Website Interview with Martin Rossiter "2000"(Radio One)


What’s going on - are you rehearsing for your live shows?

Yeah we are. We always have to rehearse the keyboard player. I don’t want 
to look like Tori Amos - so I like to stand up and sweat, so I like to 
rehearse the keyboard player. It’s quite, quite wonderful actually. 

Is it easy when you get additional musicians in, do you find it easy to 
slot them in with the rest of the band?

If they’re good. There’s such an astonishing variety. We for a couple of 
years used a guy called Julian Wilson who’s now gone onto bigger and 
greater things - he’s now in a band called ‘Grand Drive’. After he left 
we auditioned 15 or 20 people and some of them could barely play! It was 
astonishing - I couldn’t believe the session agency - I mean bless them - 
it wasn’t really their fault, but the session agencies were sending them 
along. And then you get people like Mick Talbot who we’ve used a lot 
who’s by the far best musician in the room wherever he is and the guy 
we’re using at the minute - Marcus as well - he’s astonishing… he makes 
me feel really humble! 

That’s good though - to work with someone like that.

Oh it is. Obviously he’ll have to play in a sack, but that’s a small 
price to pay… 

So how long have you been rehearsing for your live shows?

Just this week. I can’t last any longer than that - I can’t take the pace 
anymore… my throat just disintegrates. 

I guess you can over do it…

Well, it’s not like proper work is it! It’s not like being down ‘t pit! 

Your press release says: "Gene sell out US shows, webcast live album, 
studio album or How Gene stuck two fingers up to the music industry and 
triumphed". So tell me a bit more about that.

They’re so exuberant these press officers! One whiff of success and 
they’re off, getting their quills out! 

It sounds like you’ve got something to prove now…

Oh well, to be honest it seems to have been the tag line to our whole 
career - constantly try to prove ourselves, which I think is healthy. 
We enjoy the challenge. In a way it’s very flattering for us - we parted 
company with Polydor in April ’99 - and to survive and to be functioning, 
and to say you don’t need to be Lolly to make a living out of this and 
to have a career. You don’t have to have thousands of pounds thrown at 
stylists and plastic surgeons to make you a success… 

Which of course you had before…

Oh tons! Honestly - we’ve run the whole gamete of plastic surgeons. 

So maybe briefly explain the circumstances that led to the split with 
Polydor.

Well, the first obvious thing is for them, we weren’t selling enough 
records. I think too, since the take-over with Universal records, we 
didn’t fit in with how they saw themselves as a record company. If 
‘Revelations’ had done 5 million copies then we’d probably still be there. 
But it didn’t, and they didn’t want us anymore. In a way they were quite 
good because it was becoming quite obvious to us and they let us leave, 
and we forced their hand and said "Look it’s becoming plainly obvious 
you’re going to drop us - if you’re going to do it, do it now, just let 
us go. I’d rather not waste 6 months in a violent marriage". 

I guess that’s quite empowering for you - something like that might 
scupper your confidence a bit…

It was very frightening. This is what I do for a living, and I’ve got 
two children to support, and the basics of life suddenly rear their head. 
Once we did it, once we said "look, we’re off". Suddenly there was, for 
a few months a period of great elation - within the four of us. It was 
like - Christ, we can do what the hell we want - we can go banghra if we 
want to! 

And are you going to…

No, but the point still stands… 

So you’ve set up your own label now, is it going to have a front end on 
the web or is it just like a traditional label as well, but you are 
selling your stuff over the web? 

Certainly - there are a lot of discussions to be done. We’re trying our 
best to be forward thinking. I am technologically illiterate . I’m the 
fool in the guides that are produced for fools - I am that man. I think 
we’re setting our stall out by the fact that we’re doing this webcast. 
We are as far as we can embracing the technology, as it does have 
something to offer. In a way it’s very exciting. The one thing that 
showed me the power of the internet was about a year, year and a half 
ago the whole war in the former Yugoslavia was kicking off again, and we 
got an email from a Serb who was a fan of the band. And it was a stunning 
piece of writing, in albeit poor English but it was emotionally huge. He 
was saying that he’d been forced into conscription into the army and that 
he didn’t want to fight but that he knew that if he’d refused, he’d be 
shot, and he was going to go to the front with Gene on his walkman. It 
was this astonishing shrinking of the world, for me anyway - I’ve got the 
letter at home and read it periodically. But it’s a valuable lesson for 
an egomaniac like myself to see something that’s a little more real life 
than just being in a band. 

