Doritos Live Chat Transcript with Scritti Politti

January 18, 2000

Karina: Hey welcome to Doritos Live this is Karina, this is my first day hosting this show!!!

Karina: We have Green Gartside with us today!!

Karina: He's here to talk about the new album.

Scritti Politti: Hi, nice to be here.

Karina: Is the internet a new environment for you?

Scritti Politti: I did some of it in London.

Karina: Why did you decide to come out again now, to have a comeback this year?

Scritti Politti: Emotionally, I don't know about that, but I started work on this record a couple years ago; and I came out of hiding then.

Karina: Right.

Scritti Politti: I guess what really... the whole story is why I disappeared; it had to do with me not liking the business of selling myself.

Scritti Politti: I found it soul destroying.

Karina: why is that?

Scritti Politti: 'Cause it seemed so phony.

Karina: What was phony about it, was it interviews like this?

Scritti Politti: A lot of interviews are fine, but you get some that are really kind of... like, radio shows. I stopped playing live due to stage fright...

Scritti Politti: So in lieu of that, the record co. said go and do a lot of radio shows, but they're really kind of hard...

Scritti Politti: 'Cause you have to be on full-live, band...

Karina: The Voice and everything!

Scritti Politti: American radio is different from anything I ever grew up with; along with Japanese radio.

Karina: No, I don't know anything about Japanese radio, why is that scary?

Scritti Politti: Japanese radio, you really go out there and do like eighteen sessions a day.

Scritti Politti: Unless you're very strong, or very clever or very stupid... it'll drive you insane.

Scritti Politti: But to me, it wasn't worry... I noticed.

Scritti Politti: I thought a lot of it was bogus, and made me feel bad about myself, the industry...

Scritti Politti: Somebody said that I had a low frustration tolerance; where if the going gets rough, I say I'm out of here.

Karina: If the going gets rough, you take off.

Scritti Politti: Some people see that as a weakness, and I prefer to see it as a strength.

Karina: Because life is short and if you are not happy, bottom line is get out!

Scritti Politti: Get out. That's what I did.

Karina: But you still wanted to do music?

Scritti Politti: I never stopped listening to music; what dawned on me slowly was when I went back to Native Wales and lived a very solitary life; I split with my girlfriend, my band, and lived in a cottage on the countryside.

Karina: Fabulous! That is great.

Scritti Politti: After a few years of that solitary existence, it dawned that I missed the pleasure of making music.

Scritti Politti: It settled in my brain the difference between making and selling it.

Karina: Well why do you feel ready now to deal with this whole promotion and all of that , do you feel stronger within yourself?

Scritti Politti: I guess I must do. I must also have come to the conclusion that its worth it, that before I wasn't sure that it was. The opportunity to make music is an extraordinary one.

Scritti Politti: Those of us that are allowed to do it are a privileged few; it'd be silly to be sucked in a small cottage on the country, railing about the music business.

Scritti Politti: It's the second most pleasurable thing I've found to do in my life; making music.

Karina: What was the first?!

Scritti Politti: Skips my mind.

Scritti Politti: Let things settle in my mind; make some readjustments; bottom line, although making music can be very pleasurable and working with people can be very important...

Scritti Politti: At the end of the day, if I get a bad review, its not going to kill me.

Karina: Well what is success to you, what does it mean to you?

Scritti Politti: Success and failure are about equal.

Karina: Would you like to be able to support yourself through music, but not be famous?

Scritti Politti: Yeah, I guess so. Its the... sense of obligation to people. Its the sense that you have something to live up to; think...

Karina: Pressure.

Scritti Politti: People don't only invest in records; certainly I don't. You invest in people when you buy them, and something they represent.

Scritti Politti: I just felt uncomfortable with that.

Karina: Are you a private person?

Scritti Politti: Yeah.

Scritti Politti: I like to have my private spaces and my places where I go where I have friends that have nothing to do with the music industry.

Karina: So what exactly were you doing when you were in the wilderness....playing darts?

Scritti Politti: I play darts. Is that popular in America?

Scritti Politti: Then you should get out more!

