Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 767 - Masters of Reality Returns! Chris Goss Talks “The Archer” and His Legacy in Rock

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PODCAST: Episode 767 - Masters of Reality Returns! Chris Goss Talks “The Archer” and His Legacy in Rock · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

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  There's some pieces of music that I think our fans look
• 0:04
  forward to, whether it be something like the Blue Garden,
• 0:08
  you know, something heavy and with some prog rock in it.
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  You know that it takes off and travels and, and is loose enough
• 0:17
  and allows the band to, you know, get to know each other.
• 0:21
  You know, that that that's the key for me is not being so tight
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  where the songs are, are arranged mechanically.
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  I I like it loose and I want to hear what other people's souls
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  want to play. So this is Tom for Ghost Cult
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  and I am really delighted to be joined by musician, songwriter,
• 0:48
  producer, singer Chris Goss, who's band Masters of Reality
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  have recently put out their first album in 16 years, The
• 0:58
  Archer on Mascot Records. And for my money, for what it's
• 1:01
  worth, I think that it's up there with the very best
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  material the band has ever done. So I am delighted to be able to
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  to talk about the album and a bit of the band's history with
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  its creator, Chris Goss. Chris, thank you so much for
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  joining us. I like the name Ghost Cult very
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  good. Yeah, I guess now that I think
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  about it, it it's sort of, it feels like it's sort of fits
• 1:22
  your aesthetic. Yeah, maybe that's why I like
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  it. So I do want to gush about the
• 1:28
  latest record, but, and I will at length, but I, I want to
• 1:32
  clarify one thing with you, which kind of blew my mind.
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  I didn't realize until recently. Did you form masters of reality
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  all the way back in like 1980 or 1981?
• 1:41
  Yes. And so at what point did you
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  sort of start building together material that would actually end
• 1:48
  up on your self-titled album in 1988?
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  That material started building in the mid 80s.
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  We started out in 81 with a drum machine synthesizer and heavy
• 2:00
  guitar was a two piece outfit. And not realizing, you know, at
• 2:06
  the time, I mean, it was done because of convenience at the
• 2:09
  time of just having this small outfit that did weird heavy
• 2:15
  music and with with a drum beat behind it.
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  And it was a pretty drunken crazy experience actually.
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  And I think it was a, a foreshadowing of, of, you know,
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  we're, we weren't of the ilk of Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn
• 2:33
  Manson, but that was the kind of vibe that we had back then when
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  we were like an electronic two piece band.
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  I was a club DJ at the time and I loved craft work and Giorgio
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  Moroder's work and repetitious electronic music, and mixing
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  that together with heavy guitars was kind of thrilling for me
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  because I always liked heavy guitar music as well.
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  So that was the intention. And then by the mid 80s, it
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  started to become a bit more song oriented because I think
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  that's where you drift to anyway when you love songs.
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  And. And then a real drummer was
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  brought into the picture. And then the material from the
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  new album or from the first album started to develop in the
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  mid 80s, Yeah. And so I know that you you came
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  and toured for this latest record in Europe and in the UK
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  and unfortunately I missed the chance to come see you guys
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  play. Sad.
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  Boy. I know I and I hope I'm not
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  going to end up regretting it. I hope you will be back because
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  I definitely won't miss the opportunity next time.
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  But thinking about that tour and, you know, deciding on the
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  setlist, obviously you're promoting the Archer and you
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  know, the album is full of great tracks to play.
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  But I wondered from your point of view, when you were figuring
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  out the setlist, are there kind of, are there songs from the
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  Masters of Reality catalog where you're just like, OK, we have to
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  play these live Or, you know, what was kind of the decision
• 3:58
  making that that you know, that you figured out the setlist on?
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  It's an interesting question because a lot of it has to do
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  with logistics in the amount of rehearsal time available.
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  My band is scattered all over the all over the earth, you
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  know, and for us to get together before a tour is a lot of
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  traveling even before the tour. So in in the case of the last
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  tour in particular, I can sum it up by saying that I got
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  bronchitis during the very in the second day of rehearsal.
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  And these are five people that never been in the same room
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  together before playing. And so the rehearsal time was
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  cut down to a minimum. I got sick right off the bat.
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  And bronchitis when you're a singer is not too good.
