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NETSCAPE
- THE HORSE'S GOB & Brain Drain Interviews - a very
old interview but good for a larrf
1) Vocally, in tone and confessional style,
you seem influenced by both Tori
Amos (especially on Time Is A Blade) and something folkier still
-maybe Janis
Ian or All About Eve. Are you, or are there other artists closer
to your
hearts?
Anna -
Interesting. Tori Amos is certainly an influence as are Karen
Carpenter and Annie De Franco. As regards the folk influence, folk
isn't really a genre I've ever paid much attention to.
Martin -
Confessional is a good description. I'm into confessional,
personal lyrics, Aidan Moffat from Arab Strap for example. I guess
when you hear an acoustic guitar and vocal folk comes to mind. But
if we have any folk in us it’s modern angsty suburban folk (if
you know what I mean). I’d run a mile at hey nonny nonny.
2) As said, your songs are
confessional by nature, often betraying major
vulnerabilities. Do you consider yourselves "good"
people? Are you any good
at the people thing? What, do you think, are your most prominent
weaknesses?
And your best qualities?
Anna - Yes I like
to think I'm a good person. I've got lots of lovely friends so I
can't be that bad at the people thing. I can be quite a shy person
though. I don't know what my best qualities are.
Martin -
Yes I'm a good person. Too bloody good. I like people if I think
they like me and especially if they agree with me. But I'm also
very impatient and a bit too pushy sometimes perhaps (call it my
artistic streak).
3) Musically, you slip easily between acoustic folk, electro-funk
and
electronica. Sometimes you recall Fairport Convention (Black
Rainbow), then
the next moment it's sweet Riuchi Sakamoto, then (with the likes
of The Blue
Tree and Gun At My Head) it's like a deeper, heavier and more
complex
Portishead? Do you think there is a clear musical thread that runs
throughout?
Anna - Yes there
is a thread. Dark, questioning lyrics and honest up front vocals I
think are the consistent factors in our songs. We do pay a great
amount effort on our lyrics.
Martin - I agree.
Some of our songs sound best with just an acoustic guitar and
vocal. Some songs need breaking with loops or whatever to get them
across. They’re all generally explorations. Moments of feeling,
thought or emotion exploded into a song and fucked up in a studio
Often treatments and productions of our songs depend on who we can
get to work with but essentially the songs exist in their own
right as guitar and voice. I think we’re defining ourselves
pretty well now songwriting wise.
4) Name 15 influences: 5 books, 5 films, 5
albums.
|
Books |
Films |
Albums |
| The
Beach - Alex Garland |
Usual
Suspects |
Little
Earthquakes - Tori Amos |
| Writing
down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg |
Jacobs
Ladder |
Black
President - Fela Kuti |
| The
Fermata - Nicholas Baker |
Dr
Strangelove |
Rumours
- Fleetwood Mac |
| Ocean
of Sound - David Toop |
Lock
Stock & TSBs |
Philophobia
- Arab Strap |
| Bird
Song - Sebastian Faulks |
Angel
Heart |
Sea
Monsters -The Wedding Present |
5) Silverman is a duo. Give brief
histories of both of you, and tell us how
you met and why you decided to work together.
Anna - I'm 21 and
come from Oakhill near Bath in Somerset. I Studied Landscape
Architecture in Cheltenham met Martin in a Cheltenham bar when I
was playing an acoustic gig. That was a couple of years ago, we've
been writing songs and recording stuff together ever since.
Martin - I'm not
21 and used to be in a band that nobody's ever heard of called the
Nilon Bombers (there told you). We were in the process of folding
when I met Anna. Her songs and voice did my head in and we just
had to get it together. Now here we are, bust and virtual.
6) Silverman are renowned as one of the UK's biggest Internet
bands. Tell us
a bit about your success on the Net.
Martin -
It's a weird thing really. Empowering and exhilarating to have
your music listened to and enjoyed by people all over the world.
We get emails from all over which is great. We feel like we exist
and we're not living in a void whereas prior to having our songs
on the net nobody would have ever had the chance of hearing us.
