Real Hollywood online chat

March 3, 1998

The following text is the transcript of Gavin and Maurice’s on line chat on March 3, 1998 at Realhollywood.com.
RH: Coming to you live from Universal Studios – it’s The Backlot Cafe. It’s Tuesday, March 3 and you’re chatting live at Real Hollywood – the place you need to be. My name is Jeremy Berg (aka Mingo Jones) and I’ll be your moderator for the evening.
RH: Tonight we’re happy to have composers Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer chatting with us. Before we begin, I want to take the time to introduce The Backlot CafÈ crew and explain to you how to participate in tonight’s moderated chat.
RH: As always, your Backlot CafÈ crew consists of the following stellar individuals: Jennifer Koziol (aka The April Fool), Steve Leff (aka StevieSpawn), Jeff Pakosta (aka Shaq Diesel) and Troy Rutter (aka Fingers MacKenzie). To put it simply….these guys (and gal) jam!”
RH: OK chatters, listen up!!! Here are some instructions on asking questions during tonight’s live chat: If you’d like to ask a question, there is a question mark icon on the menu bar you can click on, or just type /ask space and then type in your question. If you’re using the Java client, click Ask Question (it’s located in the bottom right section of the screen).”
RH: And for all of you Excite users out there – Thanks for joining us!!! If you’re using Excite’s VP chat, ask a question by clicking on the “Something to Say?” button on the lower right corner of the stage.”
RH: All right folks, let’s move onto the big event. This evening we’re privileged to have Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer with us!!! Even if you haven’t seen The Boxer yet, the original score stands up all by itself. Composed by Gavin Friday (Romeo & Juliet, Mission Impossible, Basquiat) and Maurice Seezer, the haunting melodies as played by the Irish Film Orchestra and featured performances by Choir of Christ Church (Dublin) will remind you that “love is always worth fighting for.”
RH: Gavin and Maurice first collaborated on Friday’s 1990 Brecht/Weill-influenced album “Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves” and 1992 “Adam ‘N’ Eve.” The two then wrote one track for Robert Altman’s film Short Cuts as well as compiled the soundtrack and wrote 3 original songs for Jim Sheridan’s In The Name Of The Father, and released the highly acclaimed album “Shag Tobacco.”
RH: All right chatters, let’s get to it!! Ladies and gentleman…….it’s chat time!!! Without any further ado, please welcome Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer to the Backlot Cafe!!!”
RH: Hey guys, how are ya doing?
MS: (to Gavin: ok… pick it up, pick it up) We’re here, just hold on a sec
RH: No problem
MS: OK, we’re ready
RH: Cool, so first off good morning, I know it’s 2 am where you guys are. Thanks for
staying up with us.
GF: all right
RH: Have you guys chatted on the Internet before?
GF: I did once, eh, at Polygram in New York, eh… I think I just abused people for half an hour, I don’t know.
RH: So it wasn’t really fun?
GF: Eh… yeah… no.. it was, I just eh… you know we talk really straightforward and sometimes that doesn’t work. The nuances of everyday language doesn’t really work in Internet speak… you know, but we’re not shy, so fire away
RH: Ok cool, so now we’re not shy so let’s go straight for the questions.
The first question comes from FreakShowFreddie: Can you please describe for us non musical chatters the process the composers go through while composing a score for a feature film?
GF: Who’s this from? Freakshow?
RH: FreakShowFreddie. … that’s Gavin talking right now, right?
GF: yeh yeh yeh… Gavin. The process… *sigh* I don’t know. I mean, you could write an essay, you could write an album about it. I don’t think it’s a process. Basically, it’s about blood, sweat and tears. It’s about getting in there, and being part of it at the same time as… I think the question is a bit vague… ‘what’s the process…’
MS: I think basically what you do is, you have… our limited experience or whatever… basically it’s trial and error. You make a lot more errors than you make positive steps but when you make a positive step, you know that it is. And it’s a case of making a step and then listening to the response of the people that are in the environment as well. Having your own set up….
the director or whatever else. You learn over time just to start trusting your initial instincts on things. And sometimes they’re right and sometimes it’s completely off the mark, but you learn from when it’s wrong as well.
