The Dream of Music That Becomes Dream

Rockerilla, October, 1994

By Antonio Vivaldi

Submitted by Sai

Translated by Sol and me

Jeff Buckley does not want questions about his father, just those questions that everyone would like to ask. And deep down he's right, given that the EP "Live at Sin-é" and the album "Grace" presents us a mature artist without too much debt to anyone. If the voice then reminds us of dad, better then for Jeff , in any case, another important (and very recognized) influence is that of Robert Plant's iron tonsils. Some will argue that a beginner with another last name would not have had such an easy access to Sony Columbia (not to mention the many representatives of other record labels sent to see him in Sin-é) nor 5 pages of passionate praise about his music by the great Bill Flanagan ("He liked it a lot," Jeff explains.) The counter-objection is not difficult considering that the major record labels in his career to catch the latest underground phenomenon, lately have signed big, useless contracts, and that the music press has been stuck in the game. As well as all those who entered the Rock Planet in Milan with  "Starsailor" more in mind than "Grace", they came out sincerely excited at the spectacle of a boy still immature but full of exuberance and capable of a completely satisfying vocal virtuosity that induces applause (thinking it ok years ago that he did not listen to applaud a singer). And to continue the comparisons with other promises of rock, Jeff never plays to become the boring rock star who talks to reporters just because he must. On the contrary, he seems willing to change the game, saying more than what was expected, making you forget the usual questions about the next album and about the next tour. The frame of the interview is quite bizarre: A bar that is not ashamed to display banners and pennants of Forza, Italy, two Japanese who scream like crazy and study the soles of newly purchased shoes and three young girls at the table next to them. They eat with their eyes the beautiful young foreigner busy changing the strings of the guitar and talking about who knows what in front of two microphones. The flow of consciousness of Jeff, unfortunately interrupted in the best part by a rather unfriendly manager, has affected it coming and going. Anyway we reach some essential points:

NEW YORK

"I came to New York in 1991 and it meant a lot to me. It's said that New Yorkers are unpleasant people, I think that's not true, in New York there are so many things to do and to see that you end up excluding everything that doesn't interest you. It happened to me too, to be judged as incompetent, and in that period I really was.This is especially true in the Lower East Side, where everyone is caught in their own vision.There is a lot of creativity in the air and there are also many thefts of ideas, but this is also part of the game. In Sin-é (small Irish bar in East Village where Jeff plays frequently) I have lived incredible moments, I have been simple and I have been complex, I have been happy and I have been depressed, but I learned a lot".

THE MUSIC AND THE CONCERTS

"To me, music is what veins are for blood, and a channel for my expressivity. I started composing horrible things at thirteen, and since then I've always been looking for the way in a kind of solo navigation. Gary Lucas created Gods and Monsters, which unfortunately did not last long, it was not a simple group but a great project and that's why it failed. In recent years I have improved a lot, especially in terms of vocal depth.When I arrived in New York I was nobody and, in a certain sense, I still am."

THE PRODUCERS

"The songs of Grace have been composed in the past two years, those written with Gary too. I took almost all the choices in the recording studio, the choice of the song sequence, darkness-light-darkness too, and Andy Wallace (producer who worked with Nirvana and White Zombie) contributed the most with his technical ability and knowledge. The ideas are mine, he led them in the right direction. I can blame him only for the two minute shortening of "Lover, You Should've Come Over". I loved that song like a newborn child, and I loved it the way it was, but Andy claimed that the last two minutes lacked lucidity and he finally got his own way. Anyway, when I perform live, the song comes back to its original length. The music world is like this:  a medicine that you must take even if it has a very bad taste, a bad taste you eventually get used to. For the next album, I'm not going to work with Andy again because he's too expensive. I'd like to work with Hal Willner, but it will not be easy."

THE MEDIA

"It often happens that you meet people who are not familiar with what you do and who are outside the process of artistic creation, but sometimes the conversation becomes creative and the one who speaks to you manages to bring out things that you thought were forgotten or thought were unimportant.  For the moment the routine of the interview does not bother me, the eventuality of being misunderstood is just one of the possible outcomes of this verbal transaction, in any case, I am still not tired of talking about myself and my music."


THE SONGS OF OTHERS

"With some songs I grew up and the ones I chose to record or sing live meant something important to me beyond musical value. "Hallelujah" by John Cale, for example, I learned it in New York after spending a year working in Sin-é, a very particular and terrible day, a day when I found myself crying like a child and that song expresses exactly how I felt. A title like "Hallelujah" seems to refer to the church, to morality, but inside inside that song there is a deep humanity, there is the idea of ​​making love, losing love, being crucified. Leonard wrote ten verses for that song and I do not know why he did not sing them all. I chose the ones I felt mine. He has an extraordinary capacity to grasp the fundamental element of a certain situation and to "steal" it, make it his own and construct the letter. Lyrically, I'm not so good and my lyrics are born mostly from the reworking of other images taken from poems I love."


THE DREAM AND THE CONCERT

"Being open to outside influences makes me feel better and now that I'm away from home I feel very receptive to playing too. It's a kind of awareness that goes beyond music, that goes into that part of the soul where everyday life gives way to dreams and where there are a thousand strange objects. Dreams can bring you terrifying things or they can bring you orgasm. Music has more to do with this than sculpture, painting or theatre, not because it is superior to the other arts but because it reproduces the dream process in a way that is visible even to the spectator. Usually we see a painting when it is finished, we can hardly follow the painter while he is painting; in a concert, instead, the music is recreated every time and whoever listens to it becomes part of the event. You tell me that many of the bands playing rock today communicate a feeling of non-redeemable depression but it's also true that many of my peers (Jeff is 27 years old) don't have much to say and the music of people like Dinosaur Jr (music that I appreciate) reproduces this sense of emptiness."

Within a few hours, the powerful and dreamy rock of Jeff  will fill up the and crowded room with hot words, heavy words, as well as warmth and energy. T-shirt with copious sweat and eyes that are often closed (eyes that seen close-up are impressively reminiscent of those of his father), longer songs with respect to the originals in a kind of natural fluidity (that is, without solos), and a beautiful band that follows effortlessly a singer who does not lose the suggestions of the moment, the flash of a sound plot that must be seized before it disappears. You'll see Jeff that soon no one will ask you anything about dad and then, maybe, you can talk about it without problems. On the other hand, affection and resentment are always very close.