October 2001: Procol Radio Marathon from UCLA

Transcript of the complete Matthew Fisher interview

Interview Between Guest Disk Jockey 'Number Six' and Matthew Fisher – uclaradio.com Procol Harum Marathon #2 – 14 October 2001, here presented in two episodes, of which this is the second; of course we have compressed the sound clips to aid downloading … the original broadcast quality was impeccable.

DJ No 6
Last month, when I interviewed Gary Brooker he spoke of a new Procol Harum album in the works. Can you tell us anything about it?

Matthew Fisher
He hasn’t said anything to me about it. I don’t know what he’s got in mind.

Well, apparently he was going to meet with some people, regarding it, but ...

Oh, I see. Well maybe that’s it. Maybe he’s just talking about it from kind of a business venture. That’s something I haven’t spoken to him about. In fact, I could have done 'cos we went over to see him the other day. But it wasn’t something that came up.

It certainly would be something the fans I think would be obviously very excited about.

Well, I’ll tell you one thing I think maybe Gary ought to think about, and that is the whole business of do you really need a record company these days? I mean, because there are an awful lot of people now just selling their stuff on the Internet.

Well he has Gazza records, that’s his company isn’t it?

Oh yeah. When I say record companies, I’m taking about majors, you know. The only thing you’d really want one of those lot for is if you’re anticipating really heavy recording costs and you want some front-money, but if there’s some way you can do it without that, or if you can finance it yourself or whatever, then you really don’t need that sort of an organization and you’re going to end up with a much bigger slice of the cake and probably a lot more control and a lot less headaches. So I’d be really ... quite excited if he’d want to do it that way rather than the way we did do it last time.

I have this concept in my mind, having listened to your group for many years, and I know you have quite a lot of songs that you’ve played in concert, but were never officially released, many of which you were involved with. I’m thinking of some lovely songs like Stoke Poges, Robe of Silk. I know that you’ve resurrected So Far Behind on some of your recent concert tours. There are other songs: One Eye on the Future, I’m a Reader and a Writer, Last Train to Niagara - which I really like - I heard you play that, here in Los Angeles at the Greek Theatre.

I never liked that one.

You never did? Well, I liked it because I grew up near Niagara Falls. I grew up in Buffalo, New York and so many times I went and visited Niagara - there actually is a train that goes to Niagara - so I’ve been on that train.

I like So Far Behind.

It’s a great song.

Well, I was listening to that. I was watching the - I don’t know if you know that the gig we did at the Kremlin was videoed, and I’ve been sent a video of that, and I went round to see Matt Pegg the other day ... and we were playing it, and sort of watching it, listening to it, and when that song came on, I was quite surprised. It sounded better than I was expecting. I think it worked out quite well that way.

It’s a great song. Then I also understand there were some tapes done on demos prior to --- I guess this was from 1976 --- the Something Magic album, which I guess you weren’t involved with --- but there were a number of songs from some Miami tape that I’ve never heard: A la Carte, Fish Dinner for Two, Musical Fish --- a lot of fish stuff there or something ... You’d Better Wait. It would be lovely, if Procol Harum took these songs and came out with an album - I’m going to call it a concept album called Lost Songs Found. Where you take sort of all these older songs that you’d been playing in concert and put them all together on an album - you could put it on Gazza, or something like that.

Have you heard Into the Flood?

Yes. Yes I have.

I think that was sort of an out-take from Prodigal Stranger.

Right. That actually appeared as a single, I think, on a German release of a couple of the other songs from Prodigal Stranger.

But was it just a studio version?

There was a studio version, yeah, that was actually officially released.

It’s one of these songs that we always seem to do when we’re playing with an orchestra.

It’s wonderful, too. I’ve heard it with an orchestra.

Someone’s done sort of a ... really kind of amazing orchestral arrangement for it. And when we’re playing with an orchestra ... We never do it when we’re not playing with an orchestra. That’s it. It’s just one of those songs we play if we’ve got an orchestra handy. And I wonder if there was going to be an album it might be an idea sort of ... finding some of the live tapes we’ve got of that number and sticking that on it.

Sure.

'Cause it really works with the orchestra.

Well that’s my plea ... is to open up the vaults and bring out some of these songs that you’ve played in concert ... that are so wonderful ... but never had official releases on albums. And you could call it Lost Songs Found or something like that.

I must confess, I would be more excited if it was actually going to be new material.

Yeah. Oh, I would too. That would be the most exciting. Obviously.

Apart from anything else, it would involve me (laughs). Because, I mean, it’s not going to involve me if it is isn’t new material. Because I think everything I’ve ever wrote with them has been released.

I think that’s what the fans are hoping for is if there is a new album, that there is new material. And certainly the current line-up sounds great with you and Geoff Whitehorn, and Matt Pegg, and Mark Brzezicki, and Gary - You really look like you’re having a lot of fun at some of these new concerts.

