The New Cue #467 February 17: The Waterboys' Mike Scott
"I’d like to know what the world felt like 50,000 years ago"
Good morning,
In today’s edition, Waterboys ringleader and rock’n’roll magus Mike Scott takes on our Life & Times questionnaire. And there is a lot to draw on for Mike, an Edinburgh-born 66-year-old whose whole career has been rooted in inspired restless creativity. Their early Big Music, Whole Of The Moon-period made his band huge, which would’ve been enough for some people, but not Mike. Over four decades since, he’s constantly sought out new adventures, the band’s sound taking in folk-pop, Celtic soul, rousing rock and punky anthems.
His latest opus is titled Life, Death And Dennis Hopper and it’s an absolute hoot, a concept record out in April that guides us through the life of the late Apocalypse Now and Easy Rider icon and featuring guest appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and more.
Last week, Niall had a morning coffee with Mike in the bar of his Kensington hotel and heard how the experience of diving into elements of Hopper’s life reminded Mike of some of his own testing chapters.
“We’re very different characters, but there was on period that did remind me of me,” he explained, sipping on his espresso. “He made a film called The Last Movie in 1970-71, just after his success with Easy Rider, and he took so long finishing it, so long editing it, that the moment passed and he got bogged down and lost his perspective. It reminded me of when I made the Fisherman’s Blues record with The Waterboys. I don’t think the reasons for my delay were the same in my case as Dennis’s case, we were very different personalities, but I had that experience of getting bogged down in something that I cannot finish, and then the moment’s passed, time has changed.”
Of course, Fisherman’s Blues is now regarded as a Waterboys classic, and Mike is currently working on an extensive reissue digging up some previously-unreleased outtakes. That’s generally how it goes for him these days, bouncing from new records to archival campaigns and always keeping himself busy.
We best not keep him, then. Let’s crack on but before we do, here’s a reminder that today’s edition is free for all to enjoy but you can help keep our steady supply of interviews, recommendations, Q&As and playlists coming your way by becoming a paying subscriber. It only costs £5 a month and you get full access to all our editions as well as our mammoth archive. Go on:
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Enjoy the edition,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Mike Scott
What was the first record you loved?
She Loves You by The Beatles, I was four or five years old.
And the last?
It was Anderson East’s Say I Love You, from their new record. Very beautiful record, a combination of melody and emotion, the classic components.
What is your earliest memory?
Being in my front garden with our dog, Dodger. Good name for a dog. It was in a house that we had in Corstorphine in Edinburgh. I was two, maybe.
What is your daily domestic routine?
If my daughter is staying with me, which is a lot of the time, she’s 11, I get up at seven and then I get her up, a process takes a little bit of time, ‘it’s been 10 minutes now, I’ll be back in five minutes’. She gets up at 7.45am and by that time I’ve had my breakfast and then I take her to school, and then I’m back home about 8.45am.
I have a studio in the house. I used to have a studio that was a few streets away, a nice big flat full of music stuff. But then people moved in upstairs and I couldn’t make loud noise anymore so I commandeered a space in the house which was available. I just got so used to working at home, I don’t have to think, ‘Oh, I’ll go to the studio’, I just go into the room and the creativity is like the lamp is lit all the time. If I don’t have a project, I’ll get a bit fed up and get a bit bored. But generally, I’ve got something going on whether it’s a new song cooking or got some updates to do on a record, or I’ve got an archive project. There’s almost always something going so, I’ll spend a lot of time in there.
I live in Dublin, I live quite near the city so some days, if I’m not collecting my daughter from school, I might go into town. I’ve got favourite restaurant, Dunne and Crescenzi, that I like to have my lunch in. But as much as possible, working or hanging out with my daughter.
Who or what is the love of your life?
I would say my children. I have two children, 11 and eight.
What's your worst habit?
My worst habit is probably picking at my hands, these callouses in my hand. I’ve got a lot of them. It’s something I’ve done all my life. I think it’s to remind me I’m here in moments of stress. It would’ve been since I was in that garden with Dodger! They’re all over my hands and they’re also symmetrical. It’s sore, but it’s a nice sore.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
Now, my life now.
What’s your desert island disc?
I Am The Walrus.
Has anyone you've met ever made you feel starstruck?