RH: I think another part of the question was that they wanna know as you guys are musicians, how do you sit down and begin composing? Do you watch the film, read the script, visit the set, you know?
GF: I think the big thing, the big advantage that we had was that we were working with Jim Sheridan, the director who is from the same part of Dublin with us, northside Dublin and we have a great rapport with him. I think we can actually get inside his head, we understand his language. The first thing we did was when we started work on The Boxer is we watched rushes that were like 30/40 minutes long. But the main thing is that we just talked with Jim, we hung out with him and we tried to get inside his head… and then we sort of lived with it and jam against it, improvise against it. And then Jim would call in and he’d say ‘yeh that’s great’ or ‘no’ I don’t see this, see that..’ It’s like a sort of a learning process basically us trying to get inside the head of the director and then feed off the vibe of the film.
MS: Funny how it works, sometimes what Jim would be looking for or what we would think we’d be looking for on any one area would prove not necessarily to be the right idea once you actually see it in relation to the pictures on the screen. It’s very important that you have that time to develop two or three different ideas for each scene so that eventually you understand what it is that is actually required. Sometimes what might not work against one scene works very well against something that you wouldn’t have thought it would work against. And that’s pretty well how it happened with Jim on this one.
GF: It’s a very sort of a … he’d have ideas… his first idea was that all the boxing fights – there’s three fights in the movie should be really rhythmic. So we spent a lot of time working on very aggressive and groovy rhythm for the boxing matches and then we put them up against the movie with the director and he hated it. He just said it dominates the actual action so they were all thrown out. And the minute we saw our music against the film in a real context, we agreed, you know?
MS: And there’s another very important thing as well, which was something we had developed for what we thought in retrospect might have been quite obvious against some of the love scenes within the film. Jim, immediately his response was, no that should not be for use against the love scenes but it should be used against the boxing training scenes. Which threw our heads completely.
So that’s just the way it gets to interact between director and musicians if you like. What he saw working against the boxing we saw initially working against the love scenes.
GF: It’s a weird thing…. I put it down to the analogy of that like the director of the movie is like the singer of the song, and we were the musicians.
RH: That’s a good analogy. I think that sums up the question perfectly. Let’s go with another one. This one comes from VonB: ‘An important theme in Jim Sheridan’s work is the father/son relationship. How do you relate to that Gavin, you haven’t tackled that subject in your own work.’
GF: (mumbles) Yeh, cuz I hate my father.
RH: erm… you want us to type that?
GF: (louder) I *hate* my father. .. No.. I actually love my father but I hate him.
MS: It’s complicated.
GF: It’s very complicated. The big problem is Jim Sheridan hated his father too. But Jim Sheridan’s 10 years older than me, so… It’s a complicated Irish syndrome. Miss Von B will understand…
RH: OK.. let’s go with another question…
GF: Ask her how’s her tits.
RH: (embarrassed) heh heh
GF: ha ha… serious!
RH: okaay… go ahead… type it…
(all around hilarity)
RH: This one comes from Instantcoco: Do you guys see yourself scoring big movies like Danny Elfman does these days?
GF: Yeh, but even bigger and better. Danny Elfman is great, it’s just he rips off Bernard Herman too much.
RH: Who does he rip off?
GF: Heh… ha ha… no.. er… it’s
MS: I actually love Danny Elfman’s work. This is Maurice talking. What
he did with a lot of the Tim Burton stuff is brilliant. The…(?).. is an amazing thing. I’m very happy to see that he got two nominations for Oscars this year. If there’s justice in the world it is the fact that he should get those nominations. Fair play to him.
GF: I think the best thing about Danny Elfman is that he encaptured the world of Tim Burton so much. My favourite thing he’s done is the soundtrack he’s done for Edward Scissorshands, that’s brilliant. I think, the most interesting thing about the score is the relationship with the director and Elfman and Burton are classic.