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  And so we, we had obviously put a set list, a rough one together
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  before the rehearsal started. And they were astute enough to,
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  to get it together while I was ailing.
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  And in any case, yeah, there's some some pieces of music that I
• 5:14
  think we are our fans look forward to, whether it be
• 5:18
  something like the Blue Garden, you know, something heavy and,
• 5:24
  and with a, you know, with some prog rock in it, you know, that
• 5:28
  it takes off and travels and, and is loose enough and allows
• 5:33
  the band to to, you know, get to know each other.
• 5:37
  You know, that that that's the key for me is having, you know,
• 5:40
  is not being so tight where the songs are, are arranged
• 5:46
  mechanically. I, I like it loose And, and I
• 5:50
  want to hear what other people's souls want to play.
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  And so, yeah, the setlist is built around the idea of maybe
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  they can, you know, we can go off somewhere different every
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  night. So it's a tough one because it's
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  funny. I was just listening to some
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  songs from our catalog that I'd like to do on the next tour.
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  And so it's it's like, you know, a matter of, oh, well, we
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  haven't done that in a while, let's pull that one out and see
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  what happens. So yeah, that's how it's done by
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  kind of by feel. No, I love that description of
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  wanting to hear what other people's souls want to play.
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  I think that's very, that's very evocative.
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  Got to be that way. And so you mentioned that for
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  the for the band that you're bringing together to tour the
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  record, they hadn't been in the same room together.
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  Does does that imply that the the players on the Archer are
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  not actually your touring band? Most of them are Alan Johannes
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  played guitar, a lot of guitar on the Archer and he was unable
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  to do the last tour with us. And I wanted to get keyboards
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  involved with the last tour as well.
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  And so I had to get a a league guitar player and a keyboard
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  player. And and I knew them well for for
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  years and years. The two associated with the, you
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  know, the city of Ghent in Belgium.
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  I've done so much work with Ghent over the years, so and now
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  I think 1 lives in Antwerp. And in any case, yeah, so those
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  two guys were brand new and they're very astute and fans of
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  the music. And so they didn't play on the
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  album, but that I wanted to evolve.
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  If so, they play in the next record.
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  I'd love to have the whole band that's playing live being
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  involved in the music in the studio as well.
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  But my bass player Paul Powell and drummer John Leamy were on
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  the record. So is everyone except Alan,
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  actually. Right.
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  OK. And just thinking about, you
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  know, what you were saying before about liking to be quite
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  loose on stage instead of not being too restrictive about
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  what's going to what's going to occur.
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  That makes me wonder, when you were touring this record, did
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  you find that the certain tracks evolved in different ways that
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  you maybe didn't expect over the course of the tour?
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  Yeah, comically, almost when when I was, you know, kind of
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  mentally, I had a fever on stage for a lot of the tour.
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  So I would screw up and you know it, usually towards the
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  beginning of the set when you're getting your pacing together
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  and, and how the band found their way through my the mess
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  that I made, I have no idea. So yeah, that was a good, good
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  practice for them anyway. I'd be singing the wrong verse
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  in the wrong place. And and somehow they managed to
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  follow along. So, you know, but that that
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  that's the exception to the rule.
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  You know, as we play more together, I look forward to what
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  we'll bring together. And, you know, and the ability,
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  especially with the the new guitarist Steve Johnson hit, you
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  know, to be able to, as Keith Richards puts it, weave together
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  with him. It's he, he calls it the ancient
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  form of weaving. And it's like when you're almost
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  playing ping pong with a guitar player and with rhythm as the
• 9:41
  song goes along and how to do that in the right way and having
• 9:46
  a chance to develop that with, with Steve and I haven't done
• 9:51
  that yet. Me and Al were able to do that
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  because, like we, I've known Al for 30 years as well, and we
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  both have similar, you know, backgrounds and like, classical
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  music and jazz and everything else.
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  You know, we throw everything into the into the cauldron.
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  So, yeah, there's a lot of work to be done.
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  And I'm already excited about how it will result in October,
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  if the good Lord's willing and the Creek don't rise, as they
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  say. So this is your intention to
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  start working on new material or or working on a new tour.
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  Working on the new tour and, you know, who knows?
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  I'm I'm there'll be new material in the new tour.
