|
Green:
|
Well, if it works then I'll have been very fortunate. But it did
provide me with, ah - cause the Hip Hop doesn't really have any -
deep sense in it. It's not a sensitive thing, it's drum machines,
loops, samples. You know, DJ Premier - My three favourite Hip Hop
producers would be DJ Premier, Pete Rock |
|
Jochen:
|
Pete Rock, of course! |
|
Green:
|
Have you heard the remixes I've had done? I have four remixes
done of the first single: Pete Rock, Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A
Tribe Called Quest, the Beatnuts and the Executioners. |
|
Jochen:
|
Is it out, now? |
|
Green:
|
Yeah, well, it's released in - it exists, and if we have some
with us you should take them. So it's really neat, cause they did
these remixes, they rang me up, you know, and I was talking to the
Beatnuts on the phone, or Pete Rock - I was terrified: 'Oh, my
good!' Cause they are heroes of mine. And we were talking about
how to do the remixes. |
|
Jochen:
|
Great. |
|
Green:
|
Like the Beatnuts, for they were the first one to do a remix,
and they send over to London two different VERsions. It was like
amazing: 'You could choose.' 'Are you serious, I got to choose?' |
|
Jochen:
|
[Laughter] |
|
Green:
|
And I said: 'They're fantastic, but then there's actually that
one problem: when my singing kicks in, they're out of tune. |
|
Jochen:
|
They're what? |
|
Green:
|
You know, they risk the track, they're on a different KEY. |
|
Jochen:
|
It doesn't fit well, or what? |
|
Green:
|
Exactly. So I said to the Beatnuts. They're like: 'Yo!' And I'm
like: 'Hi, this is Green calling.' 'Yo, yo, yo, what's up, yo,
what's up, what's up?' And I'm like: 'Well, it's fantastic, I
really love this idea. There's only one problem with it, and
that's - it's in the wrong key.' And he's like: 'What?' And I'm
like: 'Well, you know, it's in the wrong KEY.' He's like: 'What do
you MEAN?' And it's like: 'Well, it's out of tune for the rest of
the track.' And it's like: 'Oh, you know, sounds kind of dope to
me.' Anyway, so what happened was, to end it up, they said they'd
transfix it, as did Pete Rock. But, ahmm, they didn't. I guess
they're not used to dealing with melody, or whatever. So they got
these four remixes back in four different keys. So basically I
took the instrumental versions and RE-sang new kind of things
around what they had done. |
|
Jochen:
|
That's what happened, really? |
|
Green:
|
Ja, ja. So you should check for those. I personally think
they're great. But they're really straight out East Coast Hip Hop. |
|
Jochen:
|
Oh, fine. |
|
Green:
|
But both Hip Hop and this guitar stuff - no keyboard, none, you
know |
|
Jochen:
|
No. Nearly nothing reminds... |
|
Green:
|
Ja, and also no big attention to syncopation - as an end in
itself. I mean, it's not about like pretty ornamentation with 'dik-idikﾑbo-wop!'.
