Ein Interview mit Stevie Jackson
und Chris Geddes
Während wir den gut gelaunten Ton- und
Lichttechnikern bei der Arbeit zusehe, gehen
wir noch mal durch, was wir wissen wollen. Ein
wenig aufgeregt sind wir schon, dreht sich doch
seit einiger Zeit bei uns in Kopf und CD-Spieler
alles um die sympathischen Schotten. Sind sie
wirklich so niedlich, wie sie sich in ihren
Videos und auf der Bühne präsentieren?
Werden wir sie alle erkennen? Oh guck mal, da
ist Sarah Martin...
Auftritt Stevie Dreads (Tourmanager), bei dem
wir spätestens jetzt wissen, dass es sich
um einen Künstlernamen handeln muss. Er
führt uns in den Backstage-Bereich und
fragt, wer gerade Lust hat, ein Interview mit
uns zu führen. Stevie Jackson (voc,
git) und Chris Geddes (key) sind
es. Sie entschuldigen sich, dass sie nebenbei
Suppe essen und lassen sich von uns befragen
und fotografieren.
Ob sie sich denn auf Hamburg freuen
und schon ein wenig Sight-Seeing machen konnten,
wollen wir als erstes wissen.
Stevie: I´ve
not been here for ten years. No had too much
time to look around. I came a few years ago
and hung around a bit. I´ve not really
been back since so I´m quite excited to
be back.
Chris:
I got up quite early this morning, going cycling
round the lake. What is it called? The big lake?
(Alster) I have a little kind of folding bicycle
that just goes in with the luggage on the bus.
Also hieß es früh aufstehen?
Chris: Yeah. I
didn´t manage any excitement last night.
Just went out for dinner, had a really huge
dinner and then was back in the hotel by midnight.
Rough Trade hat passend zur Tour die
Suche nach der "Most catastrophe waitress"
Deutschlands gestartet, nachdem das aktuelle
Album nach einer Kellnerin benannt ist, in die
Stuart Murdoch sich angeblich verguckt hat.
Wir fragen Stevie und Chris nach ihrer persönlichen
"Catastrophe waitress".
Stevie: The waitress
that comes to my mind is the one that I was
in love with. And that was sort of catastrophic
for me. So I did think of her to be a catastrophe
waitress. But I guess it was me. I was a catastrophe,
not her. She was actually quite efficient when
it came to bringing my coffee and my soup.
Chris: It wasn´t
her efficiency that attracted you to her in
the first place?
Stevie: I mean,
yeah. She was just awfully pretty.
Chris: It was probably
the combination of efficiency and good looks.
Stevie: Yeah. Exactly.
And she was kind of quite quiet and quite stern.
But one time I actually met her when she wasn´t
working she was really really funny. And that´s
when I knew I was falling for her. But in reality
we never got...
Sie waren ja beide selbst mal Kellner.
Und was war das Schlimmste, das ihnen dabei
widerfahren ist?
Chris: Just having
to go to work every day. It was all just uniformly
bad. I definetely prefer being in the kitchen,
scrubbing a while, chopping stuff up rather
than having to walk around and take orders of
people. The working atmosphere was always much
better in the kitchen rather than on the floor.
Stevie: I feel
the same way. I would never be a waiter. It
looks terrible to me. I was always in the kitchen.
Scrubbing. I worked in many restaurants. I prefer
that. I was a catastrophe kitchen porter. Well
actually there was a bar and they promoted me
to cook. And I was just the worst cook. I had
some kind of catastrophic meals. And then they
send me back to the sink and said: "Stay
there."
Sozusagen vom Tellerwäscher zum
Popstar. Wie im Märchen. So klingt auch
häufig die Musik von Belle & Sebastian.
Sie scheint viele Leute emotional zu berühren,
bringt sie sogar manchmal zum Weinen (so selbst
miterlebt beim Haldern-Festival). Was macht
die Musik aus? Oder sind es die Texte?
Stevie (LACHT):
I think, at the Haldern Festival we were so
bad, people were crying. We were totally blowing
off stage by Notwist. They are really good.
But I`ve never actually seen anyone crying.
Chris: I´ve
seen couples getting quite passionate. I´ve
seen the odd look of rapture. But I´ve
not ever seen anyone quite cross the line. Obviously
if what we do means a lot to people, then it´s
really flattering and it´s really good
that there is a kind of connection between the
band and the audience when we play. I think
it´s a combination between music and lyrics,
but certainly the lyrics say a lot people.
Stevie: There´s a line in "Fox in
the snow" where I get a wee tear in my
eye sometimes. That´s my favourite song.
(Fox in the snow, where do you go to find something
you can eat?...)
Und selbst schon mal auf der Bühne
den Tränen nahe gewesen?
Stevie: I don´t
remember ever crying on stage. I´ve been
in tears coing off stage. Tears of frustration,
of anger. I remember we´ve done a gig
in Brussels in 1998 and I think I was crying
at the end. I thought we were just the worst
band in the world. That´s the one time
I remember crying.
Aber von Chris gibt es noch die Geschichte
übers auf die Bühne kotzen...
Chris (LACHT UND
GUCKT VERSTOHLEN AUF DEN BODEN):
I´ve thrown up on stage not during the
concert though, but during the soundcheck. I
was probably crying at the same time as well.
It was years ago, one of the first shows we
did, Christmas 1997 in Manchester. We did three
shows over two days: Saturday night, Sunday
matinee and Sunday night. Some bright spark
thougt it would be a great idea to have the
aftershow-party after the Saturday night-concert.
