Peter Hammill

May 16th, 1999 at Sandweiler, Luxembourg

Your last album 'Typical' only contains solo performances from 1992. Why did you only choose songs from that era?
First of all, I had a lot of recordings from that time. It always takes me a lot of time to listen to them, any live recordings, whether it's solo or with a band. I always wait to listen to things. Basically I realised that a representation of solo shows was still missing in my recording catalogue. This is a thing I have always done, even back in '68. I didn't want to record new shows because that puts an extra pressure and difference on the performances. So I decided to listen to the amount of tapes I had from '92. And I gathered together all the songs I intended to use. The sets from '92 also contain lots of songs that I actually don't play anymore. But as songs come and go, this doesn't mean the end of their lives and they may of course return.

Why are three hidden bonus tracks at the end of the second CD?
My attitude of playing live has always been that I don't get an encore or do an encore. Well, the encore is never planned. These songs are the encores and while listening to the CD, you just have to wait and see if they happen or not.

Can we expect other stranger material to be released in the future? You released in the past the Sonix CD or the Union Chapel Concert.
There is actually quite a bit of stuff. At the moment, apart from doing this tour, I'm in the middle of part-writing and part-recording. There are actually two records I'm working at. One is experimental like Sonix, the other is more song like. Some songs are even meeting in the middle. I don't know what album will be released first.

What about the older material? There's stuff like the Kronos Quartet readings.
That was not recorded. And it's rather their property than mine. I was their guest and it wasn't my project.

Is there no other older stuff yet to be released?
Obviously there are tapes of various kinds around. There are other solo songs which didn't go on 'Typical'.

I've been thinking of the songs you played with a symphonic orchestra at Lille.
Again, that's really the orchestra's property. If I've been invited as a guest, it's not very fair to say that one wants to present these songs. I've spoken to David Lord if we should maybe do a full album of orchestral stuff and then, this would be a part of it. But this would become a very expensive project.

Some of your songs are still hard to get, like the first Van der Graaf Generator single which was only released on the German CD version of 'Aerosol Grey Machine'.
It was on the German version, but not on the Fie! one because for me, it's not part of the 'Aerosol Grey Machine' recordings.

It's not fair towards the fans. They first buy the vinyl edition because 'Aerosol Grey Machine' didn't first exist on CD. Then two different editions with different bonus tracks are released on CD.
There have been legal complications in negotiations. The German company released the CD before me and I had to put other bonus tracks on it. My version of 'Aerosol Grey Machine' contains all the tracks which were involved in these recordings and 'Ferret And Featherbird' which was also recorded at that time.

I guess there's no chance for the Polaroid song to be published.
(laughs) It's a little bit silly.

I go back to your CD 'This'. It reminded me from a musical point a lot of the Van der Graaf Generator era 'H to He'.
It was my 40^th album. I was doing it in my 50^th year. I've been playing music for 30 years. All these numbers were kind of concentrating. I thought that I should make a record which did make reference musically in spirit to various eras in fact. So it contains elements which go back to that. But 'Nightman' is more like the 'Chameleon...' or 'Silent Corner...' era and so on. And 'The Light Continent' is something entirely different. I really intended to make reference with these songs.

On 'Everyone You Hold', two of your daughters contributed to a song. Could you imagine getting them more involved into your works?
They are very good singers with strictly classical voices. I don't want to push them towards that. They are classical sopranos, both of them sing in choirs. One is still at school and singing for most parts in the chapel choir. The oldest one, Holly, is at university and she sang last year in the chamber choir. Since I've been lucky enough to still doing music, they love music, too. Absolutely not my music necessarily. They like many kinds of music and also performing or dancing. I don't want to prejudice this in any way. They are very serious when they are doing concerts, but it's remaining fun for them. It's quite common I guess that a musician doesn't want his children to go into music because you know how lucky you have to be to survive in the business. But when I need soprano voices, I can always ask my daughters who had already session on 5, 6 or 7 different CDs. Holly knows how to organise a choir. It's possible that they'll do something together or separately in the future, but not immediately.

Is Fie! a real label or just a name that you put on your CDs?
It's a real label and it's distributed. It's not a massive label and generally, the output is mine alone, with exceptions like the David Jackson album, the 'Union Chapel Concert' or 'Aerosol Grey Machine'. It's not impossible that I will have other people on the label at a later stage. But it's enough trouble being responsible for myself. I have put out more than 20 CDs on my label and these things have to be organised.

How many people are working for Fie!?
Only a couple of people, but mostly, it's me. But in the modern world, it's much easier to do this than it used to be thanks to computers.

In the USA your CDs are distributed by DGM, Robert Fripp's label. Do you still have a relationship with him?
Yes but we don't see each other very often because each one has to tour a lot. We don't live very far apart, one hour and a half drive.

Is it possible that you'll work together in the future?
(laughs) You already asked that the last time. Not as far as I know.

On the info sheet of DGM, they wrote that you could make the same with your voice what Jimi Hendrix was doing on his guitar.
It's a quote which actually comes from the late sixties. I was inspired by Hendrix revolutionising the guitar. Later I was introduced by David Jackson to John Coltrane and to what he did with sax. I began to explore the voice. I pushed it in the same way as Hendrix had done with the guitar, Coltrane with the sax and obviously Charlie Parker before this, etc. It was a question of the effort I was making rather than trying to be Hendrix. Being older now, it's less a question of pushing the voice to destruction which I did at the beginning of my career. I still could do it, but quiet times and the use of classical techniques are also quite interesting. Mixing things up is also part of the fun of playing all these years.

In the 70's, Van der Graaf Generator was a Rock'n'Roll band.
Rock'n'Rollish!