MS: Apparently there is a porn remake of Edward Scissorhands called Edward Penishands. And they used Danny Elfman’s music for that as well, I think he’s very proud of that.
RG: Really?
GF: Seriously, check it out.
RH: The next question is from Pallavi. ‘What edge will your new album take.
What do you want to say to the world.’ Are you guys working on an album together now, or?
GF: Yeh, yeh… we’re getting into the early stages of one… what do we wanna say to the world? Oh God… she’d have to… he or she would have to talk to us in 6 months time.
MS: I think ‘relax’.
RH: Are you tackling any themes with this new album?
GF: It’s too… I mean… we’re about to have intercourse. It’s that early, you know what I mean? We’ll tell you in a couple of months when we have a scan.
RH: A what??
GF: A scan. You know after you have intercourse, and they say you’re pregnant… and then you have a scan to see what the baby’s like? Tell her… tell her we’re about to have intercourse so we’ll talk to the person in a few months.
MS: We’ll be scanning in about two months.
GF: We don’t know if it is a boy, girl or bisexual.
RH: Bisexual or trisexual?
GF: Trisexual.
RH: Ok, let’s go with the next question. ‘Gavin, I’ve heard you’ve done some painting in the past. Do you still paint?
GF: I haven’t painted in a while…
MS: Thank God. (laughs)
GF: I paint… I plan to actually paint very soon. I do paint. I paint basically for my own self.
GF: Picasso, El Greco.. all those classical painters that everyone hates.
RH: Have you seen the work of a Mexican painter called Manuelo Campo?
GF: No.
RH: He’s a Los Angeles native but it’s pretty cool stuff. Another question: This one comes fro SenorRufus. ‘If you could perform with anyone living or dead, who would it be?
GF: If I could perform… we’ll treat that separate… Gavin will answer first. (Maurice giggles in the background) I’d like to take to the stage with probably Oscar Wilde. I’d see could I outtalk him. I’d Probably lose. So yeh, I’d like to perform with Oscar Wilde… or eh…. no, Oscar Wilde, yeah. Maurice with who would you like to perform?
MS: Good question. Eh,… someone that blew my head about 10 years ago, Astor Piazolla, I saw him in New York.
RH: Who? Astro…?
MS: Astor Piazolla. He’s an Argentinian, bandoneon player. And he blew my head ten year ago. Astor Piazolla, or Tom Waits, he’s living. He is a pianoplayer as well, so I doubt I’ll ever have that opportunity.
RH: Sixpacksally: ‘Does Dublin play a big influence on your music style?
GF: Yeh, I think so. I don’t think in our music style. In our idiom, inspiration. Sometimes in the lyrics. Musically… not as much so. But eh.. yeh, Dublin is very important. But eh… let’s say eh… I mean, I’m very much a Dublinese man and so is Maurice, but … yeh, it does, but not in the obvious ‘fuck off I’m Irish’ way.
MS: I think what’s very important about Dublin is that the charts here don’t necessarily reflect what’s going on worldwide. So, I think what you sort of vaguely get influenced by or picked up on, whether it is sort of European or Irish, I think it’s all very subliminal here, I think there’s definitely things that you pick up on but they tend to be things over the last like 50 to 100 years in the culture of Ireland. And if you actually try to define it, it’s not very easily spoken about or whatever but I think it definitely is an influence and I think it’s an influence mostly because it’s not such a strong influence
worldwide. I think the English charts are very influential and English music is very influential as is American music and other aspects of European music but Irish music is only really beginning to make an impact on the world music stage. So I don’t think traditionally… we’re not influenced by traditional music but it sort of creeps in there very slightly.
GF: Yeh but… Dublin is like… we’re near the end of the century and to writers…. Beckett and Joyce, so many Dublin writers that are gonna be in the top 10 of the world, and they are all from Dublin, I think… Dublin… I mean, Dublin is probably one of the most incredible cities in the world, you gotta come here.
MS: It’s a very exciting place right now. Very interesting what’s happening here.
GF: We’re cooler than LA.
RH: From Bulldozer: ‘What does it take for you to say yes to a project, what elements would you look for in a story?