Being nominated for the www.streamsearch.com
music and film festival and getting heaps of downloads and No1s at
www.mp3.com
for example makes everything worthwhile and anything possible.
Anna has the best voice I've ever heard it's my role on earth to
get as many people to hear it as possible. The Internet seems like
a pretty good start.
7) What has the Internet given you, and
what can it give to other bands (be
as brief as you can - and no techie bollocks!)?
Martin - It's
criminal how often great bands, singers, songwriters etc never get
heard the Internet gives artists an opportunity to be heard, it's
a great way of gaining a following. I appreciate that it's very
early days for mp3, my advice to any band would be to get out
there. It's going to be a tough and probably long haul, but now is
the time to get stuck in and build a fan base and a reputation.
8) What's the point of Silverman - for you
and for us? What are your
ambitions, personally and professionally?
Anna - For me
Silverman is the way I can express myself, satisfy myself. I just
hope other people 'get it'. I'd love to write and sing
professionally but the most important thing for me is to enjoy it
and feel like I'm achieving something.
Martin - There's
little point to Silverman other than us getting shit out of our
systems and people relating to it hopefully. That's all Silverman
is and all it can be. I might half kill myself writing songs but
I'm not going to do myself in if people don't buy 10 million
Silverman albums. I'd would love to do Silverman full time though
and be able to lie in every morning. (aswell as spend more time
songwriting and working with killer producers)
9) You're from the West Country, just like Massive Attack, Tricky,
Portishead
and Ritchie Blackmore. Tell us about it - what influence has it
had on you,
explain its good side and its bad.
Anna - I think
maybe we're exposed to less fads or scenes here. Cheltenham's
hardly Camden afterall. Maybe that can make bands from the West
Country less transient or derivative and more original. Then again
maybe it makes them out of step. Who's Ritchie Blackmore????
Martin - The Wild
West Country is a real mix, mullets and pixie boots some places,
ultra cool in others. Good bands from round here are few and far
between but when they're good they're great. Anna's right I think
the best and most original bands exist for themselves. There are
less opportunities here but more space to develop perhaps (sorry I
think I’m talking shite).
10) Name 5 hobbies or interests outside of music (that's 5 each)
and, by way
of farewell, tell us your favourite joke of the moment (one each,
please).
Anna -
Environmental soundscapes, Travelling, Drinking, Watersports,
Voodoo.
Martin -
Drinking, Smoking, Cheltenham Town FC, Gloucestershire CCC,
Drinking.
Joke:
It's not so much
a joke but it still makes me laugh. There was a band called
Ken Dodd's dad's dog's dead (died)
Did he? No Doddie.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Q.What have
George Michael and wellies got in common?
A. They both get
sucked off in bogs (naughty)
NETSCAPE - THE BRAIN DRAIN
SILVERMAN
1) There's chaos in Heaven. God has
run out of attributes to give to new-born
babies, and he needs your voice back. You will be permitted to
play one last
gig, comprising eight songs. Which songs do you choose?
We assume you mean our songs
??????? Well here they are anyway.
- How Cruel (on the Archangel cd
www.mp3.com/silverman)
- Taken With You (to be
‘released’ end of March 2000)
- You & Your Mouth (to be
‘released’ end of March 2000)
- Darling Darling (to be
‘released’ end of March 2000)
- Black Rainbow (on the
Archangel cd www.mp3.com/silverman)
- My Overflowing Ashtry Heart
(free download at www.mp3.com/silverman)
- Time Is A Blade (First
Internet Film & Music Festival nomination. Featured song
6th March 2000. Vote for it at www.streamsearch.com)
- Wishful Anxious (yet to be
‘released’)
2) You've just won £20 million
on the Lottery. Give us an idea of how you'd
distribute the cash.
We’d buy
20 million lottery tickets
3) Due to some dreadful accident, probably involving an English
train, you
find yourself dead. As you move towards a bright light at the end
of a long,
dark tunnel you're informed that, if you wish, you may remain in
the land of
the living - but only as a ghost. What kind of ghost would you be,
who would
you haunt, and why?
