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Interview: Christian Gerhardts
Photos: Helmut Janisch (unless
noted otherwise)
it: You have just toured the UK after many
years, which was a bit strange as it is your home country. How was the
response and will you do more gigs over there in the near future?
Ray Wilson: I was in two minds when I started
the UK Tour. I didn’t want to do a 'Ray Wilson’s World Of
Genesis' Tour there, but that’s how the promoter sold it and that’s
what enabled me to get quite so many shows, all in theatres. So it was
a compromise in the beginning, I didn’t want to do it like that,
but once we started doing the shows, we had such a good response from
the audience there. I didn’t expect it to be such a strong reponse,
I thought it would be difficult to tour there, especially in some of the
southern english towns, you know? And you can also see – some people
have written reviews in forums – that it really worked! I made some
new fans I guess. I did my usual 50% of my own material and 50% from Genesis
and again – I was unsure whether I would get away with it. It was
advertised as 'World of Genesis'. But I didn’t want to play a full
concert with Genesis-material. But people were happy with this. Songs
like The Actor and especially Change were good –
as a song, Change went down extremely well. And the song was
never released in the UK as a single. I remember playing the song and
thinking, I wish I would have had the support to do it. It was more popular
than any other song I played. It surprised me because it’s not a
typical Genesis arrangement or something like that, it’ quite a
plain ordinary song with a good melody. The UK-Tour was definitely a success
and I think I’ve now got a platform to do play more gigs in the
UK.
It: Before you played in the UK, you also played
in South America for the first time. How was that experience?
Ray: South America is just fantastic! To be
honest I always find any country with that latin spirit great, like Italy,
Spain was the same when I was with Genesis there, and also South America,
I think they are the best audiences in the world, in my experience. There’s
this passion. When you play Italy, they applaude in the middle of the
song when you do something. It’s really moving as an entertainer.
It happens a little bit when you go north, the Germans do it a little
bit, but not so much. When you get to the UK, it doesn’t happen
at all and in Scandinavia the same, it’s quite a dry atmosphere.
The South American stuff, in particular Buenos Aires was just phenomenal
to play there. We had over 2000 people watching us in the theaters –
it was just an amazing experience to be there and I would love to go back
but it is difficult to organise and it is expensive. And you can’t
sell any of your merchandise there which could cover some of your loss.
You have to get the stuff made there. It’s a nightmare when you
go through the customs etc. But I absolutely loved it!
It:
People have continuously asked us whether you would come
to North America. What’s the status of that?
Ray: the USA-thing is very simple, actually.
The answer that comes back from promoters in North America – and
I have tried it now three times - is that 'Genesis were not that successful
in recent years in North-America and we don’t think it would work'.
I think Daryl Stuermer has a similar situation, I don’t know if
this is fact but I know he does a lot of south American shows. He does
some kind of Genesis thing, I believe. But it seems to be – when
you get answers from North American promoters – that Genesis aren’t
so successful there. So a Ray Wilson doing Genesis stuff isn’t really
of much interest. There are always people like Dave [Negrin], who wanted
to put a show on in the New York state, which would be great – but
of course, by the time you have flown all your guitars and stuff over
there, it’s so expensive to do it. You need to do a dozen shows
or something to spread the cost and sell a bit merchandise to try to make
the thing at least break even. The same in Canada. We had an offer from
Montreal to play there but there just wasn’t enough money to do
it. That’s always the problem. If I had Mike's or Tony’s money,
I would do it I have to say. I would just go and lose money, I would be
quite happy to do that. But I am not in that position. I am financing
my own releases and it’s tough. But I’d love to play in North
America and see what they think. Same with Canada – it was a big
market for Genesis. I think the show that I did in the UK would work quite
well. But up until now I haven’t got the chance.
It: You are now touring in Germany, which is
obviously a good market for you. You came here first in 2002 to play an
open air acoustic show in Duisburg...
Ray: I was in Duisburg again the other day,
yes.
