Der Spiegel, November 19, 2010: Difference between revisions
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SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Costello, you just have your | SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Costello, you have just released have your 30th Album. "[[ National Ransom ]]" is a double album with songs that celebrate American rock, jazz and country from the past hundred years. Partial publish it on old-fashioned vinyl records 78s. Can you actually do and leave what you want ? | ||
Elvis Costello : So first time I 've | Elvis Costello : So for the first time I've not cared about what authorities called my music, no matter if there are critics or record companies. These people do not buy records. The only people that matter, are sitting in the audience. But I don't even have that in mind when I write songs. I try not to think at all about such a thing. What I'm thinking is whether I can ever make an album such as "National Ransom" again. | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE : What? How do you say that? | SPIEGEL ONLINE : What? How do you say that? | ||
Costello : Well, it's been a double album , I love to think in these old categories: a double album ! I 've never done before by the way . So be it: we have recorded in Nashville - it was traveling, a studio and a variety of musicians who had to be paid. And because the music industry is on the precipice, one has to consider whether to | Costello : Well, it's been a double album, I love to think in these old categories: a double album ! I've never done before by the way. So be it: we have recorded in Nashville - it was traveling, a studio and a variety of musicians who had to be paid. And because the music industry is on the precipice, one has to consider whether to invest your own savings to make such a huge album that perhaps may only sell twelve copies in the end. Maybe I need to limit myself in the future to writing songs and playing them live. Or do I take individual songs and try to bring them to the man somehow, whether on disk or in digital form. My preference is for vinyl recordings, but I am also aware that not everyone agrees and it's a pretty uncomfortable medium. | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The music industry is in crisis, no question, but | SPIEGEL ONLINE: The music industry is in crisis, no question, but aren't you being a bit bleak ? | ||
Costello : Not at all, I'm just a realist. I have already thought about years ago to stop making records, because the process that was set in motion after the strictly economic agenda of the record company was always arduous. Only when I have made myself completely free of it , I | Costello : Not at all, I'm just a realist. I have already thought about years ago to stop making records, because the process that was set in motion after the strictly economic agenda of the record company was always arduous. Only when I have made myself completely free of it , was I again able to enjoy working on an album. I love it so, making records ! For me, it has a great value, they compile and ultimately are there to keep physically in your hands, but this love is increasingly clouded by the politics of labels. | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE: When an unknown band complained it could even understand, but is such a well-known and successful musician as you are not wealthy enough to even get on to the emergency without record company ? | SPIEGEL ONLINE: When an unknown band complained it could even understand, but is such a well-known and successful musician as you are not wealthy enough to even get on to the emergency without record company ? | ||
Costello : Would you think, yes. But most of the money I immediately re-invested in my work. If you are like me in 1986 for five consecutive days | Costello : Would you think, yes. But most of the money I immediately re-invested in my work. If you are like me in 1986 playing for five consecutive days in Los Angeles, an evening solo, three evenings with [[ The Attractions]], one with [[The Confederates]], then two different bands locally who must be paid and accommodated in an hotel. And guess what, whose money is it? | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE : If you ask this question, then you have probably paid out of pocket ... | SPIEGEL ONLINE : If you ask this question, then you have probably paid out of pocket ... | ||
Costello : Exactly. But there it is again: There are certain things that one would like to do , and then you put money in there . But I am not thereby | Costello : Exactly. But there it is again: There are certain things that one would like to do, and then you put money in there . But I am not thereby becoming rich. My wife and I work hard, we go on tour constantly to ensure a good life for our children and us. However, I could not stop myself from now on the same and rest on my pad: There is none ! Luckily I was never keen on amassing money and have never invested in funds or something. As has now been found that had no value anyway. | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE: | SPIEGEL ONLINE: Does that mean you could not pay to produce an album from your own pocket and then repay the cost of it through the sales and the tour? | ||
Costello : No, no way, if you like to go for "National Ransom" with high-profile people in the studio, then you want to be paid in the appropriate time , and rightly so ! | Costello : No, no way, if you like to go for "National Ransom" with high-profile people in the studio, then you want to be paid in the appropriate time, and rightly so ! Earning through touring is my daily bread, and in the truest sense of the word, because the proceeds of that is just enough to live, when it's all paid off : Trucks, roadies, musicians, and so on. | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE : So you need a record company. | SPIEGEL ONLINE : So you need a record company. | ||
Costello : I do not necessarily need a record company , but I need someone who | Costello : I do not necessarily need a record company , but I need someone who can advance me the money it lends me if you will. The record company is like a bank, and therefore also the image fits so well, because the labels are now multinational corporations in which fewer and fewer of the people who are working, are interested in music or familiar with music. Many of them friends of mine who work for many years in the music business will be shown the door and then hired back as consultants or freelancers because it is cheaper for the labels. It's a shame, really. | ||
SPIEGEL: Does that make you nostalgic ? Listening to the songs of your new album, the play often in recent decades, according to a longing for earlier felt, as many things were not as complicated as it is today. | SPIEGEL: Does that make you nostalgic ? Listening to the songs of your new album, the play often in recent decades, according to a longing for earlier felt, as many things were not as complicated as it is today. | ||
Costello : Not really. My parents were born in the late twenties , although they do not have clear memories of the time of the economic crisis and the Depression era, but they had to cope with the consequences . And they had to live through the anxiety and tension of World War II. When I lived in the eighties , to the wedding of the IRA terror in Ireland, I was every time I crossed the border by car, double and triple checked, because I seemed somehow familiar to the border guards. And that could only mean for them at the time that they know me from a wanted poster. What I want to say: Every age has its advantages and disadvantages, and the time in which we live, is now the only one we have. | Costello : Not really. My parents were born in the late twenties, although they do not have clear memories of the time of the economic crisis and the Depression era, but they had to cope with the consequences. And they had to live through the anxiety and tension of World War II. When I lived in the eighties , to the wedding of the IRA terror in Ireland, I was every time I crossed the border by car, double and triple checked, because I seemed somehow familiar to the border guards. And that could only mean for them at the time that they know me from a wanted poster. What I want to say: Every age has its advantages and disadvantages, and the time in which we live, is now the only one we have. | ||
SPIEGEL ONLINE : But it was not, for example, in the late seventies, when you started to make music easier, political statement, because concepts such as right and left were not so blurred ? | SPIEGEL ONLINE : But it was not, for example, in the late seventies, when you started to make music easier, political statement, because concepts such as right and left were not so blurred ? |
Revision as of 22:48, 11 September 2013
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