Location: Sesto San Giovanni (Milan), Italy
Interview date: November 30, 2008
French TV are a legendary American band who got going in the early eighties, just as the American take on the Rock in Opposition movement was taking shape. Over the years they’ve put out a heap of terrific albums, but sadly they’ve stayed pretty obscure even among fans of more experimental music. At the Altrock festival in Italy we caught up with the only original member left, bassist Mike Sary.
Rockline: Are you enjoying the festival?
French TV: Absolutely. I know most of the bands, so I was really looking forward to it. I’ve got CDs by most of them at home, but I’d never seen them live.
Rockline: How do you feel about your show?
French TV: I had some trouble. I lost my tuner, so yesterday my bass was pretty badly out of tune. I had to compensate while playing, but it just kept getting worse.
Rockline: You couldn’t really tell, though.
French TV: Glad to hear it. Usually I’m a lot more active on stage. I move around more, I jump around, but with the bass out of tune I had to adapt and be careful.
Rockline: And how’s the tour going? Are you happy with it?
French TV: Yeah. It didn’t start off great, but then it got rolling and things keep getting better. I’m really happy with how it’s all worked out. The crowds have been wonderful. They buy our CDs and they buy us beer. They’ve been really nice to us.
Rockline: Were the keyboardist and the drummer on the whole tour?
French TV: Yes.
Rockline: What about the original French TV members?
French TV: There have been loads of lineup changes over the years. I think I became the leader of the band somewhere around the second album. Even though we go by the name French TV, it’s really my band, so I have to find people I can trick into playing this kind of music. Back in the US I have a regular drummer, but he had to work and couldn’t join the tour. Then I found Michael (Michael Aznavour) and asked him if he’d be up for playing with us.
Rockline: So you knew Sotos?
French TV: Of course. I’ve got the second Sotos record (Platypus) and Zaar.
Rockline: Are you happy with the two new guys?
French TV: Very. Paolo (Botta) is actually on tour with us for the second time, so I knew what to expect from him. He’s got a MySpace page where he plays King Crimson, Magma, Sotos and Zaar. Watching him, I knew he’d pick things up fast. I had a gut feeling he wouldn’t have any trouble, but you can never be sure until you’re all in the same room.
Rockline: Do the newcomers play from the charts, or is some of it improvised too?
French TV: Hard to say. I think they mostly play it pretty close to the album. Here and there they do something differently. As for the keyboards – on the album we do a lot of layering, recording several keyboard tracks. Sometimes you hear three different melodies on the keyboards at once, so Paolo has to pick the strongest melody, the one that gets the message of the song across best. It’s a mix, but there isn’t much improvisation. Once someone finds something they’re happy with, they stick to it.
Rockline: So when you go into the studio, you use everything the studio has to offer, even if you know you won’t be able to pull it off live?
French TV: Exactly. It’s not really planned, though. Going into the studio is like going shopping for candy. You want a ton of stuff, but when you go on tour you end up with a tummy ache.
Rockline: So it all comes down to how many ideas you walk into the studio with and how many of them you want to use in the music?
French TV: That’s right. Even if we could play the record live exactly the way it was recorded in the studio, something would still be missing. It’s like the difference between a book and a movie based on that book.
Rockline: Yesterday you told me about the money trouble that comes with touring Europe. So why tour at all if there are so many headaches?
French TV: I like the camaraderie among musicians. In a way, making a CD is like a science project. Then when you play live, you find out whether the music works in practice too. I get a real kick out of that. It’s also nice to unload some of those boxes of CDs that are cluttering up my house.
Rockline: You put out your CDs on your own label. When did you decide to do that, and why?
French TV: Not many labels were interested in this kind of music. My partner Steve Roberts knew way more than I did about distribution for prog bands. He explained that you can do all this yourself. If someone offered to release our CDs, I’d say yes. But I know plenty of bands who waited years for a label to finally give them an answer, and if the answer was yes, the label then meddled with the music itself. It would be nice if a label were interested in us, but I think it would bring more headaches than benefits. The Russian label Mals asked us if they could release our records in Eastern Europe, and we said yes.
Rockline: What about the Cuneiform label? Did you never try them?
French TV: For the first three albums we always asked them if they’d be interested. I think (Steven Feigenbaum) was nice about it. He always said his schedule was booked solid for years ahead. I think we just weren’t interesting enough for him.