It: Yes, and it obviously developed from there.
We now see you playing more of the harder stuff, you’ve changed
your setlist or repertoir. Do you see these summer shows this year as
a forerunner to the Stiltskin tour or some kind of test gigs?
Ray: Well, the autumn shows will be a bit harder,
it’s not that the Stiltskin album is a metal album. It’s rock
music. And during these summer shows we’re playing four tracks from
the album and in autumn we have Uwe [Metzler] playing as well, which gives
an extra kick up the arse. Probably three quarters of the show will be
heavier. I will play the Cut version of Another Day in autumn,
for example and from Sarah as well rather than the acoustic versions.
So the balance will chance and these shows now are – yes –
somewhere in the middle of what I did do and what I am going to do.
It: You finally play Calling All Stations
again...
Ray: Yeah we put that in for the UK tour. I
should have done it a long time ago, I have to say - but I didn’t.
I’ve always loved that song, and hated Congo, as everyone
knows. And there are some other tracks like Dividing Line, that
was a great song and One Man’s Fool obviously was great
as well and I could introduce these as well, maybe next time when we’re
touring next year. I’d like to do more of that. And then it’s
also ten years ago that this album was released, I was reminded of that
by a candian promoter. He wanted to do a 10th anniversary [of Calling
All Stations] and I thought ‘does anybody care?’ –
but yes, it was interesting, Calling All Stations was very popular,
it’s a great song, but just a pain in the arse to sing. It’s
a tough one.
It: You have a new guitarist, Alex Ferguson,
who is now in the band. How did you meet him and why is your brother Steve
no longer in the band.
Ray: Well it’s Ali Ferguson, Alex Ferguson
is Manchester United’s coach [everybody laughs]. Ali is a friend
of Lawrie and Ashley [Macmillan]. They are all from Dumpfermine in Scotland.
He did a bit of work with a folk artist called Dougie MacLean, i think
Dougie is successful in North American terretories, it’s folk music.
He did this track – Caledonia...
It:
Fish covered this track!
Ray: Yeah that’s a Dougie MacLean song!
He has written a lot of good stuff, he’s a very talented guy. But
it’s folk music and Ali [Ferguson, see photo, taken by Christian
Gerhardts] played acoustic stuff with him. He’s a lighter player.
I think when he plays the electric guitar he’s a lot more like David
Gilmour. Uwe [Metzler] is a bit more Rock’n’Roll. So it will
be a nice combination to have those two.
With regard to Steve, i think we just came to the end of the line, working
with each other. He drove me completely insane and I think I needed more
from him musically that he was capeable of giving – in a nutshell.
Especially when I did the UK tour and we did things like Entangled
and we wanted to do the original version of Ripples and we needed
someone who could play this type of thing and it wasn’t really in
Steve’s style, he’s more bluesy. So i just had eneough. I
am also a very difficult person to work with, I make no bones about it,
but I’m also very fair with people. I look after the guys in my
band. But just when they’ve learned everything, I want to change
it all. I give them a setlist, they look at it and then I don’t
play one song from the setlist. You know things like this drive them mad.
And they care about their own gear an they set their own ship up and stuff
down and I expect this from people. We’re not in a position where
we can have three roadies on 200€ a day. It’s not on. Otherwise
the tour would lose money and you can’t continue. Once I get to
an audience of 1000 every show then that would be different. So I demand
a lot of people and equally I put a lot into it myself. And with regard
to Steve...I mean I love my brother very much, nothing has changed there
but I think it’s better for both of us that we certainly don’t
work together. I don’t know if it’s forever, but certainly
we needed some time out because it wasn’t good.
It: This is a question by someone who posted
in our (english) forums:
You certainly tour a lot and how does that change you as a person? Does
it make it more difficult for you to keep your feet on the ground?
Ray: Well I have to say that I battled years
ago with terrible depressions. It started towards the end of the Genesis
time. But it wasn’t because of that. It was a combination of things.
