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citizen30
- FB Fan -
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2002 : 20:45:00
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On IFC (Independent Film Channel ) I am watching a movie called In the Bathtub of the World its by a filmmaker Caveh Zahedi, which is basically a Documentary, where he records his life for one minute of every day. Now to the point, he has this self proclaimed obsession for none other than Frank Black. He apparently had a conversation with Frank during it. Pretty cool scene is when he takes mushrooms with his Girlfriend. Its pretty fucking whacked. Definitely a must see.
jim |
Edited by - citizen30 on 11/24/2002 07:36:22 |
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floop
= Wannabe Volunteer =
Mexico
15297 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2002 : 20:48:38
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cool.. i haven't seen it. but I'm familiar with him.. he's from San Francisco as far as I know.
if you saw WAKING LIFE, he is the film theorist who turns into a cloud..
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citizen30
- FB Fan -
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 07:54:05
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Even beyond the whole Frank thing it is a intersting movie. Music credits, Frank Black and the catholics "All My Ghosts". When I first started watching it was laden with Frank; Zahedi proclaiming his obsession for FB, and about the conversation they had, which he played part of from a tape recorder. I definatly want to watch again because I'll know what to expect! |
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BrendanT
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
907 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 08:50:56
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Where can this movie be found?
Strummer-man I had me a vision!
Why should I leave America for America junior? |
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citizen30
- FB Fan -
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2002 : 23:10:47
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I saw it on The Independant Film Channel. I don't know if you get it where you live, but it is worth seeking out! I'm taping the next time its on! |
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citizen30
- FB Fan -
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 13:30:34
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O.K., its taken me this long to do the obvious since we do live in the internet age, but anyway here's the link to Zahedi's site: http://www.worldartists.com/bathtub.htm |
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citizen30
- FB Fan -
USA
54 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2002 : 10:26:47
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O.K. This is cool, I e-mailed the filmaker Caveh Zahedi to post the transcript of his interview with Frank and he sent it to me. He said he would be glad to have it be posted. Frank talks very lucidly and shares alot with Caveh about song meanings and the songwriting experience in general. Again you have to check out the film. It really is inspiring. Anyway I am posting the interview hope it isn't too long, but I think it is totally worth it. Enjoy!
Frank Black is, in my humble opinion, not only one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, but also one of the greatest artists working today in any medium. His music is totally his own, and seems to be channelled from some transcendent other-worldly place. It is as if he had been abducted by highly musically-evolved aliens, and has learned their peculiar but hauntingly sublime musical system. His new album, "Frank Black and the Catholics," continues his ecstatic explorations into musical hyperspace. The following telephone interview took place on January 4th, 1999.
The question that's most burning in me is about the new album, which I love, and the fact that it really seems like a break-up album... like you broke up with your girlfriend...
Yeah, a couple of people have commented on that. But no, it's not true.
It's not?
No.
That's amazing to me.
Yeah, I mean just because you have songs that are emotional or whatever, even in a negative kind of way, that doesn't mean that they're about me. I mean they might be, some of them might be drawn from personal experiences. But I also have people that I know who have their own experiences that I'm familiar with. So there's a whole range of experiences to draw on, not just personal ones. A record is not necessarily an extension of what's going on in your life then and there. Stuff takes a long time to work itself through your whole system before it comes out in your art. It's kind of like the government saying, "these files are filed away for the next ten years; no one's allowed to look at them for ten years." So it's a way of protecting yourself too... a little bit of your privacy. Besides, I don't want my music to be like this diary of emotions, or even if it is a diary of emotions, it's not intended to be... I mean, it's just a movie, you know what I mean? It's not necessarily a personal extension of every facet of my brain and soul.
Well I'm really glad to hear that you haven't broken up with your girlfriend, because you seemed so happy.
We are.
Good, good. Can we talk about each of the songs on the album a bit?
Sure.
Well, "All My Ghosts" is my way favorite...
Oh thanks, it's one of my favorites as well. I think it might be my favorite one to perform.
In that song, there's a line: "Hank the Eighth was a duplicated man." What does that mean to you? I think of Henry the Eighth...
Sure. Well, I guess it's meant to conjure up lots of things: human cloning for one - it could be a Henry of the future who's been duplicated eight times, or it could be a genetic human clone of Henry the Eighth himself, of yesteryear. I mean, it's whatever you want it to mean. It doesn't have to mean anything in particular. Because it's in a sort of poetic context, things can have triple or quadruple meanings, or levels of meaning, or point a finger in different directions. Yeah, sure. That helps actually. That adds one more direction. Anyway, this again is a personal question, and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but I love the part in the song about going to the porno store, and it seems like such a sublime positive way of talking about something that usually isn't. And I was just wondering, do you like porno stores, do you go to porno stores? Or does that again have nothing to do with your experience?
No, I can't say that I've never been to one, you know.
Well I certainly have too. I used to go compulsively, so....
