PETER GABRIEL
A GLOBAL SOUND PoV

     PETER GABRIEL is the doyen of World Music promoting and WOMAD instigator, a studio and label owner, a producer, a reluctant and flawed Rock star and an all round introverted guy. During 3 decades career frequency of his albums has legnhtened: the 'US' graced our CD lasers in 1992; aside a two-disc 'Secret World Live' in 1994 and 'Eve', CD-ROM album-game in 1997, there hasn't been a new album in 8 years!?

     'OVO - The Millennium Show' is a soundtrack album to the multi-media show staged at the ill-fated celebration of the civilisation at the London's Millennium Doom, pardon -- Dome. For two years Gabriel toiled on this project to have only some 20 minutes used in the show; 'OVO' is the complete score that demanded of him to cast different singers for character voicing: Elizabeth Fraser (ex-Cocteau Twins), Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile) and the legendary Richie Havens; among the players were his long-term collaborators David Rhodes (guitar), Tony Levin (bass) and Manu Katche (drums) .

     There has always been some vagueness of character about Gabriel, now more defined with age;  the recent clocking half-a-century is reflected in his hairs being shorn to a millimetre from the skull and greying goatee. It all makes him look a tad on the cool professorial side but he's always been interested in music making rather than ego and image building; Gabriel's never followed fashions and joined trends but being an individual not afraid to express it through his art.

     "I was attracted to the project," Gabriel speaks slowly and fairly quietly that simply underlines his modesty, "because I've always been drawn to the multi-media performances. It was an opportunity to collaborate on a huge project that presented so many challenges. I worked with Mark Fisher who created stages for 'Zoo TV' (U2), The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Tina Turner, REM... This was new to him because it was like a musical with so much more resources."

     'OVO' presents the story of the three time-frames of human evolution through the lives of three generations of a family, the socio-economical changes that affect their relationships, causing conflicts and disagreements. It takes in the dawn of man, industrial revolution (centred in a Tower Of Babylon-like structure) and the post-cyber existence of humanity.

     "Our biggest problem was the shortness of it but the requirement was to tell the whole history of mankind. I don't think that the 20 minutes used for the show make the story comprehensible... The first part is about nature, 'The Man who loved the Earth' when father is learning to live in such environment, the second is the time of his son, 'The Tower that ate People', corresponding with the industrialisation that divides people. There is love, warfare, starvation, a bit of a revolution at the end and then, the third act, 'The Nest that sailed the Sky', the future period, the daughter's time and she gets together with the member of 'Skypeople' (oppressed classes), has a baby and it is the beginning of harmony between nature and technology."

     "We have reached a bio-technological age when we have computers based on the organic processes now, we have various means to take the systems of nature and put them into the machines; it is like decentralised nature and technology but on a much deeper level. And, instead to have a happy ending, we have a baby, called OVO, ascending into the sky, little like (cyber) Moses but also referencing the 'Star-child' from '2001' film, floating into the unknown."     

     At times the 'libretto' of 'OVO' reads like a fairy-tale cum pulp science-fiction crossed with the Biblical snatches but its music is deeply rooted in reality and reflects many of the different facets that have combined into the British culture: there are elements of the sonic heritage from every continent as well as the components of the popular culture, with only a hint of reggae.

     "The idea was to incorporate everything and your objection about reggae not being represented well is correct, there is only about 30-second dub-bass, but it didn't really fit in... I'd have liked to have had a bit more in because it has had a major influence on the British culture but there was no way to include everything in equal proportions."

     "The thing to bear in mind is that at the turn of the millennium we were asking ourselves 'Who are we?' but we weren't who we used to be within a short space of the calendar change."   

     - This is not the first time you've wrestled this subject but attempted to tell the story of the world (in 40 minutes) on the Genesis's debut album, 'From Genesis To Revelation' (1969)?

     "Yeah, I like nice, small kind of the ideas," Gabriel almost smiles, " but this time there is a little booklet to go with the package. Unfortunately the record company couldn't produce it for the commercial release, it costs too much, but I will make it available on our Web-site. At least the story is there and to make music more accessible to the contemporary audience, it is not narrated but rapped. We got Neneh Cherry and Rasco to do it." 

Sledgehammering the universe

     - As a world-renown and respected musician but a tad unorthodox, was there any opposition to your involvement with this project that obviously had to appeal to masses?

     "The good thing was that the show wasn't sponsored directly and there was no interference; the only concern was the title, from the management who insisted to be called 'The Millennium Show' but we won in the end and at another point there was a Government minister, called Lord Faulkner, he had been in a band with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who got worried that the music would be all strange and weird. So, I had to go to the back of Downing Street for a very strange A&R meeting, in his political office and the minister had his staff of all ages come in to listen to it. Fortunately they all liked it."

     - Part three ends on an optimistic note and, based on the past examples, it is difficult to believe that man would be so kind to share anything with nature; isn't it more feasible that he would destroy it by the inherited greed?

     "My hope is that when it comes to our selfish advantage to work with the nature again we will reconsider it. I think there will be a lot of reasons for us to do that; on my next record there is a song called 'Soft City' and it was inspired by a snowstorm in New York. I've noticed that people behave differently towards each other in a snowstorm. All the sound gets absorbed and the noise of the city is muffled, it becomes quieter and people come on top; more are walking, helping each other... There is a talk of making aeroplanes with soft-skin, as well as cars and there are already roads where tarmac has been mixed with rubber to minimise the surface noise... As I mentioned earlier there is a work on organic-computers and we will have to embrace nature for our own benefit."

