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this article was translated from Italian by Guido - thanks! Mark Lanegan, the song master
Interview with the former-Screaming Trees member, regarding his astonishing new album Field Songs: painful stories from small town USA. The hystory of Mark Lanegan away from the Trees is for some reasons definitively far more intriguing than the one related to his previous band. His records, 5 licensed including a sort of tribute to american roots as I'll Take Care Of You, deep carve inside the picture of small town USA, beating melanchonic, as much suffering as lirically timeless stories like it did not easily occur to listen to in way long time (maybe since the very first Paisley undergroup wave, Green of Red above all bands) It sounds like a sheer instinctive search for lost roots, as confirmed by his last impressive work Field Songs, as well by himself during this short chat following the end of the QOTSA mini-tour. Mark Lanegan classily avoids any questions digging too close into his cultural background... "- with Field Songs seems like atmosphere was getting more and more dramatic... Mark Lanegan/Well, hope ya dont mean drama in a a straight tragic sense (laughing). To tell the truth all these new songs, but if i think a second old ones as well, are conceived by instict, directly inside a recording room, that therefore ends up turning into an (almost) magic place of inspiration... - any particular opinion regarding the meaning of the word "pop"?????? Mark Lanegan/Dont quite franky understand what it really does mean. After all these years of playing, really believe the most important matter is being able to write songs that not only mirror personality, but that keep high levels of communication, without being cheeeeeeeesy! dunno, is this a definition of pop? - the past has nonetheless accounted through your solo carrier... Mark Lanegan/sure, even if I never realy focused on it well; daring would eventually end my personal inspiration. After all I believe to write rock songs, that my approach in song writing comes from this word. Once in a while some dude ens up proclaming rock is dead, but we (?) keep deliver songs tightly related to this eternal dead... - da ya think that the rock scene is definitively alive??? Mark Lanegan/keep listening to lotsa cool stuff, moving from standards from hard, punk to god knows what... - well you got punk roots... Mark Lanegan/lost them a good while ago (he remain silent for quite a while)... or maybe i did not. I sure kept that freedom of attitude, tryingto have fun and not crying on myself toooooo much. - pure guitar-sound is kicking back in many different scenarios, whats your impression? Mark Lanegan/Feels good, can guarantee it still represents the key-driver of my listenings and my writings. Anything without at least one electric guit inside sounds cold and naked, and bores me. it is a fascinating tool, that creates and destroys, terminally basic but able to perfectly carry modernism at the same time... - ...someone has been using the word masterpiece for your latest album. do you believe it has stronger qualities than your previous works? Mark Lanegan/never thought in terms of good/bad in anything i released. music must simply myself out the ordinary... journalist are paid to deliver opinions, i am not. With Field Songs, the goal I set was to keep myself "private" in a sense that i wanted to have above all the fun playing these tracks with my band, and second to communicate emotionally as well... - are ya living easily with your music? Mark Lanegan/I could consider myself pretty lucky regarding this matter: without being under the spotlight i can play +release CDs without major financial problems and, besides, without any creative barrier... I feel on the right side of the table, if ya can get what it means... |