Interview with Steve Nieve

[johnfoyle]

This is either a recent interview with Steve , or a reprint of one from 2001 - my French isn't good enough to tell!

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http://e-toiles.over-blog.com/article-1649718.html

You were born at the end of the 50s in the suburbs of London (the same than The Rolling Stones). Your neighbour was Kate Bush. When you were a child, it was the British Blues Boom era, which boosted England in the 60s, and then when you were about 18, the punk wave emerged. A lot of young people found their ways in that a antisocial a music, but you didn’t. Not at this time.

I was growing up inside a very conventional family, we were living outside London, in the suburbs we were numerous. We were more concerned with the organisation of a five children family than the waves of the fashion. Money was scarce. In plus my youngest brother was profoundly deaf and that was an important influence on all my family. On top of all this I had an obsession about wanting to play the pIano.

Then your mother encouraged you to start studying classic piano, as she was a musician. And you studied music at the Royal College of Music of London, aiming to be a professional classic pianist. At this time, you seem to be going to a classic carrier. So your rock and pop carrier was not predefined.

Yes and so what?

At this time you discovered T-Rex and Alice Cooper, and you decided to play in rock bands very fastly. What was the reaction of Philippe Canon, your music teacher at the College of Music ? And how did you pass from Ravel, Debussy to T-Rex?

Easily

You seem to be very attached to France. The first record you
remember to have bought is ~ Je t’aime moi non plus ~ by Serge
Gainsbourg, which was a big success in Britain. Your girlfriend is
French, you live in France for a while, and you were musician of
French artists on stage or in studios, like Alain Chamfort, Vanessa
Paradis, Arielle or Francoise Hardy. What do you like in France?

Euros

Except the artists you worked with, who are the French artists you like most and who are the one you would like to work with ? Why?

Ilike Alain Bashurig’s attitude and his sexy voice

I like Alain Souchon’s text and his melancolic voice

I like Alain Cham fort’s harmonies and melodies and his elegant voice

I Ike Alain Blondel's paintings and his friendly voice

Why are all the French called Alain?

In France, it is easy to understand that French music can be hardly exported, unlike British or American music which is universal. How do you explain this supremacy of British or American music over the others?

A question of economy, larger market maybe.

You answered a small ad in Melody Maker about searching a keyboard player. And the consequence is that you passed an audition for playing with Elvis Costello, who was stilt unknown at this time (he only made one album at this time : ((my aim is true ~), and with who you worked for a long time (from 1975 to 1985, and then sometime short projects .What do you like in Elvis so that you are still near him now ? What did you found in him that you did not found in the other bands you played in ?


Now, he is my dear friend it’s different, but when we first met he was clear about what he wanted, and what to do, probably because he was a little older and wiser. He came from a musical family, his father was a professional musician and he had a greater knowledge about many different kinds of music. He was listening to the Clash, Sex Pistols, Pere Ubu and Jim Jones and Bob Dylan I think Elvis Costello’s songs are the closest thing in modem times to Shakespeare.


At the end of 1977, you changed you real name (Steve Nason) for Steve Nieve. Why did you change? And why for Steve Nieve?

Ian Dury, who composed the song Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, started to call me Steve Naïve on the Stiff Records tour that we did together in 1979. I was the youngest on the tour and I hated being called Naïve. But everyone insisted, so I tried to get away from it by changing the spelllng. Now I’m happy with the name and when I recorded It’s Raining Somewhere , I asked the Knitting Factory to spell the name Steve Naïve, which has of course confused all the computors in the record shops, and all the web sites that try to know everything about music .

Let’s go back to the Elvis Costello period. You made gradually what was going to be the Costello sound, his way of playing music which made his success. It is said that in fact at home you only played on an organ because you did not have a piano. Is it true?


My first keyboard was a Harmonium. The local church wanted to throw it away and I remember my Dad rescued if in a wheelbarrow.

From 1978 to 1985, you were part of the Attractions, which will be important in the British New Wave. Recalling it, what do you think of this period ? Do you regret anything?

My weight , which was 62 kilos.

In 1987, the Attractions spIlt and you became artistic director of a very popular TV Show directed by Jonathan Ross, entitled The last resort . But you seem to be miss playing on stage because you accompanied the guest artists, despite it was not your role. What is your best memory about this show?

I’m always suspicious of the word Best. I can’t think of an artist who didn’t appear on The Last Resort , from Sharon Stone to Paul Mc Cartney. Because The Last Resort was really live, which none of the shows are anymore, it was scary and at the same time exciting.

In general, who are the artists you really enjoyed to play with in you career ? What is your best memory ? Any anecdote to tell us?

