To do music, you always need a little craziness to be effective. You balance the craziness with the creativity without losing the ability to do it.
RealAudio

You need to take a few risks to say anything. Sometimes the risks are indulgent; sometimes they're going on somewhere special. (Is that a bit earnest?)
RealAudio

The punk time was a time of "do-it-yourself"-- throwing away the received wisdom, which had accumulated for a long time. That gave you a start, didn't it?
RealAudio

Your comments sound somewhat negative, though. What were the positive things about the punk era?
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Do you think punk was more about the message than the guitar twiddling and window dressing? Everybody seemed to have something to say.
RealAudio

There's much politics under the surface in your music. How do you think politics and pop music work together?
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How does that translate into punk today or what's called punk today? (You can be an old codger if you want to.)
RealAudio

With the emphasis on the charts, it is difficult to distinguish between the message and the style. People buy the style rather than the message. What’s the chance of saying something that is controversial? Is it less possible or more possible than a generation ago?
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How do you think that the Internet effects the way people can say new things?
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Would you join in the pro-Napster chorus?
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What does right and left mean in this context? Does it mean people who have a clear income path versus those who don't? On the other hand, is there a more fundamental social issue?
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It sounds like a sixties litany. The fact that you should be pursuing what you do and saying what you do and doing it on the outside. You draw a lot from the sixties.
RealAudio

It was in the mid-seventies when you came of age, so to speak. Then, it was a put-down to say that somebody was ‘very heavy metal’, although the sound of punk chainsaw guitar and the sound of heavy metal are very close. Similarly, it was a put-down to say somebody was a hippie, but you're saying there were more connections than were acknowledged at the time.
RealAudio

Often with the Punks in the seventies, you were labeled a hippie or you were labeled a heavy metal. Do you think that sometimes the baby was thrown out with the bath water? When you throw everything out, you throw some good stuff out at the same time.
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How do you find new things now? The world is getting increasingly open, courtesy of the Internet. In the old days, you would say you liked punk music and that was enough to focus you. How do you find the focus now? How do you filter all the stuff that is available? How does somebody in the street decide what he or she would like to pursue?
RealAudio

Going back to Tokyo and the park-- do you think that because of their distance they are more able to sense a message more independently of style than we can?
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What happens when Napster runs out and people like you and I have to earn a living by people paying for our efforts. What do you think is going to happen?
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Is all property theft? You might write a song or you might build an outside toilet. Is owning the outside toilet in your house theft anymore than owning the song, if you make it yourself?
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What system can replace it? Any speculations?
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The consumer has dictated that The Spice Girls are great.
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How can we break out of it, or is it terminal?
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You've been self-effacing since the mid-seventies. You've written at least one classic song, The Toys Take Over, and there are others. How do you deal with writing a classic song? You spoke out about the Hendrixes and the food, but surely, a classic song has to exist in the present, also.
RealAudio

What are the next projects? How do you find the path to what to do next?
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What do you think the landscape looks to somebody who is now the age you were when you were in The Damned? What’s the difference for somebody trying to say something now?
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Do you think they can play guitar?
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Captain Sensible at the Stereo Society (selection):
To the full text of Captain Sensible's interview
To audio clips from the Captain's interview
To Captain Sensible's Discography
To the Sprawl version of Toys Take Over
Download the mp3 remix of The Toys Tango

Captain Sensible external links:
To the Captain's Log
To the Damned official website

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