GF: First of all, I’ve got to believe it. It’s got to move me. It’s almost like if you hear a song on the radio and you go ‘Jesus, where did that come from?’ Or if you pick up a book or you see a picture, it’s just gotta connect or move you.
MS: We both just saw recently a song on MTV – what’s that song, Gav? Pulp?
GF: ehh.. ‘This is Hardcore.’
MS: This is hardcore, by Pulp. It’s just one of those moments where you actually look at a video and hear a song and suddenly it completely connects with you. And you think ‘this is fucking brilliant’. And that’s what happened to us when we, before the last project we did something for an Australian director called Michael Rymer. It was a film called Angel Baby, and we had seen a number of videos by different people, but when we saw this film it immediately just connected with us and we had to get involved and he wanted us to get involved which was great because it was a two way thing. So… it’s very difficult to put in words but it’s just a connection that you suddenly feel. Yes, and the reason I said the Pulp thing is because that song and that video… that’s gonna be a classic.
RH: I haven’t seen that. The MTV that you guys see is somewhat different from ours.
MS: Do you even know who Pulp is?
RH: Oh I know. C’mon man, I’m from LA. I know who Pulp is I’m dying to see that. When is that coming out?
GF: I think it’s out next week or so. You probably get it next month.
… is fucked up, it’s all Dateline and it’s like Blinddate, Oprah Rock…
RH: From Guggi: ‘ Now that all the big bands got reunited and make world tours will we see a reunion of the Virgin Prunes?
GF: It will never happen. (vehemently) Never!
RH: No desire to?
GF: The Virgin Prunes were incredible but they were never hoors. Whores. We say hoors. You say whores. W.h.o.r.e.s. The Virgin Prunes are dead and I’m not a necrophiliac.
RH: Ha ha. Type that. Allright let’s go with another question. From Storm: ‘What was it like working with Sinead O Connor?’
GF: Eh.. Sinead O Connor for me is one of the most amazing female vocalists. Ever. To me she is sort of like a celtic Edith Piaf. What was it like working with her… I mean, it was incredible. To be realistic it was like working with a cross between Bambi and Darth Vader.
RH: Oh my…
GF: The biggest problem we had was that no matter what she did or said she’d look at you with those eyes and you just say ‘it’s okay’. You know what I’m saying? It’s a male problem.
RH: You kinda take whatever she dished out.
GF: Sinead O Connor is one of the greatest living singers. She’s our Edith Piaf. What was it like working with her…? Amazing!
RH: Let’s go with the next one, the next question. From Greta P. ‘What do you think makes a good singer: charisma or technical ability?
GF: Charisma.
MS: Absolutely. I’d go along with that yeah. Technical ability is sort of a rock that a singer will stand on. With miss Celine Dion or such things. I mean I think if you can do all of those things, and you have to do it every song… big problem. A great singer can communicate in one moment.
RH: Next question comes from JohnShadeVick: ‘I think there’s room for the revival of the musical in film. Have you guys talked about working on one?
GF: We’ve talked about many things. Writing a musical or for stage. We’ve talked about writing a musical with Jim Sheridan, for stage. It’s a very … The last great musical has been Cabaret. Which is 25 years ago.
MS: Also the Little Shop of Horrors, that was pretty good, wasn’t it.
GF: No, I don’t think so. Erm.. I don’t know, I think we have to be very big and fat and mean to fucking go to Hollywood and write a musical. I think if we
were ever to write a musical, Hollywood wouldn’t want it.
MS: Musicals are probably one of the hardest things to write, because in fairness, I mean, who breaks into song at any given opportunity, I mean it’s one of the hardest things to do and be completely natural. I really liked New York New York. Liza Minelli. Just because it all seemed so natural. It seemed
that it just worked within itself but there’s very very few of those… Liza Minelli has been in both of those, actually.
GF: Cabaret is probably the best, where you can actually watch the movie and you don’t go ‘hooooooo I want to go to the toileeeeet’.
MS: The difference is that they don’t just break into song in ridiculous situations.
RH: Hhat about Milos Forman’s Hair?
