WEBVTT

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(Talks at Google - Peter Gabriel - 
October 2nd, 2012)

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[Applause]

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Hi there,

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[Introducing] Peter Gabriel, Google - 
Google, Peter Gabriel.


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[Applause]


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So this is another Talks at Google event
and we're very, very pleased 


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to welcome musician, artist and activist
Peter Gabriel today.

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We are going to have the great chance 
to ask him questions

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about his current tour
and the 25th anniversary of "So"

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which is going to be released
actually at the end of October,

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on October 22nd,

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and we'll have also some chance 
for the audience to ask him questions as well.

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So why don't we get started?


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You 're here on tour, 
in the middle of the tour.

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And what was the story behind the tour? 
How did it come to be?

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[Peter Gabriel] 
Well, there were a number of things,

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I mean I have never really 
done a retro tour before

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and I was pretty resistant, you know.

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I know Robert Plant quite well 
and we were chiding each other

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on who was going to succumb
to the big money first.

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Anyway, I went to see the Beach Boys
do Pet Sounds

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which I always used to love.

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And that convinced me that
to see one of the records you enjoy

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from start to finish
was an actually good thing.

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And that coincided 
with some nice offers,

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so that was an easy decision.

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I'm actually going to 
take a sabbatical year

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with my family.


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We've got a teacher coming out with us

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and so it helps underwrite
that sabbatical year as well.

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There were a number of reasons but,

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I decided to bring back the band
that originally toured that record

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and so that's been fun
and we're actually having a great time.

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We do the evening in three parts.

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The first part is based on the idea
that the process is often as interesting

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if not more interesting 
than the final product.

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So we start off with an unfinished song

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and then we do sort of rehearsal mode
with the house lights on,

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that's the starter.

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Then the main course is a few songs,


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more electronic
or electric versions of things

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and then the last chunk, 
if you can get through all that

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you get your dessert 
which is the "So" album.

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So that's how it works.

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[Interviewer]
Specifically about the "SO" album,

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you're playing,
the actual tour is called "Back to front"

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and that seems to be the sort of 
the format you just discussed

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but playing "So",
the track order that you have now

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That wasn't the original track order, 
correct?

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Well, this is an interesting diversion
about technology,

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because although I'm a big fan of vinyl

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I was also a great fan of 
the digital world

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because suddenly we could get
more dynamics in the music

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and there were restrictions 
in the vinyl world.

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For example, the track
"In your eyes"

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I always wanted to go 
at the end of the record

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But it has a good bass line there.

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To get a fat bass line 
on a full vinyl record,

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you can't put it near the end.

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You have to have it nearer the beginning,

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So, it went on the start of side two
just because there wasn't enough room

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for the needle to vibrate
as it got close to the center.

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so, then, when CDs came along,
I was able to take that track

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and put it back on the end
where it always should have been.

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And on this release that's coming up,
it's a couple of variations.

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As I understand, there's the CD itself
rereleased and remastered

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and that's the third time 
you remastered that ...

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Yes, as long as people keep buying it 
we'll remaster it (audience laughs)

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And then, it's going to be
a comprehensive boxed set

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that's got both CDs,
material that hasn't been released yet

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and also a DVD with some concert footage,
and you've been sitting on this,

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this has been in the stores...

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(Peter) Yeah, we'll throw
any old shit in there.

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Hey, it was old, get it in.

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No, but there were a couple of things
we were waiting for the right day,

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You know, you always get more interested
in the latest thing

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so we'd sort of forgotten about that.

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Also we shot the film, the show,
25, 26 years ago

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Scorcese had been producing

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and he had got 
this wonderful cinematographer doing it

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and we hadn't realised quite what we had,
So we went back to the film,

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I mean tons of film cans 
had to be carefully resurrected

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and then we took
all the data off the film

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and then 
had a much better resolution version

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of that concert 
that we had done previously.

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(Interviewer) And the actual 
production of "So"

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and also some of the videos
documenting that...

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Over what time period
did that actually happen?

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From when you thought about 
the album you did originally

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to getting it out the door?

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(Peter) So on this latest thing...?

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(Interviewer) The original.

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I think that just sort of happened
as things came up.

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There wasn't really 
a brillant master plan.

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You know, when we finish this 
then what else do we need to do?

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We were trying film things,


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I mean, again, if you have the opportunity
to have two gigs in the same place

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then it makes filming a lot easier
'cause you can do the set up,

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and all the mistakes you make
on the first day

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you can try and sort out
on the second day.

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And we did that in Greece as well.

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So, when you're approaching songwriting,

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maybe at the time 
you're approaching songwriting,

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With regards to "So",


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did you have a list of songs
and then say, "OK, right,


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I'm going to select
these musicians to start working with"

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or were you writing 
and recording at the same time?

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I'm always writing lyrics 
until the day it's released, really.

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I'm slow with those, 
but there were a few ideas.

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In fact, I had forgotten this
but Manu and Tony said

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that Sledgehammer was an afterthought.

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There was a taxi, 
waiting to take Manu back to Paris

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and we had an hour left.

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I think I said, I've got this new idea
that maybe we could just put a demo down



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and that was it.

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I mean we carried on working on it 
cause it felt great,

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but it was quite an after thought.

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And then Sledgehammer
also took on a life of its own

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when it came to the video
which you worked with Arvin on and others

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My son, first, straightaway said,


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"The chickens! That looks 
just like Wallace and Grommit!"

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How did that come to be?

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Actually, the man who did the chickens was
the man who created Wallace and Grommit.