Karina: I should get into it, I tried it ,but I was a total dud at it!

Scritti Politti: It used to be a popular pub game in Britain, but its kind of disappearing rapidly; the countryside is disappearing. Everything is becoming like shopping malls and suburbia.

Scritti Politti: To find an authentic village where people enjoy the old pastimes, its a real trip.

Karina: Did you like that?

Scritti Politti: To live in a small village, yeah. You know the milkman by name, you can go into the pub, and they'd be there... and chat about anything under the sun; never music, and they didn't care.

Scritti Politti: Unless I'm in the studio.

Karina: So you really like the creative aspect of putting something together.

Scritti Politti: Yeah.

Karina: Where you ever recognized in any of these pubs while drinking away with your friends.

Scritti Politti: I guess, yeah... in frequently, but I would have been. People in the village all sort of knew who I was, but nobody ever really cares.

Karina: Right.

Karina: Right, you have for a long time been interested in American Urban Music, how did this interest arise, when did you notice it?

Scritti Politti: That's tough; Michael Jackson is very important.

Karina: Was it with Michael Jackson?

Scritti Politti: Growing up in the UK, we only ever really heard White English Pop Music, and then White English Rock Music..

Scritti Politti: And then punk music came along, and it was fun being a punk.

Karina: Why is that?

Scritti Politti: It was being out every night, parties.

Scritti Politti: You could meet idols like the Clash.

Scritti Politti: But that all came a bit boring a few years after that.

Karina: Yeah!

Scritti Politti: I came really tired of independent rock in the UK.

Scritti Politti: I'd go to check other kinds of music.

Karina: Did you find it clique-y the sort of punk scene?

Scritti Politti: Punk scene was very cliquey; then the whole independent thing came along, which pretended to be like those things, but it wasn't.

Karina: It was just angry because it was cool to be angry at that time.

Scritti Politti: It was just kind of... made noises in that direction.

Karina: You were basically interested in pop?!

Scritti Politti: I decided there was nothing essentially, what interested me in a way about punk is its power; its anti-authoritarian.

Scritti Politti: The music that came after punk really wasn't anti-authoritarian, because it developed its own kind of marketplace, distributors...

Scritti Politti: There was nothing going on new or challenging...

Scritti Politti: So I started thinking about the power of pop music in a different way.

Scritti Politti: I initially started listening to black R&B, and contemporary stuff like Michael Jackson. There was a power there, which had nothing to do with the time; it had a different kind of power.

Karina: Which is what?

Scritti Politti: It didn't demand of you to do something powerful that would make a dissident kind of voice; nothing to change the world. This was a far more interesting, sophisticated kind of way to challenge the conservative way of thinking.

Scritti Politti: I became interested in urban, black, and white American kind of music after punk.

Scritti Politti: The first black music I ever really heard was Reggae.

Scritti Politti: The first version I ever heard of Rapper's Delight, the Sugar Hill Gang was a Reggae dubbed version of it that came out in Jamaica.

Karina: Right...

Scritti Politti: That got me interested in hip-hop.

Scritti Politti: I think there's a lot of power in pop music generally.

Karina: So power is important to you?

Scritti Politti: What it is, there's a lot of... inspiration...

Karina: Soul?

Scritti Politti: I'm always mistrustful of soul; there's a lot of hope, longing for a better place... there's a lot of a latent promise of a utopian place, of something better....

Karina: More optimistic...

Scritti Politti: And it gets kind of deep with it. I don't like people dismissive of pop music.

Karina: Well what do you think of the Spice Girls kind of pop music?

Scritti Politti: Ah, its just pop music.

Karina: Some people need that kind of inspiration!

Scritti Politti: The phenomena of pop music is interesting.

Karina: Let's listen to the first song "UMM" of your new album "Anomie and Bonhomie" (plays song)

Karina: Hi, we are back on Doritos Live!

Karina: We are here with Scritti Politti・

Karina: Let's take some questions

justin_obrien_narl: What is your most memorable experience as a band?

Scritti Politti: I guess one of the most memorable and unlikely was working with Miles Davis, which was an extraordinary thing to happen.

