* Home,
house, day and, specially, life: those words appear many
times
along your album with Brian. Would you agree if I say that your
latest work focuses in the comforts/emptiness of urban contemporary
life? Ain't that something you've always been obsessed with, since
Talking Heads times?

Hi
Bruno...see you soon

yes
I guess I repeat myself quite a lot- as if by making some
incantation
involving these loaded words they might reveal themselves, become
clearer or explain themselves. these particular words resonate
differently depending on the context- the period in our lives, the
time of day, our health, our situation at the moment, our
history.
though the words
get repeated they're not the same each time. now they mean something
else than they used to, and tomorrow something else again.
I
long for comfort and stability, but I also fear it. I want to be
cosy
and among friends, in a secure place- but I also have a possibly
irrational fear that too much comfort will stifle creativity. This
could be a Protestant outlook- though I wasn't raised in that
religion
I am from Scotland
and grew up in the US so it rubs off.

* The
album's artwork supports that idea: fully equipped home
and
emptiness/solitude,
environment and technology...
it
was a brilliant idea of Stefan's- the computer rendered home that
looks perfect but also a little "off"- the perspective is
slightly wrong, the texturing is less than perfect and there are tell
tale signs of apocalypse- the fuzzy shape of a man can be seen behind
one window with binoculars, the garden has mysterious vents for some
underground room and a pack of condoms lies stuck in the rain gutter,
etc

it's the same set of
mixed feelings as in some of the songs- not all, but some- comfort
and dread, apocalypse and hope. Contradictions, opposites even, but
that must be what I'm feeling...these things co- exist.

*
In this troubled times -I still can see/We can use the stars
-to
guide the way... I feel
something postindustrial but something really positive in these and
other lines of the album. Am I getting it?

exactly.
I don't want to "explain" the lyrics too much- but yes,
being guided by the stars in troubled times to me implies a return to
Earth, a return to and respect for natural forces that are bigger
than ourselves and that can also be trusted. The "stars"
are where we live, where we have always lived, and they will be there
despite troubled times. one of the other songs- The River- says "the
forest is alive, it asks us to participate". Same idea more or
less- that we are part of immense cycles and forces much much bigger
than ourselves, and we must participate rather than dominate. Trying
to explain makes it sound more dogmatic than it is, but that's the
idea in those lines anyway.

* Brian Eno
is -and so are you- the quintessential of the super
complete
artist. What's his main talent, in your opinion?

while
Brian actually is a virtuoso of sorts, in a fairly undefined
area,
his main talent I would say is not detail oriented (he hates
detail
work) but viewing the thing from a wider perspective- whether it be a
song, a track, or something else. he knows that sometimes something
stupidly simple is all that is needed, and more complexity is counter
productive...for someone as apparently analytical as he is (and I am)
we both respond to things fairly viscerally- the intellectualizing
comes later.

* You both
got matched in your gospel + electronics intention. Is
Africa
always there for you two?

in
one way or another the last 100+ years have been the era in which
Africa went mainstream- so we are not alone. I don't mean complex or
multilayered African rhythms, those are present - in Hip Hop, funk,
drum and bass, salsa, rhumbas, etc etc- but even in global pop the
groove is - well, can you imagine what the groove would have been in
pop music if music with African roots hadn't penetrated Western
music?
There wouldn't have
been any!

* You
expressed previously your theory about how most
important
contemporary
musics are results of slavery.

well,
not exactly slavery- but nodes- usually port cities- where
African
culture- via slavery- came in contact with European and
Indigenous
cultures. although the contact may have happened centuries ago, the
musical fruit really seemed to blossom in the 20th century.

*
Beside the gospel obvious topic, are we as slaves to technology as
some mid 20th century literature predicted?

are
we slaves to our technology? yeah, there are a few CrackBerry
whores
out there but just as often there are many who aren't
overwhelmed
by technology or who pervert it to their own needs. I have to admit I
don't think I have the time for Facebook or Twitter- I can barely
keep up with my Email.

Music
software, Photoshop and all those other tools for creative work are
similar- it's seductively easy to montage photos, edit music and do a
million things that were previously horribly time consuming. The My
LIfe In The Bush of Ghosts record could be done in a week on Logic or
ProTools these days- but yes, there was and is something special
about the "handmade" quality of the original- the tempos
and timing are human, imperfect, the vocals slip and slide, the pitch
was as good as we could do at the time. now that perfection is
possible we see that maybe perfection isn't what we wanted all
along.

it's possible to
work with the new tools and not lose sight of what gives work it's
soul- but now it's easier to lose that quality too- the temptation to
click the mouse and make everything technically accurate is always
dangerously close.

