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GRAHAM PARKER
Yahoo! Chat
02.09.00
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This is a transcription of an online chat conducted with Graham Parker on February 9, 2000 in the Yahoo! chat room.
THIS IS NOT A VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT.
IT HAS BEEN EDITED.
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GRAHAM PARKER: Hello everybody on line, get a life! What are you doing here, haven't you got anything better to do, it's my dinner time! Hello, how are you?
QUESTION: When did you start playing guitar?
GRAHAM PARKER: I think I was first posing with a guitar when I was 13. Note that the operative word is posing. It was when I was about 24 that I learned to string a few chords together. Then I got a record deal when I was 25. But before that I was just in and out of music but nothing professional.
QUESTION: What is your favorite song of yours?
GRAHAM PARKER: In my opinion my best recorded work is 12 Haunted Episodes.
QUESTION: What do you think of mp3s being traded for free on the internet? Do you have any objections to people being able to listen to your music whenever they want without paying for it?
GRAHAM PARKER: In response to the question about what I think of MP3 and of people being able to listen to my music for free, Whew! I don't think I'm in demand enough for it to really effect me! At the moment its not worrying me at all because I think if someone wants to hear one of my albums, they'll go out and buy it.
QUESTION: Do you have any plans to collaborate with any other artists?
GRAHAM PARKER: I have no plans to collaborate with anyone but I don't have many plans anyway. Occasionally I've been asked to co-write songs, but it's not something I feel any great need to do. Usually because when I go to write a batch of songs I usually come up with enough for an album, and why bother collaborating? So I'm not really conducive to the idea, I must say.
QUESTION: What are the best and worst things about going on tour?
GRAHAM PARKER: Whew! To illustrate the worst things about going on tour, I saw a documentary on the Rolling Stones, celebrating their 25 years of the Rolling Stones. And Charlie Watts said, Yeah, five years of music, 20 years of hanging about. Which pretty much sums up the worst of going on tour. It's a lot of drudgery. The great thing about going on tour is the feedback from an audience. That's why you do it I think.
QUESTION: Graham: This HOB chat sez: GP appears courtesy of Cleopatra Records? What happened to UpYours records?
GRAHAM PARKER: Cleopatra Records, I've never been on Cleopatra records. But Up Yours Records is my record company, but it's not really a record company, it's just a great name. But if I could be bothered to form a record company it would be called UpYours Records. And I used the title UpYours Records for my last album which was on sale on the internet only. But I don't know where Cleopatra came from, perhaps I was signed to them while I was sleeping. I've been thinking about getting a record deal, perhaps I signed to them in my sleep or in my dreams.
QUESTION: What do you think of the current state of the music business?
GRAHAM PARKER: The music business, not music, that's the question? It's very diffused. It used to be simple. You'd get a record deal, they'd give you an extraordinary amount of money, you'd make a record, and the label would probably keep you for at least four records even if the first two didn't sell very well. Now I think whenever you sign a record deal, you've got one shot and that's it. On the other hand I think people have realized that they can sell a small amount and make a lot more money if they do it themselves. And we're definitely in a position right now where it's pivoting all the time. It's very hard to know which way it's going to go. Because the traditional way of selling records and the traditional record deal is becoming more ambiguous. And I think people are making it up as they go along at the moment.
QUESTION: How do you feel about internet-only record releases?
GRAHAM PARKER: Well I have some experience because I just did that. It's a very limited way of selling records at the moment. But for me it was perfect because the album was spare tracks and lost demos, so it made sense that I didn't need it to be in stores or publicized heavily. In other words, it was more of a fan oriented project. I think it's very good for a lot of acts that have a small audience. Because you cut off the huge losses you would have with distribution and with traditional record deals. It's very much part of the last question. And I think there is definitely a future for it as a way of selling records.
QUESTION: GP, thanks for all the year of great and razor smart music, my question is after all these years is it easier or harder to avoid the trite common lyric, that are geared to the IQ of corprate A&R men and women
GRAHAM PARKER: Whew! For me songwriting is still a mysterious process. And so I can't invent anything trite to please anybody. That doesn't mean that I don't write trite things now and again. But I try to keep them to myself, and keep working until strong material comes out. It seems harder but on the other hand I just wrote two albums worth of material and I think it's all good. So I feel very lucky that I'm not reduced to writing trite material for A&R people.
QUESTION: Who are you listening to muscially now?