GF: Hair? Hair’s a fuckin mental film.
MS: I never saw Hair.
GF: Hair is like ‘HELLOO I’m a christian, but I’ve loooong haiiir’. Hair is like… are you a Glen Close fan?
RH: For a film, I think it worked.
MS: I sort of liked, in fairness, the Little Shop of Horrors. Simply because it took the piss out of the whole medium. Like they broke into song at the most ridiculour opportunities. I think there’s good Hollywood musicals but it’s one of the most difficult areas to work within. To do it right and to do it naturally, it’s very very serious. We’d think ten times before we’d go into it.
GF: Twenty times. But we would maybe do a musical on Broadway.
MS: That’s even twenty times more difficult.
RH: Let’s go with the next question. From Zillah: Are you planning on making some more videos for your next album, as you did for Shag.
GF: We only made two videos for Shag Tobacco. I mean…
MS: If someone is foolish enough to sponsor videos for our next album, then of course we’ll make videos.
GF: I think videos are like, to me videos are simple things… in the 70’s and 80’s, early 80’s they used to have album covers and to me videos are like extensions of the album cover. It’s just gloss. The most important thing is the music.
MS: What blows my head about videos is that you make an album which costs an x amount of money and then you make a video and it costs the same, if not more. It’s unbelievable, what a video costs. Having said that, there is nothing better
than watching a good video with a good tune.
GF: All the Shag Tobacco videos cost more than the album.
MS: (laughs)
GF: FACT!
RH: Let’s go on to another question. The next question comes from Tupelo… ehmm… yeah they were talking about the Butcher Boy earlier. “Give us a quick description of the Butcher Boy”. Are you guys working on that?
GF: No, no, we just know the writer, and we’ve seen the movie and we’re from Ireland.
RH: What’s the movie like… I’m really looking forward to seeing it.
GF: Well the movie is… interesting… do you know the book?
RH: Yeah.
GF: Well, it’s not as dark as the book. But the most astounding thing about the movie is the child… the kid that plays the part of Francie Brady is *un*believable. I’ve never seen an actor… never mind a kid hold the screen for an hour and a half, he deserves 10 Oscars. But eh…
MS: We’re very familiar with The Butcher Boy here. It was originally
done on the Dublin stage as a play by Pat McCabe called “Frank Pig says hello”
and I think it sort of entered into the conciousness a bit here. I haven’t actually seen the movie yet, I hope to see it soon. But knowing the book and knowing the play and knowing Neil Jordan I’m sure it’s going to be brilliant. We’ve talked with Pat McCabe at length ….
GF: (puts on country accent) What would you be doing with a movie like The Butcher Boy over there in America?
RH: I don’t know how it’s going to play over here.
GF: I think the big thing that might fuck it up over there is the idioms with the language. In fact it’s like ‘There ye are now, you’re in L.A. and I’m here now in Dublin, what ye think o’ that now?’ It’s that sort of idiom, you know what I mean?
MS: Very very dark.
RH: It was hard just to read. If its a lot like the book its going to be very hard for people.
GF: It’s actually a bit easier than the book. The kid is one of the most astounding performances I’ve ever seen in my life. Do you know a movie called the Tin Drum?
RH: yes.
GF: He’s ..?.. than the kid in that. It’s dementia beyond. It’s Blue Velvet meets Darby McGill.
MS: There’s a woman here in the Irish media called Nell McCafferty and I think she put it very well, she said it was like… it’s something in our past that we want to forget but we want to be proud of at the same time.
(long silence)
RH: Allright let’s..
GF: Listen, Troy is it fair old fucking hard, you know, typing there?
Say hello to Troy.
RH: Let’s go with the next question. Alison2: ‘Are you planning a tour and if so are there any places that you’d really like to perform at’?
GF: Ehhh… no!
(laughter)
GF: We have toured our fucking arse… since 1989 we have toured and the story is this, and I’ll put it public: we won’t tour for fucking anyone until they declare that Gavin and Maurice are God!
(laughter)
GF: So fuck off and die everywhere.
