people that might be playing on it. Gayle Ann Dorsey who played on MALL and is currently touring with Bowie. She's an American woman who plays bass and sings like a bird.

SLUG: So when you reformed to do SHRINKWRAPPED... you had no interest at all in reforming the original band right?

AG: No, no interest at all.

SLUG: So how do you feel about SHRINKWRAPPED? Do you like the record?

AG: Yeah, there's always that thing of when you start...once you've toured the record it changes, the songs change a bit. Somehow there's more drama to it now live than there is on the record, you know, a little bit.

SLUG: I think "Parade Myself" is probably one of the best songs.

AG: It think it's going to be the next single.

SLUG: So do you listen to ENTERTAINMENT? Is it hard to listen to?

AG: Rarely. The only time I ever hear it is when somebody else puts it on when I'm somewhere. I would never kind of put it on and listen to it you know. Jon and I listen to.. the last time we properly listened to it was when we remastered it for CD. That was interesting.

SLUG: Was it? Why?

AG: Well for one thing the tape had disintegrated. Some of the Ampex tapes from that particular time in the 70s are literally falling to pieces. It's oxidized and the shit is falling off and you have to put it in an oven for three days.

SLUG: Are you kidding me?

AG: No, no I'm not kidding you. This is totally straight up. I know it sounds stupid but it's true. You put it on a very low heat for three days and you literally bake it and then you can play it without the stuff falling off. And it's not just a regular oven, it's a special oven.

SLUG: So you had to do that before the remastering of the record.

AG: We tried to remaster it and the sound was changing every 30 seconds and we realised that the tape heads were getting clogged up with tape, literally. Well you want stuff out, don't you?

SLUG: Tell me some records you think are great records.

AG: There's too many. I think the Velvet Underground record.. (Michael shouting in the background) you know the INXS record KICK, that's the one I mean... Michael's shouting WELCOME TO WHEREVER YOU ARE.

SLUG: WELCOME TO WHEREVER YOU ARE.

AG: Yeah and let's think. You know, The Band, the brown record THE BAND and THE BIG PINK, those two and...

SLUG: What about new stuff? Anything new at all that you even think is remotely good?

AG: Yeah, I love the Black Grape record.

SLUG: Yeah, Black Grape's record's really good.

AG: Fucking great.

SLUG: What do you think about the British Pop invasion of the '90s like Blur and Verve and Oasis and all of those guys?

AG: Blur is a little bit too much in the Paul Weller camp for my liking and Oasis I enjoy quite a lot. They're pretty good.

SLUG: You hate answering these kind of questions, don't you.

AG: Yeah, I guess so

SLUG: Well we won't talk about those any more. When you guys did a little tour... Was that Michael singing again? Sounds like you guys are getting ready to do that project.

AG: It's just been fun. It's been kind of a laugh. Michael obviously is a full on pop star which is quite entertaining.

SLUG: So you get to walk around with him and girls run up to him and give him all the looks.

AG: Well you know he's this big, big thing in Britain because he's with Paula Yates now. Who was Bob...still is Bob Geldof's wife.

SLUG: Which is quite the big stink now I take it.

AG: That's right. The papers talk about nothing else.

SLUG: So none of the Boomtown Rats are going to play on this record.

AG: Well you never know.

SLUG: Bob Geldof and Michael Hutchence doing a little duet?

AG: No.

SLUG: You want to make a comment about all the bands that are now famous and do you think that Gang of Four will get their due now?

AG: Yeah, that sort of stuff is happening. It's kind of a question of when things are going to get to radio and stuff like that.

SLUG: At least you're not bitter.

AG: No, absolutely not.

SLUG: Well I imagine you're not begging for change on the street either?

AG: Things are cool.

SLUG: On, I know what else I wanted to ask you. You know that there's a writer for Q Magazine called Andy Gill. Is it you?

AG: No, you're thinking of someone else. That's not me. I don't agree with much of anything he writes either.

There you have it. There are many references to ENTERTAINMENT which is probably one of the best records and certainly one of the most influential to music of the '80s and '90s. If you don't know, ask. This is a very serious record. I would also highly suggest that you check out all of their records, but this is the most important.