Gang Of Four
Archived
The seminal Gang Of Four released their new album Shrinkwrapped in September. This is the group’s first recording since 1991’s Mall. The Gang Of Four has reappeared, and the core songwriting duo lineup of guitarist Andy Gill and vocalist Jon King is intact. Curve’s Steve Monti pounded the skins, while Iggy Pop side man Phil Butcher played bass. The eleven new songs see them return to the simple, driving bass lines and savage neo-industrial guitar of their critically acclaimed early releases. I talked to Gill over the phone while he took a break from writing. This time with Michael Hutchence of INXS wailing in the background…
SLUG: Well, we’re big fans and have loved the band since day one. Plus we always try and put a band that nobody else is putting on the cover. We try to do somebody that’s cool.
AG: Well, you got the right one here.
SLUG: You mean you’re cool, or you’re not on the cover of other magazines?
AG: Well we’re not seeing many covers right now, no.
SLUG: Well, that’s because you’re not Alanis Morissette.
AG: Thank God.
SLUG: Tell me about how Gang Of Four formed. Mostly it was you and Jon?
AG: Jon and I have been friends since we were 14 or something and we both went to art college together when we were 19 or so and that’s where we started the band. He and I lived in the same house and we were just sitting around playing chess, drinking gin and writing songs. You’ve got a lot of time as an art student in this country. You have about 3 hours of things per week that you have to go to and beyond that it’s all your own time. Which is probably why so many bands have come out of the art education system in this country. And then at some point, we started looking for other people to play drums and bass.
SLUG: You released Entertainment! in ‘79, obviously you didn’t know at the time how big of a record Entertainment! was going to be—as far as influential albums go?
AG: I knew I was making something that was really good. I kind of said as much at the time to the other guys in the band and friends. I got a fair amount of scorn heaped upon me. But I knew it was something hot.
SLUG: When that record first came out it seemed like some people were saying, “This is really weird stuff,” and everyone else was saying, “Oh my God, this is just a great album.” And then years later you get voted number 41, top 100 LPs of all time.
AG: Which book was that in?
SLUG: Virgin Books number Entertainment #41 of the 100 best LPs of all time.
AG: Virgin Books?
SLUG: And then Rolling Stone magazine, also, 100 best LPs of the ‘80s and I think it was number 64. It’s probably more of a bathroom utensil really. I would probably stick it up there in the top 20 records of the ‘80s. It’s a great record. Is it weird for you knowing that you influenced all these other bands and guitar players and songwriters and basically made careers for all these people?
AG: Yeah, I know, fuck. God, checks please.
SLUG: No shit, they should start sending you royalties.
AG: I know they should be, really, if they had any conscience. They don’t. I’m writing with Hutchence at the moment.
SLUG: What are you guys doing?
AG: Well at the moment he’s trying to tune the guitar, not very well. We’re doing his solo album.
SLUG: You’re playing guitar on his solo album?
AG: Well, we might do some of it together. It’s really interesting, cause I’ve always really loved his singing. I haven’t always loved INXS but I’ve always loved his voice and his performance, you know?
SLUG: I’ve got to agree with you on that one. But you could say that about many bands. Including U2 and REM. Which I think is kind of weird because, I can see it from REM because they were long. But U2, he’s on the other end of the spectrum of guitar players to you. He’s the commercial wide open guitar player, and you’re the original idea innovative guitar player.
AG: He did do a few things that were kind of in my style of a while. And finally Bono says to me that we were the main influence on U2 in the early years, you know. He’s totally out front about that. He’s probably going to be writing some sleeve notes for the third album.
SLUG: Well that’s nice of him to say, isn’t it?
AG: Yeah, exactly. Especially Flea, who was so rude about The Edge on the first album.
SLUG: Well let’s get into your guitar playing then. How exactly did you learn to play guitar like that? Why didn’t you become an average guitar player?
AG: Because I’ve never had interest in playing like other people and I can’t. That thing of sitting around and working out how to play such and such a solo and all that stuff was never interesting at all. I never did it and it’s too dull. Having said that there’s certain things which I sort of learned and which have kind of affected me and for example Eric Satie, the French composer from the 19th century. He’s this fantastic French composer, definitely my favorite classical music, and he wrote on the piano and I eventually learned to play one or two, I’m talking about music more recently and things like learning some of that stuff has showed me a couple of things.
SLUG: There’s no mistaking your guitar playing. So from an outside point of view it’s hard to imagine how you came to play with your style.
AG: I was basically obsessed with Hendrix in my early teenage years, I didn’t really play anything for about two or three years. I was 13, 14, that was all I listened to. After that I found out that the blues guys and that used to love this stuff passionately and you kind of love its character and you identify with it. But all these things, they belong to that time, to that place, to that person, to that situation. And I always feel slightly, you know, the whole retro thing I find suspect. It’s sad. I can understand saying what’s happening right now in music isn’t satisfying, there’s something wrong, there’s something fraudulent about it. But the response to that is to create something new and do something which the other stuff isn’t doing. Not to go back and rehash about an earlier time.
SLUG: Anyone else you would quote as an influence?