Yeah. It really seems to be kind of jelling now and the Hell’s Blues Club gig was a real kind of tester in a way because we didn't actually rehearse for that one. We were all sort of wondering exactly what was going to happen when we got out on stage, because we hadn’t played for a few weeks. And as usual, Gary only decides about five minutes before we go on what we’re going to play, and even then he changes his mind half way through, so there were a few tense moments there, but it actually all came together really nicely. So, I think we may be on to something with this line-up.

Great, well we hope to hear new material from you. And would be very excited if that happens.
 

Now I have several of your solo albums. I have five of your solo albums. Do you think you’ll be doing any more solo work in the future?

Ha ... Well, I’m sort of on the horns of a dilemma at the moment I can’t really make my mind up. I’m thinking at the moment. I’ve been wondering for some time about getting a Hammond. I haven’t had a Hammond of my own, not since ooh about 1968 ... to have to practise on anymore. And, I was seriously thinking about maybe getting myself one and spending a bit of time playing it and thinking up some ideas. There are so many kinds of ... unknowns in my life at the moment, in terms of what I’m actually going to be doing, even where am I going to be living. Because I mean I’m planning on getting married ... well certainly within the next year.

Well, congratulations.

To an American lady. And we haven’t really decided yet where we’re going to live. Whether we’re going to live in America or whether we’re going to live in England; and I suspect we’ll probably be moving around a bit.

Where does she live in America?

In New Jersey. It’s that kind of part of the country, you know the sort of ... what they call the Tri-State area. In fact, she hasn’t really seen much else of America ... I’ve seen more of America than she has. She’s just been stuck in that little bit of it all her life. But I did actually drag her out to San Francisco a couple of years ago. You know, saying, you’ve never been to the west coast; well we’ve got to go to San Francisco. She loved it there.

It is wonderful out here. I’m a transplant. I used to live on the East Coast of the United States and have lived out here for years.

The sad thing I find with Americans is that I feel Americans really take America for granted. I mean, I feel that they’re living in this huge, fantastic country and if it was me I’d just want to travel around and see all of it, and they just seem to stay, 'Oh, I like my little bit.' They just stay there all their lives. And I just think it’s insane.

I understand that you went back to school not too long ago to get a degree in computers and are a computer programmer. So how do you spend your time?

It was about ten years, actually. Time marches on. I graduated in 1995, which is six years ago. What were you saying ?

So how do you spend your time now in terms of music versus other things? Are you still doing computer programming?

Well I am. But I never really ... really gone in to it 100%. I mean, I did actually have a job for about two years, during which time Procol didn’t seem to do any work, really. And I must admit, I did thoroughly enjoy it, but that all came to an end about a year or so ago. And since then, I’ve just been doing odd things for odd people, you know. But I haven’t actually had a full time computer job and I keep wondering if I ought to go back to that; but then if I did it would make life a bit difficult for doing Procol stuff and it would mean that I would have to sort of forget about doing any more musical stuff. Again, it’s this – you know, my life’s a bit of a mess at the moment. I really have got to make some decisions and start planning things properly to try and fit in all the things I really want to do and decide what is – you know – a priority.
 

There is also this intersection between computers and music and I think that the Internet has played such a huge role in changing things. And I think the Internet has been very important also in terms of uniting all the Procol Harum fans out there around the world.

Yeah, the funny thing is, although in a way it was the music that got me into computers, when I sort of switched to studying computers, I kind of lost interest in the stuff like MIDI and sequencing and all that kind of stuff. I haven’t done anything like that for ages. And in a way, I think the reason I did this was because I felt I was getting too into the sort of technical side of it. And, for me, that is a bit dangerous with music, because you can end up just getting far too into the technical side: I would spend hours just editing away at a sort of high-hat part or something. Adjusting velocities of individual beats and timings and just getting really silly on it. Whereas, I find when you’re doing what I would call mainstream computer work, you’re dealing with databases, whatever, interactive programmes for clients to use, there’s not that same danger. You know what it has to do. You know when you’ve done it. You know when it’s finished. And you can say, Right, that’s it, it’s done. But with music as I said, there is this danger for me that I can get far too into the technical side and completely lose sight of the musical side. And I think that’s why I’ve tried to steer away from it. Why I prefer when I do music, I mean, like going out with Procol; all I play is Hammond; I don’t even have a synth any more. It’s all very old fashioned analogue stuff and I try and keep the computer and music in two separate boxes. But I agree with what you’re saying about the Internet. I think the Internet is fantastic as far as what it’s done for music and especially for what it’s done to weaken the power of the major record companies. And I say more power to its elbow as far as that’s concerned.

Well Matthew, I’d like to just thank you again for agreeing to come on the show today. Your music has meant so much to us. I mean, you really have created this wonderful, original sound that has been so special to all Procol Harum fans. And ... very excited about some of the discussion we’ve had earlier, as I mentioned, about the possibility of a new album. We certainly hope we hear new material from Procol Harum and maybe some releases of some of the older gems as well. And we wish you all the best in the future.

Oh, well, thanks very much.