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  You know, a lot of things come out of jamming and you know, or
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  if a song turns into a different direction, then so be it.
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  I really enjoy that. The thrill of walking on the
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  tightrope. Yeah, Well, do you know what?
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  Like talking about sort of going in different directions and you
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  brought up pacing before. That's one of the things that I
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  think is so impressive with the Archer is that you have this
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  very organic flow through the record.
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  You know, there were these sort of, I'm going to use the word
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  dreamy too often in this interview, but there are the
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  more kind of like Spacey, dreamy tracks.
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  You've got more rocking tracks. And then also even within the
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  tracks, they have these evolutions and these
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  transitions. And I just think it the way that
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  it flows from the start to the finish is really beautiful.
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  And one of the things as well, incidentally, I really like the
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  way that you start the album with the title track, which is
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  this very spaced out, floaty track.
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  And it, it kind of made me wonder, was it, it almost feels
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  kind of like a challenge to the listener of going.
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  Like you might expect you're going to get like riff driven
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  rock tracks like the Blue Garden or Third Man on the Moon, but
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  instead you're going to get a very kind of spaced out opening
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  and you got to be prepared for that journey.
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  Was that kind of a conscious decision or that's just the way
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  that it worked out when you came to putting the album together?
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  It was a conscious decision that worked out when we put the album
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  together, You know, a bit of both and just to to give it some
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  kind of an original mark from the start, You know, I know I,
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  you know, even from members of the band, they were questioning,
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  you know, you sure you want to open with that.
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  And and I thought there was something, you know,
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  transportive about that as an opener and it it almost, you
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  know, isn't an invitation and of what is going to happen.
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  And so, yeah, I hear what you're saying and thank you.
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  Oh, you're welcome. You know, it's I think the the
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  word transportive is is really apartment because one of the
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  things as well, I find listening to the album and you know, maybe
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  it's kind of running through your music in general.
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  I kind of feel like I've just taken mushrooms and I'm just
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  starting to feel them kicking in.
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  That's kind of how I feel with the Archer.
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  It's got like this sort of it's like there's something on the
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  edges that's a little bit kind of mind warping, but it's not so
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  over and in your like, you know, it's not like the Butthole
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  Surfers where it's just so crazy.
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  But there's just something about it in general that feels a
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  little bit like the the edges of the universe is starting to
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  peel. Yeah, it's probably a part of
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  it, isn't it? And you know, that it's, it's
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  more of a poetic approach than a riff approach, I suppose on this
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  one. I thought it might hit home to
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  people who are thinking these days.
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  And you mentioned the word dream and, and the album mentions the
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  word dream quite a bit too. And I think that's part of the
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  picture. You know, I, I, I like to leave
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  the interpretation up to the listener and, and let them
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  bring, let it bring them to a place of their, their will maybe
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  or, or their liking, I'm not sure.
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  But yeah, what whatever the whatever the question was, I
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  hope I'm answering. Absolutely.
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  Yeah, it it what you say makes sense about leaving it open to
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  interpretation because I do feel like there it is an album of a
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  lot of possibility and there's a lot of space to to take a lot of
• 14:19
  different things from us Talking about dreams.
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  I did want to ask you about the track.
• 14:24
  I had a dream, which to me has got kind of a a David Bowie
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  flavor to it. I don't remember reading you
• 14:31
  talking about Bowie before, but is he is he sort of a major
• 14:34
  inspiration or influence for? You.
• 14:35
  Yeah, I mean, how how can you not be?
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  I mean, he was, he was something, you know, he really
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  was an incredible artist. And all of the decisions he made
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  over the years were were following his gut and his mind
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  and and nothing but admiration for the man.
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  But I had a dream, actually, is most of it a series of dreams
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  that I've had that I, I remembered over the years.
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  You know most of those lines are for real.
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  Interesting. Yeah, and then just it, it took
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  about two minutes to to throw those lyrics down because you
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  know, the the the dreams that I do remember that do stick with,
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  you know, if you have some, I'm sure you can relate.
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  If you can remember your dreams, there are some that you never
• 15:29
  forget that you you wake up and and you're and you're and the,
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  you know, it's like this. Whoa, what was that?
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  You know, what the hell happened?
