Interviu - Vincent Cavanagh de la Anathema

Cu Vincent ne-am intalnit vineri, inainte de concertul Anathema de pe scena mare a festivalului ARTmania. Faptul ca nu se purta deloc ca o vedeta, ca era natural, simpatic si extrem de prietenos nu trebuie sa va spunem, pentru ca se vede deja din interviu. Ne-a povestit de primul concert in Romania cand au fost asteptati de fani la aeroport, ceea ce i-a cam speriat un pic, de cat de mult ii place si cat se distreaza aici, ne-a spus despre chestiile neortodoxe si farmecul lor (desi noi il intrebasem cu referire la experimente in muzica :) ).

Discutia cu el a fost mai mult decat haioasa, s-a invartit prin camera, a gesticulat, s-a jucat, ne-a povestit teatral cum erau jandarmii la primul concert, a ras, am ras si noi, dupa ce ne trecusera instant emotiile si retinerile ca vorbim cu solistul Anathema.

De fapt, Vincent a fost, fara sa vrea, vedeta festivalului. Daca pe membrii celorlalte trupe ii prindeai mai greu in cadru neoficial, adica nu la conferinte de presa sau interviuri, cu Vincent te intalneai peste tot, pe terase, in public la concerte sau pe strada, cand se plimba. Mai mereu era hartuit de fani, a se citi fane, dar nu l-am vazut niciodata nervos sau agasat, din contra, statea de vorba cu absolut toata lumea.

Cat despre concertul de la Cisnadioara... cititi interviul si va povestesc dupa.

I guess you are tired of all those interviews and maybe bored....

No, I'm not tired, I've slept already.

Maybe bored...

I'm never bored while I'm in Romania. How could you be bored in a place like this?



Are you sure?

Yeah, sure. If you're bored in  place like this, it's something wrong for sure. You need to have a break with yourself. Well, it's also true that I don't live here.

It's an advantage for you.

Yeah, an advantage and an adventure. Really.

Let's get to the point. We understood we have to be short...

No, no, I have all the time.

We have three big questions. Past, present and future.

Remember the past, live in the present and plan for the future. Thinking about the future, it's like fishing, you never know what you are gonna get, do you? It's like getting an old boot.

Do you ever make plans?

Not often. Certain things need planning, of course, but not everything.

Can you picture your next album, for example?

Only when I start writing songs for it, obviously.

So, the first big question is about the past. What happened to your initial doom metal style? Will you ever come back to it?

No, we had a bloody sound then. (laughs) Our first album was ok, doomy, British sound, heavy vocals. Take the second album - a progression, the third album - a little progression. With the fourth album we realized how to produce ourselves, to have big, dynamic sound. That album's not doom metal to me.



Fifth album, another progression. All of them are progressions. They all sound different to each other. We do whatever we like, we have albums that doesn't sound like everything we did before. About coming back - it's like you had once a pair of trousers, when you were eleven, you had these flares, and some very stupid shoes your parents gave you, because they were cheap and you had to wear them because they were all you had. Would you were them again, ya know, for pure nostalgia?

I never fuckin' listen to our first albums, I can't even remember the last time I listened to that album. But that's just me, maybe the other guys are different. The only time we actually get nostalgic it's when we play some of those songs, like Sleepless. Not for any reason, but because we have so may other songs that we consider better.

What about your first concerts? Do you ever get nostalgic about them?

(laughs) My first concert ever I was very nervous and I drank too much alcohol and I ended up head banging the entire concert (laughs). I don't remember anything just... (Vincent starts head banging:) ).

You got a recording of this I hope....

(laughs) Oh, no, no, no. This was at a friend's birthday party, we were like 15 years old. That's how we started, as a group of friends, of kids passionate about, on an old couch. We had an old satin couch, and we'd put a magazine on a seat cushion for the snare drum, and we went like boom, tsst, boom, tsst. One of us had a guitar...

Wow...

I had a guitar initially and Danny broke it, right, and took my guitar "this is mine now", he bastard, and I said "it doesn't matter, I wanna play drums anyway". But then, I couldn't play drums 'cause I couldn't afford the drum case, but John could, so we said "ok, you are the drummer". We were just kids, you know, starting a band, lots of laugh, that's how we started. It was the best part in a way, we were free, we could do anything, we did anything for a laugh, it's like nothing holds you back, nothing at all.

