She must have one of the most distinctive voices ever? When you are crafting music, do you always have her voice in mind?

Geoff: She writes the songs and we all produce together. It's a struggle to try and write good songs, it can take a long time and it's not easy, but she sometimes has the natural ability to sing something and we all stand back and go, 'oh wow!' whereas other times it might take three years.

Adrian: She's always writing and working. You never know where it's going with her. She's always up to something for films or other artists. She's very articulate, very musical and very driven and focused.

Where do you think the sound will go on the next record?

Geoff: More refined in the sense of traditional songwriting, but more sonically intriguing. There are things on Third that didn't need to be there. That is an example of how difficult writing can be. Commercially? There is no question of 'commercially' any more; you've just got to write the best thing you can. Maybe in the 90s people used to ask, 'what is your single going to be?' It just doesn't matter any more. The only thing you can do is write the best song you can write.

Sometimes singles pick themselves, don't they?

Geoff: Yeah, the one that doesn't go on for 12 minutes.

Do you ever feel pressure to put out a record? Portishead have always seemed to be band who are very autonomous and in control of their own destiny?

Adrian: It was an attitude that we started off with that made sure losing control was never going to happen. It's not like we rested on our laurels. We have to work - I've got expenses, so has Geoff. We have to work, but the amount of things we've turned down is ridiculous. We did use our music in a commercial sense once and we really fucking regretted it. Our premise has never been about making money or piling albums out. It's kept what we have done special between us. I remember working on a more commercial project with Geoff and saying: "I don't think we should be doing this together, it's tainting our musical relationship. You can't really be arsed and I can't really be arsed and I don't want that."

Geoff: The only pressure I feel is from competition in the world. If someone drops something that is really interesting, then I take it personally that I haven't done that piece. That's more of an old hip-hop thing really. Someone would drop a beat and there would be a lot of envy. That's disappeared over the years. That land of rivalry in music has disappeared and now it's more of a rival with modern media as it's so fucked.

In what way is the modern media fucked?

Geoff: Just the way the media reports politically, musically, whatever - it's all spiraling down a plughole. The dumbing down of society, really. What we've tried to do with the label is try and get interesting music to people we know are going to dig it, but just don't get to hear it. The dumbing down of the arts is insane. I really am totally excited by things like what is going on in Stokes Croft and the student riots in London. It creatively gives me a shot in the arm to think people care enough to put themselves in some kind of danger.

So is there anyone standing up against what you call this 'dumbing down' who you admire?

Geoff: Does anyone know any young artist who has any kind of socio-political agenda to their music? Even if it was Radiohead with OK Computer that would still work.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29