source
excellentonline.com
dated
february 2000
part 2 of 2
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what's your take on the demise
of creation? was it time to put a lame horse to pasture?
it was an emotional day the day it was announced that
they were folding. i loved creation records. i don't
think that we would have been allowed to do what we
did on any other label, and though i know that alan
mcgee cared nothing for our music, i am proud to have
played a part in the company. creation records to me
is primal scream, jesus and mary chain, the house of
love, biff bang pow, sfa, ed ball, oasis, etc. great
times, great friends, love, love, love.
apart from the friend factor, what
led you to wichita versus signing to a major? does chosing
the 'road less travelled' lead to more creative output?
t here was never any question of me going to a major
label. it would have been creation or with somebody
involved with creation. having the chance to make records
with my best friend and with dick green who was our
biggest supporter and friend from when we joined the
label is great. i couldn't work with a major label.
i 'm not a product. i don't have a desperate need to
be famous like other bands i could mention, so there
are no advantages to my being on a major. record companies
are intrusive, meddlesome, and condescending by definition.
wichita will be no different, but at least i know they
are doing it out of love.
what's your take on the current
'music scene'. it seems that right now if you're not
named britney or korn, there's little place for you.
are great bands being ignored by the charts? and is
that necessarily a bad thing?
i find the fact that you think there is only britney
and korn bewildering. what about pole and mapstation
and sizzla and dead prez and kid 606 and anti pop consortium
and the bands on wichita, bright eyes and her space
holiday? what about teebone and queens of the stone
age and sfa and gorkys?
if you get your musical information and education from
mtv and top 40 radio, then you'll miss out on so much
- all you will hear is what major record companies want
you to hear. that's why shite like muse and coldplay
and robbie williams and travis are so popular. they
get pushed down our throats because they are safe and
bland and sound a bit like other guaranteed moneymakers
(usually radiohead). they belong in that cold, antiseptic,
sterile world where mtv is king. look at the mercury
music awards over here. something like "exterminator"
could never win an award like that, an award that celebrates
mediocrity and blatant tokenism. i would be offended
to be even nominated for a piece of shit award like
that. i don't need some dickheads with musical degrees
telling me that i 'm good, and anyone who does must
have a serious confidence problem.
music isn't about awards and charts - it's about self-expression
and liberation about defiance and individuality (and
not the individuality that is used to sell us almost
everything on the tv these days). it's about soul and
vision. fuck the charts, i 've been in the charts and
it changes nothing. music has been around for thousands
of years, forever. music charts have been here for 60/70
years. they are just an excuse for record companies
to twitch the corpse, to sell and re-sell, re-make,
re-model, the same crap over and over again.
you've been a very active captain
in terms of the internet. how do you think fansites
and internet communities affect the fanbase of artists?
what's been its most direct impact on you?
i think the most direct influence on me was being able
to keep in touch with people. after the boos split,
my confidence was very low, and it seemed like there
was nobody who had ever liked us, it really did feel
like that. but by being able to see the fans who still
wrote the websites, their support and encouragement
gave me the stimuli to carry on.
i think it's incredibly exciting. i love working on
my website and that's just going to get better and better.
i have met some inspiring people through the 'net and
discovered some incredible things. i guess it depends
what you do with it.
i have an inquisitive mind, so it's perfect for me.
some people like to just download porn all day, which
is cool, too, if that's where you are at - it's just
a waste, i guess.
what - and not just music, but
perhaps life in general - inspires martin carr?
i think books are still my greatest inspiration. my
dad taught me to read before i started school and i
have never stopped. i read mainly biogs and factual
books and stuff like jung and the i ching - lots of
stuff i don't claim to fully understand but read to
keep the old mind ticking over. i am very lazy and i
think if i didn't read i would rapidly vegetate. fante,
hunter s thompson, meltzer, books on the panthers, che
guevara, descartes, auster, brautigan, "kaddish"
by ginsberg, i love that. 'the hollow men' by ts eliot.
that was one of the things i hated about school. we
just read crap, and when we did read something good,
such as steinbeck or 'to kill a mockingbird', they were
treated more like tales, rather than dwelling on the
historical social implications and how they were still
relevant today. i read to learn, i don't want to read
any "high fidelity" crap.
politics inspires me, or rather disgusts me. the fact
that it is the year 2000 and we still cannot feed or
clothe all the people in the world even though we have
more than enough resources for everyone to live peacefully
and happily...that racism still thrives (and on some
levels is encouraged) in the form of economic warfare...that
laws are passed to illegalise any attempt by schools
to educate kids on homosexuality, thinking, in their
manifest ignorance, that a person can be somehow made
homosexual, that it is not something as natural and
as beautiful as heterosexuality - this is open fascism.
bill hicks has probably inspired my way of thinking
more than any other human, the teachings of lao tzu
and jesus, whether you believe in these people or not
(and i don't most of the time) is irrelevant. anyone
who preaches love and tolerance and is against greed
and war is cool by me. oh, and people who swear a lot,
those cunts are fucking great!
in 1993 - 'i'm only 23, my hair
is thin, my size is large, what have i done to me?'.
in 1995 - 'i'm 25, and don't recall a time i felt this
alive'. in 1999 - 'now i 'm scared of death for the
first time, all my friends say i look better but my
health is gone'. in 2000...?
wow! i sound like a miserable fucker, don't i ? i do
have really bad days but don't question them any more.
it's the way i am and i cannot change that. there are
black shapes at my shoulder, but i have a good life
and a beautiful wife, so i wouldn't insult you by complaining
about anything. i 'm 31 now and have a certain contentment.
i never totally relax, and tend to feel caged if i don't
get out or go away for a while, but songs and words
float in on the breeze and i am truly grateful.
is there hope for humanity?
no.
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