brief JPJ interview (No OSU putdowns)

[Vinod Shankar <shankar00@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is from the September issue of a magazine called "The Wire".  I believe
there might be more to the interview than just this though, so if anyone has it
or can get it for us - that'd be cool.  Also while I'm here, if anyone has
tapes of JPJ DJing on German radio last week, let me know too.


THE WIRE

> Diamanda Galas has sung Berio and has been compared to Berberian. How did
your
> collaboration on The Sporting Life come about?

JPJ:  A mutual friend put us together, a guy called Dave Snow.  I was looking
around for something interesting to produce and he said, 'You should work
with Diamanda'.  I already had "Wild Women With Steak Knives" and her "You
Must Be Certain Of The Devil" album, and I thought rather than just a
production, I'd prefer a collaboration.  So we went for coffee one evening
and found we had a lot in common.  I sent her some stuff over to New York, a
few heavy riffs, because I had an idea of how she would sound.  She really
liked the stuff, came over and we spent two months in the country writing
and recording the album in my studio out there.

> When I spoke to you last year you told me that you weren't really interested
in > working with singers.

JPJ: I don't really like the rock song form that much.  It no longer interests
me, put it that way.  It's not singer per se, it's everything that surrounds
the song-based form.  Singers also have to be managed; you have to make sure
conditions are right when they sing and that they don't sing too long.  You
can't tire them out going over something, because the voice is a fairly fragile
thing.  Not that Diamanda's voice is that fragile, but it still must be
managed.  It's not like playing instruments.



Vinod