Do you find European (Russian, Czechoslovakian, etc.) audiences notably different than audiences here in the states?
It is funny you ask that question. Because everyone in Russia kept asking me and I kept refusing to answer. Maybe that is the big difference about Russians. They all want to know how they compare to others. They ask how they compare to American audiences. The Moscovites want to know how the people in St Petersburg are. I answer this way: If you have a new lover and you have just made love for the first time, do you ask them, how do I compare to the last man you were with? People everywhere are exactly the same, they are completely different.
What are some of your impressions of traveling in Russia and the Czech Republic?
Impressions in Russia and Czechia? Hmmm . . . the other night I was in Prague for a 24 hour layover which is a lovely place to have such a layover. Maybe one of the most beautiful cities I've met.
I was finishing reading Master and Margarita, so I was carrying a piece of Moscow away with me. I was alone all day. I remember sitting in a restaurant in a basement with dim light eating fried cheese, and suddenly having a sensation that the devil was sitting opposite me.
I couldn't shake the sensation all night, and for the first time in my life a terrible migraine descended on me and lasted, I think, exactly 12 hours. As I walked through the streets that night, I saw a strange black creature with a prehensile tail lurking in front of me. The streets were deserted at 2 in the morning and I wanted to see the old Jewish Cemetery again, but they had built a wall around it. There was just a small crack through which I could peek. And something in my nature climbed over the fence and went into that cemetery. My body remained outside. Two police officers walked by laughing. But some part of me slipped over the gate. I wonder what it is doing in there?
I'm writing today from Eindhoven in the Netherlands. I just spent the night in the most amazing abandoned cathedral. It was very lovely. Russia was crazy again. The promoter from St Petersburg tried to throw the drummer from the window of the moving train . . .
Do you feel that your work is political, and if so, how? I realize your songs are not overtly political, but there is something incredibly liberating and expansive about your concerts that seem to fly in the face of repressive regimes.
I don't know . . . I certainly have avoided trying to say anything political overtly or indirectly in the songs. There have been small exceptions, namely with Eleutheria and also a new one I've been playing . . . but even these are pretty subtle to most ears.
I don't know. Or maybe I do. I feel like my music is perhaps very political. Overthrowing governments and corporations and such are all secondary issues. The most important thing is that we need to fall in love with life. If that truly happens, the others will fall in place. I personally have been falling deeply, madly in love with my life especially over these last 4 years. My music is perhaps a document or soundtrack to this process. And perhaps because of that, some people are able to hear this and begin their own process of being in love with their lives.
Somehow, this seems quite political in a world where what is generally being sold is comfort. I'm not so concerned with comfort. I want to feel more.
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