Posted by Airforpeace on January 21, 2013 at 1:05am
Joey and MauroNigel: i felt like 'The Eraser' was, as it were, created in a vacuum, we two alone shut ourselves in the room. although that was a really wonderful experience, finally, once the album has been completed, that's done. when an album was released and if we were a band, we could tour and confirm how people react to our music. but two years had passed since the album was completed, Thom was to make solo live at Latitude Festival. you did it at Cambridge too?Thom: yeah, certainly.Nigel: and... this is my interpretation, Thom was so excited about the idea that he was playing these songs at live shows. because he never had a chance of it.Thom: and i had already finished some songs.Nigel: all of them were absolutely stunning, but not kinds of music that we'd want to play simply by computers when we went on tour. naturally, because that couldn't be not very persuasive for audiences. so from my point of view, his idea of getting to the point and trying to reproduce the electronic beats by using percussions, i thought it was great. then we had only to solve a little puzzle that required to find appropriate people and unravel how we play. i and Joey have been collaborating for many years and then i've always told Thom how great he was. then Joey introduced Mauro, so we met him. that's just how we looked for the answer, we were very lucky.Thom: exactly. because Mauro was a wild card. when i went to see his performance with David Byrne, i was overwhelmed by it and convinced that i had to collaborate with him. but now i think, in retrospect, what i was amused was not only that i was surprised how everybody got synchronized immediately and the band very quickly shaped up when five of us got together and started the rehearsal, but i found it was the first time i played with the band other than Radiohead since i was 16 years old. i confess that was quite a heavy impact and confused me.---'Atoms for Peace' and EisenhowerThom: (...)my father was a nuclear physicist, studied at Imperial College London. in the late 1950's he was walking around with test tubes that held plutonium, without adequate protection. that was the ordinary, because he didn't know it was dangerous. it holds naiveness like that and i've been taken my fancy. the biggest reason that i wanted to name the band 'Atoms for Peace' was in the contrast with its naiveness and darkness lurking behind, how its naive thought's worked out and changed. (laughs)Nigel: what does it mean?Thom: it means what? (laughs) however, at the same time, the sound of 'Atoms for Peace' is not only suggesting kind of wonder kinetic energy but expressing even tranquillity. that has no relation to Eisenhower's proposal at all. on the other hand it also makes us consider the crisis that we face today. the problem, that is how we generate electricity. a supercollider, or can we discover the source of energy that saves humankind, or not? (...)---how to create Atoms for Peace's sound－(...)are there any bases of the songs, or absolute improvisation?Thom: yep. jam sessions and supergroups are not dissociable.Nigel: all the supergroups have jams.Thom: have jams.Nigel: there's a side like that but not only that.Thom: exactly. as a prerequisite, we basically set the starting points but those things i had at hand were only sorts of beats, and i wanted to know whether they could actually play them physically. so that was like a challenge to them. i even proposed like “okay, try this” and “try to do that” or “let's play this and see how it goes.” for example, 'Stuck Together Pieces' was made like that. (...)Thom: (...)what i was so interested in this band was how everything was physical, intuitive and sensuous when we started a jam session. it was filled with energy and i was really excited, then about to look for whatever would be the trigger of sessions. but it was not like feeling “are you ready? let's start playing”. because this is not like that. what is important
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