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And I was working 
with this brilliant director

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Steven R. Johnson 
and he brought in the Quay Brothers

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who is a fantastic sort of
dark East European looking animation.

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And I saw they've now got 
a big thing at MOMA in New York.

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And I bought an AARDman animation
who were from down the road in Bristol.

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Steven and I had a couple of weeks 
just bashing through ideas

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and then we bought in the others.

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And it was a really exciting 
creative brainstorming.

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That's always been one of the things
I most enjoy about what I do


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is working with people
from different backgrounds,

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often smarter than I am
and just cooking something up.

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So that was a great experience, 
but quite painful too

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'cause we did everything 
the old fashioned way

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frame by frame.

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So when you see a sky
moving across my face

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that has been painted 
frame by frame

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and the skin gets very raw.

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And when you're under glass 
with a lot of raw fish,

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on day one, that's fun, but day two ...
at least you put the blame on the fish.

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And that video I think
is actually the most played video

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ever on MTV.

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I mean, granted, 
they don't play

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quite as many videos these days, 
but still the fact...(laughter)

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but that's a huge accomplishment.


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Having been relatively young at that age,

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It was so different
from anything that was out there.

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And it set a standard for an experience

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that was getting you 
into the mind of the writer

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and the artist in a different way.

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An entertainment value that 
wasn't just for the sake of entertainment

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but also telling a story.

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Yeah, I think that
what was great about videos then

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is that there were
people who wanted to watch them

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and there was a budget
and there were no rules.

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So you could do 
what the hell you wanted

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and there was no one there
to say "No, this is the way we do it."

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Back to songwriting, I want to ask

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Mike Rutherford made the comment once
that you're a frustrated drummer.

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You started as a drummer in school.

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Do you think you think more rhythmically,
originally, about a song,

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or do you think more melodically?

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I think both. There are some things
that are just based on melody,

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but groove is 
what drove me into music.

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I think drummers, 
they seem to be in command

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of this really loud thing
and it looks like a lot of fun.

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And that's what I wanted to be.

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I was very enthusiastic.
Not very good.

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And it was fine 
in the early days of Genesis

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because we had guys
who were good solid drummers

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but they weren't that creative.

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Then when we got Phil,

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unfortunately he was 
a way better drummer than I was.

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But I used to still have
some bits of my drum kit onstage

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and I would find my bass drum
full of carpet.

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Gradually these things
were getting reduced,

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so that was a subtle way of saying
that maybe I wasn't the best timekeeper.

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However, being a major drum fan

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I worked with some of 
the best drummers in the world, I think.

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And one of those is Stewart Copeland
who is also a lousy timekeeper.

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[Interviewer]
Just don't tell that to Stewqrt Copeland.

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No, I've told him, he'll say it himself,
because he races.

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But the energy he puts into his drumming
and the attack on that is fantastic.

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He does that brilliantly.

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[Interviewer] On that album
he played high-hat

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Well, this is the thing;


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I had so many wonderful drummers
I could cut out bits and pieces

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and get a bit of a high-hat from Stewart,
a kick from Manu and whatever it was...

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But I'm a bit obsessive
as you might guess from this.

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The groove has to be right.

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We work quite hard trying to find

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grooves that aren't the regular ones
you're hearing on the radio.

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[Interviewer] With having this band
back on stage together,

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are there some moments
when you look around and it's déjà vu?

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Yeah, and we all look exactly the same
as we did twenty-five years ago.

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Actually, a couple of the guys do,
I wish I could say that.

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It's a bit like family get-togethers,

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because you end up with
the same bunch of folk

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doing exactly the same thing
as you always did,

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with all the pleasures and problems
that went along the first time.

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So, it feels very familiar
but I'm enjoying it a lot.

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[Interviewer] And as far as the way
in which the songs evolve

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when you're on tour,

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there's that section that's defined as
'let's play with these more'

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but do you also come back
and rearrange the songs a little bit?

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Are they the same songs

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you started out with
at the beginning of the tour

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that you wind up with at the end?

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Well, we try to get them right
so we are tweaking,

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every sound check 
we're trying to find a few weaknesses

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and nail them.

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We never used to play 
all those tracks together

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partly because two of them
were a bitch to get right.

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We couldn't get them working.

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So I think we're 
closing in on them anyway.

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You do want to keep changing it.

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However, I keep forgetting

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because we did start off
rehearsing some other stuff as well.

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Now we've got things
beginning to feel like a real show

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and working properly,

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then when you do change the numbers over

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that means also 
that you need to re-program the lights

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and all that stuff.

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I think we will be doing that,
getting some flexibility,

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but gently.

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[Interviewer] In a tour like this 
I know that you've always

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put a lot of energy and time
to make a concert a full experience,

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not just 'OK, here's some nice lights
and here are the songs'

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played the best they can be

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but also the experience of the songs,
in a way.

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How much time goes into
prepping for a tour like this?

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It's a fair bit,
I've got some very smart people.

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In fact, there was an idea,
originally 25-26 years ago

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when I was just doing videos

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and I saw the cameras on these booms
that were being manually operated.

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I thought the way they moved
was really cool.

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So we replaced the cameras with lights

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and now we've got lights
with little cameras on them as well.

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But they're still manually operated.

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I'm working on another show after this
which will be more robotic, I think.

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But this one, I'm really enjoying
the manual element.

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It feels quite futuristic
and retro simultaneously.

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[Interviewer] And speaking of robots,
you've always been

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in Silicon-Valley-speak,
and early-adopter of technology,

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with CDRoms