GRAHAM PARKER: I'm listening to Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland, I'm listening to Songs of a Taylor, Jack Bruce's first solo album. On the radio I like hearing pop oriented stuff like Fastball, Beck, some Smashing Pumpkins, and lots of songs that I don't the names of and I don't know the names of the artists, but I happen to hear on the car radio. I'm finding the state of songwriting with the more acoustic singer songwriting types to be in a fairly dire state. But I think there is some very catchy and fun stuff by more pop oriented bands. But I don't rush out and by it because I've heard it all before anyway.
QUESTION: Graham, do you have any plans to return to play in the UK soon?
GRAHAM PARKER: The only plans I've got in the moment are to tour Italy at the beginning of April, and immediately after the north of Sweden. That's my only touring plans at the moment.
QUESTION: What do you think of the latest appeal for "teenie-bopper" bands (ie. Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync)?
GRAHAM PARKER: That market just doesn't seem to go away. So there's nothing new about it. And I think it seems that the big score is with young teenagers as far as selling records is concerned. So I can't say a guy pushing 50 always feels that he is in the same business as those people. And it's going to carry on regardless of what I think about it. And I did like one of the Spice Girls songs, but that was it.
QUESTION: Who was your inspiration (musically) growing up?
GRAHAM PARKER: Like most young people I went through various phases of taste. When I was very young, before the Beatles, at the very beginning of the sixties, we were hearing a pirate radio station in England that was broadcast from a ship in the ocean somewhere off the coast of Britain. It was called Radio Luxembourg. And we would hear American hit records on that station. Which in those days were occasionally R&B records. And shortly after that, in 1963 , the Beatles and the Stones appeared. And they were obviously the biggest influence on everybody of my generation. Because we all realized that these were people almost from our backyard. And we might be able to do the same thing. But from then on I've gotten into every type of music you could imagine. From the ska, Tamla Motown, Stax soul music, through the English blues revival, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, those white blues bands. To James Taylor, Joni Mitchell. To the Pink Floyd. Everything that's been there from the sixties onwards, I've usually found myself being into and often overwhelmed by for periods of time. And all of that has been influencial.
QUESTION: Do you have any superstitions while on tour or recording?
GRAHAM PARKER: No, I welcome weird things happening!
QUESTION: What does your family think of your music? Do they support you?
GRAHAM PARKER: LOL! I think if it brings in enough money to keep them comfortable, they'll continue to support me, yes! My daughter's friends at her new school don't particularly want to hear my music, but they want to hear me talking the way I used to talk when I had a very strong English accent. And so my daughter is going to take in some live recordings of me where I introduced songs with my heavy English accent, the accent I had when I was 26, 27. But the answer is yes, my family is supportive of what I do.
QUESTION: Where are you living now Graham?
GRAHAM PARKER: I live in London and New York, depending on the year, lately much more in upstate New York. Largely because I concentrate on touring in America much more.
QUESTION: Do you have a favorite city to play in?
GRAHAM PARKER: I don't really have any favorite cities to play in. The favorite places to play are where I sell tickets and get a great audience. But these days I usually prefer playing in smaller towns. Simply because it's so much easier to do basic things like park your car and get a hotel that doesn't cost you $300.
QUESTION: What was that fuzz about "You Can't Be Too Strong", I've just recently heard about it?
GRAHAM PARKER: The song depicts an abortion in fairly graphic detail. Coupled with the fact that it has a fairly powerful, poignant melody, a lot of people have found it very affecting. But you have to listen to it to make your own mind up.
QUESTION: Have you ever had a traumatic stage experience?
GRAHAM PARKER: Once I fell over backwards on stage. And I was playing solo so I couldn't pretend it was part of the act. And I punched a hole in the guitar but luckily it kept on working just fine. And when I got myself up to my feet again, I simply said to the audience, No falls, no balls. And carried on playing. Another traumatic experience, I suppose, was when I was doing a TV show for the BBC in England. And my tour manager at the time threw his pet ferret at me. Which I felt compelled to catch. And it smelled of urine. That was disturbing. Other than that it's been plain sailing all the way.
QUESTION: Did you come up with the "Chairman" monkier for yourself?
GRAHAM PARKER: Yes I did. I am Chairman Parker. Why I don't know, it doesn't sound like Chairman Mao, nothing like it, it just popped into my head, and there it is, it's stuck now.
QUESTION: What song do you want to be played at your funeral?
GRAHAM PARKER: Woa! Wow! Let me think for a moment. Gosh! That's terribly difficult actually. There are so many songs I like. I think the hymn Jerusalem would be very stirring. It's one of the most stirring, manipulative tunes ever written. And I think it would be nice to force people into crying, which is what that tune does, because it's so stirring and powerful.
