Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 911 - David J (ex-Bauhaus) Talks About His Charity single "Ice Too Cold To Thaw" and More

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 911 - David J (ex-Bauhaus) Talks About His Charity single "Ice Too Cold To Thaw" and More · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  Yeah, well, my taste is very eclectic and always has been.
• 0:03
  So that's reflected in the music that I I make myself, of course.
• 0:06
  And I just find it's exciting, you know, it's stimulating to,
• 0:10
  to explore other genres and different forms.
• 0:20
  What's up everybody, it's Kifi of Ghost cultman.com.
• 0:24
  I am super honored to be joined by David Jay.
• 0:26
  You know him best of his solo career and loving Rockets and
• 0:30
  Bauhaus, but also playwright, multi, hyphenate everything.
• 0:35
  It's such a pleasure to meet you and see you.
• 0:37
  Today. Hello.
• 0:38
  Thank you. Right out of the gate, I
• 0:41
  absolutely love this charity single you put out in
• 0:46
  collaboration with No Devotion Records and there's a charity
• 0:49
  poster with Shepard Fairey. I have so many questions but ice
• 0:53
  too cold to thaw. What a absolute killer song.
• 0:55
  I even I love the other the jazz sad jazz version.
• 0:58
  You know, obviously very inspired by current events.
• 1:02
  We live in an absolute mad world right now in the truest sense of
• 1:05
  the word. I don't understand the world I'm
• 1:08
  looking at. I never thought being my age
• 1:10
  that we would have a worse U.S. government than the Reagan
• 1:14
  years. I have been proven wrong time
• 1:16
  and time again. Even even if you were pro, this
• 1:20
  administration coming in can't possibly see this as the same
• 1:25
  way forward. And this ICE agents have just
• 1:27
  kind of landed in my city. I'm in San Francisco and I'm
• 1:31
  originally from the East Coast. And you know, we were like not
• 1:34
  having it. I don't love the new mayor, but
• 1:36
  because he's another billionaire jerk.
• 1:39
  But like, I like that. He thoughtfully responded and
• 1:42
  said back them off and we'll police ourselves, which I
• 1:46
  thought was an interesting bold move for local government here
• 1:50
  in our in our town. So what a great single and and
• 1:53
  so necessary. We need protest music.
• 1:56
  I don't think we've had nearly enough punk rockers and and
• 2:00
  Goths and metal heads. I'm looking at you.
• 2:02
  Where's the protest music? Where's the righteous
• 2:05
  intelligence fear? You know the fury, Where is it?
• 2:07
  I don't see any. So we're all so defeated and and
• 2:10
  I see a lot of complacency and it makes me sad.
• 2:13
  Yeah, although, you know, there has been, you know, a lot of
• 2:16
  demonstrating in the in the streets and and that's seems to
• 2:20
  be growing, you know, that collective voice out there.
• 2:23
  Yeah, I I like to argue. It hasn't been channeled that
• 2:26
  much through music, as far as I know.
• 2:29
  My, my little protest statement. I mean, that just, I was seized
• 2:34
  by that, compelled to write that and just seeing what was going
• 2:38
  on, it just being all pervasive and, and, and, and growing, you
• 2:43
  know, and I was actually on the road when I, I was in Asheville
• 2:47
  and there was, it was a, there was a protest there and I just
• 2:50
  happened, It happened to be right outside the hotel where I
• 2:52
  was staying. I was woken up by the, I knew it
• 2:55
  was going to happen, but I was woken up very early and just
• 2:57
  went down there and joined in, you know, and then, and then I
• 3:02
  moved to, I was staying with a friend out outside of town in
• 3:06
  the country and in this very kind of remote location in a
• 3:11
  cabin in the woods. And it was a perfect place just
• 3:15
  to contemplate, take in these feelings and express it in the
• 3:20
  form of a song. And so it was very, very
• 3:23
  immediate. And I recorded it as soon as I
• 3:26
  got back to LA, which was a few days later.
• 3:28
  Right, that's not the intro to a horror movie or a scary play at
• 3:32
  all. I went to a cabin in the woods
• 3:33
  to reflect and write a song. Nothing bad ever happened there.
• 3:38
  I even the lyrics. You've never been, you know, I
• 3:41
  thought you've always been such a gifted lyricist and writer
• 3:43
  and, and even a vocalist in your own right, of course.
