Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Location: Teatro Comunale / Vicenza / Italy
Interview date: April 8, 2011
Peter Hammill, the legendary singer and songwriter, occasionally also a guitarist, pianist, poet, writer and above all a philosopher, who earned his worldwide fame as the soul of prog rock giants Van Der Graaf Generator, needs no special introduction. Anyone who has ever wandered into the wonderful world of progressive rock and experimental music in general knows he’s one of the most unique and prolific artists in rock, with more than twenty-five studio albums to his name so far, most of them stylistically all over the map.
Although he’s a versatile artist, Hammill earned the greatest respect from fans of experimental music as a fantastic singer, blessed with a completely unique voice that radiates a singular charisma at all times. His singing is marked by dramatic, often rapid swings between high and low registers, now and then seasoned with a generous dose of theatricality. His greatest wealth, though, lies in his richly colorful expression of all sorts of emotions, lived to the extreme. He can thoroughly rattle the listener with brutal but carefully controlled screams, and in the very next moment move them to tears with a tender, almost angelic falsetto. It’s precisely these qualities that have kept him among the most admired singers in prog rock for four decades now.
Rockline:Hello, Mr. Hammill. It’s a great honor to be interviewing you. First off, we’d like to know: are you happy with how the tour is going, the one dedicated to presenting your excellent new album “A Grounding in Numbers”?
Peter Hammill: I’m very happy. Of course, on tour we don’t just play stuff from the new album, but also a good number of pieces from its predecessor “Trisector” and some older material too. We change the set list a bit every night. In any case, we play four or five pieces from “A Grounding in Numbers”. Let me stress again that I’m very happy with how the tour is going.
Rockline: How would you describe the creative process behind “A Grounding in Numbers”?
Peter Hammill: I’d say the recording went through alternating phases, very slow and very fast. At first, we band members came up with sound sketches and swapped them with each other. That took about two or three months. Then we finally recorded the instrumental backing tracks in a single week. The whole thing was very intense, because we didn’t really have a clear idea beforehand of what we were creating. After that came two or three months of individual overdubs and trading audio files back and forth. Then finally the mix, by sound engineer Hugh Padgham, which took three weeks. In the end everything sped up again. So it was slow, fast, slow. A really interesting job.
Rockline: Which songs from the new album are closest to your heart?
Peter Hammill: Personally, I prefer to look at the album as a whole rather than as individual songs. From the very start we had the idea that it should contain lots of different things. And it certainly does, starting with the opener “Your Time Starts Now” and going to, say, the closing “All Over the Place”, which are a hundred miles apart from each other. In short, I see it as a whole and not as a bunch of individual pieces.
Rockline: Many of your song titles and lyrics are inspired by science fiction. Where does that fascination with sci-fi come from?
Peter Hammill: These days I don’t write as many science-fiction-oriented lyrics as I used to, but back in the seventies the whole thing was truly exciting. All of us in the band loved devouring sci-fi books back then, and so certain influences found their way into the lyrics of the time.
Rockline: Could you pick your favorite Van Der Graaf Generator albums?
Peter Hammill: They’re all different from each other. But as the albums that cemented the band’s sonic direction, I’d single out “Pawn Hearts in Godbluff”. We have a special relationship with those two. In the modern era, “Trisector” and “A Grounding in Numbers” are practically a completely different band. Every time you work on a new album you want to create something new, but historically speaking, I’d have to pick our most important album from those two seventies records I just mentioned.
Rockline: At what point did you decide you’d become a professional musician?
Peter Hammill: I wanted to make music when I was 16 to 18 years old. But back then, in 1966 and 1967, that didn’t seem like a realistic option for any of us. The decision to go pro matured about five years later, and it came as a kind of surprise, and also a privilege, to be able to devote your whole life to making music. I really didn’t expect that back then, in the late sixties.
Rockline: You’ve always been among the most popular prog rock bands in Italy. Why do you think Italians rate your music higher than their European neighbors do?
