Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Beat Instrumental APRIL 1974 - by Ray Hammond

ENO THE PERFORMING PRODUCER

It's easy to dismiss Eno as a sham - a man of imagery, the ultimate poseur. He admits he's no singer, can't play a musical instrument properly and lacks an understanding of the technicalities of music, but yet he demands to be taken seriously and believes that he has something worthwhile to contribute to the contemporary rock scene.

After the glam/rock trip that Roxy rode ("We really were wearing glitter before Gary started, really we were"), Eno took his fame and left the band. He contributed much to the album that Robert Fripp and he did, No Pussyfooting, but it was his own venture, Eno And The Warm Jets, on which he stood or fell.

The Warm Jets were originally The Winkies, a pub band that Eno found and converted "because of their superb simplicity". Simplicity is something close to the man of tapes and synthesiser.

"I believe that simplicity is only achieved through complete musical naivety or very advanced musical studies that take in the need for strict musical discipline," the man explained.

The national tour that Eno and The Warm Jets have just curtailed sneaked up on Eno from behind.

"I only wanted to do a few gigs to get the feel of things," he explained during a pause before rushing off to a sound check for another date on this first marathon. "The idea was that we should do, maybe, two or three gigs a week and that way we'd be relaxed and I would have time to continue writing and recording. Somehow the idea that I was ready to do some live appearances just got out of hand and the tour package thing was planned. It won't happen again, it's all too much of a strain for me. I don't like playing before an audience very much so it could easily be a year before I think about it again."

ADRENALIN

"Funnily enough there are two things that I do far better on stage than I do in the studio. On stage my voice is so much better than it ever is on recording - I think my range increases by three or four tones. Also I can play things on the synthesiser that I have the greatest trouble with on recording - not the keyboard technique, but the very rapid operation of the joystick that I use to get certain effects. I think that the sight of all those people must cause the adrenalin to flow and it forces me to hit notes that I usually can't reach. I get terribly nervous before a gig, actually. That's one of the things I hate about touring. I get more nervous now than I ever did with Roxy - all the responsibility's mine."

If Eno was curious to find his own audience, the audiences must have been even more curious to find out what Eno and The Warm Jets were all about.

"I've been amazed at the warmth of the reception. I really didn't rehearse to the album. I just picked up a guitar and hummed the tunes over the chords like this (picks up a Woolworth's electric and hums a snatch). The Winkies had to work it out from that. In the end we finished up with different chords and everything but the tune's still the same."

The search for the simplistic music that Eno lives for must present him with a communication problem with other musicians.

"The Winkies are the best possible group I could have from that point of view - although it's still very difficult. If you give a skilled musician a chord sequence he'll naturally play it in his own style and as he gets familiar with it he improvises just a little. I know exactly how each part should sound and, although a guitarist might think he's improving his sound by adding a part, I know how bare I want the framework to be and it won't work. We've been touring for a while now and the numbers are already getting looser. This afternoon at the sound check I'm going to have to have a complete rehearsal and stop every time I hear something that should not be there. I believe that the finest art in music is understatement."

Eno insists that his music dominates his life - almost to the exclusion of all else.

"Even when I'm sitting talking, or watching the television, I've always got a guitar on my lap and I'm doing this (demonstrates repetitive 4/4 progression A major to G major) and humming bits of tunes over it. When I go out I take a little cassette with me and if a part occurs I just put it on tape.

"My wastage rate is very high. I've got twenty-five minutes or so for the next album but I suspect that when the time comes round to record I'll have far more than I need and then a process of selection will take place and I'll eliminate the weakest bits."

The ex-painter who found greater expression through music (or manipulating music, depending on which way you look at it), admits to having the horrors before a live audience. Does he consider that his music is complete once on tape, or does it have to reach a wide audience to justify its existence?"

"I think unless people hear it - and I hope like it - it doesn't really exist. Liking it is the key. I can't stand intellectualisation of music. Like in the jazz world where you're told you don't understand something if you say you don't like it. It's a simple yes or no. Rock at its best is music to be enjoyed. Understanding it doesn't really matter - it's enjoying that counts. That's the only aim I have in producing music - to be enjoyed."

"Singing is the only area in which I'm any sort of a performer - and that's because there's no guidelines and standards. No one can really say that one rock singer is better than another, they can only say which they prefer. That leaves the field wide open. I've been very pleased with the way my singing has progressed. I've always enjoyed singing, it's a very natural thing to do, but last night I made a note and controlled it in a way I've never been able to before."

But surely, practice (in singing and playing), breeds virtuosity? Isn't this something Eno wants to avoid? "Oh, I'm very far off being a virtuoso, I don't think there's any danger of my style getting in my way."

Eno is a man attempting to reject standards that musicians before him have totally relied on. In a moment of peace at home what music does he listen to?

"I've been collecting ethnic music of all kinds for a long time. Perhaps my favourite form is reggae. That's almost the point at which I'm aiming, it's the total infusion of the melody and rhythm, as if the melody was written around the beat."