An interview with Mark Lanegan: Mark Lanegan has no interest in regrouping Screaming Trees

Sacado de // From: http://portalternativo.com (traducción) and  http://www.irishtimes.com

Mark Lanegan anda promocionando la publicación de su disco de covers “Imitations”, en el que versiona a gente como Frank Sinatra, Nick Cave, Nancy Sinatra o Chelsea Wolfe, y que publicará el 17 de septiembre.

Solo quería hacer un disco que tuviera la misma sensación que muchos de esos discos que oía cuando yo era más joven, esos estilos de pop sesentero.

Sorprende que se atreva con el cover de una artista actual como es Chelsea Wolfe:

Es una artista que está por explotar. Creo que es realmente fantástica y está a punto de convertirse en muy conocida. Es maravillosa.

Otro cover es uno de un tema de su amigo Greg Dulli:

Esa era una canción que Greg grabó primero para un disco de Twilight singers y luego no la metió en el disco. En los 90 me dio un CD del tema y me dijo, “Creo que la canción estaría genial si tu cantaras” y pensé lo mismo.

Incluso se atreve con el francés con un cover de Gérard Manset (“Elégie Funèbre”):

He sido fan de Manset desde hace mucho tiempo. Estoy obsesionado con sus discos. Y la gente se puso en contacto conmigo y preguntaron si quería hacer una versión de esa canción para su nuevo disco – tiene sesenta y pico años.

Esa canción en particular fue realmente divertida porque era complicado para mi cantar en francés. Pero todas las canciones del disco las he elegido porque me encanta y pensé que sería divertido cantarlas. Y lo fueron.

En cuanto al título del disco explica al Irish Times que “uno de mis poetas favoritos era de Massachusetts llamado Robert Lowell. Escribió un libro llamado “Imitations” que eran sus versiones de poemas oscuros conocidos. Así que cogí el título de ahí.”

¿Y no le ha entrado morriña viendo como muchos de sus contemporáneos han decidido volver (Alice In Chains, Soundgarden) de hacer lo mismo con Screaming Trees?

No, no creo que eso vaya a pasar. No estoy interesado. Me emocioné cuando Afghan Whigs se volvieron a juntar. Soundgarden son buenos amigos míos. Entiendo porqué lo han querido hacer. Es su música, es su banda. Tienen derecho a hacerlo. Pero no es algo que tenga interés en hacer con Screaming Trees.

El vocalista visitará España en noviembre (Avilés, Barcelona y Madrid).

IN ENGLISH

On the album, you revisit many of the country and pop records you heard as a kid growing up in Washington State . . .
“I just wanted to make a record that had the same feeling that a lot of those records had that I heard when I was younger, those Sixties pop styles.”
Did recording these songs bring back that feeling?
Well, I don’t know about that. But I did use a lot of the same guys that I made my last covers record with [1999’s I’ll Take Care of You], and I did it in the same studio. And some of these guys I hadn’t worked with in 12, 13 years, so I recaptured a lot of the feeling that I had the last time around, a lot of laughs, and conversations that started 15 years ago just continued on. So it was a good time.
Imitations is a modest title for the album – was that deliberate?
Yes. One of my very favourite poets was a Massachusetts poet named Robert Lowell. And he wrote a book called Imitations, which was his versions of well-known and obscure poems. So I sorta lifted the title from that.
Doing three songs by Andy Williams – brave or foolish?
Yeah, well, I guess Andy Williams would be considered by some to be schmaltzy, but to me he’s one of the greatest singers of all time. Just absolutely amazing. And if anyone doesn’t believe me, just YouTube him. He’s just one of a kind.
You cover a father and daughter – Frank Sinatra’s Pretty Colours and Nancy Sinatra’s You Only Live Twice, a great lost Bond theme . . .
Ironically, the first time I heard the song was when Australian punk band The Scientists did it as the b-side of a single in the early 1980s. Pretty Colours came off one of Frank Sinatra’s 70s records, Cycles, which was a great record.
The album opens with Flatlands, by new artist, Chelsea Wolfe . . .
She’s a current artist who is about to explode. I think she’s really really fantastic, and she’s on the cusp of becoming very well known. She’s awesome.

You also tackle Deepest Shade, by your friend and fellow Gutter Twin, Greg Dulli . . .
That was a song that Greg first recorded for a Twilight Singers record, and then didn’t put it on the record. In the 1990s he gave me a CD of the song, and said, I think this song would be great with you singing it, and I thought so too.
He’s back on the road with Afghan Whigs, and Soundgarden have reformed. Is a Screaming Trees reunion on the cards?
No, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Not interested. I was excited when the Afghan Whigs got back together. Soundgarden are good friends of mine. I totally get why they’d want to do it. It’s their music, it’s their band. It’s their right to do it. But it’s not something I’m interested in doing with Screaming Trees.
Your folky cover of Mack the Knife is so different to the swing band version we’re all familiar with . . .
Well, I pretty much copied my version note for note from a Dave Van Ronk version. Big fan of Dave Van Ronk, and the way he did that song, I thought, wow, there’s a sadness and a darkness to that song.
You do a song in French – Elégie Funèbre by Gérard Manset. Pourquoi?
I’ve been a big fan of Manset for a long time. I’m sort of obsessed with his records. And his people got a hold of me and asked me if I wanted to do a version of that song for his new record – he’s in his late 60s.

That song in particular was real fun, because it was so oddball for me to be singing in French. But all the songs on the record I chose because I loved them, and I thought it would be fun to sing them. And they were.