I guess that’s what people say about the web - you’ve got much more 
closer contact with your fans than you have had previously.

Well, Steve has been brilliant. He’s online at home, and he goes to our 
website most days, and answers questions, and has little arguments with 
people, and spreads viscous rumours about various band members eating 
habits… and they might as well be next door with a baked bean can and a 
long piece of string. 

So, you’re recording this show on Friday in LA, and as well as webcasting 
it - are you going to release it as an album?

Yes, hopefully within 3 weeks of the show. 

Wow - that’s a real fast turnaround.

Yeah - that’s the idea. I mean this is the wonderful thing about suddenly 
being independent again - there’s nobody saying "You can’t do that" 
simply because it isn’t done, and you find that the rule book gets ripped 
up, and you write your own one, and it’s so refreshing to think there is 
no reason on earth, apart from what’s been considered the norm to not do 
things that way. There’s no reason why we can’t do a gig and have it 
available within 3 weeks of doing it. So it is fresh, and it is exciting. 
I can paraphrase a John Lennon quote - he always said he wanted to 
release the record the next day but was never able to, and that’s what 
we’ll be able to be doing. 

A lot of artists kind of seem bored with the record when its released 
because they’ve spent so much time just thinking about it, and doing 
pre-promotion to it after having recorded it months ago. Of course, and 
inevitably when a record comes out, you’re half way through the next one 
and you have to have other songs in your head. We’re no different from 
any other band - we always like our most recent records - the last song’s 
always the best. I wouldn’t have it any other way - it’s a part of the 
charm. And so this is going to make a hell of a lot of difference to our 
feelings about the record as much as anything else. 

To get it out there so quickly?

Yeah, and just to think "My god we did this show and in the same month I 
can listen to it in the bath". 

And I guess doing it yourself is going to be more proud of as well.

Yeah - I mean the fact is major labels are not signing bands. There’s 
studios around the world going bust because bands are starting not to 
exist. Bands who stand in a room and play, and I don’t mean that in any 
prosaic, luddite, "ooh isn’t it wonderful, isn’t Lenny Kravitz great 
‘cos he’s a real musician" - I’ve got nothing against doing it in your 
bedroom in a way that is akin to punk I think it is very healthy. But the 
point I’m making is there’s no variety anymore, and you are ending up 
with a situation where a group like us has to go down this path to exist. 
I’m quite surprised how fruitful it is turning out to be - it’s all very 
exciting I must admit. 

In terms of fruitful - the music you’ve been writing, how inspired you’ve 
been?

Creatively, and the fact there is less red tape - there are fewer 
obstacles in the way 

But as your webcasting, aren’t you worried that it’s going to get 
bootlegged before you get the chance to put the album out?

No. Not at all. It really doesn’t bother me at all. It’s only home taping 
hi-tech. I always hated the home taping is killing music, because it was 
nonsense. Home taping - I always used to make people tapes and that always 
made me tapes, and if you loved the song, you would buy the record. I see 
this as the same - people love to buy records and they still do, and if 
they like us enough then yes, maybe they will bootleg us and then maybe 
they’ll buy it for the quality and the artwork. I ‘m not au fait with 
people’ rhyme and reason for buying records, but they do. Bootleggers I 
don’t really mind. 

Are you not on the side of those people saying "the internet is going to 
change the music industry and there will be no more record companies in 
the future".

Let’s hope it does! Absolutely - it needed a kick up the arse, to be 
honest. 

Do you think the high street retailer is always going to be there?

I don’t know, but it doesn’t scare me that I don’t know. 

You are releasing this album and putting it in the shops?

Yeah - you can walk into an ‘Our Price’ and buy it. 

Is it a limited edition release?

Yes it is - as far as I can remember it’s going to be 40,000, although 
that could change. 

So, I guess you’ll make a much higher cut from this record - so and is 
it true that you’ll be using this to fund your next album?

It’ll certainly contribute towards it. I get paid in massage oil - always 
have - never received a penny! And apples. 

You did an acoustic set for Lamacq which we’re going to put up on the 
site, but I gather this session has been bootlegged quite a bit over the 
net.

So I gather - I know "Somewhere in the World" is being played on a couple 
of stations in California somewhere, internet radio stations. I know 
"Back for Good" has been taken and syndicated to over 200 radio stations 
in America - great! I mean at least people are hearing the records. 

The rights issue on the web right now is a nightmare and it’s such a 
shame, as it stops the whole thing from growing…

Yeah - it’ll sort itself out legally, given time, but I don’t think we 
can be bothered to quibble over what is essentially - yeah we’re not being 
paid, but it’s free advertising. 

