Earning the right to be difficult

So, it’s been a while since my last entry – apologies for keeping you hanging and festive cheer to one and all. Here at last is the follow up to the ‘Particular or pretentious?’ entry (see previous entry) about difficult interviewees I’ve encountered over the years.

First there was the minimal US techno act that I was on the verge of interviewing. Setting the interview up was a long protracted process. In the meantime I was sent their music, which frankly was so minimal as to be virtually non-existent. Every track on the album used the same sounds and the 'evolution' of each track involved such minute changes that only the most fanatical techno geek or sound engineer could have picked up on them.

It’s always hard to interview someone whose music doesn’t inspire you but you can still do your job as a journalist and find out what makes them and their music tick. When the editor then told me, "They’re renowned for being a bit difficult," I thought it over long and hard and wondered on what grounds could they afford to be difficult? Their music is bland, directionless and non-eventful! I mean, The Aphex Twin AKA Richard James is renowned for being difficult, contrary and frankly a bit of a shit in interviews but have you heard his music? He's earned the right! I turned down the interview in the end. I am sure they would have sensed I didn’t care much for their music so left the interview for someone that did.

More difficult interviewee stories in a few days time. In the meantime, Happy New Year and a fantastic 2010 to you.

Useless music fact #8: So well done to Rage Against The Machine for grabbing the Christmas Number 1 spot from the evil clutches of Simon Cowell and his (s)hit factory that continues to leave bland, monotonous skidmarks on the collective pants of popular music. For those of you lucky enough to hear RATM's live performance on BBC Radio Five Live, doesn't it make you wonder how stupid people are to think they could ask a band to play a track with the line "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" without the 'sweary bit' and expect them to obey orders? They managed four 'fucks' before being faded out. Anyway, the fact... When 'Killing In The Name' was first released in 1993, Bruno Brookes played the completely uncensored version on his Top 40 chart rundown on BBC (again!) Radio One. Is this the first time one band has managed to turn airwaves blue twice? Was Bruno Brookes an anarchist hiding under a fluffy mullet? If this isn't a good enough useless fact for you, Bruno also went out with Anthea Turner for a while, but was cruelly usurped by fellow Radio One DJ Peter Powell as Turner's number one on her wheels of steel. The shame!

Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 30 December 2009.