Musical Nomad no fixed genre
Trondheim - Recent Elvis Costello arrived with hiphop album this fall. 58-year-old hopes he is not completely satisfied.
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- I played with The Roots sometimes on talk show to Jimmy Fallon, where they are husband. We had very good chemistry and decided to see what we could achieve if we went into the studio together, says Elvis Costello.
On Thursday plays Elvis Costello in Borggården St. Olav Festival, not with the hip-hop group The Roots, but with his usual backing band The Imposters.
From The Roots-operation was the song "Walk Us Uptown" just released, and the autumn Elvis Costello & The Roots album "Wise Up Ghost." They did not deal with any record company when they went into the studio, but suddenly they had recorded an album. Now the album is released on the legendary jazz label Blue Note.
- It was perhaps a bit risky as the industry is now, but we were never really afraid that no one would give it out, Costello says, laughing.
From punk to chamber music
Elvis Costello's career began at the pub in the early 70s. Some years later he was part of London's punk and new wave, and he had his breakthrough with his debut album "My Aim Is True" in 1977. Since then, Costello was there. He has worked with rock, jazz, bluegrass, chamber music and country, to name a few. But now it is something new.
- What was your relationship with hiphop before you started working with The Roots?
- I remember I heard Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" (legendary hip-hop single) When it came out in 1982 I realized that the song meant a lot and it said something about a desperation and a reality that I did not belong, but still could sympathize with. I would not emulate this culture, but "The Message" affected me yet, says Costello.
Music's Kevin Bacon
But Costello, who is married to the famous jazz singer Diana Krall, is not really interested in talking about genres.
- I like chamber music, but that does not mean I like all chamber music. I like jazz, but that does not mean I like all jazz. The same is true of hiphop. But these genre designations mean nothing. It's just music that matters, he says.
Costello is a favorite collaborator, and has worked with artists such as Annie Lennox, Burt Bacharach and string quartet Brodsky Quartet. He has also produced albums for artists such as The Pogues and The Specials.
Costello has been described as music's Kevin Bacon. The actor has got a game named after him, which is to find the shortest path between a randomly chosen actor and him, a road that is never long because of Bacon's very extensive and varied career. So it will apparently be with Elvis Costello in the world of music.
Deprecated purchase of album
But Costello has not only friends in the music industry. He is a big mouth and has never been afraid to go to war. In 2011, for example, Costello went out and invited British fans not to buy his latest album. The record company Universal had released a special box set with Costello's music, to around 2000 million. Costello said that the price must either be pressure error or an attempt at satire, and he asked the fans to steer clear.
In an interview in 2009, Costello said that he could not understand that Oasis' Noel Gallagher could not mention his name in the same sentence as Paul McCartney's, and that Gallagher lives in the delusion that he at all is a songwriter. Costello says he has lost track of what he actually said and what people claim he said.
- I have given so many interviews that I've lost all track. And for a time I might not be so good control over what rattled me. But often things that are said about me, confused with what I actually said, says Costello.
Switch between 150 tracks
The Attractions was Elvis Costello's backing band from 1978 to 1986, their first recording was the famous single " (I do not want to go to) Chelsea "and again for a period of the '90s. His backing band is now The Imposters, which is a continuation of The Attractions.
When Elvis Costello and The Imposters now coming to Trondheim, there are 150 songs in your suitcase. What they play, they decide often while on stage.
- It causes us to be sharpened, and it makes the songs stays a bit fresher. It is important not to harden in one set. It is dangerous to be complacent, and I hope I never completely satisfied, says Elvis Costello.
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