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Malediction and Prayer |
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Is then when you were at UCSD, writing grants and stuff like that?
No, it was in 1984, and it was at the end of UCSD. I had just performed at the New York Philharmonic at the Horizons Festival, and I had this opportunity to write this grant. [Groans.] They wanted me to notate all my music - notate "Wild Women with Steak Knives." The only way for me to do that was to take a massive amount of drugs and listen back to it and come up with these ridiculous art drawings - all these squiggles and all this crap. And I was like, "You know? I would never sing this score. I would never be bothered. But if that's what you want, you got it." It cost me a few hundred dollars [to get the drugs] from some guys down the street, but it was worth it.
We had talked before the interview a little bit about Napster. And we had talked about the live shows, and connecting with fans and venues being able to afford your shows. A lot of the counter arguments to the whole anti-Napster contingent involve discussions of ancillary revenue streams - playing live, merchandising, stuff like that.
Wait, let me just ask you a question. You said there were complaints from musicians who do a lot of playing live? Or do you mean ancillary things that I do?
Yes - in what proportions do you derive income from recording vs. playing live?
Actually, my main thing is playing live, I would say. I would say that I do not qualify as a recording artist. Because, as this lawyer friend of mine once told me, she said, "You're not a recording artists unless you sell a million records." And that is not true, it's bullshit, but in a sense it's true because you don't get paid until you sell a million records. You know what I mean? When I heard that, I said "You fucking bitch!" But then I thought, "Well, this is the deal: since you're not going to get paid, you might as well let people hear the music, and try to sell as much of the merchandise yourself." Either that means you get it from the record company for cheap or you sell it yourself, or you make sure it gets out there somehow, so that at least you get people coming to your shows. Then you can do the kind of shows you want, and you have complete freedom from record companies. If they want to sell the merchandise, if they don't want to sell the merchandise, if they blah blah blah … they all suck. They all suck. I mean really. So ultimately, I think the best thing for the artist to do is to have as much autonomy as possible, whether that's performing, or releasing stuff and giving it to a lot of different people, or however. So Napster to me just seems like it's just another advertisement. It's like, people like to get the picture on the record, they like to get all the things that go with it. So they're not going to NOT buy the record because it's on Napster. I don't think so. I don't think so. It's not true. As a matter of fact, it's good advertising, because, since these cunts won't play it on the radio, at least somebody's getting it somewhere. You know? And we're all happy that somebody is getting it [snaps her fingers] somewhere. [We both crack up at this].
It's good to get it.
Yeah! I mean, who are these tight-ass motherfuckers that are telling everybody that they can't get anything anywhere? OK, Metallica. But they sell a lot of records, so who wants to listen to them? I mean, it's not like that guy [presumably she means Lars Ulrich, the member of Metaliica who has been most outspoken in criticizing Napster] had to go out there and break a building open to be able to do what he wanted to do. He's just doing more or less -- maybe better than some -- what everybody else is doing. He's playing pop music. Heavy metal pop music. So like, who wants to listen to him? Why would I want to listen to him? He can send me a check, and then I'll listen to him.
I actually looked on Napster to see how many result would come up, and it filled my queue up - there's tons of your stuff out there.
Really? I've never even been on it. I know nothing about it. But what I do know about, I just say, "Fine with me!"
I was happy that I found a copy of "Dancing in the Dark," which I didn't have on CD.
The Clive Barker one? [Galas is referring to an album of songs used in films by horror author / director Clive Barker, who has used Diamanda's music in several films.] The one from Clive's record collection? Clive Barker has a beautiful record out, and he's got "Dancing in the Dark" next to Judy Garland and Perry Como and Rachmaninov. It's a great record. He's so cool.
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I mean, who are these tight-ass
motherfuckers that are telling everybody that
they can't get anything anywhere? OK, Metallica.
But they sell a lot of records, so who wants to
listen to them? "
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I think that must be it. I remember someone saying
that that's where you could get that song, since it
wasn't on the Malediction and Prayer CD.
Is that true? We didn't put it on the Malediction and Prayer CD? Really? Shit, maybe you're right. I've got to listen to that record again. [Laughs.} I never listen to the records once we finish. We have so many live tapes from the tour. We have so many live tapes, we could put out so many records ourselves.
Well, we just saw another pop act do this - Pearl Jam release 25 live CDs. They just put out 25 of their own bootlegs.
[Diamanda gasps with delight and claps.]
Are you kidding me?
No - they're selling them direct through their Web site.
What label are they on? Geffen or something? One of those?
Oh god [my memory fails to remember that Pearl jam is on Epic Records]. What label are they on?
Were there any legalities associated with that?
I don't think so.
Oh yeah! That guy's great. That guy [she must mean Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam's lead singer] is great. I should talk to him some day. He's a smart guy.
In fact, in the San Diego newspaper [the Union-Tribune], they just did a review of the best moments from the series.
You know what I like about him? He backs up his word. He says he's going to do something, and he does something. That's a good man there. That's a good man. I should talk to him some time.
I did also see, on Napster, some of your out-of-print stuff.
Oh you did? Good. Like Panoptikon, for example? Good. We're re-releasing that. Richard Zvonar, who was my collaborator and who's a genius, is a great, great, wonderful composer. But also, he does stuff with electronics that's just outrageous. He's going to remix it. He said that he would do it - I asked him if he would - because I didn't like the final mix. And it was through no fault of the record company, Metalanguage, no fault at all of theirs. It was because, at the time, I had wanted the solo voice on the record to stand out from the taped voices. So I preferred a different kind of mix at that time. But now, I'd like to hear a few different mixes of it. And also, "Tragouthia apo to aima exoun fonos" [Song from the Blood of Those Murdered] was the worst - it was not a good performance of that piece. So I have been the one who has not wanted the record out. But now that we're going to get it the way we want it, it'll come out.
Do you have a problem with fans hearing the music in a form that you're not necessarily the most pleased with?
Well, they're always going to do that no matter what, aren't they? I mean, this is the thing: there are going to be people coming to shows recording them with shitty recorders, and no matter what you do, they're going to do it. So they're going to hear it crappy. It probably is, in terms of resolution on Napster, it's probably hideous. I heard, once, to my true horror, I heard "Dancing in the Dark" on my crappy laptop computer a couple of years ago. It just busted out at me, and I was like, "Oh! Turn that off!" It was like an attack of the flies or something. It was so low quality. And then I just thought, "Look. There's some things in this life that you can control, and there are some things in this life that you can not control, and I am not going to obesses on that shit." I am not. I don't care.
I guess the compression codecs are getting better and better all the time, so you're getting higher sound quality and smaller files sizes and stuff like that …
You know, they can't say anything worse than they've said about me anyways, as far as the pleasantry of listening to my voice, so what's it gonna do?
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