Graeme Downes

Extracts from a winter 1990 college radio interview in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recorded outside the 7th Street Entry club after a concert during the Verlaines' first U.S. tour.

Audio clips (.mp3 format)
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on classical influences -- 2:27

on the New Zealand touring scene -- 2:16

a bit of Dunedin music history -- 2:08


On the songwriting process:

"Usually it's the music that turns up first and the lyrics get directed towards it later, but sometimes the lyrics come at exactly the same time... Every song has a different path to how it comes into being, really. There's no set way that I sit down and try and do it and if there was a set way that I could sit down and do it then I'd probably produce a heck of a lot more songs [laughs], but the core of the matter is that when I'm painfully slow, it's just because just about every song I come to ends up being a totally new thing that I have no experience with because it's a new direction, so I can't churn out a great volume of production."


On experimenting with different styles:

"If there's a musical style that I start getting interested in then I've got a couple of problems. First of all I've got to master how to do it, and secondly I've got to work out how to transfer it to a three-piece band, which is such a minimal way of doing things, and it's not terribly suited to a lot of musical styles, so, you know, it makes life difficult."


On line-up changes:

"There was a period of limbo where we weren't sure what we were going to do after Jane left... I had a lot of songs sitting around ready to go for a new album and I wanted to record them some way or another and then Mike finally turned up of his own accord to take the position and he fitted in pretty quickly so we carried on. It pretty much ended up being the same as Robbie leaving, for various reasons, health and personal, which was unfortunate, but that's the way it went."

"I didn't do a search when Jane left. I just basically left it open. There were a couple of interviews that happened where I said well you know, "Jane's left and we're not doing anything right now," sorta wondering what we're gonna do. Mike came up and volunteered his services - Mike Stoodley who's the present bass player - and it worked out okay. Robby, as I said, left a short time ago for health and personal reasons. Unfortunate. He very much named Steve Cournane, our present drummer, as the heir apparent to the drummer's stool. [ laughs ] He knew Steve quite well. They grew up together in the same part of the country which is just south of Dunedin and Robbie actually taught Steve to drum earlier on. So Robbie said "Steve's the man to do the job!" when he left and basically set it up with Steve to take over the moment he departed, so it was a very smooth transition to Steve drumming.... "


On the relevance of Jane's back-up vocals:

"Jane was living in a different town and we could never practice, so when it came to 'live' performance we were unrehearsed in a lot of respects and quite often the backing vocals never turned up on our 'live' performance because we just weren't confident enough in the 'live' situation... The backing vocal thing with Jane was very much a studio thing which didn't always happen in a 'live' situation.... But yeah, I can't deny it either that it was a really important point, and losing Jane, that was a really hard thing to come to grips with because she had been the bass player really from day one when the band was up and running and doing anthing worthwhile. So it was a hard break to make and it took a period of grieving, if you like, before we - I - could accept carrying on without Jane in the band. But after that, you know, we managed to carry on. But yeah, it was an integral part and the band's changed a little bit but then again, Steve's taken on a lot of backing vocals stuff from behind the drums and he's doing quite well with it. It's just that it's another male voice. But then again, you know, there are a lot of songs on record that had double parts with my own voice and double track harmonies and we're finding that our voices - Steve's and mine - are mixing quite well, so that part of the studio thing is now coming into play in the 'live' situation. So we lost something but we gained something."

on the U.S. experience:

"The fast food chains aren't as bad as you think they are. You should hear of the takeaway food in New Zealand. [ laughs ] Daytime tv sucks. You should do something about your pollution problems. Apart from that it's a great place. It's wonderful. Lovely really... exciting place to be."



Interview conducted by Lon Payne of Minneapolis radio station KABL.