INTERVIEW > PETER GABRIEL

Peter Gabriel invites us to his Real World studios to talk to him and his engineer, Dickie Chappell, about the gear, the new album and the future of music.

There's no doubting the impact that Peter Gabriel has made on the world of music. Since he left Genesis back in 1975 he has released a dozen albums, which have sold millions around the world. Singles like 'Solsbury Hill,' 'Games Without Frontiers,' 'Biko' and 'Sledgehammer' have marked him out as innovative but with a commercial edge that enables him to dip in and out of current trends or, indeed, set them himself. In doing so Gabriel has also gained the reputation of a perfectionist, a master craftsman who surrounds himself with the best musicians, producers and engineers that tend to help make any project he is involved in a milestone in music and recording. And in this world of MP3 uploads and downloads, and with the popularity of home music making, that is a rare thing. So many albums get released and very few cause a stir, but Gabriel still gets everyone sitting up to take notice when a solo album is announced. Even when it's almost a decade after the last one!

The last quarter of a century has seen Peter Gabriel move so far away from the shadows of Genesis that he will almost definitely be remembered more for his solo offerings. In the late '70s it was the dark and cutting edge songs that utilized technology that set him apart. In the '80s it was the sheer pop of songs like 'Sledgehammer' and those innovative videos. In the '90s he released Us, which won him four Grammy nominations, two MTV awards, a Brit and a Q award. Since then he has followed a multimedia passion with the release of a couple of CD-ROMs, been commissioned to compose for the Millennium Dome (which was released as OVO) and, more recently, released the sound track to the Philip Noyce film, 'Rabbit Proof Fence,' his third major film soundtrack project after 'Birdy' (1984) and 'The Last Temptation Of Christ' (1989).

So while it might be a decade since his last commercial solo album, you could say Gabriel's been busy, as have his team of producers and engineers at Real World Studios at Box, near Bath, England. The complex, set in almost 'magical' surroundings, is a commercially run studio, which, over the last few years has been utilized by all sorts of famous and infamous bands as well as the roster of world artists on Gabriel's own Real World record label.

It is also home to a wealth of Korg gear as we found out when we visited the complex to talk to Gabriel and his engineer Dickie Chappell. Chappell has been working at Real World for 15 years and, for eight of them, on the new album, Up. It sounds like the album has been a major task then, an eight-year project with input and influences from many quarters. So how did the creative process work? Gabriel has some interesting ideas on the relationship between musicians and technology.

ENERGY FIELDS
'I always say that there are two types of energy that allow you to create,' Gabriel explains. 'One is the 'A' or analytical, which is traditionally what computers are very good at, going in with a magnifying glass and analyzing everything. It's sort of a cold clean process but you may still have some inspiration, but it's kind of done at a cold temperature. And the other one is, if you ask someone to create a melody, and you put the 'record' light on and put them in a studio with other musicians playing at the same time - there's a different energy and that's what I call energy 'Z' or 'Zen-like.' And an ideal computer or synth is going to be able to take the best bits of both approaches. I've had this conversation with George Martin when I described my process to him, and he was horrified! He thought it was really incompetent, I think!'

Part of Gabriel's compositional philosophy is also to work in the kind of surroundings that are conducive to creativity, as he explains, 'I try to create an environment where interesting things might happen. If a synth 'said' to me, 'Here are three things I can do with this. Do you like this one better, or this one, or this one? and I just had to choose one, then I would be going right down the branch to one of the leaves. It will take me to a place that I would probably never have chosen to go, but I will make discoveries that will be richer than anything which I, as a creature of habit, would voluntarily choose to go to myself.'

THE NEW ALBUM
And so to Up. The title suggests optimism, but Dickie Chappell is quick to point out that it's not a commercial pop record but has more in common with some of Gabriel's earlier works. 'It's an intense record,' Chappell reveals. 'It's not the kind of record you can put on and just do the ironing. You have to sit and either listen to it or turn it off. It can be quite tiring to listen to just because it's so full on. The theme is a weird thing. It's called Up but there's a lot of death in it and a life-death thing. And that's about it. Where Us was about relationships, I'd say this is a lot more concluding.'

But it is upbeat in places? 'Oh yes,' Gabriel continues. 'It's funny because the album has covered a long time. With a song like 'Sky Blue,' the first part was probably written about 25 years ago. On every album I've ever done there are always some bits that have come from before. Like fine wines, my albums take a little while to mature in my world. I think a lot of this stuff [on the new album] has actually been when I've been pretty happy. I've gotten remarried, had a new baby, am working with my kids… and it's a great time. But at the same time, I think it's very hard writing genuinely happy, joyful music.'

And of course, a lot of people do claim to write their best stuff when they've had some sort of crisis. 'Yeah. Someone just told me how Rickie Lee Jones put it, she said, 'Happy music doesn't make sad people happy. Sad music makes sad people happy.' And I think there's a lot in that.'

