Tuttifrutti - July , 1984
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Interview by S. Gunn | |
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| Reverse translation from Italian |
| In a day of May, sunny as usual, I’m visiting Zappa who, sitting in striking Bermuda shorts and T-shirt, is bustling about the studio he got built right underneath his house. |
| What are you composing in this period, what was the music that I just heard in the studio? |
| Oh, that’s Francesco Zappa! |
| Famous in Italy, isn’t it? |
| Really? |
| I don’t know, I’m asking you… |
| Oh, you don’t know anything about Francesco… He was a composer of the eighteenth century from Milan, a contemporary of Mozart, and that’s his music. I’m storing it in the computer to get an album. |
| It seemed to me very beautiful… |
| Yes, it’s beautiful: it’s part of the Opus 4 for string trio. |
| Was he a kin of yours? |
| Probably yes. |
| Don’t you know? |
| Well, I didn’t do a research on my family tree, but my family comes from Sicily and, even if he is from Milan, his opus is dedicated to Piano Patensiano, which is in Sicily, and this indicates that he probably went there in person and probably he fucked some girl, so you never know… |
| What is your record company now? |
| I’m about to sign with MCA for the United States and with London Records, which is distributed by Phonogram, for other countries. However, I haven’t signed any contract yet. |
| What is music? |
| The best ▶. |
| That’s all? |
| That’s all. |
| There are so many types of music: are all the best? |
| Music is the best thing. |
| As an artistic expression? |
| Yes. |
| Is there, or should there be, a distinction between rock and modern music? |
| Yes, most of rock is designed as a product but ultimately most of modern music is at once conceived as a product. There is an unhappy similarity on the reasons why people do these two things… anyhow, I think rock music is more a product. |
| And what about yours? |
| My music is conceived for other purposes. The purpose of entertaining those people who aren’t amused by that type of product but by that type of style. |
| Among your recent musical experiences, which has been the most significant? |
| The two years in which I worked on the so-called serious music, and working in this world was significant because it showed me that this world is really sick, and that’s why I want to play live again. |
| So, are you planning a tour? |
| Yes, rehearsals will begin next Monday and we’ll be touring the United States this summer. |
| So you’ll miss the Olympic Games. |
| No, because during the Olympic Games we’ll work for a week right in Los Angeles, at the Palace. |
| Will you bring Francesco Zappa on tour? |
| No, there’s a complete group. Napoleon Murphy Brock, who was playing with me years ago, is back. Ike Willis, Ray White, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman and Bobby Martin are the other members of the group. |
| Do you still like to play guitar? |
| Yes, even if it’s been a while since I don’t play it. |
| With all the electronic devices you got and which are available on the market, will your guitar style change? |
| No, because I’ve got these devices for years, I’m used to them. And there are only a few sounds that I care to get from the guitar. Someone connect them to the synthesizers, but I’ve never heard anything beautiful as a result, so it doesn’t intrigue me much. |
| How do you think the world of record companies should be restructured? |
| I know for sure that it should be restructured, but I haven’t prepared any action plan. Right now, it’s pretty disgusting; but we must also consider that business, in general, lacks any kind of integrity or scruple, so music business is like oil business or the shoes one… they’re all cheaters. |
| Do you think that the businessmen in the musical world have a genuine interest in music or are they just looking for money? |
| They don’t care. I’ve never seen anyone in a managerial position who cared about music. All of them hate music and, what’s worse, they hate musicians. The fact that they say the opposite and that they treat you kindly during a party doesn’t mean anything, they actually hate you. |
| Since people don’t rely on their own taste while buying a record, but it’s rather a result of massive radio and television promotional manipulation, don’t you think it would be worthwhile to promote better music, since people would buy it anyhow? |
| No, I think people have the right to listen to the music they like independently of its value, but the problem of mass media is that they glorify ignorance to the highest degree, and nowadays the only symbol indicating quality is the number of units sold. But if you’re really curious to know where the music stands, you have to go out and look for it, you have to know that what you hear on the radio is just the emerging part of a huge iceberg, there’s plenty of other stuff available, but only few record stores keep it in their catalogs and you have to find it by yourself. But most people are too lazy to do so, therefore everything goes to hell. |
| Do you like Steven Spielberg’s movies? |
| No, in particular the lights, I find them revolting, and the values expressed in the movies are so depressively sub-urban. But I really like Indiana Jones movies. |
| You know that everybody thinks you live in the Valley, especially after the song and the movie “Valley Girl”… |
| Well, it’s a mere demonstration of how reliable mass media are. |
| What is your favorite band, if there is one? |
| I don’t listen to any band. |
| When will we see a video of Zappa on MTV? |
| I’m getting ready to do one, I hope in the next six weeks. |
| Do you like MTV? |
| No, but my video will talk about what you see on MTV. The name of the song is “Be in my video” ▲ and it’s about all the nonsense that you see over and over again on the videos, all this will be in my video, except that it’s done in a very morbid way. |
| What are your future projects? |
| On Saturday I’ll go to San Francisco to attend the performance of one of my chamber music pieces, then I’ll do the things I’ve said before, then in mid-July my ballet music will be performed at Berkeley. |
| Is it modern dance? |
| Yes, a lot. |
| Like Twyla Tharp? |
| No, it goes beyond the human body. For now we only intend to execute it at Berkeley, the ballet is too expensive and nobody wants to invest money on it, and we’ll have this chance just because there’s someone in Berkeley who’s crazy. There are three people in the orchestra hole, which is unreal, while on stage, instead of dancers, there are puppets, bigger than a person, operated by 10 dancers dressed in black. There are 40 puppets operated by 10 dancers, three of the pieces will be premiered in US, another will be premiered in the world. The sequence of the show is “Bob in Dacron & Sad Jane”, “Mo and Herb’s vacation”, “Sinister footwear”, “Pedro’s dowry”. |
| How much musical material do you have in the stock waiting to be turned into records? |
| More than you can hear. There is a room, bigger than this, chock full of stuff which is still unpublished. |
| Is it all live material? |
| Yes. |
| Are you sorry for this? |
| No, it’s better to set it aside than to throw it away. At least everything is recorded and it isn’t gone forever. |
| Now that your children have grown up, do they influence you in any way? |
| They don’t have much influence on me. I did “Valley girl” with Moon but she isn’t really interested in music. I could work with Dweezil, as he’s a guitarist. |
| Will he be in your group? |
| No, he likes heavy metal. |
| And do you like heavy metal? |
| Well, something is not bad. I like Van Halen, Rats and I really liked the first Black Sabbath records. |
| Any plans for a tour in Italy? |
| We discussed it, but the problem of touring in Italy is that you cannot rely on the promoters. Unpleasant experiences are ongoing. If we could find someone who will pay us the due amount in the due time, then we would come to Italy, yes, because I like to play in Italy more than in any other country in the world. The problem lies in the lack of reliability of the organizers, which is not a small issue. Anyway, I’ll see if anything can be done. |
English text from site Zappa Books. |