Q: We’re here today in New York City, which is where you were born. Do you still spend most of your time here?

A: You know, I try to, because I feel like people who are born in New York never really want to leave it entirely. You always kind of wind up back here. But I’ve been doing a lot of work in L.A., because Capital’s based out there. And also, for the films, I was really focused on completing those films for a long time. It took a lot of work. And I had to be there, because that’s where Michele, the director is. And that’s where the crews are and that’s where the industry is for making film stuff. So I’ve been in L.A. a lot. But New York is where my heart is, to be honest.

Q: Do you spend time in London?

You know what? I’d never spent time in London before last summer. I mean, I’d been there for two days, three days, just as a tourist. But I’d never spent like a month or two months there. And I honestly -- I had like one of the most beautiful times in my life. It was just so -- so lovely. And I went to the country, in Gloucestershire and I just never realized how magical England really is. So now I kind of have this sort of like, Anglomania. I’m like really obsessed with getting back there and spending more time there, because you know my dad’s English. So I just always felt like -- I felt like that part was missing from my life a little bit. And I want to go back.

Q: Beautiful place. Friendly Fire is your second album. Your first was 1998s Into the Sun. And the question begs to be answered why you waited eight years before making another record.

A: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting because people assume that if you’re not putting records out and you’re a musician that somehow you’re doing nothing or something. But I mean, for me, it’s a very specific thing to put out a record publicly, promote it, tour it. That’s like one specific game. And, the truth is, I just didn’t want to do that. Not that I’m against that process or anything. I think a lot of people have that ambition. But my life isn’t necessarily focused in that direction. I consider myself to be an artist. You know, not to be pretentious, but I’m focused on making art, making film, making music, trying to make cool stuff. I mean, not necessarily promoting Sean Lennon as a product or anything like that. To be honest, a lot of times I feel kind of uncomfortable when I’m doing that. It’s just not -- it’s not who I am, really. So I just didn’t feel like it for those -- for those years.
But now I do and it’s because -- it’s because I’ve made this project that I really think represents me in a way that I can really get behind. And I was able to kind of find a new way of expressing myself, which wasn’t just songs and wasn’t just the record, but was kind of combining it with these conceptual kind of films, and visually expressing myself as well. And I did an animated film, too, that I actually drew I drew like hundreds of drawings. Just every frame. I got to draw it and really construct this kind of surreal dream world that was representative somehow of my subconscious or whatever I was going through with relationships and friendships. And I just felt like I’d really figured this thing out, this way that I wanted to do things, which is kind of a multimedia thing. And so now I want to put it out there. I’m really in the mood to do it.

Q: So the revelation that you could combine the more experimental side of your work with something that would be more accessible was partly the motivator for --

A: Well, just making -- just really feeling like I -- I’d done something good that was -- that I really wanted to put out there and make sure that people had a chance to check out, has given me the motivation to kind of do this whole thing again, which is kind of like a -- it’s a game. You’ve got to go around. You’ve got to do interviews. You’ve got to meet people. You’ve got to kind of put yourself in situations that aren’t necessarily natural or organic. And I try to avoid that as much as I can in my life. So not that I’m complaining about it, because I feel that it’s a privilege to even have an opportunity to do that. But it’s just not necessarily the focus of my life.

Q: I’m glad you’re taking the time today to talk, because Friendly Fire is a really special record. To these ears, it sounds like a concept record about love and relationships, using war as a metaphor. Am I kind of on the right track with that?

A: Yeah, definitely. You know, the difference between my first record and this record is that the first record I was 20 when I made it and it was kind of an optimistic, romantic view of love. It’s called Into the Sun, which really just meant kind of looking at the sun and going there hand in hand with the woman that you love and having this kind of overly-romantic fantasy, which was basically a naïve, youthful view of the universe. And this record is much more grounded in reality. It’s the same thing. It’s about being in love, but it’s about how painful that can really be and when love disintegrates and when you feel betrayed by the people that you love. But you love them anyway.
Like the song, Parachute, it’s – Parachute’s metaphor is love is like an airplane. You know, you jump and then you pray. And the lucky ones remain in the clouds for days. Just meaning like love is not going into the sunset of perfect happily ever after-ness. It’s basically deciding to jump out of a plane knowing that you’re going to hit the ground, but just hoping that while you’re flying through the clouds you might have a good time. And that’s kind of how I feel now. And that’s, I think, a more realistic view, generally, because, I think when you take a chance and fall in love with somebody, you’re risking imminent demise. You know what I mean?

