Punk Performers & Theories Of Ideology ('Punk Mass' 1970 - )

Punk Performers & Theories Of Ideology ('Punk Mass' 1970 - ) Aug 21, 2019 22:44:11 GMT

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Post by petrolino on Aug 21, 2019 22:44:11 GMT

Belinda Carlisle speaking with Mark Savage at the BBC in 2017

Interview Excerpt :

Mark Savage - I'm always amazed that The Go-Go's are still the only all-female band to have written a number one album. It's like you battered down the door and no-one else came through.

Belinda Carlisle - I don't know… I guess the Bangles came close.

Mark Savage - But they used a lot of co-writers..

Belinda Carlisle - Yeah, they did. Go figure. You'd think there would be more after us, but there weren't. I don't understand that at all.

Mark Savage - You can still see your legacy in other bands, like Haim or Hole or L7. It's just a shame no-one else has replicated the success.

Belinda Carlisle - Well, I mean, good luck now, unless you're put together by a svengali. Something like The Go-Gos could never happen now. It was too authentic. And authenticity is really lacking in music.

Mark Savage - Was there a backlash when you went from punk-inspired sound of The Go-Gos to the pure pop of Heaven On Earth?

Belinda Carlisle - Oh, I think so - and I can see why. But everything I've ever done has been true to myself. The albums Heaven On Earth and Runaway Horses and Live Your Life Be Free were harking back to when I was a young girl and listening to Californian radio - lush productions, complicated melodies, harmonies like the Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas. That's what those albums remind me of. So they're all very dear to my heart. Except A Woman and a Man [Belinda's sixth album, released in 1996].

Mark Savage - But even on that record you got to work with Brian Wilson.

Belinda Carlisle - Well, gosh, that was one of the highlights - but, you know, at that point I was in a lot of personal turmoil… I guess there were a few good songs in there and California was one of them. Having Brian Wilson sing on my album was an unforgettable experience.

'Sous Le Ciel De Paris' - Belinda Carlisle

Interview Excerpt :

Mark Savage - Fast-forward to 2017, and you've just performed a concert at a yoga class...

Belinda Carlisle - That was really good fun. The yoga audience was pretty new for me, but what was funny was seeing fans who'd never done yoga before coming in with their mats and experiencing the mantra and singing along with it.

Mark Savage - How did you end up making an album of chants?

Belinda Carlisle - I started chanting before I got sober, and chanting is really interesting, because it's a science and it definitely works. Way back at the beginning… I had made so many messes in my life and it had all come to a head. It would have been very easy for me to jump off a cliff but because of all the chanting I was doing, I was flying high. It was like a feeling of elation at the very beginning of my sobriety. It was very strange, so I know it's power. Then I started experimenting with repetitive mantra in a pop song format. And I think it works. And that's how you get Wilder Shores.

Mark Savage - Which of the mantras on the album has been the most useful to you personally?

Belinda Carlisle - Ek Ong Kar Sat Gur Prasad [roughly translated as, "There is one creator of all creation. All is a blessing of the one creator"]. It's one that, simply put, makes me feel pretty happy, instantaneously.

Mark Savage - Could you have got sober without it?

Belinda Carlisle - Oh I probably could have, but there's no question that it made my transition into sobriety easier, no question.

Mark Savage - Will you be singing the mantras on tour?

Belinda Carlisle - I do one chant at the very, very end of the show [but] it doesn't really work in the context of a full-on rock concert. The focus is really on the Heaven On Earth album.

Mark Savage - Your voice sounds stronger than ever on the record. What do you put that down to?

Belinda Carlisle - Well, I always say it was 30 years of booze and cigarettes!