That´s when I got really wracked on a
Saturday night and had to be back into soundcheck,
because the gig was really rubbish.
Nach diesen Peinlichkeiten räumen
die Jungs erst mal mit dem Vorurteil auf, selten
auf Tour
zu sein: Sie sind eben nur selten in good old
Germany. Warum, weiß niemand. Zur Frage,
was das Publikum auf den verschiedenen Kontinenten
unterscheidet, hier der Weisheit letzter Schluss:
Stevie: In my experience,
the warmer the climate the wilder the audience.
Zurzeit gibt es viel Neues und Aufregendes
aus der Glasgower Musikszene. Was halten sie
von dem rasanten Aufstieg von Franz Ferdinand?
Stevie: I thought
they were amazing. Their first song from maybe
a year ago it was like an art happening thing.
And just the fact that it was an art happening
made it seem really exciting and good. I´ve
known the singer Alex for years and always thought
he was really charismatic and really cool looking
and a good singer. I´ve seen his previous
bands a lot, but when I saw Franz Ferdinand
I thought it was the best band he`s ever been
in. It sounded really good and it looked really
good. I thought from the start that they would
be pretty successful. But I didn´t realize
that they´d be the biggest band in Britain.
They´re huge. It´s amazing.
Chris: It was pretty
mad how fast it´s happened. But that´s
what they deserved.
Stevie: It´s
good when that happens in pop music, when something
just happens fast. It´s quite exciting.
It´s funny, cause they were supporting
us in Britain in Dezember. And the tour finished
and maybe like two weeks later they were the
biggest band in Britain and it happened just
like that. I´ve not actually seen them
since they became popstars, so I hope they´ll
talk to me.
Chris: In the space
of three or four weeks they went from opening
for us to having a number three single and a
number one album and being on the cover of the
NME like every week. But we are happy for them.
Ist Glasgow zu einer der wichtigen
großen Musikschmieden der Welt geworden
(mit Bands wie Teenage Fanclub, Mogwai oder
eben Belle & Sebastian)?
Chris: No I don´t
think it is. I think a lot of good bands have
come out of Glasgow but I don´t think
anything has ever happened in Glasgow which
has fundamentally changed the whole nature of
music. Like Detroit or New York or Kingston/Jamaica.
Or even Kraftwerk. Something of that degree
of importance. I think there´s a big difference
between there being like some good bands from
somewhere or there being like some kind of major
turning point. I don´t think Glasgow is
contributed to that. It´s maybe the way
I look at music, but most of the stuff that´s
happened in Glasgow, come out of Glasgow is
just little off-shoots, just little footnotes
to the march forward of musical progress.
Stevie: There´s
always been bands coming from Glasgow geographically,
maybe because a lot of bands don´t move
to London. It gives things a distinctive feel
to it. But it´s just a place. There isn´t
really any direct musical vein going through
it all. It´s quite a deverse bunch of
groups, like all the Chemical Underground groups
- Arab Strap, Mogwai and all them - and you
could maybe chart a vague course from Teenage
Fanclub to us, but it´s a big vague..
Nachdem Belle & Sebastian anfangs
lediglich ein Schul-Projekt waren, schlug das
erste Album ein wie eine Bombe. Wie ist das
Klima innerhalb der Band? Oder ist Belle &
Sebastian immer noch eher ein Musik-Projekt,
das jederzeit auseinandergehen kann?
Stevie: It would
be a shame to split up at this point because
after the initial getting together there was
a long period of uncertainty and unhappiness.
For a few of us. Well, personally speaking,
I nearly quit lots of times. But I just kind
of came through it all and it feels really good
at the moment. We're playing lots of shows and
the vibe in the band feels quite good I think.
And because we made a better record as well.
So the challenge is there to continue, to try
and improve. So for me the last couple of years
have been an upswing. I can grow with that a
bit longer. I don't really want to go back to
being a dish-washer.
Und dann natürlich noch die Frage
nach den musikalischen Favourites und Einflüssen.
Chris: At the moment
it's a band called the Heptones, a sort of Reggae
vocal group. They made records for the 60's
right through the 70's. They're on top of my
favourites at the moment. My favourite new stuff
is the new Stereolab album. It's really amazing.
I saw them in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago.
I didn't think the concert sounded quite as
good as the record. It was a kind of emotional
scene without Mary.
Stevie: My favourite?
I don't know. I think at the moment I like some
contemporary black music, like R'n'B, Soul Sounds.
I like Mary J. Blige. I love Brandy. I know
it comes as a shock to you. I think there are
a lot of bands that are played most days. I
think it's very rarely as days goes by that
I wouln't put on an early Rolling Stones record
or even just a couple of songs. I was kind of
obsessed when I was 16 and it's never really
left me, it's never really gone away. I mean,
we've all got lots of records. I love the Beatles
and Bob Dylan and I love Country Music. The
thing that I've been playing most is just a
compilation tape a friend gave me and I don't
even know who half the bands are. And I bought
the Franz Ferdinand album. I really liked that.
Tja, und bevor er nochmals eine Lobeshymne
auf Franz Ferdinand anstimmen kann, kommt Stevie
Dreads und beendet unser Interview. Wir hätten
noch stundenlang mit diesen beiden sympathischen
Typen quatschen können. Um das kurz klarzustellen:
Stevie Jackson ist in echt genauso smart und
schick wie im Video (Sein Auftritt in "Wrong
girl" ist nicht gespielt!) und Chris Geddes
ist einfach nur süß.
(Interview: Sabine Zaeske, Text:
Torben Deinert)
Net: www.belleandsebastian.co.uk