• 3:46
  And I love that the lyrics are on the band camp.
• 3:48
  I immediately bought it, by the way.
• 3:50
  Like I wanted to support this 'cause I try to put my money
• 3:53
  where my mouth is when I can. And and yeah, I don't mean to
• 3:57
  say that there are not tons of organizing protests, really
• 4:01
  active responses from people. I just want more from my art and
• 4:05
  my artists. That's just my own personal plea
• 4:09
  you and you're part of the good response that I'm looking for.
• 4:12
  I love this track. I love what you said here, you
• 4:15
  know, right out of the gate, history repeating Deja Blue and
• 4:18
  we'll talk about maybe a Deja Blue vinyl that I'm waiting for
• 4:22
  in the mail. But how did you also you track
• 4:25
  the the the song and you have the sad jazz version?
• 4:28
  How did you get involved with Shepherd Fairey?
• 4:30
  I didn't know if you knew him personally or?
• 4:32
  I've known Shepherd in years. I used to stay with him when I
• 4:36
  wasn't living in LA, but when I was visiting here a lot.
• 4:39
  And I would just stay with him. And that's going way back, you
• 4:43
  know, like, oh, 20 years ago. And that's when he was going out
• 4:48
  and, you know, with a wee paste in the middle of the night, you
• 4:51
  know, and he'd then come back in the wee small hours having put
• 4:55
  up a bunch of posters. And then we would hang out and
• 4:58
  talk and stay up and play records when he was getting into
• 5:02
  DJ. And so we would have these DJ
• 5:06
  sessions and drink beer and in his basement.
• 5:08
  It was, it was great. And I've stayed in touch with
• 5:11
  him ever since. And Shepherds, you know, one of
• 5:13
  the one of the real good ones. And I told him about this
• 5:16
  project and he was very keen to to get involved.
• 5:19
  And, and then he suggested the other artist involved, Tomo 77.
• 5:24
  And so it's, it's actually a collaborative project as far as
• 5:28
  the art is concerned between Shepherd and, and Tomo.
• 5:31
  And Tomo is, has a personal investment in all of this in
• 5:36
  that he's now back in Costa Rica, where he's from, because
• 5:39
  he was basically unceremoniously kicked out of the country after
• 5:43
  being, he was living in Portland for 17 years, a very established
• 5:48
  artist and really respected. And then he applies for his visa
• 5:51
  and it's like, no, no, you got to go back.
• 5:54
  And so he's, he's in exile. So he, you know, he collaborated
• 5:57
  actually in exile with us. That is insane and I am so
• 6:01
  sorry. And you know, we'll make sure to
• 6:03
  link and credit everybody appropriately in all our news
• 6:06
  and all in this interview in the notes for it as well.
• 6:09
  And I do know that a portion of the proceeds are going to the
• 6:11
  USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic Fund, which
• 6:15
  is so needed. And they're doing, you know,
• 6:19
  some great work. And and I love that you chose to
• 6:23
  partner with them and donate proceeds to them.
• 6:25
  That's, you know, like when immigration law works, some
• 6:28
  people need to stay and have a right to stay and some people
• 6:33
  need to leave. And for many years, it was hard
• 6:36
  for people to leave and go home when they when they were
• 6:39
  detained and they needed to be freed to go home.
• 6:42
  But to, you know, as you say so well, unceremoniously, you know,
• 6:47
  denied or taken against your will, you know, this is handled.
• 6:51
  We are the laughingstock of the whole world.
• 6:53
  And and, you know, it's it's it's miserable for me.
• 6:57
  I've been politically active since my youngest days.
• 7:00
  My parents were local activists where I'm from in New York City
• 7:03
  for different causes and different parties.
• 7:05
  And it's not about left or right anymore.
• 7:07
  It's about sane or insane. We are, we are living like kind
• 7:12
  of V for Vendetta, you know, like Alan Moore predicted all of
• 7:16
  this or, you know, of course yes, did.
• 7:18
  I think it's really outrageous as well when when when
• 7:22
  immigrants are going through the the riot process, they're
• 7:25
  actually and they're being seized in the courtroom when
• 7:28
  they're there, you know, following the law in the right
• 7:32
  way and the ICE thugs come in and seize them there.
