Pete Interview in Pitchfork

[L. Bird]

Repost from Whochat Forum:

http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/39009/Interview_Interview_Pete_Townshend


Interview: Pete Townshend
Interview by Rob Mitchum

The Who have been credited with a number of rock'n'roll innovations, from 
aggressive proto-punk sounds and behavior to synthesizer usage and 
stadium-scope spectacle. Yet songwriter Pete Townshend's most lasting 
creation may be the combination of storytelling and music christened, with 
tongue firmly in cheek, the rock opera, a format that has recently 
experienced a second wave of popularity through albums by the Streets, the 
Fiery Furnaces, and R. Kelly. Now down to Townshend and singer Roger 
Daltrey, the Who's latest comeback record, Endless Wire, avoids the 
play-it-safe habits of the band's gray-templed peers by returning to musical 
narratives, the second half dominated by the "mini-opera" Wire & Glass. The 
proudly computer-literate Townshend (he made a point of mentioning that 
Pitchfork is on his MyGoogle newspaper) and I spoke over e-mail about rock 
operas past and present.

Pitchfork: What has drawn you back toward the idea of musical narratives at 
this juncture in your career?

Pete Townshend: I have never stopped doing it-- if I have appeared to stray 
from the story, the story has not changed. I write about the trauma, or the 
effect of it, visited on my generation since the last war, [which was] 
caused by the denial of older generations. The new story is, like the first 
mini-opera ("A Quick One"), Tommy, and Quadrophenia, set in a neighborhood 
where young people look for answers and their parents seem unable to help. 
So they look to art, to music, to spirituality, to congregation, and finally 
to the endless wire for solutions. What happened? Why won't they talk about 
it? Should we fight back at our enemies today or become supreme and pacifist 
liberals? Do we even matter? Does what we do or say make any difference?

Pitchfork: How does the Wire & Glass mini-opera connect back to previous Who 
or Pete Townshend rock operas?

PT: It is connected specifically to Lifehouse, because the three members of 
the band Glass in the opera want to revive Ray High's lost dream to join 
everyone together using music in a huge internet concert event. It is 
connected too to Psychoderelict, a solo album for me in 1993, because this 
documented Ray High's descent and failure to realize his dream.

Pitchfork: Wire & Glass is intended to be a companion to your novella The 
Boy Who Heard Music; did you always intend this story to be presented in 
both written and musical formats?

PT: It started as a radio play that I hope to serialize on the internet 
using my live streaming system at my studio (now called TowserTV). I 
couldn't quite crack that, so I serialized it on a blog instead as a regular 
text piece. I think The Boy Who Heard Music has enough color and story to 
work as a small theatre piece with music, and parts of it are visionary and 
screwy enough to make a great Las Vegas Circus Ballet. But the songs are 
what is most important, and each one might make a cool animation film.

Pitchfork: Why did you decide to do this mini-opera as part of a Who album, 
rather than as a solo record? What does Daltrey's participation add to the 
project?

PT: I almost fancy making a solo record now I've done one for the Who, but 
if this hadn't worked for the Who I would not have released it is a solo 
record. Roger's input is that of editor and interpreter-- then once ideas 
are fashioned he's a very powerful part of the delivery engine we call the 
Who. No better way to get a good idea out to the world.

Pitchfork: The promotional materials describe Wire & Glass as being the 
music composed "so far" for your novella. Can we expect a more complete rock 
opera in the future? If so, why did you decide to release this "mini-opera" 
in an incomplete state?

PT: I went on to add another four songs to the album, and there are a few 
more I could add if there was any kind of second life for the story, but I 
am delighted to have the story come out this way. I wanted the incomplete 
mini-opera released so that the Who would at least have some music released 
before we started our European tour.

Pitchfork: Pardon me if I'm conflating you with your characters, but The Boy 
Who Heard Music features an aging rock star who appears to have advice to 
relate to a young band on the road to stardom. At one point in the 
promotional notes, you say, "He rues the fact that the rock industry seems 
unable to change." What message are you trying to convey to young musicians 
in the industry today?

PT: You are maybe drawing me toward my characters too much, but that is what 
happens. I always think John Updike must be a little sex mad. He probably 
isn't. Ray High has no advice to give, only caution. In fact he is not 
available to the band. He is watching them from the ether, he is meditating 
and can see the way they come together, and grow up, and become smashed by 
the business the way he did. It is in that respect that Ray believes the 
rock industry cannot change-- it cannot save its own. But in reality we are 
beginning to save our own. We have older survivors who can speak to younger 
ones about why it isn't necessary to die.

Pitchfork: Musical narratives have been making a comeback lately, from 
artists like the Fiery Furnaces, the Streets, R. Kelly, and Pedro the Lion. 
Have you heard any of these story-records, and if so, what do you think 
about what they've done with the format?

PT: I know about the Streets. Fantastic. I will check out the others 
immediately.

Pitchfork: Can you explain what the "Method" process is, and how it has 
evolved since the days of the original Lifehouse project?

PT: It is a realization of the Lifehouse Method in the original fiction. 
Today it is possible to do what in 1971 I could only dream about. I have a 
website prepared, you visit it, enter some data, and get tailor-made music 
back. Your music, and that of everyone who visits the site, will blend 
together. In the original story there was a VR thread as well, that has 
become less interesting to me now.

Pitchfork: What is it about the Lifehouse project that has brought you back 
to it multiple times in your career?

PT: Even though I say so myself it was a magnificent revelation of 
prescience. I predicted something of the future. However, the foundation for 
the idea was instilled in me at art school in 1961 by Roy Ascott and his 
Foundation Team. They first introduced me to words like cybernetics and 
semiotics when the only computers in the world were as big as aircraft 
carriers. Look for Henry Silverman in The Boy Who Heard Music. This 
character is loosely based on Harold Cohen, the inventor of the fine art 
painting robot called AARON. Harold was one of the teachers on Roy Ascott's 
course. These were quite brilliant, far-sighted men.

Pitchfork: You seem to be fascinated by the internet, and yet Wire & Glass 
contains a vision of the future "strangled by wire and communications." Are 
you pessimistic or optimistic about the spread of technology in modern 
society?

PT: I am not pessimistic or optimistic. We will make of this what we will. 
It is a tool not an end. We are the receivers, we need to divide time, and 
to live in the moment such division allows us. We cannot be pure in any 
other way living in the materialist west. That's why music is so vital to us 
I think.

Pitchfork: How do you feel that the internet has impacted the music 
industry? Has it changed your approach to making or distributing music?

PT: Only slightly. It has not delivered all of its promise. Yes, we can get 
our music to our audience, but as yet we have not persuaded them to pay the 
way they do when they come see us play live. Turning something into low 
resolution data does seem to make it worth less in the modern world. Some 
girl I know told me that all cars could be run on water, only the man who 
invented the process was "assassinated" by the petrochemical people. Water 
is more precious than oil. Both are more precious than music. Music won't 
heat a house or help a plant to grow.

Pitchfork: The story of Wire & Glass appears to contain a lot of religious 
imagery and themes. How have your feelings on religion changed since Tommy, 
when religion (of the organized sort, at least) was largely portrayed in a 
negative light?

PT: I respect those who follow religious routes only if they seem to me to 
be morally proper and in accord with the modern world. Religion seems to me 
like vapour on the ocean that is my idea of who and what God is. Not bad 
vapour, just not very substantial.

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