Chords for Love and Rockets Interview - 1996

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[Bb] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
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[Bb] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ So tell me, why was the new album named Sweet [Ab] F.A.?
It [Fm] started two years ago [Bb] in San Francisco.
We were there [F] for most of the summer a couple
of years ago.
We weren't satisfied [Gbm] with it.
Went back to England [F] to Oxford, to a studio
in Oxford.
[Bb] Still weren't satisfied with it.
[F] Wrote ourselves, well we were at that time,
American [Bb] _ _ Records, [Gb] and particularly Rick Rubin, they had criticisms on the sound [F] of it and
some of the songs, the overall sound.
So then [C] they invited American Records, if you like,
invited us to LA to finish it up last summer.
We had a big fire, [Eb] nothing left, [Gb] so it seemed
appropriate at [F] the time to call it Sweet F.A. because Sweet F.A. [Eb] means sweet [Bb] wood, [F] which
is an English expression which means like [Bb] a zilch, zero.
Tell me how [F] Rick Rubin influenced Sweet F.A.?
He just [Bb] dried everything up, [F] took all the reverb and delays off.
Just brought out the
real kind of richness [G] _ of his instruments. _
_ [Eb] And for me, I've been living [G] in America for
like five years, [Bb] and to me it worked, it [F] made sense.
Yeah, Rick [N] Rubin, particularly vocals, he has no effects on them, they're really dry
and that's sort of alien to us as a group.
[Eb] Also if you listen to a lot of English [F] pop
music or rock music, [Bb] it's flooded in reverb, has much more of [F] a subtle _ sound [Gb] in as much
as it's like a big wave that [Gm] goes over you, whereas with [F] American sort of attitude, it's
like in your face, within the realms of rock [C] and roll anyway.
So the English like their [F] reverb still.
Interesting.
[Fm] Tell me about the cover of Sweet F [C].A.?
It's just the one thing that was left from the fire was the shape of that guitar, [Bb] that's
it.
[Gb] The drums completely went, I mean [Ab] we had a saxophone in there, it completely melted,
[Bb] it just went out of the woods.
_ [Gb] That was the only thing that looked like a musical [Bb] instrument
that was left, so [E] again it seemed like appropriate to put it on the cover.
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Why did you wait [Am] five years before recording Hot Trip to Heaven? _ _
_ We had a break in 89 to 91, [Gb] and then we started [C] in 92.
It took two years to make it, so as
far as the public goes, it looks like it's been [Gb] six years before we've been working together,
but in actual fact it was like 24 months after the fact.
We started on that record, that
took two years, [Gb] and then this one took two [C] years to finish as well.
You know the first
one it wasn't really right to go on the road with it, it wasn't like a, it didn't suit
the format of rock and roll [Gb] if you like bass drums and guitars, it was more like a [B] studio set.
Your past and present recordings, why are they so different from Hot Trip [Am] to Heaven?
Because we're taking different drugs, [D] basically.
And with the Hot Trip album we wanted [Dm]
to come back and make [E] some music again, but we didn't
look forward to the idea of sitting in the rehearsal room and writing songs in that way,
so we thought, well let's just all [D] show up and [Dm] make it up as we go along, so be really
spontaneous.
And if it doesn't work within a week, then we'll do something else.
[D] It was also taking on board all the music that had happened since our last tour in 89,
in Acid House and that field, [D] so that came to bear.
[Ab] What inspired the [Bb] lyrics for Sweet F.A.?
Whereas in the [Fm] past we tend to sort of go on [G] about different [Gb] philosophies and religious
[F] notions if you like, and ideas, but [Gm] it's [Gb] like a very healthy [F] dose of _ sexuality, something
[F] that seems to be [Bb] on my mind most of the time. _
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