Lift to Experience
nov 13th 2001 - Inrockuptibles Festival, Toulouse, FR
by Barbara H and SEB WOOd

 

SEB WOOd: Hello, could you introduce yourselves?

Andy Young : I'm Andy Young, I play drums, cymbals...

Josh Pearson : I'm Josh Pearson, I play guitar and sing in rock band Lift to Experience

Josh Browning : I'm Josh "the bear" Browning, I play bass.

Barbara H : how does it feel to play your music in Europe ?

JP: Great

BH: did you expect this to happen ?

JP: well... (looks at JB)

JP&JB: yeah

BH: do you enjoy touring ?

JP: In some parts, it's work, but it's nice to meet people, play in towns you've never heard of, look at beautiful French women, drink French wine, hmm, smoke French cigarettes...

(Guy Gervey and Mark Potter of Elbow play guitar and sing, some looks, smiles and laughs are exchanged between the bands)

BH: you were here yesterday cause you thought Pulp was here...

JP: yeah, we thought Pulp... because someone in one the other bands who's playing tonite told us... (stares at Guy Gervey, laughs)

BH: he's still alive ?! (laughs)

JP: yeah... we planned on killing him tonite... if his band wasn't so damn good we would have kicked his ass... (laughs)

BH: what were your first favorite records ?

JP: first favorite records...

AY: NWA "Straight Outta Compton", EZ "EZ does it", Ice T "freedom of speech...just watch what you say" (Guy sings "just watch what you say" while Matt improvises, more laughs) Seee? he's just covered it right now... Miles Davis "kind of blue" John Coltrane "live at birdland" and that's it.

JP: first three tapes I bought: first one was U2, "under a blood red sky", the second was the Cure, "Staring at the sea", the singles, the third one was the Smiths, "louder than bombs" and then I got really into early 90 shoegaze rock: Ride, Pale Saints, Swervedriver, Slowdive, lot of just noise...

SW: which one by slowdive?

JP: "Souvlaki" and, errr... "just for a day" was the first one  and "Souvlaki" was the second ?

AY: yeah

SW: were you into shoegazing? My Bloody Valentine...

JP: oui... yeah

BH: we can hear it in the music...

JP: yeah, I hope so...

BH: what were yours?

JB: hmmmmmm.... Rush "Living pictures"

JP: aw!

JB: Swervedriver "Raise", Cure, "Disintegration", that's the first three that I really enjoyed.

BH: when did you start playing music?

JP: I started when I was thirteen, to play guitar, sing in church choir...

AY: I was like twelve or thirteen when I started playing the drums, I played alto sax before that...

JB: I was about fifteen, sixteen, stopped skateboarding and started playing bass.

BH: I heard your father was a preacher

JP: yeah, I heard that too (laughs)

BH: did he listen to your music?

JP: no... I don't talk to my father. his dad is a preacher, his too. we're all preachers kids.

BH: do you intend to print the lyrics?

JP: yeah, we were meaning to put them on the Internet, but we're just sort of lazy and I'm the one who has to type it in...

JB: I can do it, I have a copy...

JP: yeah?

AY: (while the two others talk together) : we were meaning to have a website for about three years actually, to put stuff on the Internet lyrics, pictures, a web address...

JP: we're all lazy, we're afraid you guys might not like the record anymore if you hear the lyrics (laughs)

BH: well, maybe it might make more sense to us

JP: that's what we're afraid of (laughs)

BH: what are you going to do next, after such a conceptual album ?

JP: The next one is going to be called "the post apocalyptical blues" (everyone but Pearson laughs) it's going to be a double disc

JB: volume one and two

JP: it's gonna be a while though cause we're just in the very early stages of songwriting, that just basically tells me getting off my ass and bringing the songs to them, flushin it out...so, within a year or so it's gonna be real dark, it's going to sound like My Bloody Valentine and Zeppelin, more or so, maybe shorter songs, more rock (makes rock sign)

BH: could you sum up the story behind "The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads"?

JP: it's a concept album about the end of the world where Texas is the promised land, all about getting to Texas...

SW: do you like concept albums in general?

JP: no I hate 'em, they're awful, it's more like a challenge to myself... I like theme albums, like "OK Computer", it's about thematic, but it's not really conceptual, you know...

JB: don't you like "2112" by Rush, man ?

JP: yeah, it's pretty cool...

BH: your success in Europe is kinda paradoxical, your songs are very religious...

JP: ...about the end of the world... well, we're enjoying it, we didn't think it could happen, we didn't think we could sell a thousand records, so we're very happy to be touring Europe, French countryside, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels...

SW: do you know if some of your songs are forbidden on the us radio?

JP: they are?

SW: I don't know

JP: oh I don't know, they should be (laughs) The next ones, the next record might be... I don't... we don't have a label in America

JB: so we don't get played on the radio

AY: even if our songs were like, well... they're not going to play anything in America that's over four minutes long...

JP: American radios are really bad... some college stations are good, university stations.. but the most part of the American pop radios are really... horrible, got all the nu metal, whatever, guys with bad haircuts and rap beats

AY: or so they think they're rappin...

BH: what are you going to do after this tour?

JP: we're gonna go back to Texas and wait for the world to explode (laughs) no, we're gonna go back to Texas and... still writing some new songs

BH: already ?

JP: we're going to start writing

BH: are you going to tour America?

JP: not soon, eventually. we don't have a label... and we wanna start working on new songs cause it takes us a long time to finish a record so we can have it out before the world collapses...

BH: when do you think it's going to happen ?

JP: oh I don't know, hmmmm, I don't know. Today we went to this interview, you know, this radio thing, some radio station...

JB: "Le Mouv'"

JP: and they didn't know, they didn't know who we were, they did it just because they had to, Andy went as me (laughs) yeah, he put the hat and the coat on and played three songs (laughs)

BH: can you play some songs for us ?

JP: yeeeeeah

AY: you wanna see some shit ?

everybody: yeah!

AY: alright!

JP (while AY dresses with JP's clothes): so he went in and recorded three songs, and they didn't know...

AY: so, it was something like... (plays "Cumbaya")

BH: you played three songs, what did you play ?

AY: I played Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" and I played Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising", yeah, and I played "Cumbaya". I think it's gonna air in December.

JP: they're gonna find out tonight ! (laughs)

BH: can you play us a new song ?

JP: no, but I can play the chords...

SW (while JP tunes the guitar): do you have connections with '...and you will know us by the Trail of Dead' ?

JP: yeah, we know 'em

AY: yeah, we got friends who know them better than we do but...

JP: we played with them once or twice

AY: yeah, we played with them once in Dallas and Conrad (Keely, ...trail of dead singer/guitarist) got punched in the head by the sound man.

SW: someone told me that their gigs are dangerous to go to

JB, JP & AY: yeah!

JB: you don't want to let them borrow your gear, cause they might break it

JP: so the new stuff will be like... this is going to be the main theme for the record... (plays) more blues, with still the wall of sound...

BH: was it hard to play Rock'n'Roll in Texas, to have your music heard?

JP: yeah, Texas is really big... There are only two places to play, Austin and Denton. Denton's like a small Austin (tries to use a knife as a slide for the guitar)... sorry... (laughs)

BH&SW: thank you very much

JP: well I hope you like the show...


watch the key moment of the interview !! Andy Young impersonates the mysterious, intriguing and disturbing Josh T Pearson !! (latest (free) version of real player needed)

standard connection : 56k
broadband connection : 256k

 

/pic by A.M. - huge thanks to Pierre from www.soitditenpassant.com/