Peter Hammill: When we first came to Italy, in 1972, we were really lucky. We arrived at a time when audiences were very receptive to live shows by foreign bands. At the same time, we were one of the first bands, if not the first, that had played around the UK and Northern Europe and then came over here. I think the Italian audience’s warmth comes from the fact that there’s a certain theatrical, operatic side to our music. We were really lucky to arrive at the right place at the right time. The Italian audience was ready for us and we were ready for them. That relationship has lasted all the way to this day.
Rockline: Please tell us how the collaboration with Robert Fripp (legendary guitarist of King Crimson) went on the third and fourth Van Der Graaf Generator albums.
Peter Hammill: It was all very quick, since he heard the backing track for a piece just once and nailed his part on the first take. Robert also played on my solo debut “Fool’s Mate”, and later I returned the favor on his solo debut “Exposure”, which was made in New York. With both albums, the creative approach was the same from his side and mine. It’s completely different being a band member than a guest musician, because you take more time for discussion and so you commit much more to your own songs. A guest musician adds an extra special spice, but then leaves right away.
Rockline: What kind of binding force holds the band together after all these years? It feels like every album of yours since the reunion in 2005 has been better than the last.
Peter Hammill: Thank you. I completely agree. I think that once we became a trio in 2006, meaning when David Jackson left, we suddenly had a kind of responsibility to ourselves and to the Van Der Graaf Generator name to push the story forward in an even stronger way. That was one alternative, and the other was to say “that’s it” and bow out with something like, the reunion was nice, but that’s it. I have to say it was a surprise to all of us that it ended the way it did, but it ended the way it ended. I think the nature of things made us feel stronger about it, and that’s where the motivation came from. We wanted to push everything new we made a step further, especially because we wanted to sound like a modern band instead of a Van Der Graaf Generator tribute band, which is how we came across back then, at the reunion. We wanted to create as many new songs as possible in the shortest possible time. Of course, working as a trio is quite different. We almost never think in terms of, this is an old song, this is a new song, this song is from “Trisector”, because it’s all the same DNA. That way of thinking is what drives our creative process.
Rockline: Are you band members still in touch with David Jackson (the longtime former saxophonist and flutist)?
Peter Hammill: I haven’t spoken to David in a few years.
Rockline: Do you have any special plans for your solo career? Can we expect a new solo album soon?
Peter Hammill: Actually, I’m planning to start recording a new album this Monday (laughs). Of course, I don’t seriously mean I’ll start recording next Monday, but it’ll happen right after this tour ends. I already have quite a few new ideas that will be ready to realize within three months. In May I also plan to do a few solo shows. Right now my left and right hands are devoted to two different sides of the same job.
Rockline: What can we expect for the inevitable 50th anniversary of VDGG?
Peter Hammill: We don’t know yet (laughs). One of the good things about the current version of the band is that we record spontaneously, go on tours, and so on. Right now I roughly know when I’ll put out a new solo album, while I don’t yet know when the time will be right for the next VDGG album. I suspect that if we ever do mark our existence in a special way, it’ll be by looking forward and not back. But right now I really don’t know how it’ll turn out.
Rockline: What do you like to do most when you’re not on tour or making new music?
Peter Hammill: I work a lot. And of course, like everyone, I live an ordinary life too and deal with pretty mundane stuff like taxes. Being a musician doesn’t mean the everyday routine just vanishes. I like watching sports on TV, especially rugby and cricket. That’s pretty much what my life looks like.
Rockline: Have you ever been to Slovenia, or do you plan to visit it someday?
Peter Hammill: No, I’ve never been to your country, but who knows what the future will bring.
Rockline: The last time we saw you play was in the summer of 2009 in Trieste. Do you still remember that show?
Peter Hamill: Of course I remember it well. It was a truly wonderful setting, a great selection of songs, a fantastic atmosphere, and also the final act of the previous tour.
Rockline: Do you have a special message for our readers?
Peter Hammill: The situation is uncertain, but if there were any chance at all, we’d gladly come play your way, and in the meantime, a big hello goes out to the good ship Ruby.
Rockline: Thank you very much, Mr. Hammill. It was a great honor to talk with you. Best of luck on the remaining tour dates!
Peter Hammill: Thank you very much. It was my pleasure.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
You can find out how the Van Der Graaf Generator gig went on April 8, 2011 in Vicenza (Teatro Comunale) right HERE.
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