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Jean-Jacques BURNEL - Interview - Wednesday 11th April 2012
Le Transbordeur (Lyon)

1. Hello and welcome to Lyon, the capital of gastronomy and also well-known in 1978 as the capital of rock'n'roll, thanks to the festival of Fourvière, which welcomed, at that time, all the rock bands we have listened to when we were teeangers. In France, everyone calls you Jean-Jacques, because that's the first name your parents gave you, in Great Britain they call you JJ and some people also call you John?





Yes.

AM : As you are fortunate to experience a twin culture, do you feel closer to British or French people?

I think I have a foot in both countries. I see the French things like a british guy and I see the British things sometimes like a French guy.




2. We are happy to welcome you again on our website rock-interviews. The Stranglers are touring France (12 dates). Tonight you are going to play in Lyon and your support band is Mike Marlin.



Yes, Mike Marlin.

AM : Could you please introduce him?

yes, he was our support band last year in Great Britain, and he is also with us this year for the British tour and the other European countries.

AM : Are you happy with the first 8 gigs you did in France?

Oh yes, they were hot ones. People were very receptive, more than before, maybe they have a kind of synchronicity at the moment.



3. Tomorrow you will be in Paris at the Olympia, are you proud to play in this mythic venue?



Yes. I am aware of the history of this venue and what this name means for people, it's like playing the Royal Albert Hall or the Roundhouse in London, it's an iconic venue, isn't it?

AM : Yes of course it is. You are also going to play in Magny-Cours for the 76th Annual Bol d'Or 24-Hour Endurance Race.

Yes.

AM : Are you going to travel by motorbike?

No, but I will be at the starting line! As a biker, It's a privilege and an honor because it's an historic race event, I guess it's the first 24-hour race, the oldest one.

AM : And you are also going to Caen, a city that you know quite well?

Yes, I know it quite well because when I was a kid, my parents used to send me from London to Caen to spend summers with my grandparents, on the Normandy beaches, I didn't realize that several years before there were horror scenes on these beaches.




4. The Stranglers were on tour in March in Great Britain. You have had two misadventures during this tour, Jet was unfortunately hospitalized, how is he now?



Yes. Not very well. It is three or four weeks since he has been rushed to Oxford hospital, and his condition does not seem to have improved.

AM : We wish him a speedy recovery.

There was a little problem too in Liverpool (5th March), what happened?

Not really, a tiny little problem, not really a problem!

AM : Someone in the audience threw a glass of beer at you.

Yes, but there are stupid people everywhere and it was dealt with, so not a real problem!

AM : In your opinion why did he do it?

Maybe he had drunk too much beer.

AM : He was drunk.

Who knows?

AM : There is a great clip about this on Youtube.

Really? I have not seen it.

AM : This clip has been seen 17500 times.

17000? (laughing).



5. Will you play at festivals this summer?



Yes in Latvia, France, Jersey and some British festivals. We are also going to play in Cognac.

AM : Yes. You will be in Brussels too?

Yes for the Brussels Summer Festival.

AM : Iggy Pop will be there?

So-so.

AM : You don't care.

As a character Iggy Pop is fabulous but his music leaves me cold.



6. You have released a new album which is not called 'Seventeen' to follow Suite Sixteen, but is called Giants. Why this title? Who are these giants?



The lack of giants in the world today, I mean, can I say "lamenter" in French?

AM : Do you mean "lamentable"?

No, to lament.

AM : Yes

I am dying to see the small dwarves who are involved in our affairs.

AM : We, too!

The world has become small.

AM : And rotten?

Corrupt yes. with persons who discredit democracy and there is more and more people who do not vote, it discredits even more democracy and when we think of all those people who have lost their lives in trying to fight for democracy and against fascism, it is a terrible situation.

AM : And the problem also who to vote for? There is the French presidential election soon.

Yes, it's a good argument for the constitutional monarchy.

AM : It's true.

