tours evolutions

Does some kind of collaboration or teamwork evolve within the group that’s touring ? Or are the artists you choose session musicians who don’t have any creative effect on the real concert version or your music ?

Yes, that might be one thing I’ve retained after being in bands for so long : when you’re up on stage, everyone’s equal. I could have called in good session musicians who go on stage and do what they’re told. I wasn’t interested in that and I’ve generally tried to select people who need to play my music of course but can add theirs, something from themselves I mean. They have the chance to take part in situation that hopefully brings out the best in them, so they can be as strong as me on stage, even though it’s my music. But the outcome has varied.

After ’Debut’ was released I did the first concerts in kind of emergency situation, because everyone was so surprised at how the album did well. The idea wasn’t to perform in concert, the concert version hadn’t been thought out. The band was put together at last moment. Everyone just played what was on the album. After the experience of that tour, I promised myself never to do that again.

The setup for ’Post’ tour was completely different. For instance, I changed all the string arrangements into accordion arrangements, to give the musician, in this case the accordionist, the scope for presenting his own personality and own power too, there was room for the ego on stage.

On the ’Homogenic’ tour I went the whole way. With the experience of the ’Post’ tour behind me, I promised to go even further with the ’Homogenic’ tour. But the ’Post tour was brillant all the same. Lost of strongs characters on stage like Guy, Leila, Koba, Trevor, Ed and Andy, who had all their own fields. People on ’Homogenic’ tour had played on the album, so it was the same people, maybe we’ve come full circle then. Back to being more a band.

Livebox interview, 2002