A TOUCH OF COMPASSION

Bob Hughes - THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - 1987 - AUSTRALIA


The The’ Matt Johnson leant back in the large leather sofa of his hotel suite and explained his philosophy of life.

‘Most people, when they get a bit of money, forget where they come from. They’re driven by lust and greed. I try not to do that.

‘I’ve had quite a lot of money in the past couple of years, but I’ve never forgotten where I come from or what’s important.

‘Does one have to be poor to be compassionate?

‘My basic politics are of compassion and humanitarianism.

‘It’s funny. The governments of the West have moved so far to the right in the past couple of years, that the position I take which was moderate 10 years ago, now appears radical.

‘Health, housing and education, freedom of speech and freedom of information are birthrights and they are aspects which are being eroded in Britain.’

The scope of his most recent album, Infected, is even vaster.

‘The track Infected has references to AIDS but as a metaphor for the overall venereal disease of desire,’ Johnson said.

‘That links to Western ideology and the way the West pollutes the ideology of the third world, and imposes its own values and judges other cultures by its own values.

‘It’s just the West which I’m trying to portray.

‘America is largely materialistic. It’s a country which is largely ignorant of the rest of the world. They think the world begins with Alaska and ends with Hawaii.

‘Unless Americans are involved in something overseas the rest of the world doesn’t really exist.

‘That’s why they drag us into so many wars. They’re ignorant of other country’s cultures.’

Johnson knows a lot about the US because of the 16 or 17 visits he’s made there. He’s signed to CBS, a giant American record company.

‘I appreciate the irony of it’, he said. ‘I think there’s one big English record company left, EMI. I like the irony that CBS are promoting something which is attacking what they stand for.

‘I am diametrically opposed to CBS the corporation but not the individuals, because I get on with them.

‘There are a lot of people working in CBS who have been very constructively supportive, but I am opposed to the corporate policy that their lawyers and accountants draw up, and I clash quite a lot with them over different things.’

Despite that, he admits they don’t put a lot of pressure on him.

‘You can get into an attitude of being obligatory anti-record company,’ Johnson said. ‘But they’ve been quite good to me. They’ve given me the financial support I needed, and they don’t come down to the studio.

‘There’s no interference artistically. They’ve given me room to do what I want to do. The relationship is fairly good.

They helped him with the $600.000 he needed to shoot the video album for Infected.

‘It’s recoupable from my royalties. Basically I’ve got a rich man debts.’

The film was shot in South America. ‘I enjoy travelling. The imagery fitted in with the biblical references,’ Johnson said. ‘The dual forces of Catholicism and capitalism are apparent down there, almost like two forces vying for people’s souls.

‘It was a good talking point. The imagery was suitable for the songs, and I wanted to go there.’

Despite his 16-track home studio, the new album took three years to make.

‘I was physically exhausted after Soul Mining,’ he said. ‘I ended up in hospital with a nervous virus which affected my eyes. I had to take it easy for a while.

‘I got bored doing music. I wanted to feel hungry for music again. I didn’t want to churn out an album for the sake of CBS or my bank balance.

‘I took about a year off to reappraise my past work and consider and redefine my goals. Then the whole Infected project came together.

‘I went through a bit of creative drought as well. There was nothing I wanted to write about.’

He doesn’t get too involved in the material when he’s not working on it. ‘People are often surprised I’m not more intense or morose. But I’m quite schizophrenic. My work and my private life are quite separate.

‘I still very rarely get recognised, which pleases me. I like to be the observer. I just like to sit there, watching things.’

The long form video will make his face much better known, he hopes, and then he won’t be hypocritical about being recognised.

‘Middle-aged groups singing about high school and the first time they had sex, I find retarded basically.

‘Paul Simon has done it well, grown old with dignity. Now he’s singing to his audience about divorce, or approaching middle age.

‘He is still communicating to his generation. That’s what I’d like to do . People like the Stones don’t. I find them offensive. They’re like retarded old men.’

After talking about the album for six months of promotion, Johnson doesn’t want to go straight back into a studio to record another.

‘Career-wise that would be the best thing. But I need a bit of a break.’

Next on his agenda are some film soundtracks and then maybe he’ll ‘write some prose’. He hasn’t played live for four years.

‘They’re putting a lot of pressure on my to tour America. I’ll do it when I want to do it, not when they want me to. I wouldn’t do this album live. It would be impossible to do live.

‘The best way to describe my dilemma is to use a boxing analogy. I’ve not played live for four years, although I’ve been offered a lot of money and I could play in from of large crowds in some countries.

‘But it would be like an amateur fighter stepping into a world title fight. I’ve played live since I was about 12, but I’ve not done it for four years.

‘I’m not that confident as a performer, it could be really awful’.

It’s possible he’d get a small band together under an alias and do cover versions around the clubs, as a warm-up for a tour.

‘But, I have room to do what I like, when I like and where I like. Thank God’