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  And so, yeah, those are the the things that were in my head when
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  I jotted that down and I wanted to travel and that that actually
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  was a jam. That piece of music was a jam
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  that was done at the very beginning of recording of the
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  record and with very little editing and, and it just, you
• 16:08
  know, open highway, if you will, you know, to throw down these,
• 16:14
  the lyrics on it. Yeah.
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  That track actually came when you were in the process of
• 16:19
  starting to record the album. Yeah, and then ended, you know,
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  got sang on towards the end of making of the album.
• 16:27
  Out of curiosity, I mean, you've, you've got decades of
• 16:29
  songwriting experience now, but in general, what's kind of the
• 16:33
  order for you when it comes to songwriting in terms of lyrics
• 16:36
  versus music or, you know, do they tend to come simultaneously
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  or it's really, it can completely vary from song to
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  song. Yeah, it varies.
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  It's a real, you know, umm, random process.
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  I, I tend to write a lot of lyrics or it could even be just
• 16:54
  two lines, a notebook and, and that will become a song if
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  there's a kind of a pace to the, those two lines that in my mind,
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  you know, kind of warrant somewhere to go.
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  That's what it takes. And other times it's melody or
• 17:15
  or music that's just floating around in the atmosphere.
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  And if your antennas are up, you hear it and you know, it, it is
• 17:23
  a it, it, it varies. You know, it, it's, it's weird,
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  it's magic. And I hope and it's, you know,
• 17:32
  gifts that are given to you and from time to time would be a
• 17:36
  gift of melody or rhythm. I'm, I'm a rhythmatist and so I,
• 17:44
  you know, that's it. Yeah, I definitely like that way
• 17:47
  of looking at creative inspiration as being like a gift
• 17:49
  from the universe that appears in a sort of unexplainable way
• 17:53
  and you you catch it where you can and, and try to to
• 17:57
  crystallize it. So I wanted to to talk about the
• 18:00
  production of the Archer, but in order to do so, I wanted to to
• 18:03
  jump back again to the to the debut record.
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  So you had Rick Rubin producing it, and I understand that you
• 18:10
  were not happy with the way the album turned out.
• 18:13
  And I was kind of wondering because it seems like your
• 18:17
  career as a producer came, you know, it developed after that
• 18:22
  album. So I'm kind of wondering, did
• 18:23
  that experience, do you think that experience or do you think
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  if you hadn't had that experience, the trajectory you
• 18:28
  had as a producer would have been different?
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  Did that sort of light a fire under you in some way that you
• 18:32
  went like, this is really not what I wanted.
• 18:34
  I want to be able to create the music that that I hear in my
• 18:36
  head. Actually, that's very
• 18:38
  perceptive. While we were recording the
• 18:41
  first album with Rick Rubin and at Atlantic Studios in New York,
• 18:45
  which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore, a great old
• 18:49
  studio for the Atlantic Records that went back years and years,
• 18:55
  and the privilege, privilege of tracking there.
• 18:59
  At the same time we were tracking there, Keith Richards
• 19:02
  was mixing his first solo record, Talk is Cheap.
• 19:06
  And so, you know, it was a matter of seeing Keith Richards
• 19:10
  in the hallway every day and him and his band and, you know,
• 19:14
  getting to the studio around 7:00 PM and we were there in the
• 19:19
  afternoon. So I and at the time, making the
• 19:23
  first record was not a very pleasant experience.
• 19:27
  The band wasn't getting along and and Rick kind of enjoyed
• 19:31
  watching that conflict go down. And, you know, we had, we used
• 19:36
  70 reels of 2 inch tape to make that record.
• 19:41
  That's how many takes there were.
• 19:43
  And you know, and to me, like, you know, the the second take of
• 19:47
  a particular song was the one where it felt great.
• 19:51
  And then 11 takes later, we're still at it, you know.
• 19:55
  So anyway, there was kind of a tension when we were together,
• 19:59
  but I'd be in the hallway when Keith and his band would be
• 20:02
  coming up the elevator to the studio.
• 20:05
  And there'd be this laughter in on the you could hear the
• 20:08
  laughter on the elevator and the door would open up and you could
• 20:12
  tell they've gone out to dinner and had some drinks.
