Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch on Epic Songs, New LP

August 31st, 2009 by Hardeep Phull Leave a reply »

Photo: Bedder/Getty

On October 12th, Echo and the Bunnymen will release their 11th studio album, The Fountain, and as a recent Q&A with Rolling Stone demonstrates, irreverent frontman Ian McCulloch’s humor is aging as well as their landmark 1980 debut:

It’s been nearly 30 years since the band’s debut Crocodiles — are you thinking about that milestone?
It’s funny you should say that because to me, the new album sounds like a debut album. It’s thumping and cheeky and there’s a lot of spite and condescension too. “The Idolness Of Gods” is a poem with a tune and it’s possibly the greatest song I’ve ever written. It’s our best album since What Are You Gonna Do With Your Life? No actually, I’m gonna say it’s the best album since Ocean Rain.

Do you ever think that “The Killing Moon” is bigger than the band itself?
“The Killing Moon” is more than a song, it’s about everything. It’s up there with “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen, “Blowin In the Wind,” “In My Life.” Every time I sing it I feel like… [looks perplexed] whoa, something just happened there. I let the crowd sing along with it now too. It used to put me off… like being in Glasgow something they’d all sound like “och aye, da dee dee…” But now I really enjoy it. It’s hard enough to get a band to agree and say ‘that’s the one.’ But with “The Killing Moon,” everyone gets it.”

How do you think Echo and the Bunnymen have become such a festival mainstay?
I used to hate festivals. But we got good at it by having the attitude that “no one’s heard of us, but we will convince them.” I’m not a great mingler — I think most bands are rubbish — ...

Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

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