- All Stars And All Sorts – I don’t get the album title. Please explain.?
- Film Music – I need some music for my film. I don’t have a big budget. Can you do me a deal?
- Flesh Blood Wood Steel – Did I hear “Four Little Words” on MTV?
- Flesh Blood Wood Steel – What does that mean?
- Music video – Why don’t you have a video out for your album?
- Weird Stain – Am I nuts or did I see a Weird Stain album in a Bud Light spot?
- Weird Stain – On “Weird Stain” there’s a song called “Invective.” Pretty strong stuff! Who was it written about?
- Weird Stain – What is “Stars & Starmen” is about?
- Weird Stain – Whatever possessed you to call that cool instrumental track called “Taxidermist’s Daughter”?
All Stars And All Sorts – I don’t get the album title. Please explain.
This is a compilation album of stuff in the vaults – much of it from the days when I played bass with the Stiff All Stars. I shot the album cover with a bunch of toy stars and added some English candy called Liquorice All Sorts as well…hence All Stars and All Sorts.
The album features some quite fabulous musicians by the way. As well as my old band mate Andy Murray there’s Seb Shelton from Dexy’s, Pete Glenister of Terence Trent D’Arby and Kirsty MacColl fame, Phil Barnes from Any Trouble, Mike Gaffey from the Hitmen and Judd Lander who played the harp solo on Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon.
Film Music – I need some music for my film. I don’t have a big budget. Can you do me a deal?
Absolutely.
You won’t get it for free but you be surprised what a dollar will buy you. As long as you fill out the proper cue-sheet paperwork for your film you can have as much as you like.
Flesh Blood Wood Steel – Did I hear “Four Little Words” on MTV?
Yes. About seven of the tracks of this album were used on MTV’s Undressed show. Also Bucks Won’t Buy You Love was featured in the 2gether movie I did for MTV.
Flesh Blood Wood Steel – What does that mean?/h4>
Those are the four things that it took to make the album. Flesh and blood: people. Wood, steel: guitars.
Music video – Why don’t you have a video out for your album?
Videos exist to publicize an artist and their latest CD – the ultimate goal is to have your video played regularly on MTV. Hopefully the result of this exposure is that all you consumers race down to your local CD store and purchase said CD – a simple case of cause and effect. However, in an ideal world, a number of other factors need to be in place to ensure this simple process works, e.g. radio play, national promotion and distribution.
Like many independant ‘artists’ I’m not signed to a label with the requisite muscle to provide such groundwork and consequently it’s doubtful making a video would pay off. Also the music I make is rather eclectic and not the kind of stuff that radio stations are playing right now. Consequently my music exists proudly in the sub-culture waiting for music lovers to stumble upon it and I do all I can to let people know without it getting in the way of my ‘real’ job…
Weird Stain – Am I nuts or did I see a Weird Stain album in a Bud Light spot?
You’re not nuts – you’re actually quite observant. I shot a commercial for Bud Light featuring Three Doors Down in a record store. In a couple of shots you could clearly see album sleeves in the CD racks which we didn’t have the rights for. It’s possible we would have gotten away with it but just for safety we used copies of my album so that we wouldn’t get sued.
I’d like to report that I saw a massive spike in sales after the ad got shown but…
Weird Stain – On “Weird Stain” there’s a song called “Invective.” Pretty strong stuff! Who was it written about?
Contrary to most people’s assumptions the song is NOT about an ex-girlfriend. The song is about someone from a label who was in charge of a video I was directing. Without question their attitude was the least helpful, most negative, most interfering I have EVER had to deal with. Nothing I could do was right. I even volunteered to leave the job and let them direct it as, quite obviously, they knew better than me. This person annoyed me so much that I was inspired to write this song in order to get it (and them) out of my system.
Weird Stain – What is “Stars & Starmen” is about?
“Stars & Starmen” took me thirty years to write!
When I started writing it my big musical heroes were David Bowie and Mott The Hoople so the song is about them and how they intersected with my life. Hence the opening line: “You may sing of your Whizzkid, you may talk of your Starman.” Whizzkid being a Mott The Hoople song and Starman a Bowie track.
Verse two contains more clues: “The pinups and absurd.” Pinups being a Bowie album. “On Saturdays I made the gigs” is a reference to the Mott single “Saturday Gigs”.
“Jean Genie’s gone to Croydon” – Jean Genie you already know I hope. Croydon is mentioned because it’s mentioned in ‘Saturday Gigs.
Finally: “And so I bought the 45’s once bitten always high…” Once Bitten Twice Shy was of course a hit for Ian Hunter when he went solo. 20 years after I wrote this verse Great White hired me to make a video for that song which I thought was pretty cool.
…I guess you had to be there!
Weird Stain – Whatever possessed you to call that cool instrumental track called “Taxidermist’s Daughter”?
t comes from an old joke. She was only the Taxidermist’s daughter but when she said stuff it…
OK so it’s not a very good joke but it seemed like a great idea at the time and it stuck. I was going to hire a girl with a hot voice to say “Stuff it” at the start of the track but never got round to it.