 

What about now? You still feel free?

Absolutely, yeah, no restrictions. The only restriction we had was that we used to release music on a heavy metal label, an underground one, and that was quite restrictive because your music couldn't reach the whole audience. But then we had the chance to do that.

This brings us to present. Can you tell us something about... Everything?

Something about everything (laughs)? Oh, it's cool, then the dancers came, all died and turned into warriors, then the others came came and bought Mercedes Benz...

Ok, ok... (laughs) You said it's the greatest record you ever made...

Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. Without even a hint of a doubt. (laughs). It's absolutely the best record. We haven't done it yet (laughs). It's easy to say it now, you know, but it could be a piece of shit (laughs). We are confident about it, really. It's not called Everything by the way. It's a song called Everything, not the entirely album.

Danny, being overexcited, got on the Internet and told everybody we have a new album called Everything. He was a lil' bit overexcited. You can't blame him, he is very excited about the music, 'cause what else does he do? He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't do drugs, ta-ta-ta, he does music, when he's excited about something he has to tell the world. It was just a wacky title, we'll come up with a better one.

Do you have one in mind?

Yess...

Can you tell us which is it?

Nope... Sorry.

Speaking about influences and old trousers, do you fancy some "unorthodox" influences?

In my life, yeah, I used to be quite unorthodox, I had a little...

(Artmania PR comes in... "He has to eat! Be short" In fact, officially, we had only five minutes...).

You have to eat...

Noo, nevermind. I have always had a taste for the unorthodox in everything... I don't like to go, you know, on the most beaten road, I don't like to follow that, I wanna do my own thing. The road less traveled, yes. The thing is about that is that you have to be careful, especially if you are abusing your body. There are things that I did and I shouldn't. There's a very thin line between staying on a path a veering off to the side. You have to be careful, you know, or the devil will get ya (laughs).



This is the beauty of life...

I like to take risks, don't we sometimes? We have to be excited about our lives, we can't just be satisfied, fuck that!

Anxious about Sunday evening, about the unplugged in Cisnadioara? Did you see the location?

I saw it on the Internet,  the organizers said it's a very beautiful fortress, old medieval place. I can't wait to play there. It's gonna be extra special, 'cause Duncan is gonna be there, the old bass player, an old friend, he's always making me laugh, that one. His all life is an adventure, meaning to tell stories. This is about, to tell stories the next day.

What are you passionate about, what do you really, really love, who do you really love. Love at the and of it all, is all you'll be left with. Like the Beatles said, in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take. That's true, you get what you give, it's true. That's why I always try to remain positive, in all situations, I never start arguments, I don't like arguments, but I'm very good in defusing arguments, calming situations down, I don't like fights and other shit. It's an important way to go on in you life because then good things will come to you if you stay in a positive mind.

You came to Romania about 13 years ago...

Was it that long ago? (Vincent is playing old :) ). (laughs). 1994, right? We were fresh out the bloody pram, we were kids and it was such a surprise for us to arrive to the airport and see 40-50 people with signs, "welcome Anathema", oh my God, that's it, guys, we're staying here, we are fucking Beatles over here.

The whole week was just... so much fun, every day something new, even the 17 hour bush journey with this crazy driver (Vincent is playing the crazy driver) we into a field, off the road, went round a tree and then out again, what crazy drugs is this guy on??, you know, the only English words he knew were Hello Dolly, and he came behind us with a tea spoon, and he went behind you, with big bulging eyes like... (Vincent is playing again the driver...) and he went like: Hello, Dolly!!

We played football and we went to a party, we trashed the hotel room, we trashed some students' apartments and we did a lot of stuff like that, as you do when you're young and boisterous and off on holiday. And then we did some concerts, too, we started a riot there, we went in the crowd and hit the security, because the security was hitting the crowd, we didn't like that, we were like spitting' on the fuckin' bastards. The security was the fuckin' army, you know what I mean, with fuckin' guns. We wanna play music to these people and you are punching them??? Hit them because they are having a good time?



At that time we didn't have big concerts, they were not used to it...

Yeah, it was the first big concert in a while. We were absolutely up for the rebellion, "this is our time now, not yours, fuck you, get out, we don't need you"...

We hope you'll also have a good time here as well, see you at the show tonight.

And we did.