• 20:15
  And they're like kind of holding each other up with their arms
• 20:18
  around their shoulders, laughing and, you know, probably a little
• 20:21
  bit shit faced. And, and in the meantime, my
• 20:27
  session was misery. And I thought to myself, that's
• 20:30
  the way a band walks into the studio, the way Keith was
• 20:34
  walking in with Watti Wattel and Steve Jordan, and that's the
• 20:40
  vibe right there. Like we've got this great job to
• 20:43
  do and ain't this fun? And, you know, and we're
• 20:47
  enjoying ourselves. They were called the expensive
• 20:50
  winos. You know, that's how they're
• 20:52
  what they were all their tape. You know, they Keith Richards
• 20:55
  can't put Keith Richards on the on label on his boxes of tape.
• 20:59
  It's a very dangerous thing for a Rolling Stone to do with
• 21:03
  inviting theft, you know, so they're they're.
• 21:06
  Interesting. Their moniker at the time was
• 21:08
  The Expensive Winos, which, you know, which they were and and
• 21:13
  that eventually came out and he actually called the band that
• 21:16
  for a while. But it was seeing that
• 21:19
  difference between the vibe. And then when I had a chance to
• 21:24
  start producing, I thought that's what I want to bring to
• 21:27
  other bands when I'm producing them is that same joy.
• 21:33
  And. And you know, yeah, that's the
• 21:37
  word and and not miserable, you know?
• 21:43
  And so it, it did, as you say, you know, adjust the way I I was
• 21:49
  a producer after working on the first record.
• 21:54
  And yeah, I'm proud of that. I noticed that in an early time
• 21:58
  and did something about it I think.
• 22:01
  Yeah, that's a really fascinating insight.
• 22:03
  And so obviously then from the point that you started producing
• 22:08
  or Co producing records, there was the next masters of reality
• 22:12
  record, Sunshine on the Suffer bus, there were the Caius
• 22:15
  records and then, you know, all the various other work that
• 22:17
  you've had over the years, taking you all the point all the
• 22:21
  way up to the Archer. And you know, I'm kind of
• 22:24
  curious partly because it's been such a long time since the last
• 22:28
  Masters of reality record. Was there anything in particular
• 22:32
  going into the latest one where you sort of thought like, oh,
• 22:34
  here is some sort of production ideas or some recording
• 22:37
  techniques that I want to try out that I hadn't tried out on a
• 22:40
  Masters of Reality record before?
• 22:43
  On the Archer, you know, I'm not totally happy with the
• 22:48
  production. I, I, I'm somewhat satisfied
• 22:52
  with the songs. But you know, there, there
• 22:56
  wasn't. Let's see, there was time to do
• 23:01
  it, but it was for me more of a lyrical focus on this and less
• 23:07
  less of a production focus. You know, I mean, I, I thought
• 23:12
  the drums could have been recorded better, but just the,
• 23:17
  the amount of time that people had to come to the desert to
• 23:22
  record it was limited. And, and, you know, getting my
• 23:26
  bass player here twice from Spain and, and my drummer here
• 23:31
  two or three times from New York.
• 23:34
  And so, yeah. And, and Alan, who works all
• 23:38
  over the planet, getting him to the desert.
• 23:40
  And so it you know, it, it was it was like an album of
• 23:47
  necessity in a way. And I think the production, you
• 23:52
  know, could be better. But as someone said to me once,
• 23:57
  when was the last time you heard a great song and said it sounded
• 24:01
  like shit? So.
• 24:06
  That that's my excuse, okay. Then I guess that just means
• 24:11
  that I'm hearing great songs and I'm interpreting that as
• 24:14
  involving great production as well.
• 24:15
  Yeah, yeah, maybe. And so something I'm curious
• 24:20
  about then, I was just thinking while you're answering that
• 24:21
  question, you've put out at least one live album before, or
• 24:25
  at least one partial live album with Masters of Reality.
• 24:29
  Given you know that you're not 100% satisfied with the sound of
• 24:33
  the of the album, have you considered that you would put
• 24:36
  out a live album from any of the tours that are happening at the
• 24:39
  moment? You know, to be decided, you
• 24:42
  know, hopefully, and that would be great, you know, if we get
• 24:46
  that good as a unit and and working together and it and, you
• 24:52
  know, we find some magical moments that are glad to be
• 24:56
  recorded. Yeah, I'm more than happy to put
• 24:58
  that out. Yeah, I hope it does develop.