• 7:37
  You know, and going into, you know, like the graduation days
• 7:41
  at schools that where they know there's a Latino population and,
• 7:46
  and just kidnapping the the parents and cutting them off is
• 7:50
  so outrageous. It's appalling.
• 7:53
  It sure is. And I am the grandchild of
• 7:56
  immigrants who came to this country and have fled
• 7:59
  persecution and death in Europe. And I'm lucky to be alive
• 8:03
  because they, their parents made bold moves, gutsy, brave moves
• 8:09
  to go against all odds and make it here and make it here alive
• 8:12
  and build a life here from my parents and then myself and my
• 8:15
  family. So I, you know, immigrants built
• 8:18
  this country. Even the president, his wife and
• 8:21
  child are not, you know, like have roots that don't come from,
• 8:27
  you know, most of his kids are not naturalized American
• 8:30
  citizens. If he wants to end birthright
• 8:33
  citizenship and all this, you know, you know, this crazy
• 8:37
  xenophobia is madness. This country is built on people
• 8:41
  coming here and becoming part of the melting pot.
• 8:43
  I still believe in that. I always feel like the American
• 8:46
  Dream is still possible, despite how many times I've been, you
• 8:50
  know, let down and Lucy has pulled the football away from me
• 8:54
  as Charlie Brown and I've kicked, you know, kicked air.
• 8:56
  And I still believe in the dream.
• 8:58
  Maybe I'm misguided, but I want to believe in the good in people
• 9:02
  and the best in people. We can come back from this, but
• 9:04
  this is worse than I ever imagined.
• 9:07
  Yeah, it certainly is a test. It's certainly, you know, the
• 9:10
  country has never been tested to this degree.
• 9:13
  Just going back to the, the collaborative elements of the
• 9:17
  record. I've for many years I've spoken
• 9:20
  with Uli from, from I was a motley about collaborating with
• 9:25
  it and the we've always wanted to do something together, but
• 9:28
  because of our different, different schedules, it's never
• 9:32
  been possible. So this was the perfect
• 9:34
  opportunity for that to happen. So I'm really like very pleased
• 9:39
  that he's a big part of it. He's a great guy and of course I
• 9:42
  was a motley are very demonstrative in the support for
• 9:46
  the cause, you know, So he came down and blasted his baritone
• 9:51
  sax on the thing and brought down a great trumpet player Guy
• 9:55
  Slim. And Slim, who plays on the B
• 9:58
  side that you mentioned the jazz version, the sad jazz version,
• 10:01
  which is a more introspective take on the song.
• 10:04
  It's sort of reveals, I think, the of the song.
• 10:08
  Right on. Yeah, it's a build is David Jay
• 10:10
  and the Resistance, which I also love and it is who's who of
• 10:13
  players. And you know, you, you, you
• 10:15
  know, your fingerprints are all over this, but it it feels like
• 10:18
  a wonderful collaboration. Robert and Justin and John and
• 10:22
  and you mentioned Slim, Sheila and Tony.
• 10:25
  Tony is incredible bassist. You know, I I dig deep through
• 10:29
  through finding people and try to like find their whereabouts
• 10:32
  and their other things they've worked on.
• 10:33
  And as a as a retired bassist and a big jazz fan on, you know,
• 10:37
  in general, like you picked a cream of the crop of players to
• 10:41
  to perform on this. Yeah, yeah, Tony plays the stand
• 10:44
  up bass on the on the B side. He's a he's a jazz cat.
• 10:47
  Yeah, you've never been shy about kind of delving into, you
• 10:51
  know, you, you know, sticking your toe into different waters
• 10:54
  and seeing what you get out of it creatively.
• 10:56
  Like you've never been you, you yourself again, one of the
• 10:58
  greatest, in my opinion, greatest basis ever across your
• 11:01
  solo work across everything. And you know, you've always been
• 11:06
  open and I think your audience come has been known now to come
• 11:09
  with you in in this part of your solo career to come along with
• 11:14
  you on this journey. You've kind of cultured them to
• 11:16
  come along, like be open to anything I could do any
• 11:19
  direction. And I think the fans will will
• 11:22
  appreciate it. Yeah, well, my taste is very
• 11:24
  eclectic and always has been. So that's reflected in the music
• 11:27
  that I I make myself, of course. And I just find it's exciting,
• 11:31
  you know, it's stimulating to, to explore other genres and
• 11:36
  different forms. Indeed.
