The following is an interview between Deirdre O'Donahue and Marty Willson-Piper for the KCRW "SNAP" radio show in Santa Monica, CA on August 13th 1988. A lot of the "I mean" and "you know" fillers were taken out to assist in conversational flow.
This article was kindly sent in by Jason Withrow.
Marty: Hello?
D: Hello? Is that a good way to begin this? Well, Marty Willson-Piper once again proving himself to be the whiz that I've always thought him to be. I'm Deirdre O'Donahue at "SNAP". This is actually a Saturday afternoon, the 13th of August as Marty and I sit in the performance studio at KCRW, pre-taping this because its the only chance we had to get him in as he's off on yet another extended tour with The Church. Playing tonight at the Palladium. I suppose that as I air this show I shall have a report to give because I'me very much looking forward to it. But I'm really happy to have you here in the studio with me this afternoon Marty. Always been a big fan. Well I've been a Church fan for a long time. I very much enjoyed your first album In Reflection and this new solo album you've put out on Rykodisc- applause, applause, applause. It is gorgeous. I'll tell you the line I've been running, not only on the air but to friends of mine when I describe it is that it runs the gamut from some of the most hauntingly beautiful and engaging and hook filled pure pop ditties to very entrancing, out there, edge, avante garde stuff that works. Lots of people try to go out to the edge, but they don't always work. Some of the pieces you do here...
M: I sort of did that on purpose. I wanted to...I really wanted it to have all different flavors...
D: It does. And in addition to the variety of flavors, the sequencing, which I presume you worked rather diligently on is excellent. You move from a gentle, satisfying song to a...I don't want to call it more difficult, as that may be off-putting to listeners, but a song that requires a bit more attention possibly, although at the same time there's a very engaging...
M: It's an art in itself actually putting an album order together. Sometimes I've bought an English version of an album and then bought the tape again in America because I wanted to listen to it when I was on the road or something and the songs are in different order and it's ruined it for me. It's just completely ruined it. Julian Cope's Saint Julian is like that, the English and American versions are in different orders. They put all the singles on side 1 on the American version, whereas the English version had them in different order.
D: Welcome to America. A lot of albums do that. And sometimes the other thing that will happen, that happens to me, is a pre-advance cassette. When the record company sends you out a tape a month or so before the album is coming out and they send it in a particular order. Then the album comes out and its completely different. Play me a song. Sir please.
M: Well I'm gonna do a...all the songs I'm gonna do today I've never done live on a show before, nobody's actually heard them. I'm not gonna play any old songs. Not anything off Art Attack, not anything off In Reflection, or anything anybody's ever heard before. Because this is probably more exciting.
D: I'm honored. This is Marty Willson-Piper, who is one of the two guitarists with the band The Church and he is my guest on "SNAP" tonight.
M: This is called "Time Is Imaginary".
{Marty performs "Time Is Imaginary"}
D: Marty Willson-Piper. A brand new song peformed for you on "SNAP". We've got the engineer here into the room...no that's okay Jeff it's "SNAP" you know better than that. He's putting little socks on our microphones, Marty.
M: That's because it's pop.
D: Pop! Pop music!
M: Pop Music! {ed. note: both are really into it, popping the 'p'}
D: And pop pop pop music...Deirdre is probably popping her p's again. That's a lovely song. Great lines in there. I like the denial of the responsibility of healing...
M: I shrug the responsibility of healing...
D: I shrug the responsibility of healing...tell me about that line. I'm just hearing this for the first time so you don't have to tell me if that makes you uncomfortable.
M: It's really heavy. This is a pretty weird song, really.
D: The title of it is?
M: Time Is Imaginary.
D: Time Is Imaginary.
M: You know, its kinda like has it really got a format or rhythm on purpose?