• 25:01
  Yeah, that's cool to know. Now I'm conscious of your time.
• 25:04
  Do you have time for a few more questions or do you need to wrap
• 25:07
  this up? No, you're you're, you have a
• 25:09
  brain. Go ahead.
• 25:12
  Excellent. So I'm sure that you've been
• 25:15
  asked about this topic before, but I am really fascinated to
• 25:19
  get a little bit of insight from you directly about working with
• 25:23
  Ginger Baker. So I understand that the way
• 25:25
  that he ended up becoming a part of Masters of Reality involved
• 25:29
  your manager and the fact that he was a polo player and Ginger
• 25:34
  Baker was a polo player. But I'm kind of, I'm fascinated
• 25:37
  to hear what that sort of first experience was like meeting
• 25:41
  Ginger Baker. Well there's actually 2
• 25:44
  experiences meeting him at my manager.
• 25:48
  My manager was having a BBQ at the time in his house and Ginger
• 25:54
  was a guest at the barbecue and and I remember the manager
• 25:57
  saying, you know, Ginger, this is Chris.
• 26:00
  He's in masters reality, you should jam.
• 26:02
  And knowing, you know, Ginger's reputation and background, his,
• 26:09
  his reaction of that was really what I almost wanted.
• 26:12
  He kind of rolled his eyes back in his head and growled
• 26:16
  something. And I found him really funny,
• 26:21
  you know, and, but the manager pursued it and, and three or
• 26:26
  four days after that, he got Ginger's kit to a rehearsal
• 26:31
  studio and really said, you know, you got a, you got a jam
• 26:35
  with this guy Ginger. And, you know, and Ginger, you
• 26:40
  know, who lived a couple hours north of Los Angeles at the
• 26:43
  time, drove down and we jammed. And, you know, we, we were both
• 26:50
  big potheads at the time. I mean, I probably still am,
• 26:55
  especially when I'm writing. In any case, we smoked a joint
• 27:00
  and within about 3 or 4 minutes, that man had a smile from ear to
• 27:05
  ear. And it was incredible.
• 27:09
  I, you know, when leading up to the those three or four days to
• 27:16
  jamming with him, I was so excited that I was going to play
• 27:19
  ping pong with somebody. You know, like, like I couldn't
• 27:24
  wait to, to, to share rhythm play with him.
• 27:30
  Like I was so excited. Like, OK, I listened to this guy
• 27:34
  when I was a kid and I know what his rhythm skills are like and I
• 27:41
  can't wait to to bounce things back and forth of them.
• 27:45
  And that's exactly what happened.
• 27:47
  And I think it's surprised him and that, you know, I didn't, I
• 27:52
  never played a Cream song in front of that man.
• 27:55
  You know, I never played Sunshine of Your Love riff in
• 27:59
  front of him. It was always, you know, the
• 28:03
  riff of the moment, the ones pulled out of the air.
• 28:06
  And then we would take that riff and turn it sideways, upside
• 28:10
  down and forwards and backwards and just have a ball playing
• 28:15
  rhythmic ping pong with riffs, mainly bluesy riffs.
• 28:20
  And, you know, I mean, obviously he had a jazz background, and I
• 28:25
  appreciated jazz as well. And it was a profound
• 28:30
  conversation. One day.
• 28:31
  We were hanging out one day and Mahavish New Orchestra was
• 28:35
  playing, you know, John McLaughlin with Billy Cobham.
• 28:39
  And and so, you know, I'd made a comment.
• 28:42
  I said, you know, they, they thought they were gurus, though
• 28:45
  Ginger. You know, there was a kind of a
• 28:47
  pretense. I love Mahavishnu, but John
• 28:50
  McLaughlin at the time of a guitarist had a pretense of
• 28:53
  being very spiritually infused by, you know, Indian music,
• 28:58
  which he was, but he kind of wore like a badge or, you know,
• 29:02
  on his sleeve and and Ginger kind of corrected me.
• 29:06
  And in a way he said, well, they were gurus, Chris, he goes.
