never thought that he would be forced to do it – I ’ m more like , This guy has been a pop star , and the hits have dried up , and he hears about somebody on the other side of the world who ’ s invented a machine that can drag art straight out of people ’ s heads , so you don ’ t have to bother with all that stuff . You don ’ t have to bother writing it – you can just pull it straight out . And there ’ s a song called “ C ’ est La Vie ,” where his manager is saying all this to him , like , “ I wouldn ’ t do that if I were you .” But he goes along and uses it against his manager ’ s advice .
IE : Love that song . “ Watch out , tiger / You ’ re on the skids / Falling out of favor / With the kids .” SK : The kids ! That ’ s right . I was also trying to have the voice of a manager , like what a manager might say to an artist who he ’ s battling with . There ’ s a lot of that . “ What if I told you it was you ?” You , you ’ re the reason it isn ’ t working out for yourself – it ’ s because of you , it ’ s not anything else , so don ’ t try and go find it in a machine . But the whole thing came together , bit by bit – I didn ’ t say to the guys , “ We ’ re gonna make an album called The Hypnogogue , and it ’ s gonna be about this .” It was like , “ Oh , we ’ re starting to make an album , and some of the lyrics are coming together , and some music ’ s coming together .” And gradually , it ’ s dawning on me that this could be a great concept album . And then we wrote this song , “ No Other You ,” and we wrote the music , but as I ’ m singing it , the first thing I wanna sing is “ Sun Kim Jong as a woman ' s name , a Korean woman ’ s name . And I have no idea why I wanna sing that , and the other guys are going , “ What are you singing ? ‘ Sunken Junk ?’ And I said , “ No , I want to sing Sun Kim Jung , like this person ’ s name , so there must be a reason why . And I wanna change it to something else , but I sort of feel like I ’ m stuck with that because that ’ s what the song should be .” And then more songs came along , and Jeffrey ( Cain , guitarist ) came up with the music for the song “ The Hypnogogue ,” and then all the lyrics started coming out . And when it was all over , I sat back and looked at what I ’ ve got , and I thought , “ It ’ s a fucking concept album about this thing called The HYpnogogue , and Sun Kim Jong is the woman who invents it , and the guy who ’ s going there , he ’ s the protagonist of the story . He ’ s a futuristic pop star , he lives in 2054 , which is a hundred years after I was born , and he ’ s dried up , and he goes across the world to use The Hypnogogue , falls in love with Sun Kim Jong . And it all goes wrong , the machine blows up , the songs are toxic , and when it ’ s all over , he ’ s sore and sorry . It ’ s just entertainment .
IE : This is your 26th album , and you still sound as musically inspired and altogether relevant as you ever did . Were there times when you feared that it would go away ? SK : My creativity ? No . I never worry about my creativity – I worry if people will be receptive to it . Sometimes I feel incredibly out of favor ; I feel incredibly out of fashion . I feel that nobody ’ s listening anymore , and whatever it was that I had to offer isn ’ t kind of what people want anymore . But I never doubt the actual stuff itself – I just doubt where I am in the scheme of things at any point in time . You know , it wouldn ’ t surprise me if the album just comes out and disappears , and nobody ever takes any notice of it .
IE : Well , everything ’ s for sale now , from Hypnogogue hits to your algorithm-calibrated attention span . How do we fight to maintain our humanity ? SK : I don ’ t know . I don ’ t know and I , myself , am pretty close to giving up . And in many ways , I ’ m glad that my tenure on this Earth is almost up because I don ’ t like the way things are going at all . But I can ’ t figure out if the times really are bad or if all old people feel like this .
IE : But how are your twin daughters ( Elektra and Miranda )? Are they still making music ( as Say Lou Lou )? SK : Yeah . Say Lou Lou are on the verge of releasing a new single called “ Waiting For a Boy ,” and Elektra was on a TV show called Shantaram that was on Apple TV , and now she ’ s getting in another one , so she ’ s doing a lot of acting . But yeah , they ’ re definitely still making music .
IE : Because as a parent , you definitely have to hope for your kids that everything will turn out alright in the world . SK : I do . I have five daughters , and my very youngest daughter ? I gave her her first guitar lesson the other day . And it went pretty well – I didn ’ t lose my temper . Afterward , she said she really enjoyed it , and she thought it was good that I didn ’ t lose my temper . Because I had tried to give
Steve Kilbey
some bass lessons to her older sister , and apparently , I lost my temper , and she went , “ Fuck that ! I don ’ t want to learn now !” You know like when you ’ re trying to teach them to drive a car ? You lose your temper , and they go , “ Oh , I don ’ t wanna learn now .” So obviously , the worst way to try and learn something is if your teacher loses their temper . So I wish all my kids could be following along in music , but I would be really happy if any of them or just some of them go on and make some music . Nothing would make me happier than that , for sure .
IE : And the point of our “ Under the Milky Way ” discussion , by the way , is just the intrinsic staying power of a great song . You ’ re going to live forever through just that alone . You ’ re automatically eternal . SK : But it just won ’ t feel like that when I ’ m actually dead . But yes , I know what you ’ re saying . I will live on through that song . I remember something Woody Allen said – “ Some people try and achieve immortality by creating a piece of art that
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