D: That's an interesting point. Brian Eno was on another station recently and one of the topics they covered was the nature of songs that have those verse-chorus-verse bridged format. And Eno's comment...well, two things. He really likes hearing electric and acoustic guitar these days because he's bored to death with processing but also that he likes songs and music that gets away from those traditional strcutures that you're doing.
M: Well some of my songs are very kind of formulated really. Others...some have bridges and others don't. When I wrote this song, I thought, "You know, who's written this book of rules, you know?"
D: I always feel like I must have missed school the day they taught that because I have a lot of trouble with those things myself.
M: Well I like twenty minute songs too. And I like one minute songs.
D: Tell me about...well you aren't gonna play any live but I'll be playing them live on the air, some of the songs off your new album Art Attack which I think is just delicious. Tell me about "Word".
M: Well...you know...that song I actually perceived rather than wrote. I sort of...I just was walking down the street in New York, I wrote that in New York where I was making the record and I just was walking down the street one day and sort of got this idea in my head that...I'm interested in words anyway. Words. The whole idea of words.
D: It's word association football.
M: Sort of, yeah. It is, yeah.
D: I don't mean that lightly, making the Monty Python reference. Do you remember that piece?
M: Yeah. {laughs}
D: I like that. That was a rather brilliant piece by John Cleese, as a matter of fact that's a rather brilliant piece by Marty Willson-Piper.
M: I knew that song...people would either think "Wow!" or they'd go "what the hell is this?" and I had both reactions and that's great, I love it. That's why the album cover is the way it is with my picture on the front which is totally out of character for me as well. That's why the "Word" is on there and also "She's King", which is a very sort of more poppy tune.
D: That's a gorgeous tune!
M: I wanted to...not upset some people but I wasn't gonna be worried if people didn't like certain aspects of the record. And certain people have said "it's a little hard to listen to" because they can't get into the diversity of it and, of course, people like me probably like it because it is diverse and that's exactly how I wanted it to be. Its got harsh vocals on it, its got soft vocals on it, short songs, long songs, formulated songs, experimental songs. That's why Jean Cocteau is on there too.
D: That's what appeals to me about it. I have the attention span of a three year old. I bore very easily so the idea that I actually have a CD's worth of songs because you've included almost half of your first album In Reflection including one of my favorite songs of all time, "Winter Splinter Bay".
M: Its got some nice lyrics in it, if I do say so myself.
D: Yes well I will say it for you, if you don't say so yourself.
M: That was a poem actually. That was originally a poem.
D: Do you write a lot when you're traveling around? You're traveling constantly with The Church now.
M: I'm a real kind of cafe observer type. I like to sit in cafes with cappucinos and watch the folks coming in and try and write character analysis of strangers.
D: I like to sit in cafes with red wine. One of my favorite moments, if I can be so bold as to interject my own self and this is just for your show, but the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. You been there? The stained glass...when you walk up seven miles of little circular stairs to get to the top and you're panting and breathing. And you get to the top and you walk in and it's like being inside a jewel. It is a church built almost entirely of stained glass by the king of France who was St. Louis. You get to the top of the stairs and you go "oh my God". After having had the experience of being in the Sainte-Chapelle myself for a while I went back and sat on the little stone bench at the top of the stairs, and listened to a dozen different languages come heaving up the stairs and had the same reaction and sat writing descriptions of the pictures on their faces.
M: People are all the same, aren't they?
D: We're unique in our diversity.
M: Yeah. Absolutely.
D: Marty Willson-Piper is my guest. His new album is called Art Attack. It's a Rykodisc CD. You'll also find him on the new Church album...I've been having a hard time since you guys were here in March and you made fun of the fact that your album is called Starfish. I've called it everything but...
M: Jellyfish.
D: Jellyfish. Cuddlefish. Blowfish. Lionfish. And the guys at the record stores around town keep calling me and saying "you talking about a bootleg or something?". But its done quite well for you. Has life changed as you've had this great success with Starfish?
M: CD players came into my price range.
