INTERVIEW 3
18.11.2012
Bodystyler Interview Andrew Poppy
Disorientation in the war zone of perception
Desorientierung im Kriegsgebiet der Wahrnehmung
‘Melody is an empty chair... ‘
Andrew Poppy sits between all chairs, it shall shifted and replaced boundaries. His furious work includes concert music, operas and scores for philharmonic, dance theatre, film and tv. At the same time he arranged & produced Post-Industrial, EBM, Rock, Indie and Synth-pop bands.
This raises inevitably questions, not only about his new album ...
Bodystyler:
‘Perhaps it's a bit early… ‘
But we always wanted to know if you are also responsible for the arrangement of the bonus record "Themes" that came with the Psychic TV debut "Force The Hand Of Chance"? Under what influence can anyone write scores for human bones, head hunters flutes, temple and cow bells?
Andrew Poppy:
I remember that I used some percussion called Temple Blocks on DREAMS LESS SWEET and Gen and Sleazy were very taken with them because they were skull shaped and black. I think there are Buddhist rituals that use wind instruments made of bones. Human or other wise. In ‘Circle’ I used a tenor recorder which when overblown has some strange harmonics. Its possible that piece could be played on a thigh bone wind instrument.
Bodystyler:
Thank you, and first of all congratulations on your new Masterpiece. Is the impression deceiving or is „Shiny Floor Shiny Ceiling“ de facto a very personal album? It is like a thoughtfully gloomy Fluxus, which addresses both the different musical stations of your life, as well the content suggests your manifold inspirations. Oh, and "The Wave" as a reminder of your teenage days with the "Short Waves" by Stockhausen?
Andrew Poppy:
Thank you. It probably does appear personal. It is. But it always is really. I think that perhaps because there is so much language it changes things. It brings the personal things to the surface. My last project was a series of piano pieces INFERNAL FURNITURE They are personal in maybe a more indefinable way.
Yes the wave is the short wave radios of Cage and Stockhausen for sure. Both very important figures in my life. The wave is the sound wave and the wave hello, wave goodbye. And the waves of the ocean from which Persephone calls.
Bodystyler:
Just a single note does something… From "The Subject Is Of No Object" became "The Beating Of Wings" and from "32 Frames For Orchestra" a prosperous 12" single with drums. Was the title "Shiny Floor Shiny Ceiling" this time clear from the beginning, and how does the agile "If I Could Copy You" sound when it is performed by the Lambeth Wind Orchestra at London's All Saints Church?
Andrew Poppy:
SHINY FLOOR SHINY CEILING was the title for along time. It was a theme that I was working with. It’s something about disorientation. Physical disorientation when looking up at the stars perhaps. I didn’t write the pieces to fit the theme but somehow they all gathered around it.
Some times a creative idea splits and goes in two different directions. So there are two completely different pieces with the name If I Could Copy You. In fact I may have to rename the orchestral piece. Its getting confusing!! They started from the same kernel, at the same tempo that’s for sure but then something happened. Different implications from the same moment demanded to be satisfied. The title comes from a reading of Renie Girard’s ideas about mimetic desire. These ideas may be more explicit in If I could Copy You which has lyrics and is part of Shiny Floor Shiny Ceiling’s song cycle. But Im going to release a version of the other piece soon. In a kind of ‘SHINY: alternative and deleted scenes EP’.
I’m hoping that sometime in the future I can do If I COULD COPY YOU live with the String Orchestra of Fabrica. That would be wild.
Bodystyler:
Paul Morley once said, you were the obsessive hermit at the legendary label ZTT. Is that true, prefer you indeed to work alone or it is your kind of repetition with familiar people such as the performer Julia Bardsley, Claudia Brücken or Margaret Cameron, who was 17 years ago already at "Ophelia"?
Andrew Poppy: Well, I work at the desk and at the piano with pencil and paper. Then later I work in my studio. Sometimes I work directly with Protools but I still value the pencil and paper approach. I’m happy to be a hermit a lot of the time but also I really like working with other people. I’ve always worked in the theatre as a parallel to making records. And I think of musical performance as a kind of theatre. The Beating of Wings has lots of people on it. Probably more than most ZTT records at that time. With SHINY its been great to work with Margaret Cameron again and Claudia of course. But also brilliant to make new friends: James Gilchrist and Guillermo Rosenthuler.
Bodystyler:
‘Do great songs need to be sung…’
Definitely that. And because Paul Humphreys is not in proximity, please tell us how you manage to make Claudia Brücken reach her limits and outdo herself again and again?