Scritti Politti: I didn't know he covered one of our songs, and we didn't know he was going to do it until the record came out.

Scritti Politti: And then I got a phone call from him, that he wanted us to write something for him.

Scritti Politti: He covered a song called "Perfect Way".

Scritti Politti: I had this song I was working on at the time, and asked him if he wanted to come by the studio, we could meet, and much to my astonishment, he turned up.

Scritti Politti: We were expecting Miles to come & entourage, but he came completely alone, and he was extraordinary.

Scritti Politti: I remember videoing a lot of the stuff while he was there; it was scary but exhilarating.

Karina: Why were you scared?

Scritti Politti: He's a legend.

Karina: I mean I know he's a legend, but what else scared you?

Scritti Politti: We didn't know if he was going to be bonkers, or slightly other than linear in his thinking, or whether he was going to be...

Scritti Politti: The one thing about Miles is that I heard he was often disparaging about white musicians, but all I could report is that Miles is an extraordinary man; very charming, gracious, and insightful.

Scritti Politti: I still can't quite believe I ever worked with him.

Karina: That is absolutely a dream for millions of people!

Scritti Politti: I put Miles up there as one of the more memorable things ever.

Karina: I have to go to a question!

stephi92: Some of the lyrics you've used in your songs are great at capturing a expression of thought. For example in Smith and Slappy there is a line where you say "I've got a piece of never mind for you "in Perfect Way you say "I got a lack of girl that you'd like to be". My question is how do you manage to come up with ideas so on point like that?

Karina: You're Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karina: :)

Scritti Politti: That's nice to hear; I'm really glad that someone picks up on that, because you kind of play with lyrics and throw it out there, and you never really know if someone is going to get the references or not.

Scritti Politti: I can only write about what I know; I don't like narrative songs, or songs about boy meets girl, or political songs; so I write about... all I've ever done is being a school kid, art student and musician.

Karina: you write about what you know......

Scritti Politti: And I read, so a lot of what comes into my songs comes from books I read, ideas of philosophy and stuff, and its like a kind of game to me, to make references to these things, and use superficially the language but use them towards something else.

Scritti Politti: I put a lot of care into my lyrics.

Scritti Politti: On other people's records, I never really worry about lyrics.

Karina: When you do your own music do you focus more on the music or the lyrics?

Scritti Politti: Both. But if someone, listening to most other people's music, I never really pay attention to lyrics.

Karina: Let's go to another question

teleman79: Do you like the performing in front of large audiences?

Scritti Politti: Absolutely not!

Karina: But , if you are going to have to deal with that in the future...how have you prepared for this ?

Scritti Politti: I've done a bit of thinking, a bit of reading, a bit of readjusting, and its the prospect -- its very scary, but what's the worst that could happen?

Karina: Exactly!

Karina: You could make a fool out of yourself...

Karina: but that's it...

Scritti Politti: You never know, even if it does. People don't like you and you make a fool of yourself; but come the next day and the sun rises. You can go from five days beautiful, trees beautiful, the value of my life is to do with the life as I experience it, not as how anyone else judges me.

Karina: Do you plan on doing tours soon?

Scritti Politti: We've been talking about that; the first thing we should do is some European TV shows, where we can rehearse 3 or 4 songs and go play them in a relatively small place.

Karina: Are you saying that for yourself?

Scritti Politti: So I can get climatized to it, so I can see how scary it is, how good the band is together. But I'm up for it, yeah.

Karina: So we can plan on seeing you in L.A.?

Scritti Politti: Headlining the Hollywood Bowl!

Karina: Make the promise, I want the promise here?

Karina: Now I want to know what is your real name?

Karina: Tell me!

Scritti Politti: Green is my real name. I was on a train, it was green outside.

Karina: No!

Karina: I know the details of how you changed your name・

Karina: and where the inspiration for the new name came from.

Scritti Politti: I was very young; I was a precocious brat, and there were three other boys in the class with the same name. I'd always been influenced by musicians, and I always like musicians with weird names.