Sure, I think that whether you've been to one or not, at least in Western culture... I don't want to say that it's a part of the male experience, but it is for many males. You know, it just is. It felt right in the song anyway. The song is a range of sort of disconnected ideas but I guess they all are kind of tied together with sex and violence and science maybe. In the first verse, it's about the Nethalim, the angels that came down from Heaven.
Nethalim?
Yeah. They were just an old testament story about angels coming down and breeding with human women, and creating these offspring that were Giants that roamed the earth for I don't know how many years and then kind of died out. But it's a great story and it's so bizarre and on the one hand you can't really draw any conclusions from it in your own life because it's sort of like "how does it relate to me?" (Frank laughs) I don't know any angels or giants, you know what I mean? (Frank laughs again). But yeah, it's sort of saying those two races shouldn't mix, because then you'll get these weird aggressive giant figures that are kind of like these bad freaks of nature, or bad freaks of nature and heaven. The other verse is about living for a very long time, which is something that does happen a lot in the old testament...
Right, 900 years...
Sure, but I guess that in my song the context is more a modern one, or life extension or whatever, and that maybe that would be a bad thing in that you would keep running into yourself. I mean, you're human and you go around and you influence things around you throughout your life. And the playing field is only so big. So if you were to live for 900 years and roam around the world you might start bumping into your Karma; you might start bumping into your former self or at least your former selves or the influence of your former selves. And maybe that isn't a good thing. I mean, I don't know. And then you have the two images of the bridge which are of the porno store which you mentioned and the other one is just a violent incident and it doesn't go into the details in the song but it's a reference to a bank robbery that happened here in L.A. a couple of years ago that was very dramatic because it was all on film with helicopters and everything and it was very very violent. And it ended up with one guy bleeding to death and the other guy committing suicide and getting shot by a cop at the same time. And the bank robbers were all dressed to the hilt with like body armor and they had all kinds of automatic weapons and they were just shooting at everything in sight. I mean it was just... they ended up not actually killing anyone else which was really shocking but they were just totally like Arnold Shwarznegger marching through North Hollywood blowing everything up. And it was just this amazing incident that ended up with them both dead and it was just really dramatic and kind of sad and kind of wonderful in a sick kind of way. Not wonderful but from a journalistic point of view or from a voyeuristic point of view, being able to see it at home on television was just so intense. Anyway, I don't know how that relates to the rest of the song, but in my mind it does.
In the song "Dog Gone," the first line is "I could not pray. "
Yeah.
Do you pray?
I occasionally do. I don't know under what sort of religion. (Frank laughs)
But you definitely do have a sense of some kind of God?
I don't know if I have a sense of it but sometimes when you do pray (I guess it's like a lot of people - I'm just a very common person), it's because you're really desperate... you know, because you're really down. But I can't say that I'm a religious person. I'm not.
In concert you mentioned that the song "The Man Who Was Too Loud" was about Jonathan Richman.
Yeah.
Are you a fan?
Yeah.
Do you know if he's heard the song?
I don't know. I have no idea.
So you don't know him?
I don't know him personally, no. I think that if I did know him, I wouldn't have been able to write a song about him.
Right. And who is "the king of the surf guitar?"
That's Dick Dale, who I saw, and Jonathan Richman was opening up for him.
Oh I see.
Jonathan Richman was actually more famous than Dick Dale at that time, but Jonathan Richman was a big fan of Dick Dale so he was glad to be there opening up.
One of my favorite all-time songs of yours is "Speedy Marie" and I have no idea what that's about. Could you say something about that song?
Well, that's about a girl. I mean, "Speedy Marie" is her name of course and yeah, I guess it's a love song.
It's not a reference to some kind of machine or something?
No, no, it's about a real person.
And was Shazeb Andleeb also a real person?
Yeah. He was from Pakistan actually, although I didn't know him or anything. It's a song based on newspaper stories.
He was murdered?
Yeah. The only connection I have to him really is that he was a student at the same high school that I was a student at, but I didn't know him. He went to that high school recently and of course I went there years ago.
What high school was that?
It's called Narbonne high school.
Oh, so that's what the word "Narbonne" refers to in the song.
Right.
You know I saw you once at a screening at the Nuart of the director's cut of "Blade Runner"...
Yeah.
...and I spoke to you for a few seconds afterwards, and I mentioned music videos and you said that you hated music videos. And since then I think that you've done quite a few. Have you changed your mind about that or is that something you still...
I don't really hate music videos, no. I guess I probably just hated having to do them, and the reasons that I had to do them for when I've been asked to do them. It's just a music business thing. It doesn't really have anything to do with art or anything like that.
Have you directed any of your own music videos?
I haven't, no.
And you have no interest in it?
No, I mean it's a lot of work. It's more work than making a record. It just involves a lot of people, a lot of organization. It's a whole other thing.
I once read an interview with you where you said you wanted to make a documentary about brine shrimp.
