The great music journalist alfredo rosso was able to interview the mythical member of Genesis, peter gabriel, a couple of weeks before the show that will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 22nd.
The note published in the Clarín newspaper he remembers the times of Génesis, his previous visit to Argentina, as part of the Amnesty Human Rights Tour festival, of the placid life he leads on the outskirts of London and of the future of the world music scene.
The musician continues with his tour, promoting his latest work Big Blue Ball, an album that took him more than a decade to make, and in which multiple genres and styles coexist, with countless guest musicians.
Here is the full note:
The Wiltshire countryside, half an hour by train to southwest London, would certainly deserve the adjective bucolic. There he has moved Peter Gabriel his house and his recording studio. "I love trains," he says, "but the biggest problem we had when we set up the study was getting noise from the train." Anyway, Gabriel is delighted with the place, full of trees, forest, greenery everywhere. "Every year we get more urbanized and closer to the rat race, but Wiltshire is a spectacular place, where I can afford to take long walks in the morning."
Soon, however, Gabriel will have exchanged the pastoral calm of the English countryside for the din of a new tour that will bring him to Argentina for the third time. The former Genesis hadn't hit the road since his 2002-2003 album Up concert marathon, Perhaps that is why this time he decided to do a kind of "warm-up" with his European tour of 2007, which bore precisely that name: The Warm-up. The opening question was falling out of age. What can we Argentines expect from this new visit?
«In a few days rehearsals with the band will begin and we will put together the repertoire based on the songs that make us feel better when we play them. On the previous tour we brought back some of the older songs, which we hadn't played for a long time, and we had a lot of fun. So the plan is to mix material from all ages. "
The European tour charts confirm it: classics like Solsbury Hill, a musical testimony to his break with Genesis, from his first solo album; Don't Give up, the hit that he recorded as a duet with Kate Bush on the album So, and Biko, his famous tribute to African leader Steve Biko, coexist with darker and more sophisticated material such as Signal to Noise, Secret World or Digging in the Dirt.
The question is about your memories of the Amnesty Human Rights Tour, the tour that brought him to our country for the first time in 1988, to perform in the city of Mendoza and at the River Plate stadium with Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Tracy Chapman, Yossou N'Dour, León Gieco and Charly García.
“The recitals in Argentina were a wonderful part of the Amnesty Tour, as there we had one of the warmest reactions of the entire tour. Argentine audiences are very enthusiastic and they show it to you, which is very encouraging for an artist. This special receptivity of the Argentine public in my two previous visits was one of the main factors that decided us to carry out this South American tour. "
The coming of Gabriel is not tied to the presentation of a new album, as is usually the case with musicians who make hemispheric tours, which does not mean that he has been inactive in the record industry. Peter comes from editing Big Blue Ball, an album that took him almost eighteen years to make and in which the leading role of each song is shared with musicians of various genres and styles. from rock to ethnic music from various geographies. In passing, take the opportunity to give us a scoop: It's a project called Scratch My Back. Basically, I'm recording songs by other musicians and they, for their part, record songs of mine. That will be my next album. "
The million dollar question ... is the classic Genesis ever going to meet: Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford, Banks, Collins? A version was circulating that the return was possible.
I know it's an unavoidable question (laughs) And my answer is always the same: I can't imagine being part of a long Genesis reunion for any reason, as my life itself is interesting enough.
But was there something?
Maybe it has to do with some proposals we had, like some people who want to make a movie with the concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. There we could collaborate all the members of the group, at least in the musical part.
When Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, in the midst of a worldwide success, the specialized press thought it was a suicidal move on the part of the singer and that the days of the band, without their charismatic stage presence, were numbered.
None of these ominous predictions came true: genesis took a new and very successful musical direction under the baton of the drummer Phil Collins -who assumed the role of singer- and Gabriel began a solo career of high artistic level and good commercial echo, which also included the making of soundtracks for films such as Birdy (Wings of Freedom), by Alan Parker, and The Last Temptation of Christ, by Martin Scorsese, among others.
The visual and choreographic aspect was always one of Gabriel's strengths, from the sophisticated costumes he used in the era genesis. Back in the MTV era, while many of his colleagues were content to film a live performance or stage their song lyrics, Peter He was one of the few artists who fully explored the possibilities of the music video clip as a creative vehicle with its own value.
On the other hand, the interests of Peter Gabriel they have spread far beyond the world of rock. In the 80s, he began tireless work with organizations that defend human rights in the world (see Every prisoner is political), and he also dedicated himself to the dissemination of what is now called world music with the organization of the WOMAD festival ("A world of music, art and dance"), which has been held annually in England since 1982 and which today has ramifications in several countries, including Spain, Australia, India and Singapore.
“It seems incredible to me that we have managed to survive twenty-six years with WOMAD. For us it was always a passion project. We realized that in various parts of the world wonderful music was made that was very little known outside of their respective countries. The WOMAD festival was born to introduce such diverse and rich musicians and cultures to rock audiences and has since opened in various directions, including musical workshops for children and interactive activities. In addition, it has become a family festival. We always organize it in nice places, with lots of green spaces, where it is easy to camp and walk. Creating a friendly vibe is a fundamental part of WOMAD. "
What are the chances of making a Latin American version of WOMAD?
It would be great. In fact we did one a few years ago in Colombia and I would love for it to be repeated. The problem is the costs, especially of air tickets, since you have to bring in artists from all over the world. So you have to have some kind of sponsorship or extra funding for it to be viable.
Parallel to the WOMAD festival, Peter Gabriel created the Real World label, specialized in ethnic music from various geographies, which has also managed to survive the shocks and crises of the record industry and is in good health in the XXI century. How does it do?
“We are going through a transition, like any other record label. It is good to consider the new possibilities offered by, for example, the Internet. When I started my career with Genesis, a company wouldn't hire you unless they thought they could sell, let's say, a hundred thousand copies of your album. Today all that has changed. To give you a concrete example, The Incredible String Band came to my studio to record their album Nebulous Nearness and they brought XNUMX fans with them, each of whom had paid sixty pounds - about one hundred dollars - for the privilege of being present at the recording. That money was used to pay the costs of the study and even to make a video that was seen on the Internet. With only XNUMX fans, the group was able to record their album and give their career a clean and jerk! "
Gabriel He knows what he's talking about. Technology is another of his passions. He was the founder of On Demand Distribution, one of the first services to download music from the Internet legally. Recently developed The Filter, a software that helps audiophiles to select their favorite music - by association between like-minded artists - from the infinite options offered by the digital highway. But above all, Gabriel sees the Web as a fountain of youth for a music industry in crisis.
«With the Internet you don't need to sell a hundred thousand records, with selling a hundred you are done. That promotes a healthy change in music, because it helps to have research, experimentation and collaborations between different artists. We are on the verge of a new Renaissance in the musical world. »
Source: Clarín