MAN ERG

Por Jacobo Celnik y Christián Landaeta (Chile)

Uno de los músicos más importantes de la vieja guardia musical inglesa, además de ser la voz más enigmática y oscura del progresivo, habló en exclusiva para Schizoid Man.
Cantante, guitarrista, teclista y artista, nació el 5 de noviembre de 1948 en Londres, Inglaterra. Tras estudiar artes y filosofía en Manchester, fundó en 1967, junto con el baterista Chris Judge-Smith, Van Der Graaf Generator, una de las bandas más importantes en la historia del art-rock. A pesar de haber sufrido un infarto hace algunos meses, no pierde su sentido del humor y el gusto por el rugby, deporte que le apasiona. Hammill nos habló de su más reciente trabajo "Incoherence", disco que tendremos muy pronto en la programación de Eurorock.

The Van Der Graaf times

Schizoid Man: Mr Hammill, tell us a little bit about yourself, your musical roots and how you got involved on the whole Van Der Graaf Project.

Peter Hammill: “Well of course where I come from is somewhat in the dim and distant past as I’ve now been a working musician, singer and writer for more than 35 years. Briefly I dropped out of university in 1968 in order to play in VdGG, which I'd formed while at university. My musical roots were blues, soul, British beat groups and Hendrix. Of course I was exposed to a lot of other things as well"!

S.M: ¿Which of the VDGG albums you consider the best and why?

P.H: I don't consider any one the best. All were done to the best of our abilities at the time and of course inform each other in a certain way. also, albums for me embody as much a spirit of the time and social circumstances of making them as they do the music itself.

S.M: ¿Why Van Der Graaf was different than the other prog bands form the 70s, and do you think that VDGG music inspired other rock genre like punk?

P.H: I think we were rather more anarchic than most groups of the time so there is some thread that runs through to punk. We were also emphatically doing the music only for its own sachems with no real concept of career. And being, in our own eyes, both very, very serious and very funny at the same time.

New Challenges and literature

S.M: During your career, ¿Did you ever consider leaving the music world and working as a film or theater director or actor?

P.H: Oh, no. I think I’m too nervous to be an actor and not enough of a dictator to be a director. Writing and singing still works for me!

S.M:¿Which do you think is the most important and influential factor of literature in your musical production?

P.H: Just a proper respect for the meanings of words, grammar and syntax.

S.M:¿What is the connection existing between those influential factors and the Fall of the House Usher?

P.H: In the case of "Usher" I was responsible only for music, since judge was librettist, and so didn't have to concern myself too much with the literary angle. Obviously we discussed all implications between us as the writing went on, though!

New Technologies and old friends

S.M: ¿How do you qualify the technological advantages that musicians have today according to what you did on 70s and 80s?

P.H: Ah, obviously it's much easier (and cheaper) to produce a professional sounding result today. On the other hand one doesn't have to do so much work to do so, which is not necessarily a good thing! Sometimes having limited tools is more beneficial in terms of results, I think.But you can only work with as much or as little knowledge as is available at the time you're working. For myself, I’m very glad to have worked across many different technological strata, from 4-track to full-on Hard disc recording!

S.M: ¿Do you think the whole change is positive or negative, or maybe the old technologies made the composing of music something mystic and more realistic than today?

P.H: I agree that the "old" way of playing something which was then The Recrording had a certain power. But that's not to say that equivalent things can't be done today. you have to be more careful to apply yourself in the right way, though

S.M: ¿Have you worked as a music producer and which is your relation with Lene Lovich?

P.H: I have done odd bits of work as producer but it's not my favourite role. I know Lene as a friend (originally via judge smith); this predates both "usher" and her "pop success" years

S.M:¿What was your impression about what Genesis did on Gabriel Era, and the whole Theatrical thing?, ¿Were you influenced by that, and have you ever worked with Mr Gabriel?

P.H: Yes i have worked with peter and we also remain friends. the theatrical presntations of genesis were not an area we wanted to go towards at the time but good luck to them we said! if anything divided uis it was that their presentation was more professional and ours more anarchic.

New record and some thoughts about Van Der Graaf

S.M: Tell us about your latest record "Incoherence"

P.H: It's a 40 minute piece about the impossibilities of language/ the moments when communication breaks down. of course there's an element of paradox in this because I’m loosing language to express these things in the work. There’s no percussion involved and only two other musicians, Stuart Gordon on violin and David Jackson on horns. The music ranges from calm and composed to very wild indeed.

S.M: ¿Could it be posible to see Van Der Graaf together again?

P.H: The four of us did play together at one of my solo concerts last year, for an encore. I on't think, though, that any of us (vdgg) would want to reform as in be locked together as a working band. We remain friends and treasure that friendship.

S.M: Finally Mr Hammill.Tell us a short comment about H to He who Am The only one, one of our Vdgg favorite records.

P.H: As with all the vdgg records and indeed my solo ones we did our best with our skills, our experiences and the available technology of the time. In my opinion H to He really began to puch the envelope of record making and song construction.

Algunos trabajos de Peter Hammill en solitario:

Foolsmate 1971


The Future Now 1978


Sitting Target 1981