Interview: Portishead
environment. “Making it was harsh at times, simply because of the regime we’ve historically always had about how we make our music and the deconstruction process,” he admits. “We make things and then destroy them completely. It’s a fragile line between succeeding and wanting to throw yourself out of a window through a lack of creativity. All of us listen to harsh music. The sonic harshness of it comes from that. A lot of the music that I like is pretty degraded.”
However much they managed to cocoon themselves from the industry, blocking out the outside world at large was much harder. With work on Third starting in 2004, the recording sessions had a fairly crazy backdrop in the news arena for one. “All of that stuff has an influence,” says Adrian. “It’s not as if we overtly tried to write a record in protest against politics and world events, but if you’re living in that environment and talking to each other about those things, it’s bound to effect how you emotionally respond. If I listen to the Gorecki piece about Auschwitz, that’s a direct emotional response and it’s largely instrumental. I’m always thinking, ‘is there a way of representing something politically aware with instrumental music?’ You’d think it would be more about lyrics.”
It was the combination of music and lyrics in hip-hop that first caught the attention of the jazzloving Utley, in particular the work of Public Enemy – the band who helped forge a bond between himself and Barrow. Like many others who cut their teeth in those early days, the majority of today’s rap fails to connect with him.
Portishead is an amazing band, Innovative use of jazz samples, big drums, simple bass and decks n effects. Great piece of music.
Leave your response!