An interview with Peter Murphy

An interview with Peter Murphy -by Nikki Neil

Peter Murphy’s claim to fame came in the early 80’s as the frontman for the pioneering post-punk goth rock band Bauhaus. His pale make-up and dark hair inspired a fashion movement that is still copied to this day. After Bauhaus, Murphy ventured off on his own and has since enjoyed a successful solo career that has lasted well over a decade.

Describing the charismatic vocalist is no easy task - Peter Murphy is not your typical rock star, nor is he just an average guy. There is so much more to this intellectual individual than meets the eye. On stage Murphy is flamboyant and over-the-top. Off stage he is soft-spoken and very humble. His wealth of knowledge is vast and his talents are plentiful.

The true beauty of Murphy’s soul is reflected in his music. His newest portrait, Dust (Metropolis), resonates with the sounds of distant lands. This captivating piece of work weaves esoteric Middle Eastern elements with Western organic electronica and alt-rock structures. Exotic instrumentation and Murphy’s richly emotive vocals heighten the magical impact of this disc.

Peter Murphy is, without a doubt, a living legend – an icon of decadence and dark glamour. Speaking to him was not only an honor but also a gift.

I have to say it is definitely an honor to talk to you.

Lovely… I’m Humbled.

Where are you at right now?

I’m in Toronto, Canada. We are rehearsing here, and we’re almost done.

So you’re getting ready for your tour?

Yes. There’s a show here, like MTV, called Music Plus and we’re performing four songs on it in addition to doing an interview. Then we’ll play the first show in Montreal, Canada. After that we’ll play Toronto then move onto North America.

That’s Exciting.

Yeah!

Dust is a very elaborate album. Is a lot of work being put into this live show?

Yeah. A lot of work is being put into getting the arrangements right. [The songs] needed a lot of attention from seriously good musicians. My touring band consists of a Turkish instrumentalist (Levon Ichkanian), a Stickman bass player (Fergus Marsh), and a guitarist who is also a soundscapest (Rob Piltch). Hugh Marsh, the violinist who was on the Just For Love tour, is with us, as well as a wonderful drummer/percussionist (Mark Kelso). It’s all working out very well. I’m also throwing in a couple of surprises in addition to a collection of my other Peter Murphy work. Those surprises don’t include Bauhaus by the way.

I’m sure people will want to know that. What was it like working with Mercan?

It was fine. He’s become a very close friend. He was able to understand what I wanted in regards to introducing a more Turkish element into a Peter Murphy atmospheric approach to music. Somewhat like the length of songs such as Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi” or “Burning From the Inside” and “Hollow Hills.” And, Peter Murphy work like “Socrates the Python” and “The Light Pours Out of Me”. That sort of stuff. I wanted to retain the Peter Murphy approach of using length and lots of space and I wanted these brilliant Turkish musicians to play over it because the sounds and those particular instruments that I have chosen are sort of unearthly and I love that quality.

Do you think the two of you will work together again in the future?

Yeah, I think so. I’m not sure right now. I’m right in the middle of my dusty head at the moment. Also, I’m itching to make, kind of like, a really guitar driven album.

You have an amazingly stunning voice. Did you ever take singing lessons?

Why thank you. I was one of those typical children who loved to sing at a really early age. Anything that I did musically was with my voice - whistling, or working out harmonies, or singing along. I’m the youngest of seven children, and I had an Irish father who was really vocal. I came from a really large, extended Catholic family and at Christmas there was lots of singing in the house, so I sort of really taught myself. And then, in my pubescent period I was really into all my own stuff, and I would automatically sing along with it. So, I guess you train yourself in that process without really knowing it.

When you write your music what do you turn to for inspiration?

I just turn off and listen and watch. And, I sort of document images and intuitive notions. Sometimes I’ll draw from an object I am looking at, or an event, or a person in the street. Or, it could be about an event that’s happened. Sometimes I’ll make a decision to write a line that I really like and then I’ll just write on and on and on with that structure in mind. So, there are many ways that I do that. Basically it’s me really sort of listening to almost the mind and the intuitive center. So it’s a mixture of really cryptic, impressionistic weird approaches, and I let those words sort of suggest other ideas and images about what the song is about. It’s like I almost witness the idea and just document it. Or, there are times when I just have a specific idea that I want to write about.

