Arthur Brown was interviewed by Mike Thorne in a resonant, decommissioned church in Lewes, near Brighton, England from 3pm Friday June 7 2002
The
perfect place
The perfect sound
You don't behave like a grand old man of rock+roll.
Do people treat you that way?
RealAudio
Has Fire remained a looming presence,
impossible to get away from?
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You mentioned the good and
evil elements. These seem to be mirrored today in the heavy metal
and Goth departments.
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Do
you think it is possible, in contemporary surroundings, to write
something as shocking now as Fire was then?
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It seems that an artist's
job is to look over the edge and report back, although that way lies
craziness...
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Is this boundary a moving
target? Is it in a different place for you now than it was thirty
years ago?
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The real trick for the artist
is to follow the experience with the communication of it, although
that way lurks self-indulgence.....
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You seem to describe yourself
as a conduit, reminiscent of one composer's [Michael Tippett's] observation
that he didn't make the music, it was just out there to be found.....
RealAudio
To
go from the sublime to the ridiculous. You were one of the very first
people to use a drum machine. Is this completely at odds with the
spiritual plane you have just described?
RealAudio
But Pythagoras was dealing
with precise measurements and linear concepts. In music, things can
go creatively wrong and get runny at the edges. Do you see technology
helping such processes?
RealAudio
There's a dialectic between
man and machine which can be one sided. There seems to be much contemporary
music where the machine is the master.......
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The use of technology can become a political issue,
raising the issues of social control against which you fought in the
sixties. Do you see contemporary parallels?
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An articulate Frenchman
once commented slightly condescendingly that the bourgeoisie would
adopt and therefore neutralize any radical idea. What crosses your
mind when you hear Fire being used in a television commercial?
RealAudio
You
mentioned that in the sixties, one of the givens was that music was
anti-establishment. The establishment had its own music from Frank
Sinatra downwards. Now, music is very much seen as establishment,
and embraces rock stars. Do you think that there might be another
layer of music in sight which could be genuinely alternative in the
old sense, now that our own generation has, for the most part, capitulated? Or
do you think it has all closed down?
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It sounds as if we're the
victims of our own professionalism.
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How do you see yourself
fitting into such a new world order?
RealAudio
to Arthur Brown's Stereo Society home (all links)
to the full text of Arthur's interview
to a partial Arthur Brown discography
to the Fire page on The Contessa's Party
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