[kj] Jaz speaks to MTV Radio

[Jester]

Good to hear Jaz's comments on some things.

Seems that the issues are calming down a bit between the band and Paul. 
Distance is doing some good.

I talked with Paul Thursday and he sounded a lot better about things 
regarding the Joke. Basically, the distance is doing all of them some 
good. Really almost gives the impression of a long marriage that hit a 
tough spot, and now that there is a bit of a separation between the 
two, after a while, they both start missing each other. I can tell you 
that "geography" isn't the reason things fell apart though, but the 
reasons dont really matter at this point anyway. Never had a bad word? 
Heh, guess he so drunk he doesn't remember those calls to the machine. 
Would be funny to hear those wind up on a remix.

I know the commitments Paul has with Ministry will run for the majority 
of the year, so I dont expect things to resolve any time till maybe 
after the fall, but the odds are looking a lot better than before to 
see them working together again.

Thanks for posting this Alex. An interesting read.

~ Jester


On Apr 30, 2006, at 5:11 PM, Alexander Smith wrote:

>
>
> Alright again, gang, I managed to transcribe the interview Jaz did 
> with MTV2's Headbanger's Ball Radio (oh, the humanity).  I'm not sure 
> how much of this I'll be able to use in the piece, but I figured some 
> of you all might give a toss. Here are Jaz's quotes on a variety of 
> subjects.  It's a bit rough. Bolded print indicates topics. Enjoy.... 
> - Alex in NYC
>
>
> ON KILLING JOKE 2003 vs. HOSANNAS:
> "We did the 2003 one with Dave Grohl. It was just really me and 
> Geordie, to be honest, the 2003 album. Youth played on, I think, two 
> tracks and Geordie played the bass of the rest of it. So, it was just 
> the two of us with Dave Grohl, really. This album, for me, is really 
> special, `cos we all went collectively to Prague and hammered out 
> loads of demons and had a great time with the beautiful excesses that 
> a beautiful city like Prague provides. We recorded at will in an 
> inferior studio with a wine cellar below it, where we actually put the 
> drums down…. I think it was probably one of the more honest Killing 
> Joke albums, if you’re looking at collective input. Everyone hammered 
> out their demons. It was a huge pressure on everyone. 
> HAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !"
>
> On Beer vs. Wine in Prague:
> "When beer is as cheap as fucking water in Prague, who the hell wants 
> to drink wine? Anyway, it sucks, their wine. 
>
> On the "25th Anniversary":
> Well, actually this is our 28th year, and we did actually three 
> recordings before that 25th anniversary [recording], so someone’s 
> cheating me out of fucking two years of my life, and I think it was 
> the promoter. 25 years sounds like a marriage or something, doesn’t 
> it? HAHAHAHAHA. It’s harder than fucking marriage, hahahahaah and I 
> should know. I just got my last divorce last years, and now I’m back 
> with her. Do I get my money back?"
>
> On Killing Joke:
> "For me, Killing Joke will always be how I deal with my anger; how I 
> deal with waking up to this world where we’re just basically 
> destroying everything. These thoughts that I have -- how I deal with 
> my sleep deprivation, because I can't fucking ever seem to sleep 
> without sedatives. It's how I deal with these things. I guess, for me, 
> it has a social function. It's my exorcism, it's my catharsis and it 
> is a tradition, and not just for me. There's actually quite a lot of 
> people out there that really love the ceremony of it all also."
>
> On Trends & the band & Geordie:
> "We don't have anything to do with fucking fashion. We're a sound and 
> we're a lifestyle. HAHAHAHA. We're just a sound and a lifestyle again. 
> That's all it is, in the end. It's a way of life for a lot of people 
> including myself. I see myself kind've outside of the band a lot of 
> the time. I look at this sound from the outside, but then of course, 
> I'm in it. I've got sort've a strange relationship with it. I need it 
> and I love it and it drives me mad, but I keep doing it, y'know? 
> Geordie Walker and I -- we like making music together and we have a 
> very, very special relationship. As long as "our Kevin," as I call 
> him, wants to keep making music, we'll do it. I intend to improve on 
> every record I do in my life for the rest of my days, really. I'm a 
> very lucky man. There's not many people who have a band after 28 
> years."
>
>  
>
> On bands they've influenced & recognition:
>
> "I get a fucking cd every week with a Killing Joke cover song, and 
> they all go in the bin. HAHAHAHAA."
>
>
> On "success":
>
> If I'm really honest with you, and anyone who really knows me will 
> back this up, I only weigh press or count numbers of interviews for 
> fun. Where I live, you can't get it anyway. It doesn't really come 
> into my life. When I meet wonderful people like the Tool boys and Dave 
> Grohl, --- they're lovely people. People always talk about this damn 
> success thing, and I don't really get it, myself. It's a short life 
> and we all eat shit and die. I can't see the big rush to get a fucking 
> huge house. I wouldn't swap my life for anything. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. It 
> wasn't so long ago that I did an experiment. I walked through London 