MS: Where would we really like to tour though?
GF: And we have stopped playing live….
MS: Can I just say one thing at this stage: ‘Fair play Holland and fair play French Canada.’
RH: That’s where you’d like to play? Fairplay?
GF: “Fair play” which means, “you are fucking great”. No seriously, we have stopped playing live and we will not play live until the red carpet rolls out. I’m serious!
RH: All right.
MS: The Olympia in Dublin, in fairness…
GF: Oh, Maurice….
(laughter)
MS: But we won’t got any further than that.
RH: This one comes from JohnShadeVick again. What is the greatest film score in your opinion, besides yours, of course. 😉
GF: I recently got out Taxi Driver by eh… a Scorcese movie.. Bernard Hermann. Bernard Hermann is a genius. Anything Bernard Hermann did is genius. Nina Rota is a genius. Every Fellini movie…
MS: The score to Fargo, I watched it last week. I can’t remember the composers name. The score was absolutely beautiful. It worked so well, it was just two straight themes but he worked it so well within the film. He’s a good composer.
GF: Yeah and another… and this is gonna sound like a rock clichÈ but I actually think Ry Cooder is quite brilliant.
MS: There’s an english composer called …?… he’s probably most well known for having composed the theme to a BBC series called The World at War, but he’s done a lot of great work as well. There’s too many to mention…
RH: What do you think of Riuychi Sakamoto?
MS: He’s cool.
GF: What he did with Last Emperor and stuff like that with David Byrne is great. He’s quite brilliant.
MS: I bought that score recently, but I haven’t listened to it yet. The film was ok, but he score was great.
GF: (puts on heavy accent) ‘He’s allrigh’ fer an aul’ Jap’.
(laughter)
MS: We won’t mention Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.
RH: Next question. Guggi: ‘What music, bands are you guys listening to these days?’
(silence)
RH: Who are some of your favourites?
GF: What’s your favourites…?
MS: You like Air, don’t you?
GF: I’ve been listening to a cd by a french band called Air.
MS: I fucking hate them.
GF: Maurice hates them. But away from that… we’ve both become Kate Bush fans again.
MS: Kate Bush is god.
RH: Did you get that new big boxed set?
GF: No. We have all the records, we don’t NEED a boxed set!
MS: With Kate Bush, when ya hear the last song on the Red Shoes album… and it’s like eh… what was it she says? …. you’re the one I want. All I want to do is say to whoever it is that she is singing to… just… go back with her,
for fuck’s sake. Put her out of her misery. Please… Kate Bush is brilliant.
GF: A thing I’ve listened to a lot is Ben Webster.
RH: Who’s that?
GF: A jazz saxo… saxopho…nist. He played the saxophone. He does a great version of Danny Boy. It’s an old Irish song now. Irish can even be jazz, believe it or not.
MS: While we’re on that sort of smooth jazz trip, there’s another guy that needs to be mentioned which is Eddie Lockjaw Davis with Red Garland… that’s the business. We’re both jazzers at heart…
GF: And then Billie Holiday and Nina Simone… and all that… the truth is: fuck contemporary music, it’s not as interesting.
MS: I think there is a lot of interesting stuff around now in fairness.
GF: Like??
MS: I was sort of intrigued by that latest Pulp single. I’m actually really into Radiohead as well. They’re a great band. One of my favourite bands is Massive. Who else… (to Gavin) go on you’re better at this.
GF: Well I’ve been listening to eh… Maria Callas and all that fucking operatic shite…
MS: She’s genius.
GF: So.. we go from Maria Callas, to Radiohead, to…
…?…
MS: Check out the soundtrack to Medea, by Pasolini, absolutely mental soundtrack.
GF: Have we fucked up?
RH: We got it all.
GF: Can you say ‘fuck’ on the Internet?’
RH: Yeah, you can. We don’t have any FBC regulations just yet.
MS: You don’t have to go, f blank blank k?
GF: So… every word we’re saying…
RH: When you type it we have a filter so…
GF: Is Troy on speed?