Did you always posses the ability to write such beautifully poetic lyrics or did this develop over time?

Once an artist is finished with his work and he releases it to the ears and minds and hearts of the listeners it becomes theirs. So when you say beautiful, it is your own beauty that you are seeing. It’s lovely to compliment me like that, but if you didn’t have that beauty in your heart you wouldn’t be able to recognize it. So, that’s where I leave it; it’s all yours now. You’re describing yourself really.

I understand your point. I may think your lyrics are beautiful, while another person may think they are sad. One of the lines from “Things to Remember“ really stood out: “The power of poetry comes from the ability to defy logic.” Can you elaborate on that?

Sometimes, when you have a conversation with someone and you’re trying to describe … For example, if you’ve had an amazing dream and you tried to describe the dream in words using the logical, rational mind you would get a clumsy, worded, skeletal sketch of what was actually a much more profound experience. It somehow falls short of really communicating that vision to the person you are telling it to. Basically, don’t be too concerned with yourself when you are writing. Don’t let the mind get in the way. Like I say, “Tell us that your lover is the sky.” We won’t believe you because it makes no sense, but we’ll see a meaning. And that meaning is our own, but it’s also generated with the catalyst of the writing. I know this all really sounds academic, but it’s not really. It is just I trying to talk about very creative moments. I think that if you ask any artist, in any field, he will tell you that when his best work happens it is not in his hands because somehow you are transcribing it. You’ll often hear an artist say, “I don’t know where that came from? It was a magical moment,” or something like that.

Aside from music, what other talents do you possess?

I’m good with accents. I’m a bit of a show off, and I’m actually a very good comic. I’m like the life of the party, but there is a point where my wife or my close friends will say, “That’s enough. You’ve overstepped the line. You told the joke, stop.” I’m also very good at drawing portraits, and I like photography. Actually, if you check out www.petermurphy.org on the Dust website I have devoted an area for the Dust period. I’ve taken photographs that sort of document what has happened. There are a bunch of them up there that I’ve been taking everyday. I also love to draw and paint. I do both of those things really well, but I don’t always get around to doing them. And, I love talking to my children and having lovely, intimate conversations with them. I love having intimate conversations with people.

Do your children have a love for music as well?

Yes, they do and that’s a very natural thing that I just allow to blossom without overbearing them. I didn’t tell them anything about myself until recently… I didn’t actually push the fact that I was a musician.

Do they realize how legendary Bauhaus is?

My daughter is starting to get into bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers… and she’s realizing that all these people are very interested in what her father does. And so we’ve recently had conversations where she has asked me why Kurt Cobain killed himself and is he okay. She’s grown quite attached to him. She’s also been listening to a lot of Bowie’s old stuff and T-Rex’s old stuff and she has said, “Ah, so that is the person you liked when you were my age.” I’ll say, “Yeah”. So it’s cool.

That’s really neat.

Yeah.

Have your children seen you perform live?

My daughter was on the Deep tour, but she was only two then. She was asking questions like, “Why is Baba’s voice filling the sky?” My wife said “Well, there are speakers over there.” But she didn’t really get that. When she heard me sing it was in an open-air theater in Phoenix, during sound check, so she asked, “ Why is Baba’s voice filling the sky?” (Baba is the Turkish word for Dad-NIN) It was such a beautiful quote. Now they have both seen “Gotham,” Bauhaus’ live video, so they have a pretty good idea of what I do now.

That’s great. Is there one person that has helped you out in your carrier that you really feel indebted to?

My wife.

Has she been very supportive?

Yes, and we have a very intimate, creative relationship as well, which feeds each other’s work as well as anything else.

I know she works with a modern dance company in Turkey. Does any of that influence your stage show?