Q: You're a one-man band. Ian Anderson is our guest this afternoon on KGSR. The Secret Language of Birds is his new solo album. And you just heard the title track. And I believe this is the third time you've made a solo record. What's the difference in your approach between making a Jethro Tull record and an Ian Anderson record?

A: Well, if I'm writing songs for a Jethro Tull album, I'm trying to make sure the drummer is happy. You know, the songs that I write are going to be inclusive of the kind of musical ingredients that give the drummer and the electric guitar and the electric bass, you know, good opportunities to integrate into the music. If I'm doing a solo album, writing solo stuff, then it doesn't matter if there isn't a part for drums or electric guitar because I'm just making me happy. I don't have to worry about the other guys. And in fact, back in the '70s when I used to do those sort of records -- or those sort of tracks, just little acoustic songs on some of the earlier Jethro Tull songs, it probably left the other guys feeling, you know, a bit touchy, a bit sensitive because they didn't get to play on all the tracks. So I didn't do so much of that in the '80s and '90s. And then a couple of years ago, I thought, I'll do an album of that acoustic sort of music because that's what I do. I mean, I'm really the unplugged guy in a rock band. I play the acoustic guitar and the bouzoukis and the mandolins and various woodwind instruments and percussion. And on this album, also some acoustic bass, helped out by Andrew Giddings, our keyboard player, who plays acoustic keyboards and accordions and other percussion things. And so it's really an album of the unplugged sort, overworked term that that may be.

Jody Denberg and Sean Lennon

Q: I do, actually. Sean, the album’s first song Dead Meat has this piano introduction. It almost sounds like a musical box opening to start the album.

A: Well I’m really into those kinds of themes that -- well, Brian Wilson used and -- but also like Eric Satie and Debussy. I’m really into romantic classical music from that period in France. So the Dead Meat theme is supposed to be a soundtrack to some French film that you’d never really seen, but that somehow is in your imagination. I layered glockenspiel, a piano and a Rhodes. I just layered like four or five keyboards doing the same thing and then whistled it too, so I wanted to get that sort of Pet Sounds dreamy thing to open up the record. And yet, Dead Meat is about being really angry. And so it kind of sets the tone for the record. Not that it’s an angry album, but when you get hurt by someone you can feel like you want revenge.

Q: Sean, did you have the concept for Friendly Fire and then write the songs to fit it or were you writing songs and then you realized they were connected?

A: Well (sighs) I think it was a bit of both. I wanted to make a record that had a consistency musically to it that my first record didn’t have, because my first record was very playful and representative of who I was at the time, which was someone who was really experimenting with tons of different types of music. This time I really wanted to put a band together. You know, record everything to tape so that it had a unified sound. So that it felt like those records that I really love. Because traditionally records used to be made that way. You’d have a band and you’d track all the basic tracks in a couple of days, which is what we did. And so I wanted it to be thematic for sure. And I knew that it was going to be about the dark side of love. So yeah, I planned it, for sure.

Q: Since Into the Sun back in 1998, and you said you wrote that around when you were 20 and you’re about 31 now, had you assembled songs or a record and then decided that you didn’t want to put them out to the public?

A: I have hundreds of songs because I write all the time. But I’m not one to have any interest in old songs beyond just being like “oh, those are there and they’re cool”. But I definitely would never consider putting out a record that was comprised of all the old songs. I’m really interested in what I’m into at the moment, because that’s what’s most compelling to me.

I also made another record that didn’t come out. And it’s because I just didn’t feel like it represented -- it didn’t represent my aesthetics in the way that I wanted it to. So that’s why I wound up producing one myself, because I really -- I like working with other people and I really have a lot of respect for other people’s input, but I just felt like I thought it was important for me to try to really articulate my aesthetic and my vision and see how that turned out. And I’m happy that I did, because it might not be a perfect album, but it definitely represents me in the way that I wanted to be represented.

Q: When you went into the studio, did you have any expectations of how it was going to turn out or was it an experiment that turned out well?

A: Well, definitely I was surprised by how well everything worked out. But I knew it was going to be good, because I had Matt Chamberlain on drums. I had Harper Simon on guitar. And I had a lot of great players. Yuka Honda on keyboards. I knew we were going to be a good band. It was more a question of making sure that they were available on the right days. But once I locked them in I couldn’t wait to get to rehearsal, because I had never recorded that way. I mean, my first record was basically me just overdubbing one track after the next. You know, now put me on drums. Now put me on bass. Now put me on keyboard 5, keyboard 6. And it was fun, but it was one man’s vision. Whereas, what I wanted to do as a producer with this record was, I wanted to get that sound of a living, breathing kind of organic organism, which a band -- only a live band can be. And I knew I needed a great drummer, because that’s the key. On Into the Sun, every time I played drums, it was cool, but it was atmospheric, my drumming. Whereas, if I was going to record live to tape, I couldn’t take a chance on someone who played like me. I needed someone who was just stellar, you know, top, one of the best in the world. And that’s what Matt is. He’s just a legend in the drumming community. So I had no doubts about that. I knew he was going to lay it down. And he did. It was a one-take kind of band. And it was the most fun I’ve ever had. That’s the sound that I like now. And I don’t think I’m going to go back to the Sean overdubbing world that I used to be obsessed with.

