Modern Rock Live Interview with Bryan Ferry

HOST: Live from New York City and Hollywood, Sony Mini Disc presents Modern Rock Live, the nation's only alternative music call-in show that gives you the chance to interview modern rock's biggest stars. Hi, I'm Tom Calderone.

Tonight we are pleased to present Bryan Ferry. If you got a question for Bryan call us toll free at 1-800-223-ROCK.

Our guest's new record features his cohorts from Roxy Music, including Brian Eno, Heddy McKay and Phil Mazanera. It's called Mamouna and it will be in stores on September 20. With us in our New York studios, Bryan Ferry. Hi Bryan.

GUEST: Hi. How are you?

HOST: Welcome to our show.

GUEST: Good. Thank you very much.

HOST: The name of the title of the album. What does that word mean?

GUEST: Mamouna. It's an Arab word. It's a girl's name and it also means good luck, so, there you go.

HOST: Where did you first hear that word? Was that something that's always been in your vocabulary.

GUEST: No, it sort of word that I've heard used as a girls name before and when I was writing the lyrics to the title track of the album I was in my studio where I have a big Moroccan tapestry on the wall and I believe I was just sitting there playing, working through the song, and I kept on looking at this kind of fabric on the wall and the name just seemed to come out of it. It was really weird. So I thought this was another worldly experience. This could well be the title of the new album. And that's what I did. It was really good.

HOST: So, the record is so intense. Just the amount of, the production to it and everything. How long did it take to put together? It's incredible.

GUEST: It was actually worked on over a very long period of time. You try and keep a sort of freshness to it. You try to use as many first take things as you can over the period. But it was worked on over two parts. The first part was from '89 when I started it up to where I did the Taxi album, when I took a break from it for a year. And then I went back to it for phase two and that' s when Brian Eno and some of the other players came and worked on it. And it was very good. It was finished off in pretty short order. Very quickly.

HOST: Is it hard to go back to a project after a year when it's been sitting there...

GUEST: No. No. It's really easy. It's something I must do again. I recommend it. Now it's good, cause sometimes it gives you, if you're working on a long distance project like that, sometimes you get a bit stale, so to put it aside for a while you can get a bit of distance from it, a bit of perspective and I've become a bit more objective about it. And I found it really useful to do that.

HOST: I want to talk about getting back together with the guys from Roxy Music. But we'll listen to one of the tracks from the brand new CD and this is called " Don't Want To Know." This is an incredible track. I'm sorry, we're going to listen to the title track from your brand new CD. This is an incredible song. This is Bryan Ferry exclusively, hearing it first on Modern Rock Live. Here it is.

PLAY SONG

HOST: Exclusively on Modern Rock Live. The title track from Mamouna. Bryan Ferry's with us live in the studio. We'll be back to take some phone calls, so if you got a question for Bryan give us a buzz. Modern Rock Live will return right after this on the Global Satellite Network.

And we're back. This is Modern Rock Live. I'm Tom Calderone. We're sitting here with Bryan Ferry in our New York Studio. Ready for some phone calls Bryan? They're stacked up ready to talk to you. Let's talk to Gloria in Chicago on Q101 listening to us on Modern Rock Live. Hi, Gloria.

CALLER: I would just like to ask to what do you attribute your longevity as an artist?

GUEST: I think curiosity and I'm always thinking of something new to try. And I guess I just never got tired of doing it. And I guess I like doing it a lot, you know. That' s really important. And I love doing shows like this and talking to people like you.

HOST: Second question Gloria?

CALLER: No. I didn't have one.

GUEST: Okay. Thanks. Nice to talk to you Gloria.

HOST: Adriana in Augusta, Georgia on channel Z. Hi, Adriana.

CALLER: Hi. I was just wondering what your favorite song on the new CD is?

GUEST: My favorite song? That would be really hard at this point. I like the title track very much and there's kind of a slow one, a ballad called " The Only Face." I like that. Maybe because I worked on that one for a real long time. I kind of wrote the first sketch for it, a demo for it in the mid '70's. So, it's one of those songs that you keep on coming back to it every few years and looking at it, and say, oh, not yet. And then, yes. Now. So that one I like very much, too.

HOST: Ted on 103.9 WDRE.

CALLER: Bryan. How ya doing?

GUEST: Hi, Ted.

CALLER: How ya doing? First of all I want to tell you I think you' re the greatest. I wait with great anticipation for all your albums. Back in May of '92 there was supposed to be a release of what you were calling Horoscope.

GUEST: Alright. Yeah...

CALLER: And that never came about and in the interim you released Taxi and now you're releasing Mamouna. I guess my question is what happened? What weren't you satisfied with? Is Mamouna the same project with a different name?