But if someone bootlegged your new album and distributed it over the net, 
which they probably will anyway, does that bother you?

I don’t know. I really don’t know how much impact on exactly what we do, 
in terms of how many records we sell… but I can’t imagine it would have 
that much to be honest. People like the record - people like to have 
something tangible to hold. 

It’s like the old vinyl debate…

Indeed, and I think the principles still apply. Yes - I might change my 
opinion if the album got bootlegged, and then we sold 7 copies - 
"Oh, maybe I was wrong", but my instincts are - so be it. I got back to 
home taping - I’ve got a thousand albums on tape, by people, and if I 
like the album enough, I’ve always gone out and bought it. If I didn’t 
I’d never listened to it anyway. I don’t think personally, I ever 
decreased anyone’s sales by having a record on cassette that someone had 
done for me. 

I think finally the industry are realising that with the net it’s the 
same - people are still buying records.

Yes, and long may it continue - it’s a hi-tech Robin Hood, and I always 
liked Robin Hood. 

Going back to the acoustic session - how come you chose to do 
‘Back For Good’?

Well, Steve wanted something old, something new, something borrowed, and 
it’s a sweet little song, isn’t it? It suits us I think. I think we did 
it quite well, and it was a song we all knew and could cover quite 
quickly! I remember thinking ‘Oh god, we’ve got a cover to do - what 
should we do?’ and Steve said "Should we do ‘Back For Good" and we all 
went "Oh all right then". And we played it, and it worked - it had a 
certain charm. I don’t think it’s become a mainstay of Gene’s live set 
by any means. We’ve always done that with covers - we’ve done Queen 
songs once, we did "Say A Little Prayer" the Burt Baccarach and 
Al David song, and try an make them our own - sometimes we win and 
sometimes we lose. And I think we won with the Barlow. 

And so did 200 radio stations in the States - I mean it’s really good…

He’ll probably being suing them now though - that’s the great irony. 

Are you going to be playing any covers in your live shows then?

No. 

So what can we expect?

You get asked that a hell of a lot, and it’s the one question I don’t 
know how to answer. I really don’t mean to appear flippant, but I’ve 
never seen us. We’re a rock and roll band, and we’re a f*****g good rock 
and roll band, but I don’t think there are going to be any pyrotechnics 
to excite the Pink Floyd fans. 

In terms of the tracks you’re going to be playing…

We’re sticking some new ones in, and we’ve dragged a couple of elderly 
songs that haven’t been played, and we’ve reworked them - it’ll be an 
excellent Gene show. 

So the new songs - are you going to put them on the new album as well 
then?

A couple of them I think, yeah. Inevitably, the tracklisting isn’t sorted 
until we hear the tapes, and we’re mixing it over here as soon as we get 
back, and we’ll make decisions from there, because if something’s 
wonderful and it wasn’t going to be initially on there then we’ll stick 
it on. 

How many new songs have you written, cos presumably, you’ve been in the 
studio for a bit.

18 I think. We’ve demoed all of them. They’re all in existence in one 
form or another. They’re mutating and morphing into other things as time 
goes by which is part of the process… but there’s something for every 
member of the family! 

Do you find it easy to talk about your songs and describing your songs?

Not particularly. I mean music is notoriously difficult to talk about cos 
the terms of reference are so vague, and I could start talking about U 
minor augmented sevenths, but people would switch off. There’s a bleakness 
with this set of songs. There’s a certain rhythmical thread also. There’s 
a certain lyrical thread in the sense, unintentional one at that, but 
there seems to be a lot of references to holidays… he says as being as 
cryptic as he can! We’ve been able to try a couple of things that we 
perhaps wouldn’t have tried before as well. In the sense that we’re older 
and wiser and a little less intimidated by the industry. The first single 
won’t necessarily be happy jump along pop single that a major record label 
might have wanted you to do. 

Are you still hoping for chart success in the future?

Well.. the emphasis has changed. You can fall into that world too easily 
of… we’re terrible… we worry too much. We get into a situation that 
whenever a single came out we’d be betting each other what number it 
would midweek at and getting horribly anal about the whole process. You 
fall into that trap, and to be honest, we’re guilty of it for a while, 
and they’ve learnt their lesson from it as well in that if bands didn’t 
go top 10 they were a failure irrespective of the quality of the record. 
I think it probably reached it’s nadir at the Oasis verus Blur thing in 
’97 or whenever it was. So the emphasis has changed - I don’t think we’re 
going to lose sleep if a single goes in at 53, if the album’s selling. 

