Q (April)
Interview.
Heading IT’S ALWAYS DIFFICULT
World exclusive: The return of Scott Walker
Scott Walker isn’t a man to be rushed. The notoriously reclusive
singer’s new album, The Drift, is his first record since 1999’s
soundtrack to French arthouse movie Pola X, and only his 4th solo
effort in 30 years.
„It was written on and off over the last seven years,“ he says
speaking exclusively to Q. „It’s always a difficult process,
although by my standards a few came running this time.“
Anyone still hankering after a rturn to the orchestral pop of hi
s ’60’s hey day will be disappointed. Recorded at London’s Air
studios with producer Peter Walsh between June 2004 and November
2005, The Drift follows the same Avant garde path as 1995’s
magnificently unhinged Tilt.
Once again, the emphasis is on experimentation. New track Psoriatic
begins with the sound of a giant pea rolling on a table and features
percussion on a wooden box covered with dustbins. Another Hands Me
Up („Written around the fulcrum of celebrity television“)includes a
bizarre instrument called a tubax. „It’s a giant saxophone, even
larger than a tuba“, says Walker. „There are only two in the
country“.
The album’s most potentially controversial track is Jesse. Written a
month after 9/11, it brings together the attacks on the World Trade
Centre with Elvis Presley’s still-born twin brother,
and „deconstructs“ Presley’s Jailhouse Rock along the way.
„It starts with the basses sounding like planes coming in,“ he
says, „while substituting the Jailhouse Rock drum riff with
whispered ‚pows‘ for planes hitting the towers“.
With Radiohead and Franz Ferdinand contributing to a forthcoming
Walker Documentary, 30th Century Man, interest in the singer is
greater than it’s been in years. Predictably Walker is nonplussed
by the attention.
„I’ve lived with this too closely and for too long“, he says.
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