Scritti Politti: I didn't want to be an ordinary Rupert.

Karina: Ah!!!! I know that's not it!

Scritti Politti: Not even close.

Karina: I think it's Michael.

sally_creagh: Hi Green, "First Goodbye" is a very beautiful and moving song (congratulations). Unlike most of your other lyrics, it sounds like it could be a true story. Did you decide to start writing autobiographical narratives in your songs or is are they all fiction?

Scritti Politti: Hi Sally; that's a true one. It sounds a bit formal to say it was an experience; could I write straight from the heart.

Karina: That IS a true one!

Karina: Why did you make it fictional before?

Scritti Politti: I guess most of the musicians I like were true; they didn't really write... well, she left me and I had to go get on a boat or whatever.

Scritti Politti: In this instance, that's what came out. Sometimes you really don't plan for what's going to happen; you start with a bunch of chords and a guitar, and words come to your head.

Scritti Politti: I worked on it in Wales, and it was the early hours of the morning when it finished, and I was surprised.

Scritti Politti: It turned out into a confession of an early relationship.

Karina: an early relationship....not now....did this woman realize that it was for her?

Scritti Politti: I have no idea.

Scritti Politti: I don't know what's going on, basically... in that field.

Karina: Some people have said that you have a great voice...Miles Davis really admired your voice...what do you think of it?

Scritti Politti: Its kind of squeaky; no, its not squeaky. When I first started making music, I sang in an English accent, a really different sounding voice. Then I took some time out, and reevaluated things. Without trying consciously in anyway, I opened my mouth and this different voice came out, and it was kinda...

Scritti Politti: lighter, more breathier. I wouldn't really know how to describe it.

Karina: Do you like it ?

Karina: Are you happy with it?

Scritti Politti: I used to like it; its weird.

Karina: Even when you were singing?

Karina: How could you perform and not like your own voice?

Scritti Politti: That's easy, its a bit like... it's fun to write a song, come up with a melody, and when its all finished... eek. That's for someone else to enjoy it.

Karina: That's cool.

Scritti Politti: My voice is like there's someone else living inside me, and I'd quite like to be him or it or whoever they are.

Karina: Let's have a chance to listen to your voice.

Karina: This is the second track off of Anomie & Bonhomie..... the album has 11 tracks on it by the way...this is "Tinseltown to the Boogiedown"

Karina: WOW!

Karina: We are back on Doritos Live , I am Karina and we are chatting with Green from Scritti Politti.

Karina: For more information on Doritos chats....logon to www.doritos.com

Karina: You don't listen to your own record?

Karina: You have no ego?

Scritti Politti: We all have lots of ego, but I'm not going to assuage my ego by listening to my own song.

Scritti Politti: What's that going to do?

Scritti Politti: Other than, damn I should have sang that better.

Karina: yeah.....

Scritti Politti: In the back of my mind somewhere, I remember what fun it was to make. It was really a blast.

Karina: This one more so than other records....most of all the four records?

Karina: why is that?

Scritti Politti: I guess it was a bit by coming back out of the Welsh world, and finding that I could still do it, and it was even more fun that I'd hoped.

Scritti Politti: To be back with David Gamsen; the guy I made a number of records with.

Karina: He was your keyboardist right?

Scritti Politti: He's my... best sort of friend.

Karina: Wasn't there a time when you didn't speak?

Scritti Politti: I didn't speak to him for like seven years.

Karina: Can you tell us about that?

Scritti Politti: When I decided I didn't want to be in the industry, I walked out of the room with him and a bunch of people, and I didn't speak to him for seven years.

Karina: wow! How did you hook up with him again? Did you write him a letter?

Scritti Politti: Did I write him a letter? Yes, I wrote him a letter. An old-fashioned letter.

Karina: An old-fashioned letter in an envelope and everything?

Scritti Politti: I said, I would like to make another record; its been an awfully long time, but I think its important that I do this.

Scritti Politti: So he flew over to the UK. If this record achieves nothing ever than having reestablished my friendship with him, then its worthwhile.

Karina: Well what was it like to work with Michelle N'Degoccello?

