ST_OCTOBER_18

MBR: What motivated you to record your new album? It’s your
first album of original rock-oriented material in almost two
decades.
RW: I had written a narrative and quite few songs for something I
envisioned as a play for radio. It was a long complex story about
an old Irish bloke whose grandchild has a nightmare about children
being killed “over there.” [Waters last year wrote an editorial for the
Huffington Post about the slaughter of youngsters in Syria, Nigeria
and Gaza.] The grandfather promises the child that they will go on a
quest to find out who and why they are killing children.
I eventually recorded a demo of much of the material and played it
for lots of people, including Nigel Godrich who mixed my last project,
Roger Waters: The Wall [a documentary of Waters’ 2010–13 tour
re-imagining Pink Floyd’s The Wall]. He was really interested in it,
but persuaded me that the concept was not a record, and asked
whether I would consider approaching it another way. He was,
“Well, I like these two bits!” [laughs]. Those bits eventually became
two of the tracks on the album, “Déjà Vu” and “Broken Bones.” In
the end, we completely jettisoned the original plot and edited the
music down to something more manageable.
MBR: Did he feel the original idea was not universal enough?
RW: Yeah, partly. I think that’s fair to say. All throughout the project
he was always steering me away from being too politically specific.
MBR: What made Nigel a good partner for you to work with?
RW: He works hard, is very focused and is good at what he does.
He is also stubborn, which can be a good thing. So, we negotiated
through this project, mostly with me rolling over. [laughs]
He is also a fan. He grew up on Dark Side of the Moon, and loved
all those voices and sound effects, and how those things moved
and worked. That’s a magical kingdom for him, and something he
urged me to do again. Part of the album is an homage to that and
the history of where I come from.
MBR: I wondered whether those “found sounds” were part of
your personal aesthetic, or something for listeners who might
desire that kind of continuity from your earlier work.
RW: It is what I do! When we recorded Dark Side, I had the idea
to add those voices as commentary, and I really liked the impact it
made on the music and I still do. I have done it on all the records I
have made. I would not dream of not doing it.
MBR: Your concert has explicit political overtones. At one
point you refer to the president as a “nincompoop,” but what
does that say about the people who elected him?
RW: It could say two things. It shows Donald Trump duped a certain
section of the working class by pretending he cared about them,
when it’s obvious he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. Or,
it shows that—as in any society—there are people who are so
damaged, they think they are better than other people. In the United
States, they are called “white supremacists,” in other countries
they might be called “extremists” of one kind or another. These are
people whose inferiority complex is so deeply ingrained that it can
manifest in anger and violence. But, more often, it comes out as a
trumpeting of their extreme worth, and their belief that they are a
master race.
That idea will always strike a chord with some people in society,
unless at some point in some Utopian future, we can raise our
children in a way they do not turn into those assholes, which is quite
possible. We all know lovely people who are not like that, and we
all know people who are like that. But I feel sorry for those kinds of
extremists, because they must be damaged in some way, and it
must be miserable to live with those beliefs. It is certainly easy to fall
prey to people who tell you that you are special and encourage you
to kick the shit out of someone else. That’s one of Trump’s tactics.
MBR: Do you think he’s laughing at those people?
RW: I do not think so. I believe he is sincere and really enjoys
playing the game of being in charge. He is boss and you are fired!
I don’t think he is tongue-in-cheek. I think he believes he is a real
person and is fulfilling a real function.
MBR: Do you think musicians are obligated to speak out?
RW: I don’t think musicians have any special obligation. We speak
with whatever voice we have. It depends on your perspective. From
where I stand, I want to hear what Neil Young has to say, but I am
not very interested in what Ted Nugent has to say! [laughs]
But everybody has their voice and we are all entitled to our opinions,
and freedom of speech is very important. The First Amendment is
very precious to this republic and all the people that live in it. Unlike
the Second Amendment, which is a disaster, especially when
people buy semi-automatic weapons and go to schools and kill
children with them.
MBR: Is it difficult to write about politics effectively without
being overly preachy?
RW: That’s a good question, but it’s up to the audience to decide
whether you succeed or don’t. People will have different opinions
about that. But I can’t restrict myself to only writing boy-meets-girl
love songs. I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t express what’s in my
heart, like when I hear about a child being blown to bits on a beach.
I try not to sound preachy, but I feel it’s perfectly legitimate to use my
music to question why we are killing children with F-16s and bombs
made in Oregon. Why are we doing that? It’s the central question
of the album—is this the life we really want? Do we want to live in a
state of perpetual war? That needs to be discussed… then we can
talk about guitar strings or whatever. [laughs]
MBR: You admire both Bob Dylan and John Lennon, two guys
who were able to be both political and popular. What made
them effective?
RW: Dylan denies ever being political, which is f****** ridiculous.
What makes him great is his ability to talk about the reality of
society in such a subtle way. For example, just take one line
from “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” like “the pump don’t work
’cause the vandals took the handle.” First, it brings a smile to your
face immediately, but secondly, I think it says a lot about what
happens when we do not cooperate with one another. It asks what
responsibility does the individual have to society?
Dylan would probably say that wasn’t anywhere in his mind, but it’s
inherent in the writing of that sentence. It brings up a whole series
of questions on how human beings relate to one another in social
terms—or it does to me! It’s just brilliant. He always creates a sense
of wonder in me. How does someone pick up a legal pad and write
something like that? How does he open his mind up in such a way
to let those words flow out? He has the uncanny ability to help us
see something we know is there, but can’t quite identify. That’s what
makes him a great artist. The same with Lennon.
MBR: Regarding John Lennon, it’s pretty ballsy to write
something as simple as “all you need is love” or “give peace a
chance” and make it work.
RW: Lennon made those ideas resonate because of his ability to
harness them to those incredible melodies. The meter and phrasing
in “All You Need Is Love” is so sophisticated, yet feels so simple and
effortless. That’s how you get away with “all you need is love.”
It’s interesting, because the Beatles were into Maharishi and
transcendental meditation during that period in the late Sixties.
I wasn’t…I was a little suspicious of what I thought was “mystical
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INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH
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