D: Jeff Sikes, my engineer, as always, roared laughing at that. I know that feeling myself. Let me get you to play another song.
M: This is a capo song and this sound you hear is the sound of the capo gripping the guitar. Hope I'm not taking this too far out of tune...This is a song about somebody and I'm not gonna say who right now. But when I make the album it's gonna say who it's for on the album. It's part of the title, but for now it's called New York Buddha. And I'm gonna do some really weird arrangements in this but I'm not real sure how it goes. I have to say that these songs are at a very early stage in their existence.
{Marty performs "New York Buddha"}
[Another note - NY Buddha was released as a b-side to Questions Without Answers on the Rhyme album. Who is it about ?!]
D: As engineer Jeff Sikes said when we were doing our soundcheck Marty: "beyond bitchin'"
M: Beyond bitchin'...
D: Beyond bitchin'...I'm Deirdre O'Donahue and this is "SNAP" on KCRW and Marty Willson-Piper who has solo albums out, and is also a member of the quartet The Church, is my guest tonight.
M: Capo.
D: You can make noise. Ooh, that's not a nice noise.
M: Just unscrewing my wooden leg. {laughs} It's been a well-kept secret.
D: You begin and end your new album Art Attack with the actual part that is the new Art Attack, before the CD continues on into selections from the first album, In Reflection, with "O' Stockholm" and "Ah Stockholm".
M: It's actually pronounced... {Marty gives Deirdre a brief lesson in Swedish pronunciation for the 'ah' in Ah Stockholm)
D: You really are quite a cosmopolitan man of the world. From around Liverpool, somewhere around Liverpool originally, ended up playing with three Australians in The Church and now reside primarily in Stockholm and travel continuously with your band. How did you end up in Stockholm? What made you choose that as a place to live?
M: Well, my girlfriend is Swedish, that's probably the main reason.
D: That's a good start, yeah. Girls have a lot to do with things like that.
M: Yeah but she's very Stockholmish.
D: Which is to say?
M: I don't think it would be right to take her away from there to some strange city in another part of the world. I kind of feel more comfortable to go there than probably she does to go anywhere else. When I was living in Australia for one period she came to Australia but she wasn't really...wasn't really her scene. Not really mine either to tell you the truth. And we sort of both weren't really happy there so we sort of decided Stockholm was the place we were gonna live. We were gonna go back to her sort of hometown.
D: Well it's nice living in this part of time, however imaginary it may be, that one has that freedom and ability to travel and move about the world and avoid those artifical boundaries that get called countries. Speaking of countries though and the country of your birth, let me ask you about a song you have on your album I'm really curious about. The "Evil Queen of England". I originally thought that you must be talking about Maggie Thatcher, but you refer specifically to Elizabeth, Queen...
M: No. No I don't. The first line say "Elizabeth this time it isn't you".
D: Oh. Now, well you see...okay here's the great fun of being a listener as compared to being the author. I thought it said "Elizabeth, it's time it isn't you".
M: No. "Elizabeth this time it isn't you".
D: The Queen of England herself is a figurehead. She's the head of the British tourist industry, isn't she?
M: I was just considering Margaret Thatcher to be the queen of England in reality.
D: Well good you cleared that up. Because then it is about Maggie and she deserves every syllable of it.
M: Yeah. And the reason I wrote that as the first line was because as far as the queen of England I felt like the Sex Pistols had already written a song about the queen. You know, "God Save the Queen". So I was sort of saying "Elizabeth this time it isn't you". They sang about you in that song but this time I'm singing about the other queen.
D: Who is Maggie.
M: Which is Maggie.
D: Who is running things into a very strange state.
M: Yeah. I mean its okay...just to get into politics for a second...it's okay to admire Maggie's hard edged way of being, especially in the south of England. But if you're from Liverpool...
D: Dire poverty and unemployment...
M: It's really falling apart at the seams. It's just ridiculous.