Anna would be a
kindly child ghost and have a secret garden that she’d take you
to at midnight. Cause she's a new wave old romantic.
Martin
would be the phantom cleaner at the Cheltenham Ladies College Gym.
Because I am curious by nature.
4) Some depraved sicko-freak has purloined the remains of Mother
Theresa and,
for some insane reason, left them on your doorstep. Do you a) kick
them onto
the pavement for the road sweepers to deal with b) carefully
scrape them up
and call your local priest c) carefully scrape them up and call
Sothebys d)
leave them where they are, they're probably a lucky charm. Or do
you have a
better idea?
We’d make a
nice stock. Or attach her to a keyring for good luck.
5) During a private audience with the Pope, you notice that he
smells very
badly of stale urine. Who would you tell, if anyone?
We’d say
"Oi Pope!! You stink of piss."
6) Name 5 musicians who've influenced you, and 5 from around the
world.
Dave, Dee, Dozy,
Beeky, Mick (and Titch)
Mick, Beeky,
Titch, Dozy, Dave (and Dee)
7) What is love anyway?
But a second hand
convulsion.
Love is
Howard Jones and that gimp thing.
8) In one of his lesser-known works, Dracula-author Bram Stoker
reinforced
the legend that St Patrick drove all of Ireland's snakes through
the Snake's
Pass and into the sea. History does not recall the poor man who
was at that
moment quietly fishing on the beach below. Write a brief poem
describing his
experience.
Sitting,
Sitting and
Fishing,
Fishing and
Wishing,
Snakes can’t
swim
Or can they?
9) With which dead historical figure do you most identify, and do
you think
they would have identified with you?
Anna – Issadora
Duncan – Dohhh! Just my luck. Scarf Ace. No
Martin –
General Custer. No he'd probably think I was a bit of a twat
10) Swigging from a bottle of
Pils, you are amazed to see a twenty-foot tall
German fraulein appear in a puff of smoke. Her fat body ripples
and steams,
her hair writhes like a million elvers and her black eyes flare
like the
surface of the sun. She says she is a genie and offers to grant
you three
wishes - but only if you go to bed with her. Do you do it and,
whether you do
or don't, what would your wishes be?
Anna doesn’t do
genies. Martin would give it a go.
Wishes:
- Cotterill to
take CTFC to the Premiership.
- Sid Perks
would stop messing around with Jolene and showing himself up.
- A cure for
cancer.
11) Who's better, Bono or Tony
Blair? Give your reasons.
Neil Kinnock. Let the reason be love.
12) Have you ever struck someone in anger? Who, when and why?
a. No. Not ever.
Never ever not even remotely, not possibly nor at any time, at all
or nearly conceivably.
b.c.d.
Cause the bastard was asking for it.
13) Due to some crazy confusion in hospital, your face has been
accidentally
swapped with someone else's. Would you prefer Richard Branson's,
Mike
Tyson's, Charlotte Church's or Eddie Van Halen's (complete with
early
Eighties poodle haircut)? Give your reasons.
Anna
already looks like Charlotte Church, so Eddie Van Halen might make
a refreshing change. Martin would quite fancy a bit of the Tyson
look (no more Mr Nice Guy) but the Brandon beard has a certain
appeal.
14) What's your favourite place in the world, and which one has
impressed you
the most. Why?
Anna –
Christmas at home getting quietly and slowly pissed with my mum
and dad. 1998. Remy Martin.
Martin – Lying
on the bathroom floor listening to the shower. Burntwood Travel
Lodge. Ambiance
15) A terrible nuclear accident in Japan has led to volcanic
disaster along
the Pacific Rim. The consequent warming of the oceans has led to
catastrophic
flooding throughout the world. Millions are dead, billions are
homeless,
supplies have run out, and you are forced to eat a prominent pop
vocalist.
Who do you choose, and why?
Anna – Gerri
Halliwell – Infact I’d like to eat her anyway. I don’t
normally like spicy food but I’d be prepared to make an
exception. (bom bom)
Martin –
Alanis Morissette – Cause it would really irritate her in a post
ironic whiny sort of way.
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