The band Ooberman said on their website that they were dropped from their 
label because they weren’t playlisted by Radio 1 - is it that important 
do you think - for getting your record played on air?

Not for us anymore, but it used to be, yes. The whole emphasis - marketing 
budgets would be slashed - our last single on Polydor "Fill her up" - they 
cut the marketing budget by 400% because it didn’t get A-listed. 

I find that quite frightening…

It’s very frightening - the eggs all in one basket, and so much emphasis 
is put on singles - in a way it’s very unmusical. I’m no longer naive and 
nothing shocks me anymore. It is the horrible place everyone tells me it 
was! I looked at it with rose tinted spectacles and tried to find the good 
in it, but there’s very little to find. 

Leaving Polydor and doing your own thing now, is there a re-newed energy? 
Has the band felt really excited again about playing?

Of course. 

Did you ever think of packing it in because of the whole split with 
Polydor?

If the opportunity hadn’t arisen to make records, then just by sheer 
mathematics of grocery bills we’d have had to gone on and done something 
else that would have made it very hard to continue. But I love this band 
dearly. It’s my favourite band! 

Did you consider other careers at the time of leaving Polydor?

No, I think I could safely say for all of us we were fairly determined. 
Of course you worry and there are time when you are in bed at night, and 
you think "Oh Christ what if the means don’t appear to make records 
anymore - what the hell are we going to do" - but you don’t dare think 
about it. I can’t imagine myself going back to being a security guard. 

How long has it been since you played in the States?

Three years. It’s far too long because Los Angeles has always been very 
kind to us, as a city - we’ve done very well there. We sell more there 
than we do in a lot of big cities in Britain. 

Why do you think the States have taken so well to Gene?

Well Blink 182 and Mariah Carey and Britney Spears aren’t losing any 
sleep over us, don’t get me wrong, but I think partly because we never 
pretended to be American, and because I’ve slept with half the population 
of California as well, which is always a bonus… 

I guess the kind of music you’re doing and the kind of band that you 
are - you just don’t get that in the States. In terms of American bands, 
who would you see as your peers?

It’s difficult to say without sounding arrogant, but REM have some heart 
and I think we have heart. 

Would you like to be together as long as REM have been together and 
continue doing this?

Yeah - I mean, I’d stop tomorrow if ever I thought we were existing 
purely on a nostalgic basis. I don’t want people to come along who want 
to see the Gene review - you know "Singalong a Britpop", or something - 
that would kill me. 

Do you have a good radar though to sense how you are outwardly perceived?

I’ve had the Mick Jagger alarm fitted. 

What would be the warning signs? People requesting all your old songs?

Yeah - you see it with so many bands - you have an audience that show 
willing interest, and then suddenly leap up in the air when the hit comes 
on. I’d like to think that we’re still fairly vital at the moment. The 
moment I don’t think we’re contributing anymore I will return to looking 
after a factory in the middle of the night. 

Are you nervous about these shows in the States?

No. 

Do you get stage fright?

No. 

Have you ever had it?

No. Steve does, bless him - poor lad, I feel so sorry for him, ‘cos he 
gets these mad, mad adrenaline rushes. We were having a drink after 
rehearsal last night, and he has to go and throw up after just the 
thought of playing in America. I never get nervous. 

Presumably, Steve, when he goes on stage just loses all of that…

Oh yeah, of course. Leaves a trail of bile behind him, but yeah, he loses 
it completely… 

Before you go, you’re playing at the Scala tomorrow night. This is a 
charity show - how come you decided to do the show - is it a warm up to 
the ones in the States?

Yeah it is obviously that, and also we were asked and you get asked to do 
a lot of things and you can’t do them all, and some pluck the heartstrings 
louder than others and the ones that reach a certain decibel level you do.
We’ve not done many charity things, and could get into a discussion on 
the merits and de-merits of them but it seems worthwhile. 

After this live album, when ideally would you like to put out some live 
stuff?

This year, ideally. I’m sceptical as to whether we will. 

Have you got a plan of when you go back into the studio and start 
recording?

Yes, but plans in the music industry have so many ifs and buts, it’s 
horrible. There’s the boring mechanics of booking studio time and that 
coinciding with a producer that you want to work with being available, 
and then somebody will fall ill… then a plague of locusts will land on 
the desk and… 

Have you earmarked a particular producer?

We have a few in mind. I won’t name names, and tempt fate. 


www.lewisslade.com/genemusic