Rockline: I’ve heard you use the word “prog.” Some avant-garde bands can’t stand that label. How come it doesn’t bother you?
French TV: I think it’s kind of silly to get worked up over how somebody labels music. I have to sympathize with listeners, because it’s an honest question: what kind of music does this band play? I think “prog” is broad enough to cover a lot of shades. In a lot of ways the term is meaningless too. If you’re tagged as progressive rock, does that mean you sound like Univers Zero or like Arena? Saying we’re prog at least explains a little of what we play. In the end the word is meaningless, so there’s no point getting worked up about it.
Rockline: Were you into the Rock in Opposition movement when you started out?
French TV: Of course! I knew about Samla Mammas Manna, Univers Zero, Etron Fou, Henry Cow and the rest. My partner back then, Steve Roberts, who ran a distribution shop, understood this stuff better. He introduced me to a whole bunch of independent prog bands, RIO included. Some of those bands struck me as the best in the world the moment I heard them. It took me a while to warm to all of them, but these days I’d say that within prog, this is the subgenre I’m most into.
Rockline: I asked you this yesterday already. Can you tell me what bass you play?
French TV: It’s a 5-string Steinberger. Originally it had frets, but after I studied Percy Jones’s bass playing, I told myself I had to start thinking seriously about going fretless. So I pulled the frets out. This is actually the first tour where I’m playing fretless. I’d been practicing fretless for years and played one in the studio, but live I didn’t feel comfortable on a bass like that. For now I’m happy with how it’s turned out.
Rockline: Why did you pick this particular bass?
French TV: It’s really small and light. When you’re on tour you have to think about taking up as little space as possible. I’ve had this bass since 1994.
Rockline: Did you always take it on tour? Even back when it had frets?
French TV: No. I have 5 or 6 basses and, strangely enough, I’ve played a different one on every tour. Last time I was in Europe I played a Cort 6-string. I’ve only been playing fretless for the last two years, but I think I’ll be using this bass for a long time.
Rockline: Can you tell us anything about the upcoming album? What’s it going to sound like?
French TV: After the last album, our keyboardist and saxophonist left. Not long after that, a keyboardist moved to my neighborhood. His name is Steve Katsikas. He’s in another prog band called Little Atlas. He’s generally a more traditional musician than Warren. If it were up to Steve alone, he’d only play piano, organ and mellotron. He tends to fill up the space with chords a lot more than Warren, who had more conflicting melodic lines. Steve is a more basic musician, but I think he’s always wanted to play more experimental stuff. He had a blast working on the new songs. On the last four albums I sent the rhythm line to Warren Dale, but with Steve we work together and build the individual parts together. That way I can tell him when to put the mellotron away.
Rockline: Is he a permanent member now?
French TV: No. Studio only. He doesn’t trust his abilities enough to think he could play those sounds and melodies live. Sadly. He could do it if he had the time, but unfortunately he doesn’t. As for the compositions, I’m really happy with what we put together with the other drummer, Jeff Gard. I hate saying the music is complex, because that would imply that complicated music is better. But we managed to develop the themes quite a bit further. It’s hard to say why the new material is unique. I think you’ll hear right away that it’s French TV.
Rockline: So those familiar French TV elements are in there?
French TV: Yes. Plenty of unexpected parts.
Rockline: Funny song titles?
French TV: Those too.
Rockline: I wanted to ask you about this too. The crowd wasn’t exactly receptive to your humor. How did that feel?
French TV: You get that in Europe sometimes. I have to remind myself that for 80% of people it’s a language barrier, but a part of you starts thinking that what you’re saying isn’t funny and you’re wasting everyone’s time. That’s why I kept my intros really short this time, since I could see that what I was saying wasn’t landing, that it just wasn’t funny enough.
Rockline: I guess the reaction is pretty different in the US?
French TV: Yeah, but in Europe too. I can’t predict how a crowd is going to react. Sometimes everything’s funny and it works. Besides jokes, I also like telling little stories. Sometimes Europeans really love that. They laugh at exactly the right moments. Other times it feels like you’re reciting poetry. It would be better if the reactions were more predictable.
Rockline: Thanks for the interview.
French TV: Don’t mention it.
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