• 11:37
  And we need, again, we need more of this.
• 11:39
  So I don't know if there's any more of this coming from you,
• 11:41
  but I'm so glad you did this. It's very meaningful and
• 11:46
  poignant and timely and, and again, in a, in a dire way that
• 11:50
  we need this. We need directives and we need
• 11:52
  direction for movements to happen and we need artists to
• 11:56
  lead. This is a belief that I have
• 11:57
  always held. Well, I'll tell you there's
• 12:00
  another project that I'm involved in that's very
• 12:03
  exciting. It's called Contra Ice and it's
• 12:05
  going to be an album, a double album that's coming out next
• 12:08
  year. It's a compilation of different
• 12:10
  artists like Fishbone are involved, Money, Mark, Los
• 12:15
  Lobos, and this roster is building by the day and it's
• 12:20
  going to be a very strong record.
• 12:22
  So this really is, you know, artists stepping up like you,
• 12:26
  you said at the start of this you you wanted to see more of
• 12:28
  that. Well, you're going to see more
• 12:30
  of it next year. So it's Contra ice and there'll
• 12:32
  be special concerts built around this release as well.
• 12:36
  And it's, yeah, it's it's shaping up very well.
• 12:40
  This, this thing I'll probably my contribution will probably be
• 12:44
  was there'll be two. It'll be the demo, I think the
• 12:47
  original demo that I recorded in that cabin and just me and
• 12:52
  acoustic guitar. But there's also a track that I
• 12:55
  did with a great band out of Detroit called Duende.
• 12:59
  And we just wrote this thing on the spot one day in the studio,
• 13:02
  Temper Mill studio in Detroit. It's where The White Stripes
• 13:06
  recorded their early stuff. Great studio.
• 13:08
  And this, this track is called Divisive Crisis.
• 13:13
  And it's just, it's all about, you know, the divisions that are
• 13:15
  happening at the moment. Very strong track.
• 13:19
  Yeah, I'm. I'm so I'm stoked.
• 13:21
  We just had a very lengthy interview.
• 13:24
  My partner just entered, my co-owner of Ghost Cult just
• 13:26
  interviewed Angelo A Fishbone about their new album Stockholm
• 13:29
  Syndrome. And you know another band artist
• 13:33
  like Angelo and a band like Fishbone that has been
• 13:35
  absolutely fearless, never afraid to speak their mind, do
• 13:39
  not care about the consequences, put their money where their
• 13:41
  mouth is in terms of charity, in terms of activism, really great.
• 13:45
  So I imagine it's going to be all like minded, yeah.
• 13:48
  They've been sharing some tracks with me from that album.
• 13:50
  It's very strong. Right on, I'm into it.
• 13:53
  What else beside this And again, this is the focus right this
• 13:56
  minute and I'm so again I'm I immediately was like, oh, I have
• 14:01
  to have this. I went I was like, you know,
• 14:03
  great to donate to the cause, have this beautiful special
• 14:07
  thing. I will link everything where
• 14:09
  people can get the artwork, also from Shepard and Tomo.
• 14:14
  I believe they're signed and numbered.
• 14:16
  And you know, what else have you been working on beside this
• 14:20
  future thing that you just talked about?
• 14:23
  I know you have a small tour coming up.
• 14:25
  I don't know if you've been doing any more writing or
• 14:27
  anything else creative, political or otherwise lately.
• 14:31
  Yeah, I've got a lot, a lot going on.
• 14:35
  So the next release, which will come out early next year, my
• 14:39
  last record was a collection of, I'm talking about demos, you
• 14:43
  know, simple, like guitar voice. I had a collection of three
• 14:48
  vinyl set on independent project records called Tracks From the
• 14:53
  Attic. And these are all demos going
• 14:54
  back to the early 80s up until like 2010.
• 14:59
  And very simple, you know, just stripped down songs, actually
• 15:03
  all of them unreleased. So that came out.
• 15:06
  And as a follow up, what I'm doing is going into the studio
• 15:10
  and I've recorded finished versions of these songs.
• 15:13
  So I've selected like 10 tracks and made them fully realize with
• 15:16
  a full band, full production. So that would be Tracks from the
• 15:22
  Attic Revisited and that will come out, as I say, early next
• 15:26
  year. So some of the musicians that
• 15:28
  played on the Ice Too Cold to Thor record are featured on
• 15:33
  that, in particular Jason Roberts from Spoon, great guitar
• 15:38
  player and Tony plays a lot of bass on it.