I thought maybe let's just keep the guitars, bass and drums, and
that would somehow unify these rather disparate ideas. You know
what I'm saying? Like the - from a poppy ballad to a Hip Hoppy
thing. If it was basically played by the same handful of people,
that would kind of maybe help to unify it. So that was the plan
anyway. |
|
Jochen:
|
Fine. For me, I think for me it's your voice which keeps all
together. |
|
Green:
|
Yeah, I didn't realise that. Only when David came up to London
and I said: 'I'm really worried about this. You know, how can we
make this work? This is like Hip Hop, and then I want to do this
very pop-white bread-reggae-complete-sugary confession of a thing. |
|
Jochen:
|
'Mystic Handyman'. |
|
Green:
|
Yeah,'Mystic Handyman' is like some really old school kind of
pop SHIT. And I said, 'How are we gonna make it work?' And he
said: 'Your voice!' He said: 'Don't worry about it, your voice
will tie it altogether.' And I stroll, 'Okay, if you say so.' |
|
Jochen:
|
Okay. |
|
Green:
|
So that's what we did. Yeah, it was fun to make. I mean, really
fun to make. |
|
Jochen:
|
And what about Mos' Def? |
|
Green:
|
Mos' Def. Well, he was just somebody who I'd heard and whose
voice I loved...And it's just that simply that business of, you
know: 'You know', I would say to David: 'I wanna work with this
guy, do you know anyone who might know him?' And he would say:
'No, I don't. But I have a friend... |
|
Jochen:
|
And maybe he knows. |
|
Green:
|
Maybe he knows someone who knows someone, exactly. So like -
It's very interesting, what was that - seven degrees of
separation? You know that thing, that game, that there were only
so many degrees of separation between somebody famous and
yourself? |
|
Jochen:
|
Ah, okay. And it's true. Seven degrees. |
|
Green:
|
I don't know if it's seven degrees. That seems to be the
maximum. |
|
Jochen:
|
[Laughter] Maybe five. |
|
Green:
|
Yeah, maybe five. A earnesty thing, that if you wanted to, ah,
probably if you wanted a - get on the phone to ...Barbara
Streisand, I reckon you could probably. |
|
Jochen:
|
No. |
|
Green:
|
You could, you could! You think of someone who would know
someone who... |
|
Jochen:
|
You could, you are a popstar. |
|
Green:
|
But maybe Barbara Streisand is a bad example. Anyway, that's
what you do. You just say, 'Either you come by the studio or I
send you a tape.' He came by the studio, and you have to play him
your stuff and you...He rolled in kind of posse deep, with his
friends, Brooklyn Crew. And I sat there really terrified, and you
hit play, cause I've done the track by that point. And you just
hope - what you hope for is the nod response. It's that sort of:
the heads in the room just start nodding to the beat. |
|
Jochen:
|
Aha, okay [laughter]. |
|
Green:
|
The nod factor it is called. If it's got the nod factor then
you'll know you're okay. So I sit at the back of the room just
waiting for the bobbing head. I got the bobbing head, so it had
the nod factor. And once it had the nod factor and...I think it's
important that you don't try to be down, you know, you don't front
or FAKE. You know, you don't pretend you're making, you don't
pretend you're anyone different from who you are and that will win
you some degree of respect. |
|
Jochen:
|
That's the point. |
|
Green:
|
Cause there are lots of people who are trying desperately to be
down. And I was not trying to be down. |
|
Jochen:
|
And you wrote the lyrics for the rappers as well, didn't you? |
|
Green:
|
Some of it, not all of it, no, no. Some of it I let them do. Mos'
Def for instance - I give him some ideas and then he would go out
and, ahhhm, walk around the streets of Manhattan - we were around
West 14th Street and he'd go walk around Greenwich Village. |
|
Jochen:
|
To think it over. |
|
Green:
|
And two hours later he'd come back and say: 'Okay.' And we put
the microphone in front of him and it just came out. He never
wrote it down. Never committed to a paper. And that was FUCKING
fantastic to watch. You know, this sort of... |
|
Jochen:
|
Was it difficult for you to write the lyrics? |
|
Green:
|
Some of it you feel pretty self-conscious about. It's not until
you got to know Lee or Me'Shell or Mos' Def for a little bit that
you feel like, you'd say, 'Well, could you try this.' You know.