Q: It could go any way though.

A: Maybe. No, I do still record that way at home. That’s the only reason I play all those instruments is just out of convenience, so I don’t have to rely on people to demo my ideas. But there’s nothing compares to having a real great drummer and a great guitar player to feed off of. I just think it makes the music sound so much more alive. And I listen to it and there’s this sort of communication happening between the band that, you just can’t emulate by yourself. And that was one of the most important things to me about the record is that it just has that real sound of real people playing music together.

Q: Because there’s so much media coverage of war right now, did that spark the CD title’s metaphor for you at all?

A: Yeah, well, definitely. I’m not a political artist. And I don’t really believe in making political art so much. I mean, I have a lot of beliefs and I’ll get behind movements, but in terms of songwriting, I’m not really a huge fan of political songwriting. I mean, I’d even say that my dad and mom’s best work was never necessarily the political songs. I mean, they were successful as movements, but I don’t want to, like, go home and listen to Give Peace a Chance, but I do want to go home and listen to like, Mother or, A Day in the Life. And I think art is at its best when it sort of surpasses your egomaniacal view of the universe, because I think one person’s idea about politics is much less interesting that what art can be, which is something that transcends that individual. And so I don’t want to be a political artist. I want to just use the language of society and kind of reinterpret it and regurgitate it into art.

And so, yeah, Friendly Fire, the title is definitely because that phrase had been thrown around so much by the media, the news, like “Killed by friendly fire. Killed by friendly fire.” And I just thought it was such an oxymoronic statement -- I mean, what is friendly about killing somebody. To call it “friendly” is just so -- it’s such a media spin on something that’s much more tragic. And I just felt like it was a good phrase to re-appropriate and apply to my experiences with friendships that had been hurtful.

Q: You spoke a little bit about this, but why did you choose to produce this album by yourself, as opposed to using another set of ears?

A: Well, it wasn’t so much that I had presumptions or designs on being a producer. And I never considered myself one. But I -- basically, I had made a record with a really, really talented and very close friend of mine, this guy, David Kahne, who’s brilliant. I mean, and it wasn’t that he didn’t do an incredible job. He did. And in fact, that album’s really good and perhaps will come out one day. But the thing that made me not want it to be my sophomore release was that I didn’t think it sonically represented my aesthetic and my taste. I felt like it was something different. And I just think it’s really important for me at this point in my life to make sure that everything I do represents me in this really truthful way -- that isn’t kind of polished or overproduced or modified or corrected or whatever it might be that you can do on those computers with all that computer magic. I just wanted to make something really simple and raw.
And that’s what -- we did everything live to tape on the record. And there was very little overdubbing. And we didn’t edit anything together in the computer. It’s just -- it’s just the way it is. And I just think that’s more me. That’s more my style. I like to do things in a real organic, simple way.

Q: Were you comfortable in the studio giving direction, since you’re the songwriter and the producer?

A: Yeah (laughs). I had no problem giving directions, actually. I’m not a dictatorial type of producer. I really like to benefit from the opinions and talents of people around me. And I think I’d be an idiot if I was any other way. I don’t think I could do anything that I do without the help of my friends and the people I work with. And if you don’t take advantage of their ideas and their talents, then you’re wasting your time. Because I really don’t believe that any one person can be everything. I think that even the greatest genius benefits from the talents of others. Like Prince with Wendy and Lisa. I feel like he’s an example of one of the most talented people of all time, but still you can feel a certain something being lost when he stopped working with those girls. And I feel like no matter what -- like, you know, look at Lennon/McCartney. You’ve got to -- you’ve got to be open to other people’s input.

Q: A lot of the Friendly Fire material, though, was first take? At least the basic tracks were done first take, second take, live in the studio…?

A: I mean, we didn’t have a lot of time. So we’d do the basic track for like two to three songs a day, because basically people like Matt are incredibly busy and I just didn’t have much time. So, yeah, we’d do it in a couple of takes. And they’re all great players so it wasn’t that hard.

Q: So once you’ve got these basic tracks, then you’re deciding where to layer the vocals and add the strings? Because these songs have a real depth. They don’t sound like live in the studio. It doesn’t sound like a Plastic Ono Band sparseness.

A: Oh, no, it’s not a garage band record. But you have to remember, like, Pet Sounds was recorded to two tracks or something. But they had an entire orchestra there. So when I mean live in an organic, natural…I don’t mean that it’s not complex or interesting or sophisticated. We had a lot of parts.

I write out a lot of the counterpoint and the arrangement on the piano beforehand. I’ve got everything worked out, pretty much. Every part I already have worked out before we even begin. So it’s not that hard to do it in a live performance. And, again, I mean, what I meant by “organic,” “simple,” was more of a technical side, not using 50 computers and tons of editing and digital editing. I just meant simplifying in terms of recording instruments through a -- mic-pre onto a tape machine and kind of leaving it. You know what I mean?

Q: Yeah. You mentioned writing out parts or composing parts. So are you a schooled musician in that you will actually compose and write things out?

A: No, I’m not schooled at all. I really wish I was sometimes, but -- yeah, I’m self-taught. But I mean, I write parts out, meaning, like -- I don’t write them out in sheet music. I have them on piano. I can play all the parts. You know what I mean? They’re in my head. But it would be great to have studied. I feel sometimes that I should have. But I still am studying every day.

Q: And I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, but I don’t know the answer. When did you start picking up instruments and playing?

A: Well, the truth is, um, you know, when I was really young, when, you know, when my dad passed away. I just sort of -- I remember seeing the piano and that he played the piano. And that, uh – you know we had like five pianos in the house. And it was pretty early on I have memories of just kind of sitting there kind of experimenting with sounds and chords and just kind of feeling like, kind of drawn towards the piano and to music, because it kind of represented the thing that I’d lost a little bit. So I think on some level that’s how my relationship with music began, really.

Q: And I saw a picture of you on the John Lennon acoustic album that came out, I think, last year, where you’re holding a guitar and you’ve got to be about four or something.

A: Yeah, I was definitely exposed to music from an early age

Q: Friendly Fire is also a series of short films that accompanies each of the CD songs. Sean, is it the lyrical thread of Friendly Fire that made you think these songs would lend themselves to the short films?

A: Well I think cinematically anyway. I mean, I’ve always been a visual artist. Even before I was playing in bands I was a painter and I drew a lot. And I’ve always kind of secretly been trying to figure out a way to express myself visually, as well. And when it came time to consider making a music video for any of the single songs, I just felt like I didn’t want to do something conventional. I didn’t want to do a video that was an advertisement for the song, or an advertisement for me, or an advertisement for the record. I just felt like that wasn’t something that I wanted to do. And instead, I wanted to make art. I wanted to take the funds that I had for this music video, and instead of like making a commercial, make something that is just like the music is, which is a visual -- a formal version of the feelings that are trying to be expressed in the music.
And with that in mind, I called my friend Michele Civetta, who I’ve known since he was like 15. And I made a video for Parachute. And that turned out so well. You know, filming on 35 mm with an anemorphic aspect ratio, meaning the widest aspect ratio possible, which is from 2001. And I really wanted to make sure we did it that way. No hand held shots. I wanted everything to be dolly -- because I didn’t want to make something that was like a hipster music video. I wanted to make something that felt classic in the way that great films feel classic.
That might have been overly ambitious of me, but it totally worked out, I think. And it was difficult, because right after we made Parachute, my best friend in the world, this guy Max Leroy, he had an accident and died on a motorcycle. And it was just -- it still is like the worst thing that’s every happened to me since my father died. I mean -- I loved him so much. And I wasn’t ready for him to be gone.
And he was also Michele’s best friend, the director. So when that happened, I just felt like -- and I think Michele felt that way -- we just felt this resolve that we had to finish this project and see it through, because, I don’t know I don’t think there was any other way to process or to grieve. Because if we hadn’t thrown ourselves into making this film, which is a lot about Max, because he’s the one that I had this difficult relationship with. You know, we were best friends and then he and my girlfriend had this affair and it just broke my heart. And I stopped being his friend, I was so mad at him. And then he passed away and I just -- I feel like so stupid for not having been his friend and to not have forgiven him. I feel like I really made a mistake. And that’s what Friendly Fire is all about. It’s like when best friends hurt each other. That’s what it’s about. And I learned a terrible, terrible lesson, that anger is really not going to help you in the end. I really lost something there.
So the films were kind of a necessary way of me processing what happened. I had to do it. I had to put this story into -- into film because I just -- otherwise, I don’t know. I would have locked myself in a hole or something and just -- it really saved me making these films. And I think that’s true of Michele too, because we both lost someone that we really never imagined a life without.