D: Well it's a lack of attention to the needs of the people, which I find frightening when I travel around not only England but parts of the U.S. now too. The evil king of the U.S. Or not just a singular person but the attitude of the body politic that says its someone else's job to take care...we now call them the homeless. It's such a polite euphemism for starving, struggling people. It just appalls me.
M: I have a great difficulty in New York sitting with the mink coat millionaires ignoring the squirming, legless poverty-ridden masses. I mean it's terrible.
Deirdre: Right here in Santa Monica, between Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey there's a section of Venice that is frightening. And you watch the Porsches and the Mercedes drive right by. Scares me to death.
Marty: But I don't know how you deal with it really.
D: I drive a volkswagen and give all my extra money to the St. Joseph's Center.
M: Yeah well right.
D: I feel guilty otherwise.
M: Is that what I'm supposed to do though?
D: No. Everyone approaches it in their own way. I would feel guilty...
M: I write songs about it, you know.
D: And there's a manner of being...it's almost like being a town crier in an electronic age. If you can wake people up and alert them.
M: But you know there is a certain...I like to sort of have a conscience about the problems that surround us but I don't like to sort of like stand up on a pedestal and say "hey do this do that because it's wrong". Because I'm not really doing much more than...I've actually got a song I'm not going to play called "Questions Without Answers" that's all about that. It's about how do you deal with the fact that everybody could do more than they do.
D: But you have to find your own level. I mean I like to take care of myself too. It's not as though every penny or something...I take care of myself. But I feel it incumbent upon myself also and this may just be my Catholic damage, being raised by ursula nuns that I find it...
M: Bet you've got some wild stories...
D: Uh-huh. {laughs} It's just that it feels important to me to...I feel very fortunate and blessed in many ways and it feels important to me to share part of that. I'm not Mother Teresa, I don't give everything away, I'm...I was going to say I'm not a nun, but that isn't entirely true... {laughs} I just feel a need to share my good fortune. Not all of it, but I probably have a bit of a soft touch but I take care of me too. And everyone...and I don't say that anyone else should do that. You do what is appropriate for any single person to do. You write songs, songs that are very touching and moving.
M: I think the answer really...not the answer, but one thing is to not be too flippant with your opinions about things which either you don't understand or are around you. You know the prejudice thing, which is..."oh he's Italian you know"...
D: Oh that's just ludicrous.
M: If there's anybody out there who's ever said that, go wash your mouth out with salt and water and never say it again because you're a fool.
D: That's very old fashioned. It's from the Middle Ages. This is a world as we said with you traveling around and living in different places to continue to believe, I think, in those artifical boundaries is not only silly and self-detrimental and is unnecessary. It's one of the things I love about LA there's such a variety of cultures here for all the things I dislike about it. I can be in Tokyo...
M: Yeah well America is certainly that...it's got many...
D: I can be in Tokyo in ten minutes, in Mexico in twenty minutes, in the deserts or the mountains, or visit Vietnam or you know there's a fabulous British community here in Santa Monica. There's a great French community in Venice. I can sample the wares of the world here and I love it.
M: America is certainly an international place really. It's called America but its...all those cultures are Americanized, but they still exist here I suppose.
D: Well there's a nice blending I think of a maintenance of...well it's the molecular basis of memory. You've got it genetically in you, the roots that you come from and yet melted into...well the melting pot of this whole new funny land with all of its good and bad attributes. Oh dear, Deirdre's on her soapbox again...Marty Willson-Piper is my guest with me on "SNAP". My engineer is raising his eyebrows at me. Let me ask you about...oh there are so many songs on this new album of yours Art Attack that I'm just in love with. I adore "You Whisper" which is...
M: That came out well, didn't it?
D: Yes it did.
M: It's kind of a nursery rhyme almost.
D: But the one that I think startled me most Marty when I first listened to the album is "Frightened Just Because of You". I can't imagine you being frightened of anything. Or is that just poetic license? Just imaginary...