Scritti Politti: I guess those are the most exciting things. One things about records is an excuse for meeting people; I like meeting people I admire.

Karina: Right....

Scritti Politti: If there's somebody who's work you like; A, how easy it is to find out where they are. You get on the phone and ring someone that you might know that might know where they are.

Karina: No one forgets your name....

Scritti Politti: After being away for as long as I was, I don't know if it carried anything in certain circles.

Karina: How did you music industry react to your coming back?

Scritti Politti: What I did was to go back into Virgin Records, and say "hey, its me." They never dropped me, why drop me if I'm not doing anything?

Scritti Politti: So I went back in, played some demo's, and they said it was great, go do it.

Scritti Politti: Fortunately, I've always worked with people in the record companies that always appreciate that; so I never get any phone calls about how a song could be better...

Karina: That is such a pain in the ***

Scritti Politti: My friend is working on a record, and the company is all over him on change this, change that...

Karina: When you create something it's better than when other people start telling you how to do what you wanted.

Scritti Politti: You have to be tough; fortunately, I never had to face that. So I go and do my thing, and in some ways, its odd. Because my record has all these different influences, but thank god I was left alone to do it.

beautiful_1_2000_2000: What major influences did you have in the 80"s vs. the 90"s and so forth...

Scritti Politti: The 80s... would be -- I should sight that in the b/g, there's always the influences like the Beattles... specifically in the 80s, there would have been Michael Jackson; its a lot more to do with the kind of songwriting, production during that decade.

Scritti Politti: People... you see, I came from that angry-punk dissident thing, and then to decide what I liked to listen was to Shaloman...

Karina: hmmm

Scritti Politti: Bands like The System, let alone bands out of New York. Really sophisticated R&B; Quincy Jones, people like that.

Karina: Right, how does the rest of your friends react to this?

Scritti Politti: All of that stuff; they kind of... back in those days, you really had to argue your case, where you had to defend your strategy and positions. I guess that I lost two membe3rs of the band and had to find two new ones. That's how much they thought about my want to go make pop music.

Karina: Yeah, that was it.

Karina: It's great that you stuck with it!

Scritti Politti: Then in the 90s, it'd be ... I loved hip hop in the 80s, but I was finally able to give exspression to that influence in this decade.

Scritti Politti: DJ Premiere; EPMD, Pete Rock... lots and lots of other great producers and rappers. The Foo Fighters.

Karina: and the Foo Fighters?!!!!

Scritti Politti: And some other people along the way.

Karina: What do you think about the whole trip hop movement?

Scritti Politti: I used to go a lot to the Blue Note, where the whole trip hop thing kind of got off. I kind of dug it for a little while, but then I really wanted to hear what the hip hop coming out of NY was doing, and then the trip hop thing came into a dead end.

Karina: right..

Scritti Politti: I'm sure some great records were made in that genre, but I was more interested in the East Coast hip hop. .

Karina: Alright let me take more questions.

o_c_c_a_m_s__r_a_z_o_r: What were the last three books you read?

Scritti Politti: Biography of Karl Marx; which came out this year.

Karina: right...

Scritti Politti: I'm reading a new book on the Beach Boys; which is new to me.

Scritti Politti: And I'm also reading a book about ... its kind of a big compendium on the theory of knowledge.

Scritti Politti: Its fun... well, kind of fun.

Karina: Sounds deep!

Karina: Now we are going to listen to Smith and Slappy.

Scritti Politti: Smith and Slappy! Two old skateboarding tricks I never mastered.

Karina: Is that what it is?

Scritti Politti: Because skateboarding is also a big influence for me, back in the day.

Karina: Right on!!!

Karina: let's hear it! (plays song)

Karina: Hey we are back on Doritos live we are here with Green Gartside.

Karina: Let's take more questions

Blond_Angel99: hey my name is Brittany and i was wondering what do you like to do when you are not preforming?

Scritti Politti: What I like to do is to read books, watch TV... god, this sounds so boring! I'd like to open a refugee for injured wild animals....

Karina: Are you athletic at all?

