(A Second Photo Available at the Bottom of this Page)
Barbara conducted this interview with Julian on September 3, 1991 in Cologne, Germany. Julian was promoting the release of his newest album, "Help Yourself" which featured the song, "Saltwater". The atmosphere was relaxed, as you can see by the candid photographs taken of Julian on this occasion. Barbara kindly offered this interview for the enjoyment of IK readers. Portions of the interview were previously published in several German newspapers and magazines.
BW: Are you pleased with your new album?
JL: Yeah, more than ever, absolutely, 100%. It is more me than anything else that I've done. I feel that if anybody wanted to know me as a person, or to understand the way I think or feel or how my emotions run, listening to this album would be a good way of doing it.
BW: Is it true that you worked for eight months on the album, and if so, why did it take so long?
JL: That's right. The reason it took so long is I felt that in my work before, I only wrote about being incredibly happy and in love or very depressed and lonely. It was self-centered, very closed-in and I felt that I had a lot more to say than that. I spent eight months in a very small room with just a piano and pen and paper. Initially, it was to write lyrically something different, to get a little deeper into other opinions in life. But because I am so emotionally attached to what I write, there was a rebound and it affected me personally. It made me think a lot about how to change my life, how to work through certain problems. It was very much an exorcism for me, very therapeutic, self-health therapy and it took eight months to work through that.
Bob Ezrin, the producer, is a very strong man mentally and he pushed and guided me to resolve problems in my music and in my personal life. When I was writing, he would come into the room two or three times a week and read what I had written and tell me that it was horrible, it was useless, terrible and we would fight and argue and then I'd go, "You're right," and I really decided I had to think a lot more about what I was doing. There was a period of three to four weeks where nothing came out creatively - no lyrics, no music - and I sat in the room for three or four weeks going crazy. I finally sort of exploded and all these emotions and things that I had to work through flourished and came out into the music.
BW: Is it true that you've said if this album isn't a success, you won't do another?
JL: I would never, ever say that, no. I intend to write 'til the day I die.
BW: How would you compare your new album with the other three?
JL: With the first album, I was very naive, young, ignorant. I had a lot of guidance. So it was a very innocent album and had a lot of other people's influence. The second album, I didn't like, I hate it. But it was the record company. I came off a tour and the record company said, "Back to the studio, we want a hit, we want a successful album now." I said, "You gotta be crazy, it takes time to be creative, you have to experience things before you can write about them." I was not happy with that, it was very important to have a good second album and this ruined my life basically, with the critics and everybody else. It's over, he is useless.
When so many people say that, you believe it, so I got very depressed. The third album was sort of getting back into the swing, trying to organize things. The thing that offended me the most was that I seemed to be the only one who was criticized for using Beatles influences when there were so many other bands using Beatles influences - they were praised. That made me very angry and I feel I sort of denied my influences and history from that point. I was trying to figure out who I was anymore. I put all that away, the Beatles influences, I wouldn't touch it. But that was part of my life. With this album, I sort of came to terms with all that. This is my history, you know.
THE LITTLE DEVIL
I will not listen to critics anymore. I used to be so shy and would hold all this anger and aggression inside. I was very depressed and unhappy, so I had to work through that. I used to be very negative, so what I had to do was resolve all of that by killing the negative person inside of me. Whenever things became good for me, the person, the little devil in my head, would destroy it because of what other people had said. So now I just believe in myself. I don't care, this is it, this is me, thankyou, goodnight, you know.
BW: In the song "Saltwater", you offer no solution, neither to the world nor to you. Does it mean you surrender to these problems?
JL: No. The basic idea of the song was, because only over the past year or two have I become more aware of my surroundings, it was to suggest, or give basic observations or reflections on my life. I don't like artists who preach about solving situations because I find a lot of people do that. It's like a school teacher saying, "You've got to fix something, you gotta do this now." No matter what the problem is, I will say, "I don't wanna deal with it" whereas the song is a reflection, it's one man's view of the world surrounding him and seeing what the problems are and how it saddens him. So there's no resolution but I feel it does make the listener more aware without being strangled by the problems we face.