     "The point of the finale was to neither be pessimistic nor happy ending but leave it a little open, a bit unknown... There is a sense of hope that if you do your job well as a parent then kids can leave without problems; you can't control your kids but do your job well and, if you do that, you become obsolete. The children should have enough of themselves to carry on on their own."  

     - Has the competition of 'OVO' liberated you to concentrate on your next (proper) album?

     "Yes, I've been working on it and one of the songs on 'OVO', 'Father, Son', was intended for that album but I was talked into including it here as there is a father-son relationship... My new record is more personal, more edgier but still song based. It is still a mix of hand playing and machine-based rhythms... I think of it as a cinemascope, wide-screen landscape record, big pictures for the difference from the small ones I had in the past; I don't know how it will all end up sounding because I haven't made a final selection from the material I'm considering for it. I  think I'll have it finished by the end of this year and have it out at the beginning of the next."     

     - You've become an ambassador for the World Music but, do you remember your first exposure?

     "Yes, very well; I was getting tired of using the rock rhythms, and you have to remember that I started out as a drummer, and was looking for something else and it was Pete Townsand (of the Who) who introduced me to it when we were doing the first WOMAD charity record to attract people to the festival... I also love the voices in ethnically diverse traditions... I love records that contain that quality of otherness, I love when you get somewhere when you haven't been before, you don't know... it is a new world and you can go from dreaming of it... When I make my own music I try to create that."

     - It is the nature of artists to be self-doubting; has your self-confidence increased to the point that you can ignore criticism?

     "Well, I still pay attention to the critiques and enjoy the good ones but always remember the bad and the personal ones. I'm more comfortable now, I've turned 50 this year, I'm more comfortable in my own skin although I still have self-doubts, go through periods when I think everything I do is crap, then you start working with someone else and your enthusiasm gets fired up again. But I think I'm happier not to be liked now; I think a lot of artists are doing this job because they didn't get enough stroking when they were kids and need mass approval but when you get older you realise that it might not be so important."

     "I'm also lucky that I have my independence; a lot of musicians of my age don't own studio where I put my money rather than in luxuries... I do have a big house now but sorting out the studio was my priority because I wouldn't have liked to struggle like some other people I know; Karl Wallinger (of World Party) had a very tough time getting a contract and he is an excellent songwriter; he's not a fashionable one but a classical songwriter, great songs. I have the tools of production even if the record company decides not to back me up anymore. If this album works, I mean sells, fine, but if it doesn't, I'm okay, I don't have to worry about it."

A man-child of the future

     - In the unlikely case that your contractual obligation is terminated, would you avail yourself of the Internet opportunity?

     "Yes and I've been championing it for a long time; I think it is a marvellous tool and we should all use it; I have a Download system which allows artists to be looked after better than in the case of MP3.

That's for the new artists but for the established ones, look at it like it's free advertising. The same way I see that Grateful Dead's sales weren't hurt by encouraging people to bootleg their concerts. But, for the small, World Music and minority artists, it is very important to be paid because 60 percent of their income comes from royalties and 40% from live work. People need to be encouraged to pay for music but there still will be a music market and it is not going to be destroyed as the industry fears."

     "I love the idea of Internet because it erases the line between the First and the Third Worlds and it is very important that there is no divide. It allows people to communicate with each other and I think it is in the interest of the rich countries to get the whole world online because that's their future market. It is pure economic reason for it but there is also the democratising it brings with itself and it can be educational."

      - After 30 years in the business, is there something you still would like to do that has escaped you, for whatever reason?

     "Yes, I'd love to work with Tom Waits, I think he is incredible; I had an opportunity to work with Randy Newman on the song for the pig-movie, 'Babe 2', which was a thrill as I've always considered him to be one of the greatest songwriters. Then, when DJs come to work in my studio I find it exciting to watch as they approach things from a different world; alike African musicians, the dance-people are not afraid to repeat-repeat-repeat, either a rhythm or a phrase; it's interesting because there is a different type of tension in the music and you make small changes while the basis remain constant. I'm learning about it a lot... And I believe that you learn more from you mistakes than you do from getting it right. So, my advice is -- Don't be afraid to make mistakes!"    

     - You covered 'Suzanne' for the Tribute to Leonard Cohen, 'Tower Of Song'; do you keep track of your songs being covered? Have you heard Ozzy Osbourne (with Coal Chamber) doing ' 'Shock The Monkey'?

     "Oh yes, and I was really excited to hear what he had done because it's so unlikely... I knew he liked 'So' because he told me a couple times I met him. That version is pretty good but I would have done things differently; his version is energetic, I have to say. For me it's fun to hear what people do with my songs and there are few things that include samples from 'Sledgehammer'; I recently gave a permission to Tricky to sample 'Big Time' for the 'Mission Impossible 2' film..."

     Gabriel started in the late 1960s with his progressive rock outfit Genesis but found it restricting and left in 1975, leaving it to Phil Collins to make them chart-contenders. His first four solo albums were simply entitled by his name as if they were all parts of the same collection; he later moved into issuing a number of visually intriguing long-form videos and has always been renown for performing some of the most exciting live shows but he is not in a hurry to repeat the experience.

     "I love touring and playing live because it is such a great experience... When my next studio album comes out I'll be going on the road again."

     'OVO' is another example of Peter Gabriel's global point of view.

Sasha Stojanovic
Copyright MiM