{"id":21484,"date":"2021-09-07T05:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T09:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21484"},"modified":"2021-09-08T07:26:01","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T11:26:01","slug":"wind-up-happening-musoscribe-meets-lmnop-part-2-of-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/07\/wind-up-happening-musoscribe-meets-lmnop-part-2-of-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind Up Happening: Musoscribe Meets LMNOP (Part 2 of 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Thrilled with my new discovery, I raced to my desktop, opened my email app and dashed off a quick note to said publicist. I feverishly typed words to the effect of, \u201cHey, I\u2019m sure Stephen doesn\u2019t do interviews, but if by some miracle he does<\/i>, let me know.\u201d I received a prompt reply, informing me that sure, he\u2019d be willing to chat. Color me surprised. And pleased.<\/p>\n

Even more surprising (the surprises, do they never cease?), Stephen was willing \u2013 I think he even suggested<\/i> it \u2013 to do a Zoom interview. Y\u2019know, like, video chat. I will admit that caught me off guard; my sense that he\u2019s a very private person in real life has persisted these many years.<\/p>\n

On the appointed day and at the agreed-upon time, I launched my Zoom app. And there he was. Well, sort of<\/i>. I never came right out and asked him to confirm my suspicion, but I am pretty sure what I was actually seeing was my interview subject hidden behind big, dark sunglasses and a shaggy, longhaired wig. Now, I could be wrong about this, and it\u2019s worth pointing out that save for what looked like a hastily-assembled disguise, Stephen Fievet was a candid, funny, witty and engaging interviewee. Normal, really, and that\u2019s not meant as an epithet.<\/p>\n

We talked about a lot of stuff. Here\u2019s an edited transcript.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: When I first heard “Things” on the new <\/b>whatNOP<\/b><\/i>, my first thought was that other than a much higher fidelity, it would’ve sounded right at home on any of the early LMNOP cassettes.<\/b><\/p>\n

Stephen Fievet: <\/b>Oh, really? Wow! That’s really interesting to hear! I haven’t gotten a lot of reactions from anybody in person, so I’m kind of at a loss.<\/p>\n

I bought those cassettes 36 years ago. Was there a defining concept that you had for LMNOP from the beginning, or did it develop over time?<\/b><\/p>\n

It kind of developed over time, Bill. When I was just starting out, I was trying to emulate the one-man bands that I worshipped or idolized at the time. Probably the #1 would be Roy Wood. I really, really<\/i> loved Roy Wood’s solo [albums]. Then, it did evolve over time in that I kind of was trying to figure out what I was striving for. I finally figured out that \u2013 when i was learning how to play \u2013 the two bands that I liked playing and singing along with the most were the Ramones and Shoes. I was trying to come up with a sound that was the cross between those two except with different lyrics, because I always thought I wanted the lyrics to be something different. A lot of it just sort of fell into place over time, because I didn’t really know then \u2013 and I still really don’t know, really \u2013 exactly what I’m doing.<\/p>\n

\"\"You’re the first who’s ever said they were influenced at all by Shoes. Have you read their biography<\/a>?<\/b><\/p>\n

No, I haven’t! I didn’t know they had a biography out.<\/p>\n

It’s like this thick<\/i>. It’s quite good<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

You know what? Apparently, this box set that’s out, that’s all their Elektra material, apparently it sounds like that is being received a lot better overseas than they ever were here. So, I think they’ve probably got a bigger audience there.<\/p>\n

You’ll probably appreciate this: In the mid- to late \u201890s I went on a trip with a friend, just a weekend thing, because they had a business trip to Washington D.C. I got there, and it turned out that Shoes just happened to be playing at a little club that Saturday night. I got to go and see them and talk with them!<\/p>\n

From the beginning, when I started buying those cassettes, I was struck by the way in which you seemed to \u2013 whether it was effortlessly or not \u2013 to combine dark things and sort of dada humor with what I can only call pop values: catchy, hooky, pop songs. Can you point to something or someone that inspired you in that particular direction?<\/b><\/p>\n

I don’t really have a specific thing that comes to mind there, except the person who probably affected me the most as far as coming up with words for songs was Marc Bolan. When I was so into him as a kid \u2013 and I still am \u2013 he was writing more based on the sound<\/i> of the words than the meaning. So I kind of picked up on that, and I thought, \u201cWell, that’s a lot better way of doing it than trying to just make sense all the time.\u201d He wrote a lot of words that just sounded good. I always was really impressed with that, and I have tried to do the same, I guess.<\/p>\n

Is there a general location or source that your lyrical ideas come from?<\/b><\/p>\n

I’m not making this up, Bill. I’ve talked to a few people before who I think they thought I was giving them some kind of a line, but it’s really the truth. When I’m coming up with stuff, I go into some kind of a trance, and stuff just comes out really fast, and I have to catch it on tape or write it down really fast. Only after it’s finished can I try to evaluate what happened, because a lot of the time I really don’t know what’s going on. So, that’s why, in a lot of cases, if somebody asks what something’s about, I don’t really know.<\/p>\n

\"\"So, the lyrics for songs tend to come to you fully formed? You don’t sit there and say, \u201cWhat should the next line be?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, it’s both! Some things write themselves instantly without editing. Then, other ones will be reworked and changed and altered 20 times. I would say I like the A part better where it just writes itself, but some of the ones that turn out better end up being the B type. Over time I think I’ve gotten better at determining when I’ve come up with something that’s really terrible, because then I know to throw it out. Whereas, a long time ago, I couldn’t tell the difference!<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Thrilled with my new discovery, I raced to my desktop, opened my email app and dashed off a quick note to said publicist. I feverishly typed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,49,51],"tags":[4626,4625,4627],"class_list":["post-21484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","tag-babysue","tag-lmnop","tag-stephen-fievet","cat-39-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21484"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21634,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21484\/revisions\/21634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}