Interview: Everett True
Photo collage: Yoko Ono
This interview was transcribed by an intern at Careless Talk Costs Lives – the awesome Grace Fox, probably – upon my return from New York (where I was actually researching my Ramones book: I believe my accommodation arrangements were split between Kid Millions from Oneida’s floor – I met him by throwing up into his bin, fortunately he turned out to be a forgiving chap – and a glitzy NYC hotel paid for by Parlophone). So some of the sentences and song references might not make any sense. I would have tided them up when I came to write the feature.
Interesting to note I took out the only Beatles reference from the final article (although not in an abridged version I later wrote for great New York magazine BB Gun).
Incidentally, that opening question I throw Yoko’s way … it really did use to be the only question I had prepared for interviews. Everything else that follows is a result of the ongoing conversation. I’ve always preferred to have conversations rather than do Q/A interviews, which is why I’ve stopped doing interviews in these days of the email and Skype and 15-minute phone calls.
The album under discussion is 2001’s Blueprint For A Sunrise (called a “concept album of experimental feminist rock” by Wikipedia.)
“… we played it to a couple of DJs. It went into the shops on Tuesday and by Wednesday it was sold out. It’s great. They’re jumping and dancing and it’s great. I like it.”
I only ever have one question that I ask anyone so I’ll ask it.
“Go on. You know, your name is extremely difficult, what is it?”
Everett. It’s not my real name.
“It’s nice, Everett. Is that why you chose it?”
It’s actually a cartoon character from the 1900s. This portly old gentleman, someone would be doing something wrong in the first panel like leaving a horse out in a snow or blocking the entrance to a train, and in the second panel he’d be kicking their arse. So that’s where I got the name from. It’s a good name.
“People remember it too.”
So my one question is “what motivates you to work?”
“What motivates me?”
To still make music, to still make albums.
“Well, I think music is the beat of life for me. It’s like my heart, you just have to keep on going. Motivation is too light a word for it. It is life itself to me. It’s like I have to keep on breathing, it’s a way of survival, a way of being alive.”
Yeah, it kind of came across like that to me on your new album.
“A way of being alive.”
Yeah, your songs kind of seemed like an affirmation of life. It was very interesting to me the way you moved between different musical styles.
“It’s good, isn’t it? I’ve always done that. Especially in this one, I think it’s prominent because it is almost like life itself, it’s like my diary and in your daily life, you do go from one thing to another. ‘This is a rock album, this is a dance album’- I’m not like that. Sometimes you’re on the stage and sometimes you’re not.’
Yeah, it starts off almost like in heartbeats.
“Do you know that the first song is a live take?”
Really?
“Yeah, it was done in a concert.”
Excellent. Then you reprise it with the second song?
“Well the second song was a studio take.”
They’re quite different songs, why did you have them with the same title?
“Oh, no. You’re talking about ‘I Want You To Remember Me’ in two sections. That wasn’t a studio take. No, the whole thing, A and B, was done in concert. I just said A and B because some people don’t want to hear the dialogue part of it.”
They’re quite different.
“Yes. We did it straight through in the concert.”
There’s that song where you’re talking about walking in Central Park and it’s got a kind of reggae beat to it. I’m really bad with song titles…
“You’re talking about ‘Wrecking’?”
Yeah.
“Isn’t that great? Usually reggae is an upbeat thing. This is kind of upbeat but also down as well.”
It’s kind of sad as well. Was that a deliberate thing? Because I kind of felt that the music you were playing was reflecting the music of Central Park, the song in Central Park.
“Well, it’s a woman thing. All women understand it.”
Yeah. The whole album, it seems to have quite a sad mood to it.
“You feel that?”
Yeah. Not always but there’s a kind of melancholy.
“Yeah, probably because my life was pretty rough, you know.”
(continues overleaf)