BW: Are you involved in any movement against the pollution of the Earth?
JL: I am not specifically tied into any organizations at the moment but I am associated with endangered species and the rainforest situation. One thing I've just done is a thing for the Prince's Trust. There is a new game called "Environment" which is loosely based on Trivial Pursuit, so it is a game where you have fun, but you also learn about the problems we face in the world. It's great for kids and grownups. With the writing of "Saltwater", there was a connection, so we joined forces to present both things to the world hoping that they might listen.
BW: What was it like working with Bob Ezrin?
JL: Difficult. Bob Ezrin was very good, very tough because he pushed me, mentally, to go further than I had done before. So he was always there saying "No, you can do better, you can do much better." All the way. I was very tense because there would be points where I would almost leave. I would say, "I cannot deal with this" but I had to stay for my own benefit and own good. In the end, it worked out. It was not easy, but I thank him very much.
BW: The intro of "Saltwater" reminds me very much of "Strawberry Fields." Is that right?
JL: Yes, absolutely. The reason for that is the writer I worked with - Mark Spiro - and myself, we felt the song was very important for people to listen to and one definite way that we could catch their attention was to have something they will associate with the past. That was on purpose to make the listener go, "Hmmm, what was that?" and then get into the song and understand what it is about basically.
BW: Who did the stunning "Saltwater" video and who had the idea for it?
JL: It was a gentleman named Nick Brands who is an English director, now moved to Los Angeles. I went through many, many videos to find somebody who is special, who did something original, innovative, creative and we sat and went through many different ideas and treatments. He finally came up with the idea of a video although the song does not necessarily show hope, the video shows hope in that, maybe we can resolve things and see the world as it really should be.
BW: What is meant by "Rebel King"?
JL: The rebel king is the negative person inside all of us. It's the person I was talking about before. Insecurity. That is the rebel king. It was very important as a first song on the album because this is the first thing that happened to me, to kill the negative person in me.
BW: I find it interesting how many instruments you are playing: guitars, keyboard, mandolin, percussion, bass and drum programming. What is your favorite instrument?
JL: I like everything I do. I don't play anything very well. I don't read music. I don't write music. I just play music and I hear. I can basically pick up any instrument you give me and be able to write a tune on it.
BW: As a musician, how do you rate yourself?
JL: As a musician, not very good. As a songwriter, I would consider myself good. A good songwriter, especially with this album. My main thing in life is to write songs. The music, the lyrics, the arrangements, production. As for playing them, I am not very good at it. But I do okay. I get the feeling across, the emotion, which is the most important.
BW: What reasons do you see for the commercial failure of "Mr. Jordan" and what makes you think that "Help Yourself" will not have the same fate?
JL: I felt that the record company did not back me up. The single and album were on the (American) radio charts at Number One for four weeks and there was no support at all, which is very strange. A lot of people I meet on the street come up to me and say, "What happened to 'Mr. Jordan'? We liked it." I say, "I have no idea." The only thing I see is that I had no support from the record company. I know for sure the record company loves "Help Yourself" so I expect their full support in every way. I think this album is a lot stronger. One thing I'm trying to do with every single from this album is put a song from the last album on the B-side.
BW: Why did you leave England?
JL: I do believe in tradition, but I lived in England for 20 years. That's a third of my life. There is a lot more to see in the world than just to stay in one place. I was 20 when I was first making an album - I went to America. America was open 24 hours a day, it is crazy, it is mad, the people are mad, it was a wild experience. And so unfortunately for me, New York was too wild at that time. So I moved to Los Angeles which was a lot calmer. I've enjoyed it there for eight years now. I don't think I'll stay there forever because I feel like a gypsy. I love to see the world. My next stop? I don't know where - maybe back to Europe, I'm not sure.