M: No it's not. That's a quite autobiographical song in a lot of ways.
D: Really? You don't have to go into any explanations, I'm just surprised to hear that I suppose.
M: Well I just grew up in a quite sort of violent surrounding. I'm not a violent person at all.
D: Childhood, you mean?
M: Yeah. I grew up in a kind of Liverpool suburbs and actually happened to live on the border between two counties, between Merseyside and Cheshire. I actually lived directly, exactly on the border between those two counties. And I was the furthest house from the school that I had to go to. So I went to school like four miles that way when there was a school like 300 yards that way. And of course these two schools were always warring with each other. And walking home after school each night was like going into enemy territory. And it was like running home before you sort of...before the lads got you, and like coming out at night time...it's actually worse at night because everybody's got home and they've changed into their big boots and you come out of your house at 6:30 at night to go play football or something or meet your friends by the wall and you sort of have to deal with this stuff all the time. I mean, God, I've never ever felt territorial about anything. I don't know where people get it from.
D: It's ancient and its thoughtless or without thought to it. I've always been amazed, I mean it happens here in the U.S. to a certain extent with loyalties to baseball or football teams or basketball teams but geez in England...
M: They'd kill you if you didn't support the right team. I mean isn't it amazing?
D: I've been...I've made flippant remarks in England that I've been terribly sorry for, not understanding the passion that even folks that I thought were quite beyond that can get very...
M: Yeah I get into that. You know, I support Liverpool but I'm not gonna smash in your teeth if you don't.
D: I don't even know who they are.
M: Right.
{ed. note: there is a break here}
D: I know who you are, you're Marty Willson-Piper and you play one of the guitars in The Church along with Peter Koppes the other guitarist, Richard Ploog on drums, and Steve Kilbey bass player and singer. And you've got a swell song on the new album called "Spark" and you did that when you guys were all here.
M: Yeah the 'rocker'. I'm gonna sing a song which is about somebody as well. But this one is actually called directly about who it is. It's called "Conny Plank".
D: Oh wonderful the German fellow.
M: Who died recently. Relatively recently. Its kind of a cute song. A three chorder. It's just about...this is a great innovative person who worked with wonderful innovative German artists and more. 'Can', mainly, I would say is one of my favorite groups and he worked with them in all their albums. He's worked with the Eurythmics and I mean...
D: Eno...Bowie...
M: Lots of really innovative stuff and there's a track on In Reflection called "Traveling Through the Sea of Sun Machines" which was completely and totally and utterly inspired by Can and Conny Plank and in the booklet which came with In Reflection I was saying all I need now is to meet Conny and, you know, that would be great to work with him and then the guy went and died. And I thought it was really sad and I was in Paris about two weeks ago and I've got these great Balle sunglasses which make everything look like heaven and there...
D: Pardon me?
M: I've got these great Balle sunglasses which got yellow glass in them which makes everything look like heaven...
D: Oh I see.
M: And I was looking up at the clouds and I was in Jar-de-Luxembourg {ed. note: no idea how to spell that} in the middle of Paris and I was looking up at the clouds and for some reason Conny Plank, I just imagined Conny Plank in heaven, you know. I wrote the lyrics sitting there and the melody and everything. I mean I put the chords to it when I got home but the melody and the lyrics I just wrote sitting there and its about him, good old Conny. And it's kind of interesting, because it's not a sort of really deeply sad song about a dead guy, you know, it's sort of a cute song about a...it's just having a memory of somebody and I think its interesting to write a sort of really cute song about somebody who died.
D: Well that's the Irish in you. I can tell there's Irish...Irish wakes celebrate the fact that they were her and they're off somewhere else doing Lord knows what.
{ed. note: what ensues next is some commotion over the next song}
M: I don't know if anybody realizes this, but I know the songs so badly that I'm playing, that all the songs I'm reading the lyrics...