• 15:41
  I play some bass as well. Great drummer David Wavin, great
• 15:45
  keyboard player, plays on the I single, John Bernstein.
• 15:48
  So and that's all done. It's all ready to go.
• 15:50
  And then after that, the same record label are going to
• 15:54
  release. It's a concept album that's
• 15:57
  concerned with Egon Sheila the painter, the Austrian painter,
• 16:01
  one of my favorite artists, and that's collaboration with Paul
• 16:05
  Wolfish from Swans and Phil the percussionist from Swans and
• 16:10
  Johnny Polanski, guitar player. And that's produced by Mark
• 16:14
  Sally, great producer. And it's a very strong record,
• 16:17
  that one. It's probably going to come out
• 16:18
  in the spring, so. And aside from that, there's a
• 16:21
  few others as well, but I think that's enough to be going on
• 16:24
  with. Right on.
• 16:26
  We know Mark also very well from from a lot of his different work
• 16:29
  and you know, he's done a lot of heavier records, but he's also
• 16:32
  done a lot of pop records. He's won many countless awards.
• 16:35
  Mark is wonderful. I'm really I actually listened
• 16:38
  to this on the tracks from the attic right before this call.
• 16:41
  So I'm very excited to hear about a Part 2 and an expansion
• 16:45
  of that. In terms of your subject
• 16:48
  matters. I think this is maybe, you know,
• 16:51
  I can't probably can't count on two hands.
• 16:54
  You've done a lot of character studies as inspiration, whether
• 16:58
  it's writers, artists, actresses across plays and records and and
• 17:02
  things and song topics. So I'm very excited to hear that
• 17:07
  there's another muse out there for you that's inspiring you for
• 17:10
  subject matter. That's really exciting.
• 17:12
  Yeah, that came about when I was approached by, by Paul Wolfish,
• 17:17
  who was the musical director at the Volks Theatre in Vienna at
• 17:23
  the time. And they wanted me to, to write
• 17:27
  a, a stage production, gave me carte blanche to come up with
• 17:30
  the subject. So I thought I wanted to make it
• 17:33
  connected with Austria. So I thought, oh, Egon Sheila
• 17:37
  would be a really good subject. So then I, I wrote, I wrote this
• 17:41
  a couple of pieces with Paul. He came over, he's got a place
• 17:44
  in New York, and we just went to a studio and it and it really
• 17:48
  sort of evolved very quickly and became this whole.
• 17:52
  And I still want to make it a stage production.
• 17:55
  I've got ideas for that. But it won't be in Vienna
• 17:58
  because the director has moved to Cologne in Germany.
• 18:01
  So we'll probably be there. And that's, that's real
• 18:04
  backburner. It's off in the future, but it
• 18:06
  would be preceded by the album. And how I can.
• 18:10
  Yeah. Mark Sully worked with him the
• 18:13
  first time on a Ramones tribute album that came out recently,
• 18:17
  and he pulled together the band, which is myself, Paul and Johnny
• 18:22
  Polanski, and the drummer was Jim White from Dirty 3.
• 18:28
  So we did a cover of I want to Be Sedated, but really slowed
• 18:32
  down, really sedated, heavily sedated.
• 18:35
  And that worked out so well. And Mark was very excited about
• 18:40
  it and he said I want to do more with the you guys with this
• 18:44
  group. Jim couldn't do the drums
• 18:45
  because he had, he'd just finished his solo record, so he
• 18:48
  couldn't do it. But Phil from Swans did it and
• 18:51
  well, that works out really well.
• 18:52
  So that's that was the genesis of that whole project.
• 18:55
  And Mark is an amazing producer, incredible ear, very, very
• 18:59
  nuanced, fine-tuned. I'd have to.
• 19:03
  Yeah, of course. Mark is wonderful.
• 19:04
  I have to imagine that you were, you know, a pretty, you know,
• 19:08
  had to like everyone else. We were all touched by Ramones.
• 19:10
  Swans and Ramones are factored very heavily into my teenage,
• 19:14
  you know, value system is an art as my own self in my career, in
• 19:18
  my art and music. And you know, I have to imagine
• 19:22
  you were a fan of DD space, at least his tone and his
• 19:25
  aggression right factored in, even if you, you know, have your
• 19:28
  own. Yeah, it was a whole band.