Because at least the Head of the State in a constitutional monarchy is not obliged to make promises and set a part of the population against another part of the population, scapegoats are found. On the contrary, I would never have believed that I was going to argue for a constitutional monarchy but when you see all the countries that have it, they are the most stable countries, they have confidence in themselves, if they claim anything, they are not going to claim it at the foot of their monarch who retained a certain "Height" in his business while the Head of the State is elected here and in many other countries. In fact the Head of the State had to resign in Germany a few weeks ago for a question of financial fraud, the Head of the State had to resign in Israel for sexual exploits, when you think that the Head of the State in Great Britain will not be charged for problems related to money or other, that is a good argument for the constitutional monarchy, isn't it?



7. An instrumental track opens the album, don't you think it's taking a risk to put an instrumental track as the first track of a CD?



Do you think?

AM : Yes.

Ah ok.

AM : But as everybody knows the Stranglers have always been independent and provocative.

It has not be done to provoke, not even to take stock of independence, I have felt it like that, we have not thought about if it was taking a risk or not, it seems to me as the most natural thing to do. (laughing)

AM : Are you going to play this instrumental live?

No. We can play the entire album, but I think that to play the entire album, when it is not yet known, would be a little boring. It has just been released in France a week ago, I think we will cover the different parts of the Stranglers world and yes we will play 4 songs of the new album.

AM : 0K. This instrumental is called Another Camden Afternoon, it's an horrible case in the news.

Yes. Do you want me to explain why?

AM : Yes please

It was a few years ago in Euston station, a large central station to London, a lady had a cup of coffee and two junkies - it was their territory, for them it was as if they were going to the office - one of the two junkies took her bag and ran into a car waiting for them. The lady ran after the junkie, she climbed on the hood of the car, they engaged the reverse gear and how do you say in French they drove over her?

AM : Ils l'ont écrasée.

Yes and they killed her. And for them it was just another afternoon in the office, it's just Another Camden Afternoon. I found this so small and what a huge impact, that I was shocked.

AM : We live in a wonderful world.

It has always been great on that side!

AM : What choice do the junkies have when they really need to find some money to buy some drugs?

We could have a huge debate and argument concerning this subject. Frankly I do not really have any sympathy for the junkies. We have been caught up in this and we helped each other to get out of it. You need to have the will, it is very simple, the physical comes after, first you have to have the desire of willing!



8. This is not your first instrumental in your whole career since the more known is Waltz in Black, from the album, The Gospel According to The Meninblack.



Yes.

AM : There has always been a lot of symbols on your record sleeve : the raven, the panther, the spider, and if you look at the jacket of this new CD, what do we see? A set of swings with nooses hanging from it, it is the European CD sleeve.

The British sleeve is more precise.

AM : A small blond girl is looking at this set of swings with nooses, what does it mean?

Innocence, of course.



9. Where have you recorded this album?



In Bath where we have our rehearsal and recording rooms and our workshops to mend the amplifiers and there is also our management down there. Everything is in Bath.

AM : Under which label is this record released?

In Europe Edel and in Great Britain under our own label distributed by Universal.

AM : How many tracks on this album?

10 tracks.

AM : What are the main themes developed? Can you quickly talk about them ?

Yes I have already told you about them, that is to say, the corruption, the position of western values on the rest of the world and a lot of other stuff. (smiling)



10. You have invented a new musical genre, the Heavy Metal Tango with a song called Adios. ¿Hablas español señor Burnel ? (do you speak Spanish Mr Burnel?)



Un poco. (a little bit)

AM : Tu cantas una bella canción. (it's a beautiful song)

Thank you.

AM : This album has been released in vinyl, hasn't it?

Yes, there is a demand for vinyl, and I am always ready for vinyl!

AM : Good because I wanted to ask you this question, are you pro or against the fact that vinyl starts again to be more present on the market of music business?

I told you, I am for it.

AM : Why?

Because it is a value that has been a little lost, I am always for new things, but I think that to touch a CD was one of the great pleasures of my youth and I am glad to see that a lot of young people nowadays enjoy also this pleasure, and concerning the sound, the quality is different, it is warmer. I download sometimes but the problem is that if you don't have the piece of information, if you don't touch it, it develops another art, that is to say, the art of not making art for the albums, not to create a work that lasts for about 40 minutes, which resulted in a journey and an adventure.

AM : A story.

Thank you very much Jean-Jacques for this interview, too short, but it is true that we only had 15 minutes!...

Many thanks also to the management of The Stranglers and Gary Knighton