* Did
you felt any kind of pressure to make a classic album, like My life
in the bush of ghosts was, or just relaxed and try to record a
beautiful collection of songs?

one
never knows if one is making a "classic" album or
not....how can you know? Bush of Ghosts had a dogma behind it- that
every vocal would be some version of a "found" vocal- and
this new record had not such dogma, so in some ways it was less
rigorous. We did have an unspoken rule that I would not interfere
with Brian's music tracks- the stereo tracks he gave me were what I
would work with and if, for example, I didn't like the guitar in one
track, well, I couldn't change it- that was the game- I had to work
with what I was given. I assumed that a similar restriction might be
reflected on Brian's side- that he wouldn't tell me what melodies or
words to write- and mostly he didn't.

anyway,
I was happy when after writing melody and text for a few
Brian's
tracks I saw where the project was going- in the direction of simple,
almost folky, songs. not somewhere I would have gone myself, but
that's why we collaborate.

*
For the last few years it looked like you've been mostly at
the
perimeter of music:
publishing it, looking at it, writing about it and its industry...
Did you needed a creative rest or were you -let's say- waiting to see
where was the all technology revolution and the music industry adrift
heading to?

maybe it
seems I've been on the perimeter because the records I've
been
recording have been badly promoted in Spain? I've never stopped
releasing records- not all of them equally good- but I've never
stopped. every couple of years there's a new record and often a tour
to accompany it. for a while (12 years) with Luaka Bop, my record
label, I could also present music that inspired and influenced me as
well as making my own music. Presenting music was a joy and a
pleasure until dealing with the collapsing major distribution labels
became a complete headache. so I left the label- my own label!- and
my former business partner soldiers on. there are 3 new releases- a
soul samba artist, a radical event oriented US band and a sadly
deceased songwriter- so the label is far from dead, but I'm not
involved much anymore.

I
still don't know what the new model for music distribution
is-
everything is still
adrift. I do know that the old model is not
fixable-
that model is in the past, thought there are plenty of
remnants
(classical music labels, for example). Not every new model is right
for everyone. Some artists need big budgets for their projects while
others can work in their bedrooms- some artists can live off income
from live performance, while others are purely studio creatures.

the
same process will effect film I am sure- and I wouldn't be
surprised
if book and newspaper publishing will be completely
revolutionized
as well.

* Please excuse
my slackness, I should have noticed your Big Love:
Hymnal
soundtrack for the HBO series. What can you tell about that
instrumental album, David?

I was at
home in NY for a period- working on songs for the Eno album, for the
Here Lies Love project and others and got approached to do some
scoring for this crazy HBO series. I thought it would be an
interesting challenge and I initially proposed that all the score be
somewhat inspired by Mormon Hymns- as the series revolves around a
fundamentalist Mormon man with 3 wives. Despite the dramas and
absurdity I thought it was important that one sensed that the
characters based their decisions on their spirituality- and that
hymn- like scoring might re-enforce that.
I
was both right and wrong. The hymns were too meta- they took you out
of the small household dramas and reminded you of the
larger
philosophical and
moral issues- a distraction from the narrative it turned out.
ooops.
so, some of them were
used, but I also ended up writing more moody
music
that didn't announce itself as loudly.
the
CD has many of the invented hymns that were never used in
the
series.

* That
article you wrote in Wired a few years ago was amazing (remember it?)
What would you say today if you wrote today an article on the future
of the (recorded) music?

I
would say that creatively recorded music is healthy as an artform, as
a way of getting one's music to other people- but as a business it is
broken. I still buy a lot of CDs, I also pay for downloads- but I
know lots of people who have never paid for a CD in their life. The
last large record store in Manhattan just closed, so, if you are
making a product, like CDs, that isn't sold in a huge market like
Manhattan, I would say you might want to rethink your business
model.
the battle between
You Tube (owned by Google) and Warner Music (the publishing company,
NOT just the record company) is interesting. On one side Warners sees
that Google makes at least 300 million from the advertising revenue
they connect to streaming music videos and songs connected to Warner
publishing- so naturally and deservedly they, and the other large
music publishers, want a piece of that. However, the public only sees
the disappearance of popular videos from You Tube and hears of
amateurs being harassed because their postings contain copyright
material. The publishers and record companies will claim that they
are fighting on behalf of artists and songwriters- but did they ever
share the millions they received from MTV with their artists?- the
answer is no.

from an
artists point of view there are more opportunities than ever, but
probably not with the large record labels

* One of the
few art forms you haven't explored is literature/narrative. How
influential is it for you? What do you think of contemporary
literature? Do you feel identified with Dave Eggers?

Eggers
is a friend and I loved his last book- I have a feeling that the song
One Fine Day was in some ways inspired by me having just read What Is
The What. I actually don't read much literature- I usually read
non-fiction these days. I'm finishing a book that is not really
literature- Bike Diaries- thoughts on many of the world's cities over
the part 15 years as I ride a bicycle around. Blogging has been a
great outlet for writers like me- writers who might have trouble with
longer narrative forms. I also find it exciting that it's a new form
of "writing"- one can add links, images, short videos and
all sorts of extra material- and the text is just one element among
many.