So which tracks from Up is Gabriel most happy with now? 'There are a few,' explains Gabriel. 'I mean, nothing is on the album that I didn't like. But I think probably 'Signal To Noise' and 'Darkness' are the key ones on the album for me.'

And in terms of looking right back over his career, which are Gabriel's favorite tracks? Does he have an all-time favorite? 'Not really, but I think both 'Biko' and 'In Your Eyes,' from a live point of view, were always pretty important,' he reveals. 'We're not doing 'Biko' on tour this time around. It's a great track, but it's just been there so long. We'll probably do it again in the future, try and do it differently or something. But some things you just have to try and let go of.'

And talking of the live show, at the time of this interview, Peter is gearing up for a major tour - 'The circus is beginning!' Gabriel laughs. So how's the live line-up looking? Who does what?

'We have Rachel Z on keyboards, and she's very talented,' Gabriel explains. 'Next there's Richard Evans who's worked with me a lot in the studio but he's not been out on tour with me. He had his own band Posh for a while. Drumming is Ged Lynch, who does a lot of sessions and who first came down here with Black Grape in fact. And then I've got Tony [Levin] and David [Rhodes] still on bass and guitar and then of course there's Mel [Gabriel's daughter] singing.'

And which of the tracks from the new album does he think will work particularly well live?
'Well, the one that I thought was going to be particularly difficult was 'My Head Sounds Like That,' and that sounds quite good now I think. The other one we may look at again this week is a thing called 'Signal To Noise,' which has got this huge sort of string thing going, and one idea is to get each musician playing one line of strings sounds. The other idea, which is what we've done so far, is to use it as the last number and we all walk off the stage leaving the strings playing, so it's obvious that we're not playing them (well, it's strings and Ged), and that feels quite good at the moment, so we might end up just doing that. But mostly we'll be trying to find ways to do live what we've created on the record, with a few parts missing and a few parts added.?

THE GEAR
So how has Korg's range of gear been employed at Real World studios over the years? Dickie Chappell takes up the interview baton?

'Peter started getting into the Wavestation in about 1989,' he reveals. 'When that came along that's when he started to get into it, during [the recording of] Us. Now, as far as Peter's concerned, if he's going for patches, the main piece of gear he'll go for will be a Korg of sort.'

Why is that? What distinguishes the Korg sound over others? 'It's just because there's something less digital about what they do, no matter what gear it is. There's something organic in some cases about some of the sounds they produce. I don't know if it's in the programming or in the A-to-Ds…' And on Up, Peter has utilized the best of the old and the new. 'Yes, in this project we've used anything from the Wavestation and the 01/W to the TRITON and Trinity.'

And does Gabriel use any Korg stuff as a writing tool or scratchpad for ideas? 'When we work we're always recording so he'll just use something and get on with it. He'll particularly focus on four or five patches and then use those in a lot of different ways. He'll start with the basic string patch, say, on the TRITON and then start processing internally and externally completely change it.'

THE GABRIEL SOUND
On the latest album, Chappell reveals the Korg sound is in there, although it all gets the PG sonic touch. 'It's all over the place,' admits Chappell. 'The main, obvious and almost untreated point is on a track called 'No Way Out,' and there's an arpeggiated bass part on that which is a combination of the TRITON and another sample. Peter's really got into the arpeggiator on the TRITON just for creating different grooves and working in different ways.

'Otherwise generally every song has got a combination of Korg patches and samples; in some cases Peter can play five or six layered sounds through treatment. Every song has Korg sounds going on it but everything is treated so everything has a PG stamp on it.' And what's Chappell's favorite bit of Korg gear from his years using it? 'You engineer and you program so you have to get your head inside the stuff. The TRITON is sounding really good right now and you can really mess it up with the filters and the effects. We've had Karma for a while and it seems to be more of a sound development, songwriting tool. TRITON-wise, he [Gabriel] likes the sound of it. Most keyboard sounds are going through the Korg G4 in different ways. The piano always goes through it and it's possibly the cheapest bit of kit we have!'

And Gabriel certainly agrees with Chappell's synopsis of the TRITON. 'I like the way that I can pull the elements apart,' he reveals, 'like the attack, or breath and apply it to another sound. It's that which most excited me about it, getting at the formative parts. Being able to pull synthesized sounds to pieces is the thing I most like about it.'

'I hope to get into the arpeggiator more in the future. I do like arpeggiated things. One of the things I've always wanted to do is do some of that heavily arpeggiated rhythmic stuff but do it with acoustic instruments. Because it has this very electronic association now, but there's no reason why it can't be a lot more organic sounding.'

And is there any other gear that gets used heavily at the Real World Studios? 'We also use the Korg Z1. It's been excellent. What we've got out of the Z1 has been amazing. That gives a lot of hope synth development wise. Korg seems to make the thinking person's synth. There's a lot more atmosphere from their kinds of sounds.'


Find out more about Peter Gabriel and his latest projects on his official website at www.petergabriel.com. and at the Real World website at www.realworld.on.net.