Scritti Politti Interview

-- SFX (UK cassette magazine), June 26-July 8, 1982

Transcribed by Robin Heath.

('The "Sweetest Girl"' intro is heard, continues under the following)

ANNOUNCER: Touted as the 'next big thing' for the last two years, Scritti Politti finally seem poised on the edge of success. Founder member Green talks to John DeBono.

('The "Sweetest Girl"' continues)

GREEN: Now there are seven of us in Scritti Politti, we finally decided: four musicians and the three girls who do all the backing singing...and it was amorphous for quite a while but we've decided it worked so well, that everybody's being pulled together ('The "Sweetest Girl"' fades out) and we're gonna make a...make a go of it, as a seven-piece. And the album ('Songs To Remember') took so long -- it's been completed for quite a long time, but we've been holding out on it with a view to putting some singles out, so it'll gain more attention when it's finally released. 'Cos had we released it when it was finished, it probably would've...gone the way of all independent flesh and never been heard of again.

SFX: 'Faithless' is very much a grower track, I mean, I s'pose the 'hit' on the album was the first single that you released, 'Sweetest Girl'.

GREEN: Yeahhhh, well, um (almost laughing, a little sidetracked), there's, there's, we're gonna, th-th-there's prob'ly gonna be a, 'Jacques Derrida' from the, from the, the album's gonna be a third single. I think, uh, 'Faithless' was quite a challenge for, for me because I wanted to have a go at doing one of those sort of very slow soul ballads, and stay fairly true to the form, which meant not taking too many radical departures with melody or the rest of it. And I mean, I think it worked remarkably well, I mean, I'm delighted with it...

SFX: It's very Pink Floyd-y...!

GREEN: Pink Floyd, well, I mean, I take issue with that, I mean, I think people who say it's like some bits of 'Dark Side Of The Moon' are the people who aren't...sufficiently familiar with the...black soul roots of ah, of that music. I mean, it's a lot more like ah...ah, soul music than Pink Floyd.

SFX: Your next single 'Jacques Derrida' I suppose fairly...fairly much highlights the fact that, ah...your lyrics and your songs generally are a bit more literate than you've come to expect from a rock group. Is that a deliberate thing?

GREEN: Ahmmm...(stammers a bit)...they're more interesting th-than perhaps you've come to expect from a, from a rock group, but they're, they're, they're less ah...they're less of a boast than they, than they used to be. So I mean, I, I kinda think of them as quite, as quite simple, um...

SFX: What's 'Jacques Derrida' about, in particular?

GREEN: Oh, 'Jacques Derrida', 'Jacques D-', ha, no, see (nearly laughing), this is where it doesn't be-...stops being simple. (laughs)

OTHER BAND MEMBER: Gets rather complicated (laughs).

GREEN: 'Jacques Derrida' is about the um...it's about the attraction of, of, of both sort of revolutionary and reactionary politics, really, and how in the end, your own desire dispenses with both of them...perhaps!

SFX: W-...wow!! (laughs)

OTHER BAND MEMBER: Well...it's also, good tune and a...rhythm, y'know...

GREEN: Oh yeah, yeah, yes...it's, it's about, yes, it's...

SFX: But I mean, that whole idea of, of...y'know, the intellectual angle of rock, and the, the thoughtful aspect of rock, is that something that you...deliberately hang onto, because Scritti does have this...I mean, 'scritti politti'. Ah, 'political writings', is it not, in Italian...?

GREEN: Yeah, that's right. No, I'm quite happy to see that, to see that, t-to lay off that for a while, because uh, y'know, it gets a bit of an albatross to be thought of as nothing but sort of wordy and aloof, which isn't, which isn't at all the case...anymore, at least.

SFX: So you're, what, you're after a pop single?

GREEN: Oh yeah, yeah! ('Jacques Derrida' is heard fading in under the following) I mean, I think...no, there's really no point in, in, in making popular music unless you're gonna...get it out to all the people and get them buying it and it's actually popular by definition.

('Jacques Derrida' plays and ends segment)