I was with a girl called Vicky for years and years and that ended. The
Genesis thing ended, the Cut thing didn’t really work. I was really
clueless what to do, I knew that some Genesis fans liked Calling All
Stations, others didn’t, some of them liked me singing with
the band, some of them didn’t and I had this decision to make where
I would say 'forget Genesis altogether, do I incorporate a bit in what
I do, do I go back to the Stiltskin type of thing or the Cut thing'. There
were so many questions that needed to be answered. And I had a real problem
with depression and motivation. I didn’t want to talk to anybody.
Everytime a tour was organised I wanted to cancel it. Tyla had a hell
of a time with me getting me do do things. Someone wants to do an interview
and I didn’t want to talk to someone. All these horrible brain-fucked
type situations. But the last couple of years I took chinese medicine
to try to deal with my depressions and it lifted my out of depression.
I never wanted to take valium or any of that stuff. But I realised that
something had to be done. So I went to a chinese herbalist in London and
then one in Edinburgh and after two or three months everything lifted.
It was the most amazing experience. And it was affecting everything. It
affected my attitude, my health, my sex life, my creative life, everything.
Depressions are just hell for people who have it. Once I got through that
the last couple of years of touring have been – for the first time
ever - really enjoyable. I’ve always been fighting myself like “that’s
what I’m doing!” and something inside me said “Don’t
do it”, whereas now I can actually enjoy the stuff I am doing. So
now – to answer your question – touring is all I want to do!
If I’ve got a complaint it will be that I can’t tour enough.
I don’t have enough markets who support me. The German market does,
a little bit in Poland, a little bit in Italy as well, but italian promoters
are extremely difficult to deal with. And now the UK thing started –
so I just want to continue.
It:
For quite a while now you are an independent artist. That must be a bit
different from having a recording contract. How do you promote your new
album with Stiltskin, She?
Ray: Yes, now I am promoting my own records
- with the help from SPV for distribution - but all the marketing money
etc is my own cash. Even to get Radio Airplay you have to run competitions.
At the moment we send SHE out to Radio Stations in Germany –
only in Germany, I can’t afford to do the UK as well at the moment.
To get airplay, you either pay for it or run competitions and in return
you get airplay. At the moment I’m trying to run five competitions
where two people each from the Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt,
they come to the Edinburgh Festival, they get the flights, five star hotel
and they come to see a gig. Things like that cost me about 2200 €
per competition. So it’s 11000€ to run five competitions, just
to get airplay. Otherwise you can’t get airplay, you get the smaller
stations, or stuff like WDR2, who supported me already.
It: They played Change a lot
Ray: Yeah but you can’t get the younger
radio, what is what you need to get a single moving...
It: Like EinsLive
Ray: Exactly, all that stuff. So you look at
it and think, ok I’ve spend a fortune to produce the album and I
have to spend the same again to promote it. And at the end of it –
it might not sell. And then you’re at the beginning and lost all
that cash. I mean I don’t mind, I don’t complain. But you
need a bit of luck every now and then, something to work for you. Something
that you can put some money back and allows you to play in clubs etc.
It: So you haven’t called Levi’s
yet to get a song into a commercial?
Ray: No, things like that – apart from
the fact that it’s not periticular cool, I mean nowadays it doesn’t
matter but in the old days it wasn’t cool to do something like that.
But quite honestly, if Levi’s came and said there’s 50.000
Pounds I’d take it, I’d bite my hand off. Because all I would
do with that money is put it right back in the whole system. I wouldn’t
have any problem with Levi’s giving me something like that although
it’s not easy to get things like that happen. But it’s something
like that that I need, just luck. I’ve got the song, She,
whether you like it or don’t, and Lemon Yellow Sun, whether
you like it or you don’t, I think they’re good tracks and
I think this is the best album I’ve ever done. It’s worthy
of selling a reasonable number of copies so that I can do it all over
again. That’s what I feel about it.