Yeah.
That never happened did it?
No (laughs).
Are you still interested?
Yeah, I mean specifically brine shrimp of the Salt Lake in Utah. I guess really what it is is a documentary about the salt lake. Anyway it's a while since I've thought about that whole concept so I can't really say much about it. (Frank laughs) It's been a while since I've laughed about that.
And you also in an interview said once "our records are not the greatest records ever made, but we do have a concept of what is and isn't good" This is a quote from the Pixies period.
Yeah.
Well, what do you think are the greatest records ever made?
Well, I don't know where to begin, there are so many...
How about just a few off the top of your head?
Well, "New Values" by Iggy Pop. "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop, produced by David Bowie. Uh...
You've obviously met Iggy Pop, right?
No, I've never met him.
You've never met Iggy Pop? Wow. Why don't you do an album with him? Wouldn't that be fun?
Yeah, that would be great. (Frank laughs) But you know, we'll see what happens. Maybe one day.
You've been collaborating with Bowie, right?
Not really. I did actually end up working on a song with him and his guitar player Reeves, who I know.
And you played on Reeves' last album.
Yeah, it was like a session with us and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters and yeah we cut a song. But it was just sort of a one evening, one-off kind of thing. But it was fun; it was great.
What's Bowie like?
He's like Bowie. (Frank laughs) He's totally David Bowie. I mean, he is who he is. It's not like you meet him and you go "oh wow, he's totally different than I expected." He is everything that he is. He's very professional, and he's very into music and into art. He seems to be pretty passionate about it. You know, he's not blase about it. He's real excited about doing what he's doing and being around music and the stage and everything. He definitely seems in his element, like he picked the right career. He definitely seems to be enjoying himself thoroughly and to be connected with what he's doing.
You also mentioned in an interview years ago that you would love to do a duet with Morrissey. Did you ever pursue that at all? Or meet him?
No. I have met him actually, but I don't think that'll happen. (Frank laughs)
Did you like him?
Yeah, he's a very nice guy, super nice, yeah.
Why do you think it's not going to happen?
I just think that I'm probably not his cup of tea.
Right. (We both laugh)
And there's nothing wrong with that, you know what I mean?
Yeah, sure.
I had said something when I was very young, or younger I should say, and very new at doing interviews, and I had said something negative about his first solo album in an interview. And I wasn't even that serious about it, you know, I was probably smoking pot at the time. Anyway, Morrissey reads all of his music press religiously, and I think he read that. And that kind of... because there was some talk about us working together. I don't think it was his idea but it was someone at the record company... Anyway, that's how I got to meet him. And I think that he sort of nixed it because I had made this comment, and rightly so. I mean he was just defending his own art. He didn't need some little like punk rock guy telling him that his record was no good. (Frank laughs) So I don't really blame him at all. Anyway, I feel bad because I didn't really mean it. I was just shooting off my mouth and I had probably heard his record one time and you know it didn't turn me on right then and there so... But anyway, I've learned a lesson ever since and I don't say negative things about other artists anymore, even artists I truly don't like, and I happen to like Morrissey a lot, but even artists that I really can't stand. I definitely don't say anything negative about them in interviews because it might get back to them. Some people get really offended because it's close to them and they can't help but being offended. I suppose I'd be offended too.
Really, that seems strange to me. I mean, someone might not like something you do and you can still be friends with them.
Yeah, but it's not like that I think with making music. I think it's a lot more personal for people. It's their baby. It's what they're most paranoid about. It's what they love the most but it's also the thing that they're afraid of the most: "oh am I really any good?" So it's really hard to hear something like: "oh so and so can't stand you're new record." You're just totally getting them in the Achilles heel.
That's true.
Anyway, once again, for the hundreth time, I totally apologize. If Morrissey is reading "Mommy and I are One" right now, again I'm totally sorry. (Frank laughs)
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Edited by - citizen30 on 11/24/2002 10:29:19 |
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Visiting Sasquatch
= Cult of Ray =
USA
451 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2002 : 20:03:35
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That is a very cool interview! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Bravo! I didn't even know Frank liked Morrissey that much! Wow! Very cool. And is that one song project David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels, and Frank did the uber group he talked about in the other interview? It would certainly qualify. Again, that was a great interview! BTW...when did this interview take place? |
Edited by - Visiting Sasquatch on 11/24/2002 20:04:05 |
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Itchload
= Cult of Ray =
USA
891 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2002 : 19:13:44
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Yeah, that was a cool interview. I wouldn't have pegged Frank for a Morissey fan either, ha. Speaking of bands I wouldn't peg Frank to be a fan of, I recently read an interview with him in my newspaper and he said "I used to be really into bands like Husker Du (who we all know he loves) and Swans" Swans??? what?? haha, wow. I kinda like the Swans too, but their more recent stuff, their early stuff was brutal...yet I did recently buy a 2 disc compilation of it. |
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