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Interview
by SashaS
16-1-2002
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More on: Echo And The Bunnymen
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| A man with a golden gob |
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Music where the mouth is
Echo and The Bunnymen’s singer Mac explains how the band regained its majestic grandiosity
Echo and The Bunnymen’s first-ever live collection (on DVD also) follows three albums since their reformation in 1997. ‘Live In Liverpool’ was recorded over two nights, 17 & 18 August 2001, at LIPA (The Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts) to supplant last year’s ‘Flowers’ that recalled their legendary oeuvre. It came after the meandering ‘What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?’ (1999), clearly below par next to albums like ‘Crocodiles’ (1980) and ‘Ocean Rain’ (1984), which continue to shine as beacons along rock history’s path.
The band’s leader Ian McCulloch is nicknamed ‘The Mouth’ because he can talk you under the table with opinions that far outnumber even puffs of this chain-smoker. (Have no idea whether this hotel has a non-tobacco policy but no one bothers to complain.) Habitually addressed as Mac, he has been at interviewing game for a long time and although he never skirts a question his answer is usually turned around to what interests him at the moment. That’s how we discover that he is a jester as far as media goes.
“Well, when you have ten interviews back-to-back,” Mac pulls a cigarette from a freshly supplied pack, “it definitely sounds very much like there's no way to answer the same question ten different ways and I start to make up stories, exaggerate and do impersonations - John Lennon is my favourite, then Elvis Presley, anything to relieve the boredom.”
Basics recaptured
Echo And The Bunnymen led Liverpool’s New Wave in the late 1970s for a good decade, until Mac pursued solo work for seven years. In 1994 he re-hooked with guitarist Will Sergeant for one-off project Electrafixion that led to reforming The Bunnymen. While most of their contemporaries have drifted into producing whatever-doesn’t-trouble-mass-attention-much The Bunnymen, now with three new members, offer mature songs without their creative edge being dulled by comfort.
Or, to be precise, regaining it. ‘What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?’ became a true question for Sergeant who seriously contemplated leaving the band. Luckily ‘Flowers’ managed to recapture some misplaced magic.
“All I’m listening to at home,” Mac sounds increasingly like Lennon, “are records by the Velvet Underground and that forces me to maintain my standard... There were few bits and pieces on ‘Flowers’ that were really Velvet-ian but I think Will brought something back as well. He had been very disappointed with the previous album and really talking about leaving. I told him not to be silly; we’d just do another kind of a record, if he came in with guitar riffs I’ll work around him. That’s what we did and it worked really well.”
Rest of life
The Bunnymen’s workload is carefully scheduled to allow Sergeant to work on his electro-experimental Glide and Mac to record solo albums for Jeepster label. His previous solo venture, ‘Mysterio’, had come out in 1992 and he also found time to record ‘Summer Wind’ with Fun Lovin’ Criminals in 1997. Lack of more discs isn’t down to Mac’s ‘easy living’ but market forces.
“I write all the time,” another Marlboro Light is sparked, “and I’ve always got 20 songs that are in the squad… I often write songs that are all potential singles but special, like in the worlds of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Bowie... These are far catchier set of songs I’ve done in a long, long time, a bit poppier than The Bunnymen... The songs I have (in stock) are very special and I want them to be like ‘Transformer’ (Lou Reed) and ‘Hunky Dory’ (David Bowie)…”
Mac’s past collaborations include working with Ian Broudie (of Lightning Seeds – he and Mac were Best Man at each other’s weddings) but wishes to have his beloved Leonard Cohen guest on an album. The original ‘miserabilist’ had invested too many years on his monastery trip before coming out with an album, ‘Ten New Song’, last October. ‘Laughing Lenny’, eh?
“I’ve always been a great Leonard Cohen fan…” Mac’s eyes alight above his cappuccino. ”You know, when he was in Britain once I rung his hotel but he wasn’t there and it was in the days he was with Rebecca DeMornay who answered the phone. I suggested to go over and keep her company; I fancied her rotten, a very fit bird.”
Ian McCulloch is a Bunnyman in search of a perfect chord in the Cohen-Reed-Bowie paradigm. Scoundrel, humorist, part-time impersonator, bon viveur - Mac, like his band, has no shortage of charisma.
SashaS
16-1-2002
‘Live In Liverpool’ by Echo & The Bunnymen is released 04 February 2002 on Cooking Vinyl
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