Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Here come the warm jets
Two interviews... one with Brian Eno, and one with Neil Finn. Neil is interviewed by Gary Steel in the latest issue of Metro magazine, the full text is on their website.

It seems Neil was displeased with a review Gary wrote on the mag's website, about a listening session for the new Crowded House album - he wrote that listening sessions are like "The modern equivalent of Chinese water torture, the volunteer victims then have to decide on their tactic for the next hour: Stare vacantly into space, feigning great concentration? Scream at other victims over the din? Drink with great enthusiasm? Be seen to be taking copious, possibly derogatory notes? The first Crowded House album in well over a decade sounds like, um, pretty much like a Crowded House album, really. Except it’s a bit hard to hear clearly, really, because someone’s cranked it up to ear-splitting, heavy metal levels..." (He also wrote some nice things about it too.)

"When Gary Steel went to interview Neil Finn about the reborn Crowded House, the musician took him to task about a certain review.
Neil: I read your little piece actually.
Gary:
On MetroLive?
Neil:
Yeah. [Read Gary Steel’s piece here.]
Gary: A bit too facetious for you?
Neil: It made me curious, I was going to ask you why you bothered coming, to be honest, because if it was like Chinese water torture, why would you put yourself through it?

And then Neil listens to Gary's answer, and asks him the same question, again. And again. And again. Til he's asked it SIX TIMES. Tenacious little bugger. (Full interview transcript here) Props to Gary for not letting grumpy Uncle Neil get to him.

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