And I felt very nervous and very self-conscious about, ahh... |
|
Jochen:
|
About how they will cope. |
|
Green:
|
Yeah, I mean, giving, putting other words, putting your own
words into somebody else's mouth. |
|
Jochen:
|
That's a difficult thing. Especially with your lyrics, I think. |
|
Green:
|
Yeah, yeah, but, you know, it worked, I think. Kind of. Well, I
didn't upset anybody anyway. |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes, it works. Fine. Maybe one last question. I've read a lot of
these older interviews with you and there you always talked of
this plan to write a book about the politics of pop. Is this
cancelled, is this project cancelled? |
|
Green:
|
Yes, this project is lost actually. This project is lost. I did
do a lot of writing. |
|
Jochen:
|
Lost in time, in history? |
|
Green:
|
Lost in space, I don't know where the manuscript is. I did do a
lot of writing about those things and then I kind of lost... |
|
Jochen:
|
It's not necessary anymore, maybe. |
|
Green:
|
No, I don't think so. I kind of lost interest in having to
account for making this. Recently I've got a bit more interested
in it again, but all my notes, you know, I don't know where they
are. |
|
Jochen:
|
They're really lost? |
|
Green:
|
Ja, ja, totally lost. So, you know. |
|
Jochen:
|
What a pitty! |
|
Green:
|
I don't think so. You know, it's like I have never... |
|
Jochen:
|
You will do the next album and you will be... |
|
Green:
|
Who knows? |
|
Jochen:
|
Happy, maybe. |
|
Green:
|
Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, that's not...I get asked to write
things quite often. You know, I get asked to collaborate on books
on pop music or... |
|
Jochen:
|
Really? |
|
Green:
|
Whatever. |
|
Jochen:
|
They want you as an intellectual to... |
|
Green:
|
I'm not an intellectual. |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes, but they want you as a popstar intellectual. |
|
Green:
|
Yes, somebody wants that, you know, but... |
|
Jochen:
|
Off course, that's interesting. |
|
Green:
|
I have this analogy of, you know: It's like - in football, there
is a premier league, there's the first division, the second
division, the third division, and then there are the guys that
just kick the ball around the park on sunday, you know, for fun.
And intellectually I'm in a sunday kick around league. Do you know
what I mean? I don't really, I'm just a... |
|
Jochen:
|
My colleague told me this story before, so I knew that you'd use
this metaphor. [Laughter] |
|
Green:
|
It came to me today. |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes, it's great. |
|
Green:
|
That's the metaphor that came to mind, and it feels like that,
you know. I don't want to pretend that I'm anything that I'm not.
You know, I'm not a great intellectual of any kind or whatsoever.
I'm just someone who plays around with it for fun. |
|
Jochen:
|
But did you publish something in that way during the Eighties? |
|
Green:
|
Sorry? |
|
Jochen:
|
Did you publish some... |
|
Green:
|
Writing? No, not really. |
|
Jochen:
|
So it's not possible for me to... |
|
Green:
|
Find any of it? No. I'd love to know where it is. Maybe in an
attic in one of the houses I lived in, you know, it might be in a
box. But I have no regrets about that. |
|
Jochen:
|
And do you have plans? |
|
Green:
|
Plans? Me and plans don't go together really. |
|
Jochen:
|
Not really. |
|
Green:
|
I'll just be happy to emerge from this in one piece, you know.
Because... |
|
Jochen:
|
To emerge from THIS? Doing this album? Or from... |
|
Green:
|
From everything that follows in the wake of doing... |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes. |
|
Green:
|
You know, at the end of the 'Provision' promotion thing, you
know, I ended up in hospital, I was totally... |
|
Jochen:
|
I know about this. |
|
Green:
|
Oh, you know I went to hospital? |
|
Jochen:
|
After the last promotion tour? Yes, I've read MA-NY things about
you. |
|
Green:
|
I didn't know anybody knew I went to hospital. |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes, really. |
|
Green:
|
So I won't repeat that. I'd like to just stay relatively healthy
and sane and, you know, hey, that's a lofty enough ambition. |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes, off course. Okay, the definitely last question. Why didn't
you ever record 'L is for Lover' yourself? Didn't you like the
song? |
|
Green:
|
No. |
|
Jochen:
|
No, okay. Because of the... |
|
Green:
|
Simple answer... |
|
Jochen:
|
Because of the lyrics? |
|
Green:
|
There was something wrong with it. |
|
Jochen:
|
But it fits well for Al Jarreau. |
|
Green:
|
Ah, yeah, yes. Whatever. You know, I don't really think about
that stuff, but I think there was something in essence I can't
remember what it was about that song that, as it was a bit NAFF -
to use the British colloquialism. |
|
Jochen:
|
Okay. |
|
Green:
|
Am I done? Can I relax? |
|
Jochen:
|
Yes! |
|
Green:
|
Right. |
|
Jochen:
|
Thank you. |
|
Green:
|
Thank YOU very much. |