QUESTION: Any more live solo albums in the works?
GRAHAM PARKER: No, not at present. I have quite a bit of stuff that was professionally recorded in Belgium the last time I was there. I've had two live solo albums out in my career, and at the moment I have so many new songs that I think a studio album would be more fitting.
QUESTION: How do you feel about being compared to Elvis Costello
GRAHAM PARKER: Well I find it very, very boring. But you know I understand the reason for it in the press, is because he's more well known than I am. And whoever is writing about me assumes that most people won't know who the heck I am. And so they have to have his name there as a reference point. But it's enough already I would say, would be my comment.
QUESTION: What is one person you can't live without? (don't put yourself)
GRAHAM PARKER: I'm an artist, so I'm alone. Excuse the pretentious use of the word artist, but for want of a better word. I can't live without me, basically. I'm like most writers and highly creative people, again excuse the pretention of the words "highly creative", but we're on our own, we live in our own heads, whoever we're with.
QUESTION: What is your greatest fear when presenting your music?
GRAHAM PARKER: That's vey interesting. Rejection. That people won't react strongly to it. Again coming back to the overused cliche, artist, people like me are entirely insecure about what we do. On the one hand. And on the other hand, we feel like God-like creatures. So we are very confused individuals. And I think I speak for a lot of writers when I say this. And we live for a strong, positive reaction. And so it hurts when you present new material to people and they have a lukewarm reaction to it.
QUESTION: What is the best compliment you ever got?
GRAHAM PARKER: I'm very lucky that I get a lot of positive compliments from people. And they usually concern the honesty of my work. And they usually point up that I'm a cut above average. I guess I'm going right back to the insecure artist thing here. But a girl once called me cute, so that's probably a much bigger compliment really!
QUESTION: Your website is the best there is. Do you find it gratifying that people want to ask you all that stuff, even though one more "who do you listen to?" question might send you over the edge?
GRAHAM PARKER: LOL! Ten years ago I wouldn't have had anything to do with it. I was much too precious to be involved with this kind of thing. But now I'm grateful for it. And because I've been doing a lot of writing in the last few years and in fact have a book coming out in June, it's good practice for me to write to people. And even though it's on the internet and it's in cyberspace, it's still writing and composing answers to people, and it's stimulating for me to figure out what my life is all about. That doesn't mean that I won't stop it tomorrow out of sheer boredom if I continue to get that same question thrown at me over and over again! See what I do is not really something that you do to join an industry. It's about being driven to express yourself. So if you are driven to express yourself and you want other people to appreciate your work, you are going to have to find out as you go along how aspects of the industry work. And I'd say that this is a very good time in some ways to be part of the music industry because you don't need a huge record deal. You can record your stuff in a cheap studio or on your own equipment and press 500 copies of it. But as for dealing with the more horrific aspects of the music industry, I think you just have to face it as it comes. And the question would have to be more specific more me to give a more pertinent answer.
QUESTION: Do you find you are writing less as you get older, or more?
GRAHAM PARKER: I'm probably writing about the same amount. After I'd made my first album, I suddenly found I had to write album #2 and then album #3. And that was a very difficult time. But in the late 80's, I think I found a new energy. And I'm still rolling on that energy in a way. And recently when I went into a songwriting bout as I call it, I started out by saying I'll write six songs in six days, and I did. And I've never done that before. And they were all good. They've all held up to the light for a period of time now. And I definitely have enough material for two albums right now. So the balance throughout my career has been very good, I've been very lucky with that.
QUESTION: Are you able to listen to yourself and enjoy it?
GRAHAM PARKER: Well when I make a new album, or even new demos of new material, if the songs hold up, I enjoy it very much. It's always a thrill to find that you've just shrugged off the last direction and gone into a new one. It just sounds old. Unless it's from my very latest album that's just come out then, and even then I'll probably cringe. But there is more chance with something new that I'll actually enjoy hearing it. But usually anything old sounds stiff and leaden and I just don't want people to hear that. I wish they were playing something that I'd just written recently.
QUESTION: How would you want your music remembered 50 years from now?
GRAHAM PARKER: LOL! I'd like people to be hearing something brand new of mine fifty years from now!
GRAHAM PARKER: Thank you all very much for bothering to ask me such interesting questions. And I hope I get around to a few towns in American in June when my book comes out and see you all in a different setting. And I will continue fishing around in the industry as I'm doing at the moment to see what is the right situation for me in which to make a new record. And I'll see you on GrahamParker.net.
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