D: Marty, I'd be proud to be your page turner.
M: I'm reading them from this original notebook here which happens to have the last verse and last chorus over there so when I get to...get to "like" then you turn the page over for me.
D: This is like Jane Austen. You know she's always got people turning pages in her novels.
M: Has she? Hmm. Well here we go. This is a bit of a funny one as I've hurt my thumb and I've got to do this finger picking part. Got a bit of a gash on my thumb and I don't know how I did it. Okay, "Conny Plank". Hope you're listening, Conny.
{Marty performs "Conny Plank"}
D: What a lovely testimonial for someone...
M: That finger picking part was really hard...
D: And you do have a gash on your thumb there. Marty Willson-Piper my guest with me on "SNAP" tonight. We're actually on tape on a Saturday afternoon, the sun is shining and we're in the studio. Jeff Sikes is, as always, my engineer, taking care of things for me. And we have to get you to soundcheck and Joe Frank back in here. You sure you don't want to play "She's King"?
M: {Groan}
D: Okay. I just wanted to ask. All you have to do is say no. But you've got one more of your new ones to do.
M: Just have Jeff turn my guitar mike off as I want to tune this guitar up.
D: Okay. I think he's got it off.
M: This is the old tuning the guitar to E trick.
D: That's not one I'm familiar with, not one I recall.
M: Pardon?
D: Once upon a time...or lets see...what can I talk about so I won't distract you?
M: That's alright...I mean I can do it and talk at the same time. It's very easy...
D: Well I imagine you can, squire. Of all the things that have been going on in this last extended Church tour you've been doing as you guys approach gold with this new album what's been the best and what's been the worst part of it? I'm asking Marty Willson-Piper, the only person in the world I know whose bangs are longer than mine.
M: Yeah. I can't find anyone to cut my hair.
D: I can find her I just can't find the time to get to her. Worst and best time?
M: Well if you're in a city for one day for weeks on end then its hard to find...I mean most people have regular places they go to have things done like getting your shoes repaired, fixing your teeth, getting your hair cut and all the stuff like that but I'm a kind of constant nomad...
D: You know what has always amazed me about traveling rock bands? You've got John Goudenov who takes care of your guitars and things for The Church. Bands always have technicians who take care of the wood and string and metal equipment. I have long believed that to maintain the band should have whatever you call it; a butler, a valet, a nanny. Someone should be there taking care of the most important equipment in the band which is the human beings.
M: I'm gonna give you my manager's phone number.
D: Mr. Lembo? I've been telling agents this for years, you know.
M: I'm into it.
D: There should be someone...well you guys are all vegetarians. I remember when you last came to LA you were bloody starving to death because you'd been out in America where it's hard to find anything but iceberg lettuce.
M: Yeah. Six pages of menus and nothing to eat.
D: There should be someone going ahead...you want another soda? You want another juice?
M: No.
D: There should be someone out in advance taking care of the most important equipment in the band.
M: I'll pay you $2,000 a week to do it.
D: Oh, you're still not into my price range. {laughs} No, I was going to say something and I shouldn't...I'll just get you to play a song. Marty Willson-Piper my guest on "SNAP". Actually you could probably afford that now. You're turning into a real rock star.
M: Oh come on! {laughs}
D: I'm gonna be sitting there on the floor of my little hovel in Santa Monica with my book of Kandinski (sp) forever and you'll have a Kandinski (sp) museum in your house. Well that's one thing. I've said this on the air when you're not in town but I should run this by you face to face because when I play your music I describe you this way. That you're not only a fabulous guitar player with The Church and on your own in solo but that you're also drop dead good looking and a person with whom one can talk full tilt Kandinski (sp). Not a bad combination of elements, Mr. Willson-Piper.
M: It's all education, isn't it? {heavy British accent}
D: Well, I suppose. Curiosity. {copies the accent}
M: Curiosity and education. I was just having a conversation with Victor about that.
D: Victor Ortez. Long time "SNAP" helper. By the time this is on the air he'll be in Japan.
M: Right. About the fact that if you've got a choice between a line of cocaine or a book by Albert Camus, that the stimulation from the latter is far, far superior and why on earth don't people realize that? This is called "To Where I Am Now". It's cappoed on the second fret and the guitar tuned to E, it's an old trick I learned from Jimmy Page. How does it go? Right...
{Marty performs "To Where I Am Now"}
D: What a lovely life to that song. If I were trying to be a rock critic, I suppose I would call it a great dynamic or something. What life!
M: It's quite uplifting.
D: It goes through some nice flows and changes there. Marty Willson-Piper...
M: Just because it's tuned to E.
D: Yeah that's all there is to it. And it's cappoed on the second fret. Nothing to do with you whatever. {sarcastic tone} Marty Willson-Piper, I can't thank you enough for coming and doing this.
M: That's alright. I've actually probably learned a couple more lyrics to these songs and I almost played the chords right.
D: Well glad to be of service. The chords sounded fine. We've got to get you back to soundcheck for the show at the Palladium tonight so that big Mike doesn't take me apart later.
M: Big Mike and...
{Deirdre runs through some info on the next show}
D: Pick a song. I'm going to go out of this tape with a song from Art Attack. Which one should I play?
M: Um. Well...
D: Art Attack, Marty's new CD on Rykodisc, which includes almost half of the previous album In Reflection. I like that you took advantage of the space on the CD. Us consumers thank you, Marty.
M: There you go. But people should go buy the other album if they can find it because it's got the booklet.
D: The booklet is great.
M: I'm into "Too Round to Be Square".
D: I love that one.
M: I'm really into that track. It's all soft and smooth and all that but it's just got a good feeling to it...
D: Rather enigmatic too...
M: I like a lot of songs on the record...{laughs} I like a lot of songs on the record. {using a "gee really?" tone} But if you're gonna ask me about the kind of things I'm doing here then maybe "Too Round to Be Square" is kind of appropriate because...do you know why I say that? It's a song I can't do live, it's a song I can't play, it's a song that needs a band. I'm gonna do some acoustic gigs next week, next month...
D: September '88.
M: Yeah and that's one I'd love to do and I know people like that song a lot but its got drum machine and keyboards and really soft, beautiful vocals...really Pink-Floydy type song. And I can't play it live. So I think the radio should have every opportunity it can to let people hear that tune...I'm sure people would like it.
D: I shall do my best. Well there are some songs that are live songs and some songs are studio songs. You are going to at least come to LA to do a show somewhere aren't you? Say yes. I know you're playing on the east coast.
M: I'd like to. The only reason I'm doing an east coast tour is because...I'm doing this with two people, by the way. One is Andy, who's on the album who is gonna do the harmonies and set guitar which makes the whole thing much fuller. The only reason I'm doing that is because the Church tour finishes on the east coast. He lives in London, can fly there reasonably cheaply and it's not gonna cost us a lot to do it whereas if I start thinking about the west coast again it becomes...at this stage I really can't afford it I think. I also only have a week to do it in really and then The Church starts up again.
D: Well the next break in your Church tour come to the west coast...
M: Yeah I'm considering it.
D: We'd love to have you here. I can't thank you enough for coming and doing this for me on "SNAP".
M: Thank you.
D: My pleasure. So we're gonna listen to "Too Round to Be Square". I think I've asked you all the official questions I need to so all I need to do is say thank you very much and let you know you are always welcome at KCRW.
M: Hopefully those songs will be on my next album. I mean by the time the album comes around to being recorded maybe I will have written another pile. But that is what those are supposed to be.
D: Tell me again the title of the last one you played.
M: "To Where I Am Now".
D: "To Where I Am Now". Marty Willson-Piper, thank you very much. This is "Too Round to Be Square" from the Art Attack album on "SNAP".