In our current world , it is common for people to have large parts of their life on the cloud , and not own any of it - like music , movies , etc . What are your thoughts on that ?
I miss the world where I could go around to a friends house . I would be able to look at their record collection , look at their DVD collection , the photographs on their wall and I can understand a lot of things about the person without even talking to them just by looking at the things they surround themselves with .
Those days are going and now we live in the world where arguably you can have your whole life in a cloud and there is no sense of defining your personality through the things you choose to surround yourself with .
I understand that the human race is evolving and things change all the time , but I can ’ t help feeling that it is sad . The part of being a human being is to surround yourself with things that almost identify you - whether you are a collector , or you like to buy movies , or teapots . It ’ s a shame that now people have their whole world in a cloud . I still like to collect records and I can ’ t listen to music unless I can hold it in my hand . I am not even a Spotify user . I understand that it is a wonderful resource for the discovery of music but personally if I want to listen to music , I want to be able to hold it in my hands and have a tangible relationship with the music .
You mentioned that your approach to the album ’ s design is based on people ’ s consumerist tendency to buy / keep things that are essentially useless - like a Virgil Abloh brick . Could you elaborate on that ?
Something which is very prevalent in this world is that we like to buy . As a species , we all love to go shopping and purchase things . I have a bit of a lovehate relationship with consumerism . I love to surround myself with things that identify myself . We live in a world where an aspect of consumerism is about ownership rather than utility - what I mean by that is that a lot of the things we buy these days are to do with the status rather than the actual use .
In the song “ Personal Shopper ” from the album , there is a list of things that to me are first world items which we don ’ t need but we buy . I ’ m fascinated by it and I love the Virgil Abloh brick and to me it was like going back to the artists 100 years ago .
It ’ s fun to change the context of the way you present something , changes the way people perceive and engage with it . You can certainly do that with music and the artwork too . In terms of this record , I wanted to present it in a way that it reminds the person that buys it that they are engaging in an act of consumerism . Although ... I ’ m an artist , I have to sell my albums to continue to be an artist . It is an act of consumerism too !
How has the response to this album been so far ? There have been a lot of people who assume that they would not like it because of the shift in sound . What would you say to them ?
Like I mentioned earlier , everything I do , essentially sounds like me and this album is no exception . It involves using more musical palettes - it is more electronic and less of the classic rock vibe but there is something about it that sounds absolutely me . It is no less ambitious , no less conceptual , no less epic . Lyrically , it is dark as ever but it is not classic rock .
I have to acknowledge that when I change directions and do different things , I will lose some of my existing listeners and also attract new ones and that ’ s been the story of my entire career . I have changed directions so much over the years .
It is not for me to persuade someone to like my music . Everyone has a particular type of music that resonates with them . There is no question of good or bad but it ’ s about what they like or don ’ t like . I take offence and am insulted when people tell me that I was doing good music but now doing bad music . I am just doing different music and I am putting no less heart and soul into it than I ever did . The music is just as sophisticated as ever before . If you only like listening to heavy rock and metal guitars , then this isn ’ t the album for you . But I think people like that are very unusual , and most people ultimately are quite open minded .
I think this is one of my best albums although I say this every time ( laughs ).
I genuinely believe this is one of the most relevant , deepest and most accessible records I have made .
If Personal Shopper is a “ love letter to consumerism ”, why is the accompanying music video so dark ? What is the balance of narrative you are striking here ?
For me , this video is a black comedy . What ’ s great about black comedy is that people think it is fun , but at the same time they also feel slightly uncomfortable about what they are watching . I think that is exactly what we tried to achieve with Personal Shopper .
The UK TV show Black Mirror for instance , has a similar kind of aesthetic , and supposed to be very thought-provoking , fun and entertaining but at the same time there are some extremely dark ideas about modern life and what it means to be a human being in the 21st century .
There are a lot of things right now that are making us uncomfortable and everything comes back to the internet and social media to me . It is so dominant and has changed the way we think about ourselves and the world . No one can really understand what , but there is something not quite right with the way things are going right now .
If there was something about the music industry that you would like to see change , what would it be and why ?
I love how the music industry continues to evolve and change . But I think the main thing that bothers me about the industry is that the idea of the album is being gradually eroded by playlist and streaming culture .
People no longer sit down and listen to an album like how they would watch a movie or read a book . I have talked a lot about this over the years but it is getting worse now .
We have moved from a world where it was about artist based listening to more song based listening . A lot of times , people don ’ t even know names of artists whose songs they are listening to .
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