24/04/06U četvrtak 27. aprila u beogradskom Domu omladine prvi put će svirati filadelfijski sastav MARAH. Najveci fan braće Bjelanko među poznatima, Nik Hornbi (Nick Hornby) drage volje je priskočio u pomoć prilikom promocije ovog koncerta.
U nastojanju da nam dočara svoju fasciniranost jednim od "najuzbudljivijih malih bendova na svetu", odgovorio je ne baš na 31, ali na 22 pitanja o (i oko) Marah...
Svetlana Đolović ga je zasula pitanjima, a njegove 'kratke i slatke' odgovore pročitajte na POPBOKSU.
... Dear Svetlana, I'm happy to do an email interview. These next few days, I don't think I'm going to be anywhere for long enough to do a phone interview.
Best wishes Nick Hornby
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PD • When did you first get in touch with Marah music?
A friend gave me a tape (a tape!) of their very first album, just before it came out in 1998.
PD
• How did it happen that they become one of your favourite bands? What drew you to their music throughout the years? Can you be critical about it?
First of all, that first album – it's fantastic. One of the great first albums of all time, I think. And the second album was just as good. But in I think 2001 I saw them give a stupendously good live show, and then I was really hooked.
PD
• What are the disadvantages of being a friend / celebrity fan of the band you like?
For me, there are no disadvantages. They're terrific people, and they write great songs, so I'm always proud to know them. I think maybe there are more disadvantages for them – sometimes people who want to attack me do it through them, in reviews of their music. I hope that for them the advantages of knowing me outweight the disadvantages!
PD
• Your favourite song that they would cover best? Which one of their songs is Marah at their best?
They already do a cover of the Faces 'Debris' in the shows we perform together, and it's actually better than the original. I'd hate to choose one song of theirs. From the new album, 'The Closer' and 'Walt Whitman bridge' illustrate the two sides of Marah, the racous, punky side and the more reflective folk side.
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PD • In one of your (imaginary) books, a female and a male character (not fans) went to Marah concert by chance. They talked about ‘the event’ for hours later on. What were they saying?
They would reminisce about times much earlier in their lives when they connected with rock music – the Marah show would be the first time they'd felt that way about music, or maybe about any art form, for a very long time.
PD
• An ideal product to advertize with Marah music?
Beer – they're a drinking band. But not American beer – dark, strong, English bitter (and of course Marah means 'bitter' in Hebrew).
PD
• If you were their manager what sort of advice you would give them?
To stop messing around with English writers and get on with some work.
PD
• Could you imagine a parallel universe where Marah are big stars like Bruce Springsteen is? In that world, who would be their peers at the throne and who would be least popular? What is the biggest flaw of today’s popular music?
Peers: the Drive-By Truckers. And in this world, anyone who owned that Crazy Frog song would have to turn themselves over to the police.
PD
• If you could make up a perfect scenario for using their music as a soundtrack to a movie what would it be? Who would direct it?
It would have to be a Seventies Scorsese movie, something like Mean Streets, full of low-life characters with psychological complications.
PD
• Do they like / play football (soccer) and did you ‘discuss the matter’ with them? Americans and football - your impressions?
They take a polite and tolerant interest – and Serge has been to see a game with me. But no Americans understand a game with only one or two scores in it, and they certainly can't understand the concept of a draw.
PD
• If Marah music personified a woman what would she be like?
Sweaty.
PD
• One thing that writing and rock’n’roll don’t agree upon?
Probably the value of patience.
PD
• What feature would you borrow from brothers Bielanko for one day?
Have you seen a picture of them? What could I possibly want from them?
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PD • In the manner of mockumentaries or fictional biopics, considering your love of music and sense of humor, are you tempted to write fictional biography of a rock band? Or the real one? Who would it be your hero(s)?
It's not something I want to write. There are only three stories – the one that ends with enormous success, the ones that end in failure, and the ones that end with death. I think a writer needs more than that.
PD
• Did you ever write lyrics for rock’n’roll song and if you wrote one for Marah what would it be about? I wrote a song with Ben Folds for William Shatner. Really. But Marah don't need my help with anything.
PD
• What is the biggest difference between Marah on CD and Marah live?
They're very loud, live! But the point is that they know how to put on a show, just as they know how to make an album, so it's very hard to compare the two things – they're different art forms. I think they're the best live band in the world, on their good nights.
PD • What are your other personal rock’n’roll friends among the musicians you love...
I'm a gentleman – I don't kiss and tell.
PD
• What is your latest music thrill?
I'm really enjoying the new Cat Power album, 'The Greatest'.
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PD
• I really like Marah song ‘East’ ...so quite unintentionally .. not the ‘east’ they had in mind but...the inevitable... Your feelings towards new Arsenal home? Sorry, Emirates - so English, so new and so football-like... please be brutally honest...
Well, the Emirates are paying a lot of money for the privilege, so I understand the reality of it all. But in an ideal world, of course, you wouldn't want a football stadium named after an airline. In the end, you forget, I suppose. Wrigley Field in Chicago, one of the most famous and most loved baseball stadiums in America, is named after the chewing gum, but it doesn't seem like that now.
PD
• The writer doesn’t actually ever have to leave his room to communicate with his audience. Rock musician supposedly must / should. You, in a way, brought rock’n’roll stardom to literature. Are you aware of that and how do you feel about it? If you had to pick your status-equivalent in music, who would it be?
It's not true, in this age, that a writer never has to leave his room. The moment we've finished a book we're out on tour, giving readings. I did a three-week tour of the US last year… Dickens was the one who brought rock'n'roll stardom to literature, decades before rock'n'roll was even invented. He gave readings all over the UK and the US.
PD
• Being a football and music fan – why is it that music fan can easily be a football fan, but not the other way around? Similarities and differences?
The big difference to me is that music can only be pleasure. Of course, there is sad music, but you listen to it because you want to. Football always makes you unhappy, in the end, even if you hope for something else.
PD
• ‘I still maintain that music is the best way of getting the self-expression job done.’ – you once said. What, in that matter, lacks literature in self-expression? What is the magic behind music?
It's the concision of music that one envies as a writer – that, and its direct route to the heart.
(c) 2006. Svetlana Đolović, pop depresija
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