5. Scott WalkerScott 3
That’s full of amazing songs. ’30 Century Man’, that’s a great song in itself. It’s just a complete world unto itself. I got into that around the time I was getting into the Ligeti-style, Debussy-style dissonance of orchestras just playing these long static drones and that’s why that album’s so weird.
The songs are really sentimental songs for housewives, but the lyrics are really weird and they’ve got these really uncomfortable drones underneath them. What a phenomenal, weird album to make. Especially as he started poppy and then went weird. To me, that’s my favourite era of his, where he wasn’t fully nuts at that point, there was still some pop sensibility. I love the new stuff, but it’s definitely less ubiquitous.
The stuff with Sunn O))) is amazing. The sound on that is heavy as fuck, that Scott O))) record. If I could get a guitar sound like that I’d probably never use a synth ever again.
I don’t like to put myself in one category really. When I’ve used guitars before people are so incredulous, as if I’m a rapper who’s suddenly made an opera, but guitars and electronics have gone together over sixty years, so I’m surprised people think it’s that radical to be honest. Personally I’m not so into the guitar playing, I’m more into piano and drums. I’m into it as a sound source, just completely pulling it apart still interests me, but it’s mainly about drums and piano for me.