* Last time you
were in Spain -correct me if wrong- you came to see an exhibit at
Reina Sofía's Modern Art Museum in Madrid. Please let us know about
your art/non music projects.

I
was invited to participate in an show at Reina Sofia called Souls and
Machines by Arte Futura, a Barcelona based cultural institution. I
approached David Hansen of Hansen robotics to see if we could make a
somewhat realistic robot that would appear to sing- a short song with
my voice in Castellano and English (there is a video of the result on
my website)
i was interested
in the contradiction of a machine busting out with an emotional song,
a song about "his" feeling and existential doubts- it's of
course not possible, but wonderfully disturbing at times.

* Back in
music, there they are recent collaborations with Tom Zé,
N.A.S.A.,
Dirty Projectors... Any missing? And what's next
missing-
a version of a Brazilian Girls song, a song on Norman Cook's BPA
project called Toe Jam (the video for that one is amazing!). for a
number of years I've been working on a song cycle or a music theater
project called Here Lies Love (also with Fatboy Slim collaborating)
that will be finished later this year. I've been recording a
different singer on almost every song- and there are 22 of them- so
it has taken a long time, but it's almost finished.

* How
important is still Brasil for you?
as
with Terry Gilliam, Brasil is partly an imaginary place for me- a
place where incredibly beautiful and sophisticated music also has
broad public appeal. this utopia doesn't really exist, but some
elements of it do- and that is enough to give one hope. Objective
truth is completely overrated.

*
April 6th 2001 you (in an interview I made you in Madrid, featured in
book B@bel Citizens) you predicted about George W. Bush: “he'll
bring us back to cold war in a few months. All the progress we made
in ten years will be spoiled”. Let me ask you again, eight years
later, about the new president and how your country (and the world)
faces the immediate present and close future.
George
Bush was a reverse Midas- he ruined everything he touched, he and his
cronies. With the possible exception of bike riding- and even there
he ran into people! The extent of the damage he and his pals have
done will not be apparent for a while- but certainly his "war on
Terror" has proved to be exactly the opposite- it is a
successful strategy for increasing terrorism throughout the world and
making the world a more dangerous place. Mission Accomplished! In
some ways then he has therefore succeeded- because now he can claim
that military might is needed more than ever. of course he's wrong,
but he might claim that.
Thanks
in part to American intervention after the fall of the Soviet Union
Russia is now a corrupt giant with less equality than ever-
belligerent and oil rich. China owns the US debt, and to some extent
is keeping the US afloat- but for how long? only enough to get their
money back I suspect.
Poor
Obama has an unbelievably tough situation- but he also knows that
this is also a moment when the people are more receptive to change
and rethinking old models- models that have been proven not to
work.

* I guess you're
in Germany now. We europeans got really obsessed
about
the Obama campaign. Do you think we tend to see the US like it is
from here?
news from the US
is often filtered- the world didn't realize the
extent
of poverty and squalor in parts of the US until Katrina. In
much
of the US the cities are unsustainable, and the population
scrambles
in desperation to get by- they don't know that in other
parts
of the world things are different. they don't know that other
developed countries have health care, they don't know that is many
developed countries education- even universities are free.
that
said- I've been reading Obama's first book and it's amazing- not only
can the man write, but he expresses doubts, troubles, worries and of
course hope. he comes across as a real person, who will have his
hands full in the coming years. however- look at what he did
immediately- closing the CIA black sites, putting a closing date on
Guantanamo, allocating money for infrastructure, etc- so he's made
good on some of what he'd been saying already.

*
Please tell a bit about your tour/shows and current line
up
(musicians,
dancers)...
whew- OK, the
show of course features songs from the new record, I
decided
to see if there was a thread that might connect the new
material
with the older material (Bush of Ghosts, Talking Heads,
Catherine
Wheel) the Brian and I were both involved in- it turns out there is a
bit of a connection, and you can hear it live easier than on
recordings.
so that became
the musical dogma for the show-
visually
I thought the show needed something- the last tour with a
rhythm
section and strings was very munch about the music and
harmonies,
and this music sounds rich as well, but I felt it needed an
additional element. so,
when
I asked myself what would be the last thing expected of a live show
from me the answer was "dancers". everyone thinks of
Madonna or J-Lo or similar pop spectacles when oner thinks of dance
and pop music- but I felt there might be a new way to go. I was
inspired by some Japanese movies (Funky Forest and Taste of Tea) and
a concert by Sufjan Stevens I attended recently and I invited 3
choreographers to each do 2 songs of their choosing-
well,
you can be the judge- I think it works, which was a great
relief.
in fact we ended up adding more choreography and integrating the
choreography with the music and the musicians with the dancers. It
all blurs together. you might not feel the recording is very radical
or breaks a lot of new ground, but maybe the live show does.
best
from Paris

DB