No, I was thinking about this one. I’ve met Bob Dylan. I met Patti Smith, who was my favourite artist when I was 19, but I wasn’t starstruck. I was 26 or 27 when I met Bob. I did try and meet him in the Royal Garden Hotel, across the road from here, after I saw him at Earl’s Court. My mate and I followed his bus through the streets. There was a lot of traffic and we were able to follow the bus from Earl’s Court and he was parked outside the Royal Garden. We went in and we went into the bar, and Bob was at the other side. It was 1978 and it was the punk days, we were used to going backstage and blagging our way in and talking to bands who were only a year older than us. We tried that tactic with Bob and we walked across the big bar at the Hyde Park end of the hotel and we walked through the bar, getting closer, and he was sitting there with three guys. One of them was Steve Soles, who was a guitar player who’d been on the Rolling Thunder tour and was the main musical arranger on his ‘78 tour. We got about 10 yards from him and suddenly two big heavy blokes appeared in front of us. But then I did meet him seven years later and I was not starstruck. I felt Bob probably has so many people going, ‘Oh my god, you’re Bob Dylan!’ and ‘Oh my god, I made love to your song, I named my children after you!’, that it would be really great if I was with Bob, I’d just say, ‘How you doing Bob, you alright?’ and that’s what I was like.
Who or what is the greatest influence on your work?
Probably Bob Dylan and that 60s generation of British rockers like The Who and The Beatles and the Stones.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I’m an archivist. Maybe they wouldn’t be surprised because I can archive these old Waterboys projects, but when I lived at the Findhorn Community in Scotland, a spiritual community I lived at for a while, I was the community’s archivist. Because the community had all this history, it’d been there since the early 60s, they did all these conferences and different kinds of workshops and publications and I would say to people, ‘Is there a list of these?’ and there was never any list, there was never any history of being kept. And I did something about it, I assembled all the materials and put all the facts together and I made this huge document called The Living Record, which is still in the community and used, listing all the events, all the publications, all the people who are in charge of this department or that department, every piece of historical information that seemed notable, I compiled in this document.
What are you scared of?
I don’t want to be one of these guys who says I’m scared of nothing, but I can’t think of anything I’m scared of. I have a respect for things like death or illness, but I wouldn’t say I’m scared of them.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
At first, I thought I’d go to 1966-67, that heyday of pop culture. But I think if I really could, if I’d go back thousands of years because I’d like to know if there was an advanced technological civilization before this one. Some people say that there was. I’d like to know what the world felt like 50,000 years ago, 200,000 years ago.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
To trust myself, trust my inner instincts. So many times in my life, if I follow my inner instinct, the right things happen or I find myself in the right relation to events, and if I don’t, at times when I ignore that instinct, I make mistakes. I once hired the wrong manager and my instinct was, ‘Don’t sign with this chap’. I liked the guy but underneath, I felt it wasn’t the right fit for me and I ignored that instinct inside and thought, ‘What if I’m wrong, let’s try it’, and made a mistake and paid for it.
What one book would you recommend we read?
Everybody needs to read different books, it’s impossible to say that everybody should read a particular book, but I can recommend The Forsyte Saga, which I’m reading right now. I remember it from the 1960s when I was a kid, it was one of the first period dramas on the BBC and it was huge at the time. It comes from a series of novels, nine novels I believe, by John Galsworthy, a British novelist. I was in London a few months ago and I was staying in the Laslett Hotel up in Notting Hill. It’s one of these hotels where they have old paperbacks in the rooms. I like that, and I didn’t have a book to read. One of the books in the room was one of the volumes of The Forsyte Saga, from the middle of the series. It’s set between about 1880 and 1930 and it’s the story of the generations of an English family set mostly in London. And so I read this book that I found in the hotel room and it was magnificent. I just thought it would a while away a few hours and I might remember bits of the TV show that I saw as a kid but my god, the quality of the writing, the combination of humour and drama, and also it was ideologically sound. He was writing in the 1920s but there was a social conscience to it, it was very ahead of its time. The next thing I did was I went online and I ordered the entire series, so at the moment I’m working way through.
What was the home you grew up in like?