AG: Well, I suppose Muddy Waters, you know, just cause the simplicity of it and drama. The drama and simplicity of Muddy Waters was quite an influence. I’ve always wanted to make the guitar work, the guitar should be the narrative protagonist in a drama, in a play. It’s like another character along with the voices. And it should sort of work in there with it and not just be playing over the top of it or just filling in chords. It should be like one of the lead voices, in essence not thinking of Gang Of Four songs as being the best ones I think are like… it’s like a little play. There’s maybe one or two voices, there’s maybe a character, a narrator and the guitar. It’s the way they work together which makes it fascinating to me. (Yelling in the background).
SLUG: So what’s Michael yelling about?
AG: Well, we haven’t got any words at the moment it’s just like ohs and awes.
SLUG: How did you get to produce the Chili Peppers’ first album?
AG: They just contacted me and said was I interested in doing it. And I went to see them live and I thought it was great and at that time they were like ¾ punk rock and ¼ of this funky stuff. And I just really, really encouraged them to do the funky element which it’s quite well documented that it was a stressful effort to make. But we get along fine. I saw them the other day and Flea’s a quite sensitive guy and for years he’s sort of been trying to apologize to me for it having been a difficult time and for them being assholes as he puts it.
SLUG: Tell me about what’s happening now, you doing this thing with Hutchence. INXS is not finished are they?
AG: No, they’re not.
SLUG: So it’s more of a solo project for him, or is it a duo thing?
AG: Yeah, basically it is. There’s a couple of Gang Of Four people that might be playing on it. There’s Monti, he played the drums on Shrinkwrapped, he’s already done some work on it. And Gail Ann Dorsey who played in Mall and is currently touring with Bowie. She’s an American woman who plays bass and sings like a bird.
SLUG: So when you reformed to do Shrinkwrapped, you had no interest at all in reforming the original band, right?
AG: No, no interest at all.
SLUG: So how do you feel about Shrinkwrapped? Do you like the record?
AG: Yeah, there’s always that thing of when you start… once you toured the record it changes, the songs change a bit. Somehow there’s more drama to it now live than there is on the record a little bit.
SLUG: I think “I Parade Myself” is probably one of the best songs.
AG: I think it’s going to be the next single.
SLUG: So do you listen to Entertainment, is it hard to listen to?
AG: Rarely. The only time I ever hear it is when somebody else puts it on somewhere. I would never kind of put it on and listen to it, you know? Jon and I listen to… the last time we kind of properly listened to it was when we remastered it for the CD. That was interesting.
SLUG: Was it? Why?
AG: Well for one thing the tape had disintegrated. Some of the Ampex tapes from that particular time in the ‘70s are literally falling to pieces. It’s oxidized and the shit is falling off and you have to put it in an oven for three days.
SLUG: Are you kidding me?
AG: No, no I’m not kidding you. This is totally straight up. I know it sounds stupid but it’s true. You put it on a very low heat for three days and you literally bake it and then you can play it without the stuff falling off. And it’s not just a regular oven, it’s a special oven.
SLUG: So you had to do that before the remastering of the record.
AG: We tried to remaster it and the sound was changing every 30 seconds and we realized the tape heads were getting clogged up with tape literally.
SLUG: Tell me some records that you think are great records.
AG: There’s too may. I mean I think the Velvet Underground record. (Michael shouting in background) You know, the INXS record Kick, that’s one that I mean… Michaels shouting welcome to wherever you are.
SLUG: Welcome to wherever you are.
AG: Yeah, and let’s think. You know the Band, the brown record the Band and Big Pink, those two and…
SLUG: What about new stuff? Anything new at all that you even think is remotely good?
AG: Yeah, I love the Black Grape record.
SLUG: Yeah, the Black Grape record’s really good.
AG: Fucking great.
SLUG: What do you think about the British Pop invasion of the ‘90s like Blur and Verve and Oasis and all those guys?
AG: Blur is a little bit too much in the kind of Paul Weller camp for my liking and Oasis I enjoy quite a lot. They’re pretty damn good.
SLUG: You hate answering these kinds of questions don’t you?
AG: Yeah, I guess so.
SLUG: Well we won’t talk about those anymore. When you guys did a little tour, Was that Michael singing again? Sounds like you guys are getting ready to do that project.
AG: It’s just been mega fun. It’s been kind of a laugh I mean Michael obviously is a full-on pop star which is quite entertaining.
SLUG: So you get to walk around with him and girls run up to him and give him all the looks.
AG: Well, you know, he’s this big, big thing in Britain because he’s with Paula Yates now. Who was still is Bob Geldof’s wife.
SLUG: Which is quite the big stink now, I take it.
AG: That’s right, the papers talk about nothing else.
SLUG: So none of the Boomtown Rats are going to play on this record?
AG: Well you never know.
SLUG: Geldof and Hutchence doing a little duet?
AG: No.
SLUG: You want to make a comment about all the bands that are now famous and do you think that Gang Of Four will get their due now?
AG: Yeah, that sort of stuff is happening. It’s kind of a question of when things are going to get to radio and stuff and all that.
SLUG: At least you’re not bitter.
AG: No, absolutely not.
SLUG: Well I can imagine you’re not begging for change on the street, either.
AG: Things are cool.
SLUG: Oh, I know what else I wanted to ask you. You know that there’s a writer for Q Magazine named Andy Gill. Is it you?
AG: No, you’re thinking of someone else. That’s not me. I don’t agree with much of anything he writes, either.
Read more from the SLUG archives here: