Eric Weideman (1927) – Interview

Eric Weideman (1927) – Interview

18 Giugno 2014 1 Commento Iacopo Mezzano

VERSIONE ITALIANA

MR.IT: Welcome Eric Weideman! It’s a pleasure for me to interview you for Melodicrock.it website!

MR.IT: To open my interview, the question that every fan would have asked you: why a reunion, and why a new album after all these years of silence?

EW: “To be honest, we’ve more commonly been asked why hasn’t the band come back sooner? In the end it took someone external from the band to propose a brief tour to commemorate the 20th anniversary of ish in 2009. There was no thought of a new album at that stage, but during that tour the love from our supporters was so strong and the band got along so well, that we quickly evolved into a new 1927 that was capable and excited about keeping going. And a band can’t keep going without making new music, unless you’re happy to be a tribute version of yourself which would never fly with us”.

MR.IT: So.. what have you been doing for the last 20 years?

EW: “Still making music, just not under the banner of ‘1927’. Living life. Exploring the world and self. Watching this crazy world change dramatically over 20 yrs. All the normal stuff people do when they’re grown up”.

MR.IT:Why was not possibile a reunion with the original line-up?

EW: “Some things are better left where they lie. The original line up didn’t survive intact beyond the first album, so why start a ball rolling again that you know has no future beyond a couple of celebration gigs? Igniting this rocket again was never going to happen if it meant going back in time. Honoring the songs that still mean something to people is fantastic, but doesn’t require full time-machine action to acheive”.

MR.IT: How did you choose Damien Cooper, Craig Laird, Simon Shapiro as new members of the band?

EW: “A reality TV show where unknown musicians had to fight to the death in order to fill a positon in the band hahah.. But seriously, It was Damien’s idea to put the ishh anniversay tour together. He had no intension of playing in the band but he’s a great drummer with years of experience playing very big gigs so it made sense. Once he agreed to play it was a case of hand picking the kind of people with very particular attributes. Basically musicians who play and perform like rock stars but off-stage are the kind of guys you bring home to mother.
Craig has great technique as a guitarist and he can play anything. Simon is an exceptional singer, songwriter and multi instumentalist. We became like brothers very quickly”.

MR.IT: What is the meaning of the title of the new album, Generation-i?

EW: “Everything seems to be geared towards the individual these days. Some of the expectations and entitlements people have are great, like being treated as equals, respected, educated, free to think and believe in whatever we choice etc, but some are very dangerous such as the expectation that every shop we walk into will have 17 kinds of everything to choose from, at a devestating cost to the planets resources
Modern technology comes with the same dilema. I can work, bank, control my washing machine from my mobile phone, which opens up my time for more important stuff. But the ‘more important stuff ‘ for many is increasingly becoming obsessive tweets and posts and not savouring our loved ones and the real world around us”.

MR.IT: Do you have a favourite track? If yes, why?

EW: “That changes all the time. At our last gig we played ‘Nobody Knows’, ‘Story Never Ends’. ‘Believe in Your own Lies’ and ‘Somewhere Before ‘, but we might play different tracks from the album next gig.
You don’t put a song on a record if you don’t love it, so any song could be a favourite on any given day”.

MR.IT: Now let’s get back to the band’s roots. Can you quickly tell us how 1927 were born?

EW: “Ex-guitarist from a successful band finds singer in a talent quest segment of a popular TV show. Thats kind of it”

MR.IT: Which were your biggest influences in the early days?

EW: “Everyone came from very different worlds. The Police, Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys to name a few”

MR.IT: Ok, I guess that everyone have ask you that, but, what does the moniker 1927 means?

EW: “It came out of a hat…..seriously”

MR.IT: ..ish, your first album, went 5 times platinum in Australia. In your opinion, why this success was not as big in UK or USA?

EW: “The band focused on Australia. Opportunities to tour extensively overseas were there but for various reasons it didnt happen. To crack those markets back then you needed to go there and stay a long time. 1927 didn’t do that”

MR.IT: Ok, let me ask a stupid question again. What does ..ish means?

EW: “Let me answer that with a question in return. What kind of music do 1927 play? Often the answer is that we are a bit pop-ish, rock-ish, soul-ish etc”

MR.IT: Are you surprised that those songs were still played nowadays and known by lots of people?

EW: “Yes, surprised. Happily so. To still be getting radio play after all this time is amazing. To have people still loving these songs is very special”

MR.IT: Let me say that my favourite track of the album is Compulsory Hero. Can you tell me something about this song and its composition?

EW: “To put your life at great risk to serve the people you love back home is heroic. For a lot of young men this was forced upon them.
It’s not so well known that all of the songs on ish have some relation to the theme of war. This song deals with the concept of conscrpition which was compulsory in Australia earlier in the 20th century. It’s still a very relevent song for us particularly after our visit to Afghanistan to perform for troops a few years ago”.

MR.IT: After the good The Other Side (Tell Me A Story, what a hell of a song!) and an eponymous third album, the band dismissed. Why?

EW: “It was time. Grunge had taken over the music scene and 1927 had run it’s course…for the time being at least”.

MR.IT: Are you writing new stuff for a new album at the moment?

EW: “Absolutely. There’s enough songs there, but you want to make sure the combination of songs works. Stay tuned”.

MR.IT: Where do you want to see the ”new 1927” in the years? Tell us about your dream of success!

EW: “The longer you are involved in this business the less you make promises and judge success by specific parameters. Because you only control yourself. You can’t tell what anyone else is going to do. And the kind of commercial success most artists and bands crave relies on more than yourself.
All we can do is make the music we love and offer it up to the world. It would ne nice if we can keep doing that until 2027 and beyond”.

MR.IT: Do you think there will be a chance to see 1927 on tour in Europe, and in Italy, some day?

EW: “That would be sensational. There is a fan base in Europe. We didn’t expect to be Touring in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia or the Middle East and we’ve done all of that in the past 3 years. Why not Italy? “

MR.IT: Before ending this interview, can you tell us what do you think about today’s music business? And what about Internet?

EW: “The music industry is almost unrecognisable to what it was in 1989. The internet is both an amazing and dangerous way of sharing ideas and artistisc expressions. It’s great that anyone can write and record an album in their bedroom and release it online. Theres a price for that kind of freedom though, which is a massive decline in the value the consumer places on music. Theres just a huge saturation of new music in circulation. Some of it’s encredible. But social media is monstering the selection process and that might not be the way we will get to hear the best stuff that’s going round. But this is the animal we’ve got in our back yard. It’s probably not going to leave so it’s up to us tame it”

MR.IT: Thank you very much for your time. If there is anything else you want to say, please say it!

EW: “Thank you for the questions. We hope to rock your beautiful part of the world soon”

© 2014, Iacopo Mezzano. All rights reserved.