(laughter)
RH: Let’s go with the next question. Crystal99: ‘Gavin and Maurice are God! Tour now! Come to Canada.’
GF: Where’s she from? Where’s she from in Canada? I’ll tell you something about Canada, right? Montreal is one of the coolest innovative cities. It was gorgeous…
MS: Not just because we played a brilliant gig in Montreal, not *just* because.
GF: No, but Canada is like Europe…. America is great but… well Quebec is cooler.
MS: French Canada…
GF: Imagine Europe and America in one. Isn’t that cool?
RH: Let’s go with another question, we’ve got a bunch more. Tupelo: ‘How realistic a picture does the Boxer paint in your opinion?’
GF: I think that the great thing that The Boxer does is, and I think the reason why it hasn’t been as succesful is that the picture is too real, as in the guys and the girl in the picture are real people and real life is quite intense and boring and quite like… heavy. To me, The Boxer… yeh, I believe when I see these people going through… real life drama is actually eh… intense.
MS: People have actually criticised The Boxer from the point of view that the first hour is too slow. And I have to say, the first time we saw the roughs of The Boxer that was the thing that actually attracted us to it… the fact that you were never sure what it was… what it was that connected these two people together. How it was that their relationship got to this point. I don’t know. I don’t fully understand it but I think it is down to how, what it is that you actually feel entertained by in a movie. If you are looking for hard action or the being ticked off at every opportunity then The Boxer won’t necessarily do it for you, but it’s a very very intriguing film. I think it’s very realistic in the way it’s portrayed.
GF: I think it’s very real and I think the thing is at the end of the movie the say they’re going home. There’s no big happy ever after, you don’t know what the fuck is gonna happen and that’s life. And the most beautiful thing is Emily Watson, she’s an amazing actress. She comes in with jeans and sort of no styled
hair and you go ok, she’s plain. And over an hour you start finding her really sexy. And that’s what real people are like, they wear t-shirts and jeans. So I think it’s a very realistic interpretation of what’s going on up there with the people.
RH: Let’s go to the next question. From Popstar: ‘Hey guys, are you ready for the fun when your soundtrack beats Titanic?’
GF: I don’t think it will beat… wha… basically am I ready to fuckin’ share the stage with Celine Dion? Who asked that question?
RH: Popstar.
GF: Who?
RH: Popstar.
GF: Tell ’em to get the O in the middle of the P’s and burst his own bubble. That’s my answer.
RH: Hmmm. I can’t believe that Titanic soundtrack selling like 500,000 a week.
GF: The Titanic soundtrack is like… Enya on steroids.
(laughter)
MS: I think we sort of… I mean Enya is… is all right in fairness .
GF: (in the background) it’s hooorible
MS: Enya is all right, but when you do sub Enya… I mean yer man that wrote the Titanic soundtrack is capable of far better
GF: It’s fucking crap!
MS: He’s ..?.. as they say, but he could have done a lot better than that. It’s the film that has sold that soundtrack. Personally I think that it is a load of shite.
GF: You know, we have a secret here. Celine Dion is not from Montreal. She’s from Mars. She’s a fucking alien. She’s a freak. A fucking alien.
MS: I call her E.T. We’ll never work with Celine Dion, thank you.
GF: Shot there on the tip of Barbra Streisands nose.
RH: Do you think in the existence of extraterrestrial life forms or do you think it’s all a government plot?
GF: I believe in Ce.. Celine Dion. I believe…
MS: The X-files are a load of shite though.
RH: Really? You’re not an X Files fan?
GF: Nooo
MS: Yeah, I’m constantly disappointed by the X files.
RH: Are you guys up to date in Ireland are you guys on the same season as we are?
MS: The most recent version of the Xfiles is that it’s all an American goverment conspiracy. In fairness, they take to much and they end up giving too little.
RH: All right, let’s go to the next one. From Reno: ‘Can you tell me more about the new album? Will it become like a Shag Tobacco part II ?
GF: No, it won’t be Shag Tobacco part II.
MS: A bit of a history man.
