The Archangel’s Song
Oscar Garcia – Revista Somos
Translation: Vanessa Castro Chesterton – Living in Peru
British musician Peter Gabriel arrives in Lima to perform a concert few will want to miss.
The leader, up to 1975, of music group Genesis, pioneer in the art of integrating rock with third world folklore and video clip innovator, Peter Gabriel was an iconic figure of the 1980s. With a long and successful career in music and many hits under his belt, Gabriel comes to Lima on March 20th.
You were one of the first artists to begin with what would come to be known as world music. What led to your interest in third world music, especially African music?
I used to be a drummer so I loved rhythm and as a signer I was drawn to the sound of different local voices which weren’t well known at the time. The more I heard them the more I liked them.
Your commitment to the human rights movement was made known with the song “Biko”. What do you think of the present day situation of human rights?
I consider the situation to still be a dire one. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, it just had its 60th birthday but most countries which signed on to abide by it still do not have proper protection for human rights in their own territories. This includes Europe and the U.S. It’s not just preaching human rights in far off places but also looking at what happens in our own countries. There is also the case of world terrorism which violates human rights.
Are you still with Amnesty International?
I do still meet up with them and help them with events they put together. However we created an organization together called Witness. What we tried to create was a YouTube of sorts where any person could go online and upload videos telling their own stories and experiences related to human rights abuse. The program has begun to have a significant impact. Another dream I had was to create a group made up of 12 people who would work to protect human rights and we were very lucky in getting Nelson Mandela to start a group called “Elders”. The idea is to get many young people to connect with them and other mentors through the internet. These adults are then able to communicate with world leaders and propose ideas.
Thanks to the success of Shock the monkey and Sledgehammer, you were able to become a very powerful artist with a massive audience. However, after that your releases were few and far between, almost the same number of albums as of movie soundtracks such as Birdy, The Last Temptation of Christ and recently Wall-E. Why?
That is due to the fact that I have a very busy schedule given that I want to have a family life and sometimes the reward that comes from releasing an album is traveling all around the world to promote it and that is not high on the list of things I want to do. To this day I still write regularly, though I rarely finish what I start. At present I am working on an album called Scratch My Back. The idea is to ask a group of artists if they would like to cover one of my songs and I would cover one of theirs as well. It will be an artistic exchange. We are having a lot of fun with that at the moment.
Your ties to the movie world are a reminder that you were also a great innovator in terms of the video clip, especially in the artistic sense. Do you think that the language of the video clip has developed into a genre of its own?
Well the truth is that MTV shows little more than reality TV now and there is little to no room for an artist’s music clips anymore. Consequently the budget for video clips has been significantly reduced, that is unless you are Britney Spears. It’s a shame. I was very lucky in the sense that when we started making them there were very few rules which applied. Anybody could do anything and it could pass as an attempt to invent a new style. There are too many formulas as to how a video should be. There are a few creative works but I think many video clips are just ordinary. Someone says: “This is the budget; this is what we want, blah, blah, blah”. Many older artists such as myself were lucky in that we never had anyone tell us what to do. We were very lucky and we hope to continue to be so. For me it is best to be independent in a small puddle than to be bossed around in a giant ocean.
In the 70s you said that “the music of today is the pop of the future” and you were right. Do you still consider that statement to be true?
I do still consider the statement to be true if you were to consider the path present day music and experimental music has taken. Both have very different approaches. It all begins on the farther branches with radical input and gradually the music moves to the center and becomes a new parameter of rhythm.
What is on the horizon for contemporary music?
There always are very interesting things. I very much enjoy the music of Vampire Weekend and other groups such as Natural Seven, Sigur Ross, and The Arcade. I’m also interested in bands which incorporate elements from around the world into their music, like Dengue Fever and Charlie Winston which are part of our record company Real World Records.
You did not leave the band Genesis on very good terms and the music you have made since your solo departure does not resembles the music you made with the band neither does the music the band went on to make after you left. How is it then that a rumor has surfaced of a possible reunion?
I was offered to participate in this last tour and I thought about it for a while but as I was working on the Elders project at the time it just seemed like a very big commitment in spite it being a very attractive offer. However other projects to work along side Genesis have come up. I’m sure we will end up collaborating in the end. I don’t imagine a live tour but we could work together on other things.
What repertoire and what show would you bring to Lima keeping in mind that the Peruvian audience knows you primarily from your hits in the 80s?
We are still looking over the song list, but I am considering older material as well. It will be a mix of the old and the new. There will also be a giant screen which will show our visual creations for these seven performances.
Will we see the theatrical Gabriel with his masks of yester year?
Well I’m thinking something of less of what I’ve done in the past. Now it’s more musical with more instruments. I won’t be taking that many masks.
http://www.livinginperu.com/features-694-art-culture-lifestyle-archangels-song