• 19:30
  I saw them when they first played in London in 76 and it
• 19:34
  remains one of the most exciting concerts I've ever been to, Was
• 19:38
  electrifying. And funnily enough I was.
• 19:41
  I was visited the grave of of of Johnny and Dee Dee yesterday for
• 19:47
  an interview with and again, only enough connected with an
• 19:51
  Austrian radio station. We did an in depth interview
• 19:54
  just walking around some of the graves.
• 19:56
  We went to David Lynch's and, and yeah, it's the first time
• 20:01
  I'd I'd visited. I've been to Johnny's before,
• 20:04
  but I hadn't been to the other two.
• 20:05
  But the Ramones I love, the Ramones I don't.
• 20:07
  Trust anyone who doesn't love the Ramones.
• 20:09
  No, couldn't. The distillation of rock'n'roll,
• 20:12
  really. And they were like a rock'n'roll
• 20:14
  cartoon band come to life. There's so many perfect.
• 20:17
  Bands, they were perfect. Yeah, they don't have a bad
• 20:19
  record. I have been notoriously guilty
• 20:22
  of buying too many remote after like years of collecting Ramon's
• 20:25
  bootlegs when I was younger. Now I buy Ramon's re releases on
• 20:29
  record store days. I don't know.
• 20:31
  I don't advise it even though I love spending the money on them.
• 20:35
  Like it's a mixed bag of whatever and I played CBGB's and
• 20:39
  I remember the sound there being notoriously wonky.
• 20:43
  Woo woo if you will, depending on the recording night.
• 20:45
  But you know I do this. Once as well.
• 20:50
  It's a shame, you know, it's funny.
• 20:51
  I think about like you. So you did this interview and
• 20:53
  toured graves. Surely people you admired and or
• 20:56
  friends. We're losing a lot of our heroes
• 20:59
  this year. I don't know if any of this
• 21:01
  stuff is. I hope you're well, your circle
• 21:03
  of people and your collaborators and your family is all well
• 21:06
  because like these losses are hurting me personally, whether
• 21:10
  they're, you know, whether it's Ozzy or anybody else, they're
• 21:13
  just getting to me. And you know, I'm sensitive
• 21:16
  about this. We're all getting up there in
• 21:18
  age and you know what you had, you've had a 4550 year career at
• 21:21
  this point making music and being in the public life.
• 21:25
  So I don't know if you're getting reflective about that at
• 21:27
  all in any of your art. Very, yes, very much so.
• 21:30
  And I've lost a few friends recently, collaborators and
• 21:34
  yeah. I don't know if you're in touch
• 21:37
  with Peter at all. Not that I'm fishing for any
• 21:39
  kind of reunions because I love seeing artists get to their, you
• 21:43
  know, their, you know, whatever their highest ideal plateau is
• 21:47
  pursuing their own art. But I was very fond of Peter's
• 21:49
  album earlier in the year and I didn't know if you had heard it
• 21:52
  or were in touch with. Him, I'm not, I'm not in touch
• 21:54
  with him, but it was a strong album.
• 21:56
  Right on. I loved it.
• 21:58
  I think I'll go back and revisit it just as we wind this down.
• 22:02
  And I want to be respectful of your time.
• 22:04
  I know it's a, you know, very, you know, obvious time of the
• 22:08
  year to talk about. Obviously Bauhaus and love and
• 22:11
  Rockets has such a fingerprint on Halloween.
• 22:14
  As a as a fan of just the season and and the music for so long.
• 22:20
  Does it amuse you? Does it does it annoy you at
• 22:23
  all? Do people ask you constantly
• 22:24
  about, you know, Bela Lugosi's dead and all this great music
• 22:28
  you wrote? Because like I reflect back, I
• 22:29
  read the Law Tolhurst book last year and he wrote a lot about,
• 22:33
  you know, his admiration for bows and and the scene and
• 22:36
  fellow bands and he, you know, no one considered it goth or
• 22:40
  post punk. It we were just you were just
• 22:42
  making music and no one thought about genre.
• 22:45
  Genre labels are from journalists.
• 22:47
  Guilty as charged. But you know, I didn't know if
• 22:50
  that you ever if people ask you a lot about this time of the
• 22:53
  year, suddenly the songs are everywhere, every party, every,
• 22:57
  every single event I've had. That doesn't annoy me.