When I look back at it, I divide it into before my dad left and after my dad left. My dad left home when I was eight and every now and again, something will happen to me, I’ll be in a situation where I’ll get a feeling of belonging and ease with something and it reminds me of that time before my dad left, when both parents were there. There was a reliability and consistency to my existence, both parents were still there. And then my dad left and that was weird and it was difficult and I grew up as a single child with my mum and I was the man of the house and of course that became what I was used to. But every now and again, I get this little memory tweak of what it was like before. So I divide it into the two, pre-dad bunking off and post-dad.
How do you spark creativity?
It’s there all the time, I’m glad to say, it’s a beautiful thing. It used to be that I would have to think about it or not so much plan ahead but it wouldn’t flow when I wanted it to and sometimes I’d try and work on something and nothing would happen so I would stop. I suppose when I was even younger, if nothing would happen, I would keep battering away and I would get a writer’s block. I learned not to work when I got a writer’s block, just wait until it starts coming again. I learned that a long time ago. But now, because of the music room in the house, and also because of my children, because I’ve been making up songs with my children or making up stories for them, it’s just on all the time. Also, the use of the computer changes it because all my writing used to be in notepads or pieces of paper or sketchbooks and now it’s my computer, and when we finish the interview, I’ll go upstairs and I’ll check my emails but I could just as easily open various files with things I’m working on, the sleevenotes for the archive record I’m working on, something to do with Dennis Hopper that’s coming up. It’s on, it’s a wonderful thing.
Do you mind getting older?
I’ve two answers to that. Mentally and spiritually, I like getting older. I get more awareness, more breadth of consciousness to process reality, if you know what I mean, and that keeps moving, keeps expanding, I keep learning and so I’m very happy with that. Bodily-wise, of course, I’m not so happy because I’m not as proof against travel as I used to be, there’s creaks and aches and pains here and there, there’s always something going on, a bit like the creativity, there’s always something going on! At the moment, I go running most days and I’ve got something on the ball of one of my feet and it’s sore, it’s never right, I’ve got three plasters on it. So I get fed up with the ageing of the body, but I don’t get fed up with the ageing of the mind and the the inner person.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
On was my first visit to New York, the lady at the record label said, ‘Look, when you’re walking around, always look like you know what you’re doing’.
What's the secret to a happy relationship?
Listening. I’ve had relationships with people who are not good listeners and it doesn’t work for me. I think listening and being able to step into each other’s shoes is crucial.
What's your favourite film and why?
I don’t think I have a favourite film. I’ve been asked this before and I would say 2001: A Space Odyssey. But is it my favourite film? I don’t know.
OK, let’s mix it up then. What’s your favourite Dennis Hopper film?
I think perhaps Rebel Without A Cause and Apocalypse Now are the greatest films he was in, but in terms of favourites, I have a great fondness for The Glory Stompers. It’s a biker B movie he made in the mid-60s just before Easy Rider and there’s a sparkle in his eye and he doesn’t take it too seriously and it’s a good role, I like that one.
Which living person do you most despise?
Elon Musk. I’m not sure despise is the right word but if I could ship someone off to Mars, it would be him.
Do you have a temper? How does it manifest?
I do have a temper. It takes a very, very long time to get activated, it’s a very slow, long fuse and little by little, it could build up and then suddenly there’s a squall, and then suddenly it dies down.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I would love to be able to act. I probably can act a little bit but I’d love to be a really good actor. If I ever see myself trying to act in a video, I look wooden to myself and think, ‘If only I could act’. I really respect acting, it’s an art form where the participant uses their whole being, their whole personality, their body, their emotions, their mind, it’s a wonderful art form, very high art form.
Do you have any phobias?
Yes, spiders. I was once checking out recording studios and my co-producer, a lovely chap called Niko Bolas - you might know his name from the back of Neil Young records, he had this great idea of recording on Pink Floyd’s boat. It’s in the Thames at Hampton Court and he was telling me about all the amazing gear they’ve got and the wonderful control room and how when you’re playing, you can be looking out at the water, it’s a great atmosphere. I was quite excited. We got there, and we walked around the top of the boat and all the bits of boat furniture were covered with huge water spiders. Poor Niko had to face the fact there was no way. It didn’t matter about the gear. No way.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I don’t think about it, it’s a way of looking at things that I never, ever alight on. But if I had to think about it, probably my kids or that I’m still here and still able to make music and be creative, although I should be able to, it’s not a great achievement. Everybody should be able to do what they do in their 60s. It’s not a big deal.