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on Pere Ubu along with Velvets, Stooges and MC5.
Our first engineer and father of our current engineer,
Ken Hamann, was the engineer for songs like ‘Nobody
But Me’, ‘Time Won’t Let Me’, ‘Green Tambourine’,
all the early Terry Knight stuff, Bloodrock,
James Gang, etc.
Any British bands that have had a profound effect
upon you?
Profound? Probably not. Richard Thompson was
a big influence on the early 70s scene as were Soft
Machine, Pink Floyd (early), Incredible String Band.
Some guys were really into Kinks and Pretty Things.
Eno, of course. Kevin Ayres. John Cale.
The track ‘30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ seems prophetic
in its resonance. What were you trying to
express in that song?
It was a dramatic story of heroism and a book
that EVERY school boy read – Doolittle’s suicide
raid on Tokyo in 1942 just 2 months after Pearl
Harbor. A good choice for our cinematic approach.
Brief synopsis. US needed to strike a propaganda
blow against Japan right after Pearl Harbor and to
suggest to Japanese leaders that they were not safe
from retribution. Stripped down a flight of B-25s
of everything but a few bombs and launched them
off a carrier which they’d never be able to return to
(fuel) or land on (size). The plan was to drop bombs
on Tokyo harbour sites and crash land in China if
BUY Pere Ubu music online from and
they could make it, and then somehow get back to
America from the other side of the world. Most died.
It must take a lot of balls to sing in such unique
style. Where has it all come from?
It comes from not having a good voice, being tonedeaf
and not knowing what I was supposed to do. I
became the singer because the guitar I bought in order
to become the guitarist hurt my fingers. So I decided
to be the singer. I had NEVER sung and I couldn’t hit
any notes – I really am tone-deaf. So I had to figure
it out. What I figured out was that music also existed
as a spatial and temporal complex so I worked out
how to use those elements to communicate a story in a
musical way that had a semblance of melody. I create
a phrasing that makes use of those elements, engages
the instrumental elements, and it all somehow comes
out okay. At least after a couple initial years of trial
and error. That was part of my frustration of singing in
RFTT – I didn’t know how to handle not being able to
hear myself. Also in RFTT I sang other people’s songs
which I didn’t really understand so I didn’t know how
to construct them according to my methods and I knew
I sounded bad. As well I have no method to remember
what I sing, i.e. a melody. That’s why every time I sing
a song it varies to a greater or lesser extent. That’s why I
mostly only do material I write with musicians I know.
The artwork you’ve used on record sleeves is a
fantastic portfolio. What’s behind that?
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