Interviews -Adrian Belew-

Tokyo, 2000.10
text by Yoshiyuki Suzuki
interpretation and translation by Ikuko Ono

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"I always had a side of me that likes well written pop songs, and a side of me that likes the strange, interesting, avant-garde sounds and interesting music. So I naturally bring those two things together as much as I can. It's part of my role in the band."

Yesterday, you finished your third Japan show. What do you think of them so far?

Adrian：I think it's great to be back in Japan, because I've always loved playing here. And I think the band is getting a little better each show. Because so much of the show now is brand new material, we're still challenged by playing it (laughs).

In the liner notes of the Japanese version of "The Construktion of Light," you said that you've never been able to play "The Construktion of Light" all the way through without any mistakes. Are you able to do that now?

Adrian：Oh yes. Yes. I make mistakes in other ones now (Laughs).

I saw your show on the fourth, at Shibuya Kokaido. It seemed to me that Mr. Fripp was having trouble with his volume pedal. Was he?

Adrian：I don't know--but he always fools around with his volume pedal. He fiddles with it. He fidgets with his volume pedal.

While experimenting?

Adrian：Not experimenting. I think he just ... he's always moving his volume pedal. I want to go over and say, 'Stop doing that!' (laughs)

I see.

Adrian：But I will say that the band has a large amount of technology on stage with it, and just about every night something goes wrong for someone. And really, we laugh about it because, I guess, it's how we recover from that that we find interesting. If one person drops out for a few bars because they're having a problem, how does the band recover from that -- that's what we think is fun.

When you were playing "Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 4", you seemed to be having trouble with your guitar, too.

Adrian：That's true.

I was wondering if there's a King Crimson meeting after every show to reflect on that night's performance?

Adrian：Yes. I met with my guitar technician to sort out those problems, and we're still working on it. We can't exactly figure out what the problem was. Everything just stopped. With the band, we talk about other things. Used to be, the last King Crimson, we didn't talk much about the music afterwards, but with this band, we talk a lot about it after the show. And we laugh about things, and we basically are having fun with it. And we talk about things we could improve, or things we could change, or ways that we could maybe do the set differently, or tempos ... basically, every little details are discussed sooner or later.

You do this after every show?

Adrian：Not after every show, no.

Can you think of some reasons why you talk in this King Crimson, but before you didn't?

Adrian：Maybe because this band is a little more casual. Friendlier toward one another. Also, I think because you have Pat and Trey now stepping into the role that Tony and Bill had as the primary rhythm section. They converse a lot about things that they're doing, and it draws me and Robert in. I also think as a little side bar, maybe Robert's more comfortable with Pat as the drummer than he was with Bill.

What do you feel are the differences between the playing of Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, and also between Trey and Pat, especially during live performances?

Adrian：It's hard to epitomize it to me, but I think that Trey and Pat have maybe fresher approach at this point, especially the drumming. Pat's trying to incorporate a lot of things that no one has done before, much like Bill did in the 80's band. You know, I don't want to say anything that's a slide against Bill and Tony, cause we all love Bill and Tony, and think that they're sensational people and musicians. It's just different. I guess anyone you plug into a band would bring a different personality to it, and different choices that you make, what you choose to play in a song. I don't think that Pat and Trey's rhythm section is radically different from Bill and Tony's. I think they're much the same in many ways.

I thought that tracks such as "One Time" and "Dinosaur" sound best when played in a simple 4-piece format, as you did on this tour. What do you think?

Adrian：Well, I must admit I really prefer a quartet because everyone has to contribute more, it's more challenging, and I felt like in the 6-piece band, because you had two drummers, two bass players, each player was holding back a little bit. And now, it gives free reign to everyone to be their own player. We have one drummer (laughs).

Songs like "People" and "Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream" and those songs I previously mentioned display your pop sensibility very well, and in a good way. Do you consiously try to bring that pop sensibility into the music while other band members create prog-rock style music?

Adrian：No, I don't consciously try to do it, but it's part of my musical make up that I have. I always had a side of me that likes well written pop songs, and a side of me that likes the strange, interesting, avant-garde sounds and interesting music like King Crimson makes. So I naturally bring those two things together as much as I can. It's part of my role in the band, and sometimes when music presents itself and I'm supposed to write a song with it, I think I have a good sense of melody. So I try to put that on top of the music. You have a song like -- let me think of something that's new -- almost all the music that King Crimson does is so complicated, it needs to have a face on it. A friendly face.

On the new album, "Prozakc Blues" and "Into The Frying Pan" have elements that King Crimson did not employ in the past. Are those elements your contribution?

Adrian：Yes, I'd say so. Moreover, Robert and I for a long time had talked about somehow taking the idea of doing blues music in a very traditional form, and taking it somewhere. Crimsonizing it. One day I'd just started playing some ideas that I had in that direction, and it developed into "Prozakc Blues." And I tried to make the song part traditional blues and part very modern. I mean, traditionally a blues singer would say "Well I woke up this morning," but he wouldn't say that he went to the doctor and got Prozac (laughs), for example. "Into the Frying Pan" was a little bit of ... the beginning of it came from the Projekcts, a couple of the tracks from there, and then Robert and I wrote the rest of it fresh. So, I think what I like about that song is that it has a very intriguing melody, and then it goes to heavy guitar stuff, and back and forth between those two elements.

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