• 29:10
  But I like a good boogie. And that still puts a chill up
• 29:15
  my spine that, you know, you can appreciate music that's complex
• 29:21
  and, and, and has a, you know, complex tonal, you know, content
• 29:27
  to it. But in general, it's a simple
• 29:30
  boogie that that you can have joy with and that's where you're
• 29:36
  pliable, where your mind in this music is not so set on one thing
• 29:42
  where you can take influence from everything from classical
• 29:46
  music, from jazz, and apply that to a good boogie.
• 29:51
  And that's being a non pretensive musician.
• 29:56
  And so we got along on that level so well.
• 29:59
  And I miss that motherfucker. Yeah, well, without wanting to
• 30:04
  to drag you into talking about people that you miss, I did want
• 30:07
  to to talk just a little bit about one of my idols who is
• 30:12
  lost now to the to the world and at a great loss.
• 30:14
  That is to Mark Lanigan, one of my my favorite singers of all
• 30:18
  time. You worked extensively with him
• 30:20
  and I just wondered if you had any stories or anecdotes you
• 30:24
  could share of your time working with him.
• 30:26
  Yeah, it runs deep, you know, years, years of hanging with
• 30:32
  Mark sometimes, you know, 2-3 year gap between working with
• 30:37
  him now. Now that he's not with us, I
• 30:40
  look at his catalog and I'm more in awe than ever.
• 30:45
  Probably feel the same way about him as you do.
• 30:49
  The antidotes are probably endless and, and you know,
• 30:54
  ranging from very intense and, and heavy, sometimes sadness to,
• 31:02
  to having a lot of fun and laughter because there's a
• 31:05
  brilliant man and, and so, so spot on and what his vision was
• 31:12
  like. So, you know, it runs the gamut.
• 31:16
  And it's really hard to pull 1 occasion out, especially when
• 31:20
  asked that question. You know, it's like asking, you
• 31:24
  know, what's your favorite passage from the Bible, You
• 31:28
  know? And all I can say it was, you
• 31:31
  know, a privilege. You know, I'm sorry I can't
• 31:34
  provide much more than that. No, no, no, that's that's all
• 31:38
  good. I'm going to, I'm going to let
• 31:39
  you go in a minute, but I wanted to just share 1 little thing
• 31:42
  with you. So I, I interviewed, I think it
• 31:44
  was the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024, I interviewed
• 31:49
  the band Scream. And then I, I interviewed the
• 31:52
  singer Peter Stahl a second time to talk about their latest
• 31:56
  records DC special, which I absolutely love.
• 31:58
  It's one of my, my favorite records of that year.
• 32:01
  And there was, there was, I think we just one track in
• 32:03
  particular on that album where he really reminded me of you in
• 32:07
  terms of his singing style. And so I put this to him and I
• 32:11
  said, look, there's this track on the album that really reminds
• 32:14
  me of Chris Goss, who's one of my favorite singers.
• 32:17
  Is he an influence for you? And he, he said basically that
• 32:21
  you are one of his favorite singers.
• 32:23
  And he was delighted that I drew that comparison.
• 32:25
  So I just wanted to let you know that Peter Stahl loves your
• 32:29
  work, if you didn't already know that.
• 32:31
  Oh, that's lovely. I, you know, I know Pete well
• 32:34
  and we see each other in the desert occasionally when he
• 32:38
  comes out to work. And I didn't realize that, you
• 32:43
  know, that it was got so specifically mentioned like
• 32:46
  that. And it's lovely to hear he he
• 32:51
  his approach and his character is a model as well.
• 32:57
  And I, I'm very happy to hear that.
• 33:01
  Thank you. Well.
• 33:01
  I'm glad to share it, Chris, thank you so much for your time.
• 33:04
  It's really an honor to be able to to talk with you about your
• 33:07
  music and your art. You are an inspiration to me.
• 33:10
  I think you are an amazing creative mind and I love your
• 33:14
  music. And yeah, I think the Archer is
• 33:16
  tremendous and I will definitely make sure I don't miss the
• 33:20
  opportunity to to see Masters of reality next time.
• 33:24
  You are somewhere in my part of the world.
• 33:26
  Awesome, thank you so much. Ghost culture, I like it.
• 33:29
  Thank you so much, all the best. You too.