• 23:00
  Why would it annoy me? Annoy me if, you know, it wasn't
• 23:03
  being talked about and played. You know, it's great that it's
• 23:06
  celebrated and, you know, I thank you very much.
• 23:09
  Yeah. No, I've recently played a gig
• 23:12
  with Lol. Lol and Robin Hitchcock is a
• 23:15
  charity gig to raise money for this, this charity that they
• 23:21
  supply schools, sort of underprivileged schools, kids
• 23:25
  from underprivileged areas, guitars and instruments, other
• 23:30
  instruments. And so they can make music, you
• 23:33
  know, it's a very good, good thing.
• 23:35
  So we did a we did a short set together with John, along with
• 23:39
  John Bernstein, the aforementioned keyboard player.
• 23:41
  And that was, that was great, wonderful experience.
• 23:44
  First time I played with Lala and actually the first time I
• 23:47
  played with Robin, although I've known him as a friend.
• 23:50
  But it was, yeah, it was a great little event that.
• 23:54
  Right on and we have new music to look forward to I believe
• 23:57
  from LOL and Budgie as well next year on their big projects.
• 24:00
  Yeah, I've nearly finished Budgie's autobiography.
• 24:06
  It's very good, very honest, very well written memoir.
• 24:10
  I would expect no less. He's also like, brilliant, like,
• 24:13
  you know, much like you and, and lol, like a great recall of
• 24:17
  those times. I don't remember what I ate for
• 24:19
  dinner last night and I can't think about 3540 years ago what
• 24:23
  I was doing. But it's wonderful to get these
• 24:25
  accounts first hand. I much prefer a book written by
• 24:28
  somebody that lived a life and was there.
• 24:30
  And, and so I did the things rather than someone's opinion of
• 24:34
  the stories. Right.
• 24:35
  Yeah. I'm currently working on an
• 24:37
  addendum to my memoir about the house, because when I I wrote
• 24:42
  that it came out in 2014, I thought the story was over, but
• 24:46
  it obviously wasn't. And so there's, you know,
• 24:48
  there's more tales to tell there.
• 24:51
  Right on you. You seem very, you know, I'm
• 24:53
  appreciative that you are very comfortable with your place in
• 24:55
  history and again, love and rockets also, you know,
• 24:58
  spectacular. You really came into your own,
• 25:00
  found your own voice, carried that forward for a long, long
• 25:04
  time. And you know, we have the music
• 25:07
  fortunately. And I, I do believe we're
• 25:09
  getting, I don't think anything has been announced that I've
• 25:11
  been made aware of, but I know we're kind of in the era of
• 25:14
  reissues and remasters and things.
• 25:17
  I'd love to see some of the 80s and 90s stuff remastered for
• 25:20
  vinyl now so we get a proper thing.
• 25:23
  I know record labels and vaults and rights and things are always
• 25:27
  squirrely. Well, we.
• 25:28
  We did do that recently with Love and Marcus.
• 25:29
  It was a box set and the the the remastering was excellent.
• 25:34
  It was done at Abbey Road and really top notch.
• 25:37
  So yeah. And the vinyl quality these days
• 25:39
  is so good, much better than the 80s.
• 25:42
  Right. Well, a lot of a lot of stuff in
• 25:43
  the 90s when after the first presses were done, when CDs came
• 25:47
  out, they were using CDs as a reference for vinyl.
• 25:52
  You should not do, should not have ever done.
• 25:54
  But some record companies were like, let's save time and money.
• 25:57
  What a mistake. But now that we're really in a
• 26:00
  new vinyl era, I, some of these represses and things on 180
• 26:05
  grand vinyl are majestic. I'll use that word.
• 26:08
  I don't overuse that word if I can help it.
• 26:10
  But yeah, I'm, I'm so stoked. And yeah, just a pleasure to
• 26:14
  catch up with you today and hear about this, this project and all
• 26:18
  the things you're working on. I know you have a brief tour
• 26:20
  coming up and I hope you will do more live gigs in the future in
• 26:25
  26. And I, you know, I just wish you
• 26:27
  the best and, and, you know, obviously strong health and
• 26:31
  continued resistance and creative output.
• 26:33
  Thank you so much, David J for your time today.
• 26:35
  Thank you very much. It's great.