Peter Gabriel: "Back to Front", Talks at Google

Peter Gabriel stops by Google to discuss his recent work, including the new "Back to Front" tour, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of "So." From the latest at Witness to his thoughts about bringing back the original "So" band, Peter covers a wide variety of subjects. This talk was recorded on October 2nd, 2012.

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song is the most played music video in the history of the station.

More recently, Gabriel has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2007 he was honored as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his "influence on generations of music makers." Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

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

[Applause]

Hi there,

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

[Applause]

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

to welcome musician, artist and activist
Peter Gabriel today.

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

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

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

on October 22nd,

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

So why don't we get started?

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

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

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

I mean I have never really
done a retro tour before

and I was pretty resistant, you know.

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

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

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

which I always used to love.

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

from start to finish
was an actually good thing.

And that coincided
with some nice offers,

so that was an easy decision.

I'm actually going to
take a sabbatical year

with my family.

We've got a teacher coming out with us

and so it helps underwrite
that sabbatical year as well.

There were a number of reasons but,

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

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

We do the evening in three parts.

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

if not more interesting
than the final product.

So we start off with an unfinished song

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

that's the starter.

Then the main course is a few songs,

more electronic
or electric versions of things

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

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

So that's how it works.

[Interviewer]
Specifically about the "SO" album,

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

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

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

That wasn't the original track order,
correct?

Well, this is an interesting diversion
about technology,

because although I'm a big fan of vinyl

I was also a great fan of
the digital world

because suddenly we could get
more dynamics in the music

and there were restrictions in the vinyl world.

for exemple, the track in your eyes,

I was wanted to go at the end of the record

but it has a good bass line

to get a a fat bass line on a full vinyl record

you can't put it in the end.

You have to have it near the begining, so

on the start of side two, just because

there wasn't enough room

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

so, then, when CD came along,

I was able to take that track

and put it back to the end

where it always should have been.

and this release that's coming up

isn't just a kind of variation

as I understand, there's the CD itself

rereleased and remastered and

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

Yes, people keep buying at will remastered

and then, it's going to be

a comprehensive boxset that's got

both CD's and also DVD from a concert footage,

and you've been sitting on this,

this is going to be onthe stores

you can through any old shit then....

There was couple of things

we were waiting for the right day, the right place

it was get more interested in the later things

so it sort of forgotten about that

also we shot the film, the show,

25,26 years ago

Scorcese he had been producing and

he ha'd got this wonderful cinematographer doing it

and we hadn't realised quite what we had,

So we went back to the film, I mean

tons of film cans had to be carrefully

resurected and then,we took

all the data off the film and

a much better resolution version

of that concert that we had done previously.

and the actual production of So

some of the videos and documents

what time

so on this later things or the original ?

The original.

I think it has just sort of happened

as things came up

There wasn't really a brillant master plan,

when we finished this and what else do we need to do

We're trying film things,

I mean, again, if you have the opportunity

to have two gigs in the same place

it makes the filming a lot of easier

cause you can do the set up

all the mistackes you make

on the first day you can try to sort them out

on the second day,

and we did that in Greece as well.

So, when you're approaching songwriters,

maybe at the time you're approaching

songwriting, you do by yourself,

did you have a list of of licensed musicians

you start working with, or

will you do writing and recording at the same time ?

I'm alway writing lyrics until the date of release

I'm slow with those, but

there was a few ideas, in fact

I forgot this but Manu and Tony said that

Sledgehammer was an after thought.

There was a taxi, waiting to take Manu

Back to Paris and we had an hour left and

I think I said, I've got that new idea

that maybe we could just put a demo down,

and that was it,

I mean we carried on working on it cause

we felt it great

it was quite an after thought ...

and then Sledgehammer

let's come then to the video

the chickens! how that come to be ?

Actually, the man who did the chikens was

the man who created Wallace and Grommit

and I was working with this brilliant director

Steven R Johnson and he board in the clay brothers

who is a fantastic sort dark East European looking animation

and I saw they now have

a big thing in Moma in New york

xx from down the road in Bristol

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

and then we bought them to the other

and it was a really exciting creative brainstorming

That's always 's been one of the thing

I most enjoyed by what I do in working with people

from different backgrounds

often smarter than I am and

just cooking something up.

So that was a great experience, but quite painful too

as we did evrything in the old fashioned way

frame by frame, so when you see a sky mooving

around my face that has been painted

frame by frame and the skin became very xxx

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

on day one, that's fun, but day two ...

at least you put the blame on the fish.

and that video which is actually the most

played video ever on MTV,

ther's quite a lot of videos those days