make-up
The first thing that strikes you
when meeting Make-Up's Ian Svenonius is how intense the guy is. He
leans over your dictaphone like he's divulging state secrets and
keeps putting his hand on your shoulder and looking into your eyes
like he's confiding in a life-long friend. It's unnerving to say the
least. As is his intelligence. Probably one of the most-well read
people in this business, he has this encyclopedic knowledge that not
only covers almost every genre of music, but everything from
political philosophies to, I don't know, types of olive oil . Live,
the Make-Up really use this intensity to their full advantage.
Svenonius rants and raves like a possessed preacher, standing on
anything available, while the music builds into this furious sound
that results in what only can be described as chaos.
In fact, the
ideas of chaos and revolution mean a lot to him. This was, after all,
the lot that devised what they call the 'gospel yeah yeah', which
Svenonius describes as "a way to synthesize oration with voodoo
ritual with the hysteria and catharsis, spirituality. All the things
that sort of get left by the wayside in rock and roll as we know it."
Confused? Well, Svenonius refuses to explain any further. "Someone
asked me to explain Gospel Yeah Yeah to the man on the street and I
said 'Whatever, that's the kind of condescending crap that Hollywood
does.' 'The man on the street' what is that? Like anyone who believes
a public opinion poll has a hole in their head you know? ... it's all
social control. Stereotyping or classification. People have to
realize that they're talking to people and that they don't have to
condescend to make them understand things. That's the problem with
art and culture in our society."
You're probably getting the idea
that this was not your typical interview. And you'd be right. One
question and he was off on this stream-of-consciousness thing, that 5
minutes later somehow ended up where it started. If it does anything,
It makes my job a lot easier. Instead of struggling for quotes, you
have ready-made paragraphs. Take for example, the gospel thing.
Svenonius once let it slip that the Make-Up were the "kings of
gospel", so, naturally, I asked him about it.
"One time I
flippantly said we're the kings of gospel music, so, whatever. I
think that's idiotic...that was just sort of a reactionary statement
because people will tell you that you have no right to make a certain
type of music...it's all social control. I'm probably as guilty as
anyone you know. I basically believe that cultural revolution is the
only thing that can save America's promise, because social control is
resulting in a prison system that's the solution to the cheap labor
problem. It's all a sort of legacy to the pure and Calvinist policy
where it's an honor to do work, it's noble to do work...every
American thinks it's the most noble thing to do work... it's really
cool to say 'I have a hammock in my office" "I work 20 hours a day"
etc etc.. It's 'oh what a bunch of martyrs we are'. Truly pathetic.
Yeah for what? That's why we're in a gospel group. You know you might
notice that all the soul artists always retire into the priesthood or
into the ministryÉ Al Green, the guy from Slave, Run DMC even, and
it's sort of a way to escape from the whims of the pop marketplace.
And that's basically what we did. We're retiring...we're in a gospel
group." See what I mean?
The final thing that strikes you about
Svenonius, and the rest of the band is how good they all look. One of
those times when it feels like it doesn't matter what you wear to the
gig, there's no way you're ever gonna top this lot. This too, it
turns out, is all part of the plan. They even used to pass out
pamphlets at their gigs with instructions on how to look. A tad
elitist surely? "That's not being elitist. It's just aesthetics. It
doesn't mean that it's not open...as soon as our records are put on
sale then how can we be elitist? Anybody can buy our records.. As
soon as we play a show then anyone can come. We don't actually have a
dress code. We could, but we don't. [There's] that Tennessee Williams
song and one of the lines says "the sign says No Squares Allowed". We
actually run a nightclub in DC and we always put 'no squares allowed'
on the door. That's political affinity. Squaredom might be defined as
political. And aesthetic affinities. We used to have instruction
pamphlets that we used to hand out at the shows. People thought it
was really pompous or whatever but, of course it is, who cares. The
false humility of all these bands is hysterical . What they play,
that's what's important. Passing out instructions, that's less
pretentious than playing through a giant amplifier or speaking into a
microphone. Amplifying your voice like the voice of God, that's
what's pretentious." Valid point. It had crossed my mind that if I
ever had money, I'd open a bar for my friends and not let any morons
in. So, I guess you can't knock him for being honest.
But what
does the future hold for the Make-Up? After two live albums and one
that was, according to Svenonius "ad libbed on the spot", the band
now plan "to do a constructed live record in the rock and roll
tradition". And you can bet that's going to be interesting. Because,
put all the politics aside and the Make-Up are, at the end of the
day, all about the music. And looking good. Love 'em or hate them,
you can't possibly ignore them.Guess it's all down to aesthetics
really.
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