JOHN WAITE INTERVIEW SENT BY PETRA BERENDS |
Hi all,
I was doing the dishes this afternoon (16.15 hours Dutch
time August 24th) and meanwhile listened to the radio. All of a sudden there was this: ‘’”In a few minutes we will be
talking to John Waite on the phone. The voice
of The Babys and Bad English. He has a new album which will be album of the week next
week.’” As Wouter already told, they will play a song every hour in the
afternoon.
And I went totally crazy.
I crabbed the first tape I laid my hands on and tape the interview. I missed
out on the beginning but managed to tape the rest. And of course, in the middle I ran out of tape. You will always see that that
will happen when there is something important to tape. Well here it goes.
The beginning was something like:
John got on the phone. It is 07.15 L.A. time. And the host
of the show said it’s early for you …….. you looked in the mirror and you
say, okay I’m starting a new life. Got out of bed and here I am.
* How does your new life look like?
Pretty good. I mean we just did a 3 months tour of America
with Peter Frampton and Journey, playing huge gigs outside and summer has been great. Now
we are doing a promotional tour, playing some life gigs and doing tv and radio and
I’, moving into my new apartment in Santa Monica in about 10 days and then we have
two weeks off, than we think we go on a tour across America as a headliner playing clubs
and Theatre’s and then we come to Europe.
* You come to Holland as well?
The have got that scheduled in as the first place we go on
tour.
* A couple of years ago you and most of the members of
Journey were in a band together called BE. How
does it feel to open for them now. Isn’t that a giant step back?
We were a last minute addition to the tour. They were just
going to do it with Peter F. and Journey. We were thinking of going on the read and doing
some gigs and warm up for the record to come out. And to get to that amount of people. The
band is very very good and the reception’s been incredible. So I don’t really
care about that. We have put on a tremendous show. I think we don’t rely on just a
greatest hits. That’s the interesting thing
about what I think we are doing. Although, yeah, missing you. I dit write it back then and
was big around the world and Isn’t it Time ……….. Who cares, they are
great songs but I have got a new album out now and I am very concerned with the present, I
don’t live in the past, it is a very strong edges to the music.
* Your new album is called Figure in a Landscape, why that
title?
(I ran out of tape but John read out a bit of the lyrics
of Figure in a Landscape ……. Loneliness
that’s me, …… it is a tragic sort of piano song, very dark and very beige,
you know. And I think take a line from one of the songs seams the sum up the tone of the
record. And that this album is being about getting into midlife, being adult and divorced,
its about isolation, about the great joy that you feel moving through your life and also
looking right and left at the aspect of just becoming more mature, you know.
* What is the relation between painting and rock music?
Graphic art. I used to paint and the song is about painting, a self
portrait, its a tragic painting. I said I was married and I went to art school. I am very
interesting in art. In whatever city I am in I check out the local art gallery, you know,
Francis Bacon, Otto Dix, ……. (I
could not figure out what he said), Vermeer, they are great painters. I always go and
check out art. So I try to get the two things to run parallel.
*Is it your painting on the cover of the album?
No, I stood in front of a Theatre backdrop of what looks
like a green park. But it is really only a
backdrop. When you open the album up you can see these cans paint and sweeping brushes and
trashcans and stuff . The idea is to draw up we are interacting with a huge illusion and
the isolation that comes with that is profound
“’Masterpiece’” is that a favourite of
yours? Because we are playing it next. Thank you and hope to see you in Holland.
THANK YOU SO MUCH PETRA FOR THIS!!!!! |