Andrew Poppy:
I think you must be referring to ‘Another Language’ the album Claudia and I made together a while back. I really like to find a challenge with each project. On that album I wanted to choose songs that I could make into voice and piano tracks or voice and guitar pieces. The model was something like the classical Leider tradition where the accompaniment has a kind of independence. So its like a duet perhaps. The Schubert song is the key to that album.
On SHINY I didn’t have any idea about who would sing each piece until quite late. I write all the music for myself, as it were, and sing all the vocal lines. It became clear that Claudia would be great for Dark Spell. I think she’s an amazing vocal personality. She really understands the recording process. Like a great actor who knows how the camera looks at things.
Its been great that Paul Humphreys has had time to mix SHINY. Good to be in the studio with him again. And we’ve been talking about making something together at some point in the future.
Bodystyler:
In search of cheap wine, Britons discovered Portugal hundreds of years ago. What exactly attracts you to this country? After Vitor Gonçalves you've now worked with Lula Pena, Bernardo Devlin and even recorded in the Atelier Real in Lisbon ...
Andrew Poppy:
The Portuguese are very welcoming people. And it’s a beautiful country. The California of Europe! I’ve had friends there since the 80s. About 5 years ago Bernardo Devlin and I made an album together which I recorded and produced. And we did a couple of gigs in Lisbon. The record company messed us about and the project got lost. It happens. But Bernardo is a fantastic artist. No question. Originally Annette Peacock was going to sing ‘Unraveling’. We’ve kept in touch since she worked on ‘Goodbye Mr G’ in 1987 . But it didn’t work out with her schedule and so I asked Lula Pena. Who I didn’t know personally, but always loved her sound since I first heard her about 10 years ago. I sent her the song and then went to Lisbon to record with her. I think it’s a wonderful addition to the album.
Bodystyler:
‘Princess into martyr, choir girl into hip rock chick…’
The subtitle of your album promises inter alia ‘seven voices in search of a song’. Would it not rather be one composer in search of the seven vocal gamut and timbres which fit into his songs like natural instruments?
Andrew Poppy:
Yes that’s right. Each voice brings a particular history and culture. Bernardo and Lula are Portuguese. Claudia is German and Guillermo is Argentinean. The three British voices are all very different in their implications. Just a simple spoken word has memory imbedded in its performance and I’m interested in that.
I’m also finding a place for my ‘voice’. A song is like a mask both for the composer and for the singer. But in different ways. The singer is searching for the centre of the song to possess it. The audience hear/see the character, the mask, they identify with it or not. The experience of composing and performing and listening are all different. And what is happening here is I’m finding a way to move between two worlds: the hermit writer and the public performer.
Bodystyler:
You've always worked with and for exciting and renowned labels, one being your own Bitter and Twisted Records / B TRAP. Why now FIELD RADIO Recordings, what are you doing differently?
Andrew Poppy: With the label Bitter and Twisted I wanted the name to be ironic. The releases are very classical. Piano and violin music and string quartets. But I also wanted to say something about the way that anger gets rationalized and neutralized. Perhaps it should have been called Bitter and Twisted HA HA HA! Recently I thought that I wanted to have a more positive image. And radio was always important and I like the one to one thing. And we always seem to be in some kind of war zone! And I’m happiest in a field situation!! When I was a kid I wanted to be a radio ham. To be a broadcaster. To speak to people on the other side of the world. I built little valve radios. Times have changed haven’t they. Everyone’s got a mobile phone now: a field radio. In fact the demos that I made in the early 80s were all signed Field Radio. Its an idea that found its moment for me.
Bodystyler:
‘Then what is it that you would do... ‘
What's next, it is performances of "Shiny Shiny Floor Ceiling" outside of London or maybe even give this someday on DVD?
Andrew Poppy:
Yes, we are working on getting European dates together and there are plans for Berlin! The SHINY team is very strong and the show is a real aural-visual experience. A DVD will happen but I’m not sure when. The video for IF I COULD COPY YOU has some of the flavor of the show But its another level when you are in the space. All the videos are by Julia Bardsley. She is an extraordinary image maker. We’ve been working together now for 20 years on and off and so the ideas just flow. I’m really looking forward to presenting outside of the UK
Bodystyler:
Thank you for the interview. And yes, we …do the flip!
Andrew Poppy:
Thank you very much for the question. Its been fun!