> with twenty-thousand pounds cash in my pocket, and I took myself to 
> lunch, then I went to Atlanteers bookshop and bought myself a book and 
> then I bought some cigars, and then you know what? I didn't know what 
> to do with my money. I'm that kind've person, really.  I want less as 
> I get older, not more. So I feel really quite wealthy. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
>
>
> RE: re-masters
> I have plans to own the entire catalog. HAHAHAHAHA. When I finish one 
> record, all I'm doing is thinking about the next one. It's old news 
> for me. I try not to look backwards; Just forwards. There's only this 
> moment, and what we're going to do tomorrow. That's it, really
>
>
> re; a New album?
>
> Definitely. There's so much I want to do, and killing Joke's never 
> been better. Working with Geordie Walker -- he's a magic player. He's 
> one of those guitarists who sounds like fucking eight guitarists. 
> There'll never be anyone like him. It's my deepest pleasure to have 
> spent more years with him and more time with him than my own blood 
> brother.
>
>
> Re: RAVEN
>
> God bless his soul. Paul is always part of our family. Always, right? 
> To be perfectly frank, what we have here is geographical differences. 
> hahahaha.  Two of like living in Europe very much and Paul has got 
> commitments to his children and his gorgeous, gorgeous lady [in the 
> States] and we're completely at peace with working him with "our Al," 
> Al Jourgensen, who I've known over the years since he was a young lad 
> to our early gigs. I'm very happy for them. It's the extended family. 
> The only thing I really regret about it about it is not smoking some 
> cigars with my old mate, Raven, at the moment. But that'll come later. 
> HAHAHAAHAH
>
> Will he be back?
>
> Y'know what? You just learn as you get older. The Killing Joke family 
> -- we're just a family. We do what's easiest for all of us. It's 
> logistics and it's what's best for all involved. I've never had a bad 
> word with Paul, and certainly not in the last year.  It's just 
> geography. I love going through the States. But the fact is that Paul 
> NEEDs to be in the States at the moment and he has to do what he's got 
> to do with Ministry. He's got commitments there, and we've got our 
> commitments also. They're just different at this moment in time. But I 
> love Paul like my own brother. I'd stop bullets for him and I love him 
> and I miss smoking cigars with the fucker. HAHAHAHAHA
>
> re: the Euro perspective:
>
> Yes, I'm afraid that's true. It started from the fact is that none of 
> us can sing a song of our forefathers, so we decided to make some, and 
> that's Killing Joke music. We certainly consider ourselves a European 
> outfit, with Celtic roots. I consider us a very European band, I'm 
> afraid. It's funny, we worked with Conny Plank and we did this film 
> called Friespiel...   which means free speech -- and all the 
> contributors to European music -- there was a movement of NOT drawing 
> from American music. As much as I love a lot of American music and 
> blues and everything -- but we are Europeans. We are not Americans, 
> and blues is anathema to us.  And I think there was a whole movement. 
> Everybody from Joy Division, Peter Hook's influence and Eno -- I'm 
> just speaking of the English contingent, and then Germany -- when you 
> think of Kraftwerk, when you think of Can, when you think of Neu! when 
> you think of Neubauten when you think of D.A.F, and the of course.when 
> you think of the contribution that Rammestein have made to European 
> music. I guess we've always been on this side of the fence. Or the 
> pond, I should say. HAHAHAHAA
>
>
> re: summer festivals
>
> Not really. Not at all. Instead of playing a five-thousand seater, I'd 
> rather do small gigs. I do it for fun, and I do it for quality of 
> sound. Killing Joke in a fucking 2000 capacity venue cranking is 
> something else. I don't really seek the bigger and bigger. We're just 
> like a little cornershop, but it's very expensive if you want to come 
> in and buy anything.
>
> Touring the States?
>
> Fuck yeah, we're gonna come through. I never know, from one day to the 
> next, which gig we're doing. Everything changes, and then of course 
> I've got my orchestral career. They ring me up and say "we've got a 
> gig here," and then I've gotta out the conductor's bat and look at the 
> fucking score and swap lives. There are so many things I want to do. I 
> didn't want to just do music. Literature is very deep in my heart and 
> I've done some spoken word stuff -- which I did with Paul Raven, and I 
> think that'll be coming out soon. I haven't tackled literature 
> properly. I like to do lectures. I really like composing. I really 
> like recording with orchestra, because unlike rock music, a record 
> happens in two days, and it just comes back to you finished and 
> beautiful and it just gives me fucking orgasm after orgasm. HAHAHAHAHA
>
>  
>
> It's a wonderful thing. I like different mediums and I've gone from 
> changing a national anthem to Walt Disney. It's been a colorful career 
> and the best is yet to come.
>
> I only think in future tense. I get a lot of people asking me about 
> the good ol' days, and these kind've nostalgic projections. And 