GUEST: Yes, it is. When I finished the Taxi project I went back to the Horoscope tapes as they were called. And I kind of reworked the material so half the Horoscope became Mamouna. It turned into such a different sound that I've got to change the name. And Mamouna seemed really appropriate and it seemed to stick. It's funny how you can just find the right title for the album. It's usually one of the songs that's on there. It seemed very provocative and had a nice resonance to it which I found appropriate to the music. I think the title Horoscope is a bit of a curse. It might make a comeback from one of the future albums, so wait and so if there is some material left from that project. Quite a lot of it lying there.

HOST: Good question, Ted. We're going to talk to Michelle in Lansing, Michigan listening to us on 92.1 The Edge. Hi, Michele.

CALLER: Hi. Why did Roxy Music stop recording together?

GUEST: From time to time, we would stop for a few years. And after the Avalon album and the Avalon tour, we stopped. I didn't really know how long we'd be apart. And weather we'd ever be together again. I still don't. Sometimes the chemistry runs dry, or you need to do new things and you're curious to experiment with other musicians. You don't want to feel that you're joined at the hip forever to the same people. Now, it's gotten to where I'm sort of curious about working with some of the people in Roxy again and this album has been kind of interesting in that respect. One of the people who played on it is Brian Eno, who I haven't worked with for 20 years. He played on the first two Roxy albums, which were two of the best albums we did, in fact. And it was great to get back together with him again, cause it was such an incredibly long time apart and when we worked together again it was as if it were yesterday. It was an extraordinary thing. I guess there is still stuff we can do together.

HOST: The chemistry is still there?

GUEST: Very much so, yeah.

HOST: Let's listen to "Slave to Love" on Modern Rock Live.

PLAY SONG

HOST: Modern Rock Live. Bryan Ferry and "Slave to Love." He's with us in our studios on Modern Rock Live. And we go back to the phones. The Edge in Phoenix is the next station and Brent is listening to us in Tempe, Arizona. Hi, Brent.

CALLER: Hi, how are ya?

GUEST: Hi, Brent.

CALLER: Hi Bryan. I just wanna say I'm thrilled to hear that you're coming out with a new album.

GUEST: Oh, good.

CALLER: And I had a question for you off of "Boys and Girls", your "Slave to Love " track, the great track we just heard. I was wondering what inspired that song?

GUEST: I don't know. Just the imagination. You know how it is, Brent. You never really know where these things come from. I mean, sometimes you have a mood for a song, you have a lyric, you have the vocal and then you just find the idea that matches the mood of the music. Match the feeling of it. That's where your imagination gets to work.

HOST: Thanks, Brent. Appreciate the call. And we go now to Brett, listening to us on 99.1 WHFS. Hi, Brett.

CALLER: Hi. I just wanted to know how Robin Trower come about producing it?

GUEST: It was interesting. It was in the first phase of the saga and he came into play as a guest musician, a guest guitarist; to do a solo. Cause I remember I had his album, Bridge of Sighs from the '70's which was a very good album and I thought it would be an interesting experiment for him to come and play. I really like the guitar as an instrument and I have always lots of different guitarists on my albums. And Robin came in and he stayed. We go on real well, we found that we had a lot of musical influences in common, like a lot of R&B music, we liked a lot of the same records, the same things. And it worked out incredibly well. He is a bit of a perfectionist, unlike me of course, and we found the combination worked really well in the studio. So, we worked together on the Taxi album and then when I went back to this record he stayed and the team was well in place by then. And it worked really well. I hope we'll be working more together in the future.

HOST: Good question, Brett. Tim in Chicago on Q101. Hi, Tim.

CALLER: Hi. How ya doing tonight, Bryan?

GUEST: I'm doing very well, Tim. How are you doing?

CALLER: Very good. Listen, you've always pretty much experimented with sound, with your Roxy Music stuff and your solo stuff. I know Phil and Andy both worked with John Cale. Have your ever thought about doing anything with John Cale. It would seem like a natural progression, there?

GUEST: Yeah. I used to really like what John Cale did in the Velvet Underground. The Viola as an instrument is one I find very appealing, as well. That used to be a very interesting theme that he did in there with Lou Reed, and he's quite a character, John Cale. I remember meeting him in some rest-room when we were on tour. Because of his association Eno and Phil, he was backstage and I think he might have had a drink or two. He's very amusing. I'd like to work with him one day. That's a good idea.

HOST: Thanks, Tim. And thank you Bryan for spending the time with us.

GUEST: Thank you very much.

HOST: We'll see you on tour and good luck with the record.

Bryan Chow, bryan@loudcloud.com