Scritti Politti: I go through phases; I love walking... I went for a real long one today.

Karina: Do you like LA?

Scritti Politti: Now I do; didn't use to like LA.

Karina: Why do you like it now?

Scritti Politti: I know where and who to avoid.

Karina: What is Green Gartsides itinerary?

Scritti Politti: Everybody has to learn for themselves!

Karina: What would you avoid in L.A.

Karina: Oh, ok

Scritti Politti: I go to the gym on kind of six-months bursts; either the pub or the gym, and I've been doing the pub for the last two years, so its time for the gym.

rekindlekillas: Hi Green, current R'n'B like Missy Elliot, Timbaland etc, sounds very programmed and dancehall to me, what do you think of it ? What do you think of the lyrics around at the moment ? Also, what do you think of Miami bass or "bass music" ? lyrics ? p.s. love the new album !

Scritti Politti: Miami Bass, I've been reading and educating. Timbaland and Missy are both fabulous; Timbaland absolutely re-ignited the whole game; he's very sophisticated, as is Missy.

Karina: right.....

Scritti Politti: I was just listening today to Timbaland's work on the new Jay-Z album.

Scritti Politti: Its kind of a change for him, but its fabulous. And Missy is the bomb.

Scritti Politti: But I'm not into the gangsta rap.

Karina: Ok, we have another one here....

shigatsuhana: I was a great admirer of SP in the 80's...Have any thoughts about doing a best of or remakes of the old songs?

Scritti Politti: Remakes definitely not; best of, I avoid as long as possible. I need to make a few better songs, when I think of... how many do I need for a best-of? Twelve?

Scritti Politti: I need to write a few more.

Karina: Ok, so that 's a possible future goal?

Karina: You were talking about a BBC documentary can you tell us about that?

Scritti Politti: Yeah, we're getting near to the end of a BBC Documentary; they've been following me around since last October, and we've been back to Wales and all the places I live, people I've hung around, musicians I've worked with...

Scritti Politti: filming concludes at the end of this month in Paris, with a philosopher.

Scritti Politti: This film, all depending on how good of a job they do, it could be interesting. Its been fun making it.

Karina: How did they contact you?

Scritti Politti: Just came through my management.

Karina: Limelight.......

Karina: you don't like it much...

Scritti Politti: Acting was the last thing I wanted to do, but they wanted me to meet the director. He turned out to be a hip, young guy... and I liked him.

Scritti Politti: We did some recording here on the West Coast with the Alkaholics.

Scritti Politti: I'm also going to be doing some more recording here in the weeks ahead.

Karina: Ok! :)

Scritti Politti: With unspecified collaborators.

Scritti Politti: But I'm excited about that.

Karina: Unspecified, does that mean that it is just an idea in your head?

Karina: Who would you like to work with?

Scritti Politti: I'm going to go see the Jurassic Five tonight, so that's a tiny hint.

Karina: You are going to go meet them in the back and try to strike a deal?

Scritti Politti: There's also a really neat; a very good band called Mass Influence, who are kind of relatively unknown. I saw them in London, hooked up with them. They're really fantastic.

Karina: Good luck with that!

Karina: While you were on hiatus did someone start a website on you?

Scritti Politti: Apparently yeah, but I have no idea. There are very some extraordinary people, whom I owe a lot. They did keep, two in particular, websites and a magazine. That was the funniest thing, and it came out every month.

Scritti Politti: How could you make a magazine on someone who hasn't done anything in two years?

Karina: right....

Scritti Politti: Back in the years, I got my chin pierced, and I was apparently sighted somewhere -- this was headline news, in addition.

Scritti Politti: But the people do that; Erica... she had a website called "Archaeology Frivolous" -- I've never looked at the site, but apparently its very interesting.

Karina: Ok, well listen you have been a great first interview!

Scritti Politti: Thank you!

Karina: Thank you so much.

Karina: For all of you joining us we are going to be rebroadcasting this chat next Tuesday.

Karina: If you would like more information on upcoming chats signon to www.doritos.com.

Karina: This is Karina signing out!