My wife has a theatre with some amazing dancers that she’s trained, and she puts on these amazing pieces. My wife choreographs the sets and lights and everything. So watching that whole process and being amongst that whole production is basically part of my whole creative life as much as Peter Murphy and Bauhaus are. [My work] has always had a theatrical element to it. So watching her play with much more choreographed visual ideas and concepts and watching the whole process happen and watching the dancers work as hard as they do and rehearsing…all that definitely gives me ideas and reinforces my own work.

What would you like to be remembered for?

That I leave an audience who felt like they’ve lost a loved friend.

You’ve written so many great songs; do you have one that is your overall favorite?

There are a lot of them. There’s a whole eclectic quality in my stuff. When I play things like, “Cuts You Up” or “Crystal Wrists”… I really love that old stuff! Then, off the new album, “Your Face” is a killer and so is “Things to Remember.” Each song has its own particular energy that I tap into and enjoy in different ways, so it’s hard to really narrow it down.

A lot of people consider you an icon. Is there anyone that you really admire or look up to?

I like actors like Denzel Washington. There is a brilliant actor…what’s his name… he was in American History X and Fight Club.

Oh, Edward Norton.

He is like…I really, really, really, look up to him. I think he is a true actor. He is amazing.

He really is. American History X was a really intense movie.

A very important movie, I think.

I agree, but it is defiantly something I couldn’t watch again for a long time.

It’s very hard going.

You mentioned how you listened to Bowie when you were younger, what do you listen to now?

I listen to a whole range of work. I listen to a lot of modern classical music, and I like a lot of ambient music, which is the real deal. I always listen to Philip Glass’s work, especially the trilogy. I like those classic, early [Brian] Eno albums. I love to listen to things like The Chemical Brothers, Deep Dish, a lot of the Future Sound of London work, and English stuff. But, also, on an even level, I love brilliant sort of pop music and the best example of that this year was Dido’s album. I really like that album.

She has a lovely voice.

Very great.

Does Bauhaus’ continued popularity amaze you?

Yes, but it also gives me a real nice tickle in the bottom of my belly.

When Bauhaus played Los Angeles back in 1998 the shows sold out immediately.

I’m sort of oddly arrogant enough to have known that that was going to happen. I’ve always felt that about Bauhaus. It just had this vibe about it that is kind of like one off.

Will Bauhaus ever play again?

Oh, don’t ask that. I almost had to saw my leg off just to convince the other guys to do that last tour…”Come on, what are you talking about? Let’s just keep it like this.” No, it will never happen again and it is not my fault I tell you.

Do you still speak to Daniel Ash? I know the two of you were close friends.

He’s my old, old mate. I love him to death. I think he’s a genius guitar player. I don’t think he really lives up to his potential, even with his work in Love and Rockets or his own work. But, that is okay. He is very talented and I’m sure that whatever he does will be interesting.

What would you say is the biggest misconception that your fans may have about you?

Everyone tells the truth according to his or her own thing. But, if there are any people who imagined that I was ever a drug fiend and hooked on heroin or really decadent - I was never that. I didn’t need drugs to be the best rock star around. You know, the lost and lonely star sort of thing. It’s completely clean in that respect.

I totally commend you for not falling into that lifestyle. The music community has lost a lot of great musicians to drugs.

There is a misconception that you’ve got to always kill yourself physically to produce any sort of real and true original rock ‘n’ roll. But that is not true.

What is the most important lesson you have learned throughout your entire career?

That I realized that I was all I hoped I would be. (Laughs) I know that sounds terrible. I thought, “Oh my God, it’s true. I’m really happy here.” But, that is not to say that I rest on my laurels in any sense. I’ve got a great sort of respect for keeping a healthy respect for the idea of keeping it alive.

You truly are a very talented and gifted individual.

If I can do it Nikki you can. I swear to you.

I understand what you are saying. One needs to believe in oneself.

Be yourself.

If you could do this all over again would you do anything differently?

I would have a research center set up that would enable me to administer a drug to Daniel [Ash] that would give him confidence in his own genius and to not worry so much.

For more on Peter Murphy visit www.petermurphy.org