I played on a song called Dancing in the Street, Jagger and Bowie recorded it for Live Aid, and Cllve Langer produced it. We were all in the control room, they each had recorded two takes of vocal and someone had to choose between them. Cllve just sat there, both takes sounded great, so it was Bowie who got behind the faders and llstened to each take seperafely putting a cross or a tick against the lyric sheet. When he had finished he asked Jagger for his agreement. Each time Bowie had put a cross, Jagger said let’s keep that, each time Bowie had indicated a tick, Jagger said Go with the other take, so that the whole take of Jagger’s vocal was compiled from the takes Bowie had rejected. When they played the compilation of Jaggers vocal back it sounded so good that haif way through the song Bowie did one of his famous jumps tight over Cllve Langers head. At some point in the proceedings I offered to try my Vox Continental on the recording. Apparently when I left the control room, Jagger said to Clive Langer, That’s the sound I hate the most in the world


We are now in the 21st century. According to you, who are the two or three best musician of the 20th century?

Don’t know about BEST. From a synthesiser, composition, and production point of view I’m fascinated by Brian Eno. From a voice point of view composition and production too, Robert Wyatt.

You are not really known by a large audience, especially the one who buy records in shopping centres. Only some fans or some nosy persons who found your name in the booklet of a record or on stage. In spite of that fact, you are well known by musicians. You also composed some movie, documentary, TV-show soundtracks and you still played with bands like Pink Orchestra, Waldorf Salad Orchestra.~. And you recorded sessions with David Bowie, Morrissey, Little Richard, Francoise Hardy... In 1994, the Attractions went back. From 1995, you worked with Alain Chamfort in two of his albums : e Neuf ~ and ((Personne n’est parfait e. You’re playing with him on stage in his e Concerto a quatre mains ~. You compare Chamfort to Debussy. How did you meet him?

He came to see an Elvis Costello and the Attractions gig and asked me to come to France and work with him. I have him to thank for discovering this beautiful country and meeting Muriel and all my other friends here.

Then you worked with Arielle e mortelle ~. Then you composed with your girlfriend an opera entitled e welcome to the voice >~ and it was played in NYC in June 2000 at the Town Hall Theatre with the participation of Costello, Ron Sexmith. We are still waiting for the publication of this album. When will it be available?

Ask Mr Universal Music and keep me informed.

Then you worked for an album of Costello which is the one you prefer : All this useless beauty ~. Why is this one different from the others and what is this beauty you describe in this title?

To who do you speak? Are you sure it’s to me?

In 2001, you recorded e Mmu > dedicated to your girlfriend. It is the first time you sing your own songs. All your other records were instrumentals. In what state of mind did you compose those beautiful songs ? What encouraged you sing your own songs?

Certainly not Muriel, she was always opposed to the idea that I become a singer. My states of mind composing these songs were Love, Derision, Nostalgia, Respect, Soberness.

You also played a lot of song composed by you or others. How do you feel when you hear you songs on radio or sung others?

We don’t have a radio.

This album was recorded in only one day, which is really rare. How do you work ? Did you compose those songs a long time ago but you did not find any place for it or was there like a creative fever inspired by you muse?

I recorded them at home, and played them to just one record company boss, Christophe Lamiegnere, at Zomba France.

The album was recorded in one day but made in fourty years. What encouraged you wanting to write lyrics to your music, because until now you only composed instrumental records ? You wanted to tell more things ? You wanted to pass messages in a different way?

Listen to the song “Words” on Mumu, that should answer your question. I’m not easily confident with words, which means that I must take more time, struggling. But it’s important to work, it’s not enough to play music, I enjoy playing, but even music has to be a hard work.

The songs of this album are very very personal. It is like a part of you give us. But can this songs be really played on stage ? Do you feel a little shameless by singing in front of unknown people songs that were dedicated to your girlfriend?


I would be more embarrassed to be in my girlfriends bedroom with an orchestra singing my ballads. But I was very happy to play these songs at La Scene last December with Renaud Pion on reeds, Vincent Se gal on cello and Elvis Costello on guitar. I realised that precisely because of the minimilist approach of the album, on stage, there is plenty of freedom, that these excellent musicians were able to take advantage of.

Why did you choose to record you CD in France, in the e Gang ~ studio? Did you choose this studio? Why this one?

I chose the studio because I like the character of the records that have been made there. It’s full of technology that cannot easily be replaced. Technology that only a few highly trained people know how to use properly. It reminds me of a studio in Los Angeles called Ocean Way. Where people llke the Beach Boys and Frank Sinatra used to work. It has the same brown carpet.

You recorded a 38’ll album. With nowadays technology it is easy to record a 74-minute album. Why is it so short?

Probably you noticed that technology is not the be and end all of this album.

[Extreme Honey]

Can I use this for my english class?

[hollyh]

He has a great talent for fobbing off this ridiculous interviewer. Steve Nieve is an enormous talent, you have to love him for being so down-to-earth when this absurd person kept trying to put words in his mouth.