GF: I don’t know what it will be. I mean, if you asked me this question when we were making Shag Tobacco… .. tell ’em: ‘NO’.
(laughter)
GF: No.
MS: What do they expect… ya know?
RH: We’re just gonna go through a few more and then we are gonna let you go. This ones from Sophie: ‘What was it that gave you the idea to put actual quotes into the songs on The Boxer, how did you choose them?’
GF: oh.. ehh.. Two things… first of all it was down to sort of the drama and the vibe. If you wanna really know… we had a day to put that together. We had to go through clearances, legally, etc. etc. But ultimately it was down to the impact, I mean it was just like the theatrical impact.
MS: I guess it was inspired if you like by trying to recreate a sense of what the movie was actually about. Because that’s what a soundtrack is. A representation of the music that was used in the film and there had to be a reference to the film within the soundtrack. Some of the greatest soundtracks that have ever been released on cd always have a reference to the film in some capacity. Bladerunner… that would have probably been an influence on why we decided to use…
GF:… which is one of the greatest soundtracks of all time.
MS: Paris, Texas would have had elements of the actual film in the soundtrack. I think that’s the greatest thing you can do in a soundtrack, refer to what it is that you wrote the music for. I mean, there was one great scene that never made it into the film which we would have liked to use, but it never made it in. That’s what actually inspired us, was how our music worked beneath the dialogue and so we had to use the dialogue within the soundtrack.
RH: Let’s go to another question, this one’s from Instantcoco: Can you describe the magic that happens when recording an album in the studio? Do you create the little nuances that happen on every album or do you just let them happen?’
GF: I think it’s a bit of both. I think we go in with ideas… I think at the end of the day we’re quite spontaneous. I think our biggest at the end of the day, we’re never too pressured. If magic happens, hopefully we know it happens.. I have this cliched sentence that everything is a planned accident. We know exactly what we’re doing but we haven’t got a clue.
MS: What tends to happen is that you drive yourself up to the point of insanity when you are at your most vulnerable and then you create something out of desperation. And that becomes what your song is hinged on. It’s very important.”
RH: I think we’re gonna go with one final question. From Rapture42: ‘If you could be anyone, who would you want to be or describe the type of person you’d like to be.
GF: I just want to be ME. This person has never been a punk. Where’s Rapture41 from?
RH: I don’t know you can’t really tell.
GF: Tell em, ehh… I want to be and Maurice wants to be he.
MS: eeeehhhhh
GF: Oh, who do you want to be, Maurice?
MS: The only interesting point about that question is understanding people in the past who you never had to chance to, who are now dead, how they might have actually worked. If I was to be anybody, I would like to actually see how Kurt Weill thinks.
GF: I’d really really like to be Gavin Friday.
MS: I’m not sure I’d like to actually be Kurt Weill but I’d just like to know a little bit more about him.
GF: I’ll say that again: I want to be ME. I want to be Gavin Friday.
RH: We got it all in there Gavin: I wanna be me. I wanna be me. I wanna be me. I wanna be Gavin Friday.
MS: But then he goes and says ‘I’m not me’. Work that one out.
GF: Would you do me a big favour?
RH: Yeah.
GF: Would you put on line Caroline Von B?
RH: Huh?
GF: This is the person that ehh.. I think it was the second or third question.
RH: Yeah, VonB.
GF: Von B.
RH: Yeah, VonB.
GF: Just say, ehh… ‘how’s yer tits?’
(maurice laughs)
GF: No, actually… just say Gavin and Maurice say…’How’s yer tits?’
RH: (to typist) How’s your tits…
GF: Yeah, t.i.t.s.
(maurice dies laughing)
RH: (to typist) do t.i.t.z.
RH: all right guys, thank you so much, thanks a lot for staying up.
GF: You’re gentlemen… thank you.
RH: this was a good one, thanks a lot.
MS: OK
RH: Oh you know what, hang on a sec, we’re gonna go out with a song from the album, do you guys wanna make a recommendation?
GF: Yeh, Everything’s gonna be allright.
MS: It certainly is.
RH: OK I’ll play that. Thanks a lot guys.