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| Ryan's Interview |
| Thursday, 24 May 2007 | |
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1. What album (or release) were the songs "Please Find a Way" and "Your
Dream and My Illusion" intended to be released on? How do such great
songs get developed as far as those two were, but don't make "the cut"
in the end?
Claude: "Please Find a Way" was for Worth. The other song was for Peace. Too many songs. Sometimes it happens. I really do like them, though. 2. Is it true that Claude had written hundreds of songs by the time the first album was being worked on? How many of those older songs have been revisited / reworked in the years since? Claude: Hardly any. In fact, if I think about it, only one in the last 10 years... "Need" was from 1991... 100 songs or more... Yes, but I have to say I am very picky. Not all of them are good. Some just have a slice of time and that's all they get. What makes me sad is that I didn't record all of them. Some only exist on paper and my sonic brain memory. Some simply sit and wait, like Nineteen... 3. Anything Box seems to write a lot about the human condition, everything from major world events to personal trials. There's been a lot of talk about global warming lately, and I'm curious if a song like "Atlantis" was somewhat related to that? About California falling into the ocean. Or was that just a sort of closing line to the song? Claude: It was not about global warming per say. I was given a map that showed what the world was expected to look like by 2012. I shouldn't be living in California by then. According to the Mayan calendar, this is when the earth shifts, and California falls into the ocean. I was studying these theories. It seems this is how we get our ice ages. 4. Do you believe that the world would benefit greatly from a benevolent alien species if such a race were to announce their presence to us? Or would it play out like a sci fi movie or TV show, with the Earthlings feeling threatened no matter what and trying to ward off the aliens? (Sometimes I think we're hopeless, and that's why aliens have never made themselves really known to us.) Claude: The benefit would be that humans would have to come together regardless of differences in view of this, and things like religion and racism would take a backseat to learning and adapting. On the other hand, if they were technologically evolved but naive, we would do horrible things to them. Sad, but true. We aren't hopeless. Just a bit dense. 5. Isn't it kind of scary to think that Claude doesn't write bad songs? Thinking about all the albums and releases, I can't come up with any really terrible songs that I have to skip. (This is, of course, a good thing.) Claude: Oh he does. You just don't hear them. Or to some people, they do. 6. Turning the tables, what song or songs do you like the least? Claude: Country songs. 7. So how many versions of "Life is Fun" are out there? Perhaps not as many as there are of "LiO" or "Jubilation," but it's a great song. Claude: Actually just one, and some funky references to it as instrumentals. I recenty remastered it for the movie, "Mo". This is the first feature film that we have a song in. Very happy about it. 8. What is the official Anything Box hangout? Besides Denny's... Claude: LOL. There is a coffee house by my house that is sooo unique it will make me sad if it ever closes. We go there late at night and soak up the atmosphere it gives. Other than that, planes, hotels, airports, stages. And more airports. 9. Is there a synthesizer or keyboard that you've kept all through the years? Something you liked so much that you've never gotten rid of it? Claude: Ensoniq ESQ1, which is in terrible shape, but it is a board that brought me freedom, came with me from NJ, and sits and laughs at me from its corner of retirement while I continue to work. Everything else is pretty much gone. I wish I still had an MPC. I like it. But in truth it would be to keep the ESQ company. 10. Influences. Sometimes I wonder if a band is influenced by something besides another band or musician, their music will turn out very different. Like the weather, current events, life experiences, a bed of flowers, and other non-music things. (I don't really mean drugs, but that could be a factor too since it has been for some bands since at least the 60s.) Any thoughts on this? It's kind of hard to explain... Claude: Influence is in everything. Not just other bands. Bands are usually inspiration to do music, but not create the experience of what happens as we express it. Let's say I get up, and I listen to the sound of a train in the distance, and as I take the first sip of my coffee, the flavor of it reminds me of a train ride I took when I was a child. My mother was drinking coffee as we sat on the train, both of us staring out the window. The houses are rushing by, and as I'm staring, she says, "We'll be there soon..." thinking perhaps that I am sullen because my eyes have taken on a glassy texture. I am, infact, wanting the ride to go on forever, because I am intoxicated by the blur of the scenery. It moves my mind, and I pretend it is me flying, not a train, but just flying... like a seagull... This is how one becomes empathic. Impressions are not merely things to an artist. They are profound moments that may seem trivial to someone else. But I can play these back anytime I want, and really be there, almost time traveling, and feed on them like a memory vampire, to be recoded as yet another impression... Which I just gave to you. |