What you do now goes more into singer/songwriter stuff.
Hmmmmmmm........ mmmmmmmm. Yes and no.

It's impossible to categorise your music.
I think so, too. You're right for 'Typical' where one person is singing songs. But it's not exactly singer / songwriter. Tonight you have a singer, a piano and a violin, that's a classical line-up. But it's not just that. There's also the joy and interest of playing together. We are able to shift from one thing to another at any moment.

Is this your third tour with Stuart Gordon in a row?
The Bolzano show was solo. But the two previous tours have also been like that. It's a very good line-up which is open and still very exciting. There are still lots of songs to learn and play.

Do you often see the same faces at a concert?
I already know a lot of these people personally. But I don't want to be over aware of that. There are some people that come to every single gig, but the majority of people just see one gig at a tour. For ourselves, we have to change the shows and do things differently so that our interest can still be maintained. People who come to every show have a different view. What they think to be a great show in not necessarily what we think to be a great show. Somebody who just comes for one night has another idea of a great show.

Do you think that people coming to every show are sometimes too analytic towards your music?
Maybe, but they can't avoid getting the amount of chaos which is involved in every show. Even if there are analysis and degrees of intellectual stuff on the one side, there has to be another side that's entirely visceral and instinctive and that you can't ordinate. There isn't a best show as there is no absolute version of anything. But there is of course stuff to analyse in the music and in the lyrics.

Do you expect that your music can still attract new and young fans? It's obviously more and more difficult these days with the media and the industry being different. A label without promotion and marketing budget makes things difficult. But on a major label, I never had much promotion and marketing either. So it really doesn't make much difference. I hope to get new fans by doing a good work. I expect that throughout the years, long time admirers of my music will not have any more need or interest in my works which is a natural part of everyone's life. It's also usual that hobbies change. So it's necessary that there are new people coming in contact with my music. It may be younger people or elder people discovering me at a later stage. I have to do my best without compromising the work itself. Most people discover me by accident. The interesting fact is that they may discover any CD from any era. There are so different CDs like 'Sonix', 'The Love Songs' or 'Fireships'. There have even been Peter Hammill fans who didn't know anything about the existence of Van der Graaf Generator.

Is there one album you would recommend to start with?
I couldn't. Maybe one should try one of my compilations which show some of my parameters. But I can't name any real album to start with.

Are there differences between concerts former days and nowadays? I read in your book a short story called 'Audi' which is about groupies and so?
It's completely different now. It was completely mad, I was much younger and the world was madder basically. Many things were out of control, from business organisation to equipment. It wouldn't have been possible to tour in that sort of way for 30 years. I wanted to compress some of my experiences in that short story. I've been talking lately to Stuart. Touring, who hasn't done it? My wife doesn't know it, Gail doesn't know it. Even Gordion, our old manager, doesn't know it because he hasn't done it for a number of years. Even then he didn't know because it's the touring and the playing. This is a sort of feeling that the world is rolling up to you and you have an hour and a half of important time to spend each day which is a strange discipline because there's never a way which allows you to control it absolutely.

You don't have an official homepage on the internet. Do you think that it's enough to have lots of fan pages?
I should have a page, really. It's one of the things I haven't organised so far.

Are you following what they are writing about you on the fan pages?
A very bad idea for artists and actors. Sooner or later you'll find something which makes you want to respond. When you respond once, you won't come to an end any more. I also don't read the mailing list.

When will you release a record containing new songs?
Maybe in October, November this year. I have written quite a lot of songs of different types. I don't know yet if the album will be of a single style or a mixture of styles. So far I've just two or three songs which are recorded and mixed. Nine or ten songs are completely written but not recorded. Then there are still nine or ten songs which are almost written. So I have about 25 pieces around at the moment which have to go through the maturation process.

You seem to be an artist who'll never stop making music.
I hope not, unless I feel like I'm not doing it properly or not enjoying it any more. Doing music still makes sense to me.

Let's talk a bit about collaborations. You often work together with different kinds of musicians like The Kronos Quartet or David Thomas. Are there plans for other collaborations in the future?
There is a project I had with Roger Eno that may be out this year. I won't say what it is exactly. That's the only kind of main collaboration. I'm singing on Chris Judge Smith's 'Curly's Airship'. I sing a couple of pieces on that musical opera which is in the process of being finished. It will be released at the end of this year or the start of next year. Other collaborators are Arthur Brown, Hugh Banton and John Ellis.

I liked your two songs on the David Cross album. It reminded me of 'Exposure'.
There's Robert Fripp's guitar on the two albums. It's always interesting to work with other people together because every one has specific visions of the output. I finished singing those two songs in one afternoon. After that Robert was playing the guitar tracks in the same evening. It was very intense and that's not the way I normally work myself because I have all the time in the world to work in my studio.

Are you never missing the spontaneousness?
I do fiddle and take a lot of time in my studio. That's 80% of the time. There are the other 20% where I just pick up my guitar and play. I still like the electric guitar accords like on 'Nadir's Big Chance'.

This was the first British punk song ever. Does this make you proud or ashamed?
Not at all ashamed! The ethos of Nadir is absolutely saying this. My regret about punk is that this movement got immediately swallowed by the music industry. Now it's completely controlled. It's just about selling records for most of the part. I won't say that pop music is bad, but the industry is definitely bad.

So you still have something like a punk attitude as you're doing it all by yourself.
Absolutely.

Have you ever heard the Van der Graaf Generator cover versions album from an Italian label?
I have a copy, but I heard only a couple of tracks. It's very bizarre. One day I must sit down and listen to it.

Thank you very much for this interview.

Interview published on August 19^th 1999