> frankly, the present tense is better.
>
> Things you haven't tried yet?
>
> I'd like to do one year working for the green party in New Zealand and 
> possibly the experience of a political career. Because I'm a green, 
> and even Bill Clinton's green these days -- Slick Willie, ya gotta 
> love him, haven't ya HAHAHAHAA. We've got to do something about this 
> fucking planet. My response is: get rid of fan clubs and start 
> eco-villages with sustainable resources. 
>
> There's a Killing Joke movie coming out. We've got one scene to shoot 
> on it, and it's done. It's taken like eight years of my life to put 
> this together. That's good fun. I'm working on a big Hollywood movie 
> soundtrack at the end of the year, then I'm moving to Sydney and 
> working on a great Australian orchestra. Life's colorful, what can I 
> say? Get the barbecue out. Let's go fishing! HAHAHAHAHAA!
>
>  
>
> People in America could learn from a Mediterranean lifestyle. You wake 
> up and go to work at half past eight. Work until about twelve o'clock 
> right. And then you go for a seafood lunch with nice bottle of wine 
> with your lover, and then the sun comes out and it's a bit hot, so you 
> shut the shudders and you FUCK all afternoon, and then you open up the 
> shop again for about another two hours and then do it again all 
> evening. What's wrong with that? And the food's good! HAHAHAHAHAAH. 
> You should try it some time. Hahaha.
>
>  
>
> Great Britain:
>
> I might not have lived there for twenty-five years, but I can tell you 
> this: it's real special to me. I love the people, I love the sense of 
> humor, I love the marmalade, I love the BBC World Service, and the 
> rest of it can go to fucking hell.
>
>  
>
> New Music you Like?
>
> New artists? It ain't the fucking Arctic Monkeys, I can tell you that. 
> HAHAHA. I can tell you what I don't like more than what I like, and 
> there's lot of shit I don't like. To be honest, I listen to the voices 
> in my head. A bit like Joan of Arc, really. I listen to the music 
> that's going on in my head. I'm just forever scheming up something 
> else. I don't like listening to too much music, to be honest, because 
> I find that it influences you almost on a subconscious level. So, I 
> cut myself off from really most music, apart from the odd bit of 
> classical music or whatever I perceive as genius.
>
>  
>
>  
>
> We got the [Kerrang's] lifetime achievement award last year, and I was 
> only 45 when i got it. That's probably the youngest lifetime 
> achievement award you're going to get. And we never expected gongs and 
> shit like that. Everyone knows who we are. Everyone knows from Jimmy 
> Page right the way through. You don't have to shout about it. I just 
> enjoy making the music in a very simple way.
>
>  
>
> re: Invocation
>
> For me, it's the second time I've ever put strings with Killing Joke, 
> and it was a real special moment putting strings down with Killing 
> joke with this massive sound. I wanted to capture the madness that's 
> going on with the world and the Middle East and this terrible conflict 
> that's going on and just literally capture this atmosphere. Everyone's 
> really uncertain of what we're going to do next. Iran's a problem. 
> Israel's a problem. The whole fucking Middle East is a problem. And 
> then there's fucking China, which is an even bigger problem. So, I 
> wanted to thing to sound not just middle-eastern, but Eastern 
> generally. Here in Europe, Germany is going to be a depressed nation, 
> and so is the European Union, because it's as simple as this: our 
> manufacturing industry is going down the fucking toilet, because they 
> can do it cheaper in China and fucking India for one-fortieth of the 
> price. And there's no health insurance or no fucking pollution 
> problems -- you can just pay off corrupt officials. We can't compete 
> with that. So leisure time is really important, and to watch the world 
> go nuts, that's important because it reminds you to eat, drink and be 
> merry with the people you love, because sometimes that's the only way 
> out of this madness. 
>
>  
>
> I wake up in the morning and I say to myself, "It's great to be Jaz 
> Coleman."
>
>  
>
> FINAL WORDS?
>
> When we started the band, we asked ourselves: what do we want to get 
> out of this, this band thing? I think the first thing we all agreed on 
> was, "let's get the fuck out of England." The second thing was to 
> inspire people to go out and do for themselves; a creative project or 
> something beautiful for themselves. Killing Joke is just a mirror. The 
> word that 
>
>  
>
> If there's I could say about Killing Joke is you can do it. You can do 
> anything you fucking want, mate. I left school at 15 with no 
> education. I've worked with the great symphony orchestras of the 
> world. Everything is fucking possible. You've got to lift your 
> self-confidence up. If there's one common denominator that I see that 
> are having problems in this world, it's a lack of will or 
> self-confidence. Just remember: Everyone’s scared. HAhahahahaha. Push 
> yourself through that fiery hoop. You'll get out the other side, and 
> it wasn't so bad, eh? You can call me Papa Jaz. 
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gathering mailing list
> Gathering at misera.net
> http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering