Primal Scream - Interview with Primal Scream - Music - http://maxpages.com/chartmusic/Primal

PRIMAL SCREAM IN AMERICA

Six months into a gruelling world tour, after visits to Australia, Japan, Europe and now America, I finally caught-up with Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie in Chicago.

Having released what by many is consider the album of 2000 in 'XTRMNTR', Bobby told us what had driven the band onto the sonic highs reached on their greatest album.

We were also treated to a swear-feat of epic proportions as he endeavoured to explain the visceral inspiration for 'XTRMNTR', while also getting the low-down on the collapse of both Creation Records and Oasis

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE US AND THE US MUSIC SCENE?
'I've always liked to come here. I've always liked American music and movies. I like it here. I like the people. It's a good place to come.'

WHAT'S THE REACTION BEEN LIKE FOR THE BAND?

'Well this time, things have been pretty great, pretty fantastic. People seem to be getting the music at last, which is cool. When we came her ten years go, we might have been a little ahead of our time. The grunge thing was happening and we came, mixing rock and roll with psychedelia and acid house, which is like an easy way of putting it.

'We were doing our own thing and I don't think people were ready for us. It was too new. Maybe now the time is right. I don't now. All I know is that the gigs are all sold-out. We sold out the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, and razed the place, f***ing destroyed it, which was great.'

WHAT ABOUT THE US MUSIC SCENE, BANDS LIKE SLIPKNOT, LIMP BIZKIT AND BRITNEY?
'My favourite rock and roll band on the planet are Royal Trux. I also always look out for Will Oldham. As far as those other people you mentioned, I don't know anything about them and I'm not really f***ing interested, you know. Not my kind of thing.'

DO YOU THINK THAT MANY OF THE AMERICANS ARE AWARE OF THE FACT THAT MUCH OF WHAT YOU'RE RALLYING AGAINST (ON 'XTRMNTR') IS AMERICAN?
'It's not against the US. You've got to give us more credit than that. We're writing about British culture. Maybe 'Swastika Eyes' is anti-American, but it's self-explanatory. It's about militiarism.

'The Israeli army have got 'Swastika Eyes'. It could be about anybody. The f***ing Russians in Chechnya. Any f***ing cop, f***ing soldier, f***ing general, f***ers in the pentagon, f***ers in whitehall, any f***ing fascist f*** pig shit that want to f*** people over, f***in' expolit people.

'The song has got nothing to do with nationality, it's about a state of mind. A way of looking at things. You know, we're socialists. I just thought it was a great title for a song. Great image.

'The rest of the record, I was sick of seeing these images of NATO bombers taking off from England and bombing the shit out of Serbia, or UN bombers or British bombers or US bombers bombing Iraq, after knowing full well that Britain and America financed Saddam Hussein. Put him in power. The US and the UK, he was their guy in that part of the world. You were getting cheap oil from him.

'George Bush got a hell of a lot of money out of Saddam Hussein and the US financed the ten year war against Iran. I know that full well. He's a dictator but he's American and Britain's man, and you have that 10 year medical and fuel embargo in place against Iraq and so has the UK, and over a million people, including many women and children have died as a result of that. They never put him in power. MI5 did and the CIA did. I'm aware of this shit.

'But our records about British culture. They're city songs, written by a person living in a de-industrialised city, how hard it is to live there and all the shit that's gonna hot yer. It's not a pastoral record, it's more concrete and steel and hard and druggy and paranoid and violent and that's the environment we were brought up in and live in. It's kinda claustrophobic and hard, but that's what the record is about.

'I think the record has been misunderstood. Its been called a political record, which I think is because we've got something to say and we say it quite clearly. We're not scared to voice our opinions. Most people in music don't have any opinion. They don't say anything at all. They've got nothing to say.'

THE WORLD TOUR HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR SIX MONTHS. HOW'S IT BEEN?
'Right now it's good fun. For the first six weeks it was great fun and then, for me personally, it got quite tough. I think we did too many gigs in too short a time. But that's the way it goes. Some of the concerts have been so fantastic, really euphoric and purifying and cleansing. It's hard to explain. It's great to be playing this high-energy music and it means so much to us and it's great that others are getting off on it.

WHERE DID THE UNCOMPROMISING ENERGY AND ANGER COME FROM FOR 'XTRMNTR'?
'We've always had these feelings. We've always been anti-authoritarian and left-wing. We've always been kinda punks. We've always questioned things, especially ourselves. It's been there all our lives, it's how we grew up. That's what it stems from. It's not a sudden thing. I think maybe in recent years we've become better songwriters, maybe more able express ourselves more clearly.

NOEL GALLAGHER SAYS THAT ALTHOUGH HE LOVES 'XTRMNTR', HE FINDS IT STRANGE THAT THE BAND HAVE BECOME SO POLITICISED NOW. WHY IS THAT? ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT NOEL WALKED-OUT ON OASIS?
'We've always been political, even back in 1992, when did a miners benefit show and gave them all the money. We've always been political, we just didn't always sing about it. You write about what you feel at the time.

'In the past, I was always quite self-conscious as a lyricist and I found it difficult to write, but I've become more confident. I'm writing about the culture and what we see and what's going down. That's the best answer I can give really. Even if we haven't written about certain topics I'm sure that if you engaged us in conversation anytime since we were 15/16…..if you ask Alan McGee what we were like. He's known us since we were school kids. And we were contentious mother****ers who were always angry and questioning things, you know.

HOW DO YOU SEE PRIMAL SCREAM FOLLOWING-UP 'XTRMNTR'?
'I don't know. I don't even know if I'll be alive tomorrow. I don't even f***ing care.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NOEL'S DEPARTURE FROM OASIS?
'I really respect him as a man for doing that. It's hard to walk away from such a big band. It's hard to walk away from your brother. It's f***ing heavy for the guy. It's heavy for everyone involved.

'I've got a lot of love and respect for Noel and Liam so I hope everything works out well for them. I think emotionally it must be pretty tough for both of them just now, so I hope it works out well for them, because they're great people,'

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CURENT UK MUSIC SCENE?
'I don't really care. I don't take any notice. I listen to f***ing blues and country and funk. I don't listen to any of that shit that comes out of England, they're just a bunch of arseholes with nothing to say.'

WHAT WAS THE COLLAPSE OF CREATION LIKE?

'I saw it coming for a long time and I was pleased that it happened because it had become something that it had set out to destroy and it needed to be destroyed itself. It was dull, dead, boring, finished. There was no reason for its existence. I respect Alan because he wasn't enjoying it. He needs a challenge and he's happy now and he's got his new company. He's free of Sony. The big corporations, these people, they buy a part of you and end up owning you and you're fucked.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE YEAR?
'We don't plan anything. We just live from second to second. I'm looking forward to getting on stage tonight and playing well for the people. That's it.'

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Page Updated Fri Apr 19, 2002 4:55pm EDT