INTERVIEW BY ALEXANDER GORKOW (SDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, July 16)
Keep in mind these are not Tony's original words, but his words translated into German and back to English again!
I also guess that Tony's grammar and choice of vocabulary are much better than mine... (Srendi)
SZaW: Mr.Banks, I am completely dazzled.
Banks: Why?
SZaW: Its so beautiful here!
Banks: Where?
SZaW: Well, here, at The Farm! Surrey in general! Next time Ill arrive with a furniture van.
Banks: Oh, its getting louder all the time. And more crowded. More and more people are coming here.
SZaW: If thats the only thing you have to worry about
Banks: You have to understand, Ive been living here for many years, nearly all of my life. A few miles down the meadow theres Charterhouse boarding school - where we founded Genesis. In those days a car drove through the village maybe two times a day.
SZaW: When was that exactly?
Banks: Let me think. . . 1963! Hmm. . .
SZaW: Whats wrong?
Banks: How long ago that was.
SZaW: You dont give the impression that you are old and frustrated.
Banks: I thank you. No, I really cant say Im frustrated. But Im getting old.
SZaW: Are you serious? You are just 54. Also, you are smiling so strangely.
Banks: Yes, Im serious.
SZaW: How do you feel your age?
Banks: You are getting hm unexcited. A lot of things well are absolutely all the same to you.
SZaW: Frustrating?
Banks: No, not at all, in fact. You are just slowly losing interest in everything new. Im even less impressed by everything loud and exciting than I used to be in former times.
SZaW: With your keyboards you used to transform the largest concert arenas into cathedrals. The music was often very emotional, even irrational at times. However, you always gave a different impression, Mr.Banks: Logical. Collected.
Banks: Well, I probably was never part of this rock'n'roll machine.
SZaW: You were the logistician.
Banks: Yes, on the keyboards I had control over logistics, if you want to see it that way. It was my task to let the singer look good. With Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins we had two great performers at the front. All those years I was placed in such a way that I was facing them. Rather not the audience.
SZaW: You never felt drawn to the center?
Banks: No.
SZaW: But you knew theres thousands of people who are looking at you.
Banks: They were rather hearing me instead of seeing me. And whenever I saw these masses of people, it struck me as somewhat unreal, for example at the stadium concerts. I always thought: Oops, why does it have to be THAT many?
SZaW: Nevertheless, it was you who had the whole sound under control, as it were.
Banks: If I played a bum note on the keyboards, which occurred, it was always very audible, due to the often complicated nature of our songs. You know, some of our pieces were quite difficult - they were based on these percussion-like, hammering keyboard passages. There really was a high demand of precision from me.
SZaW: What do you do if you hit a wrong note in front of 100.000 people at the finale of a three-hour show? You cant just shoot yourself, can you?
Banks: No, one shouldnt do that, at least not on stage.
SZaW: So what do you do then?
Banks: Just dont let on! Never! A hard and fast rule in the concert halls of this world. Its always the singer who has to carry the can for the others mistakes anyway.
SZaW: How did Collins carry the can?
Banks: Professionally, of course. I remember his darn drum box for "Man On The Corner", a really beautiful, but rhythmically complicated song. At the beginning Phil would start this small drum computer, so there was something like tch dip tch dip in the off beat, and then: zi-dipp! zi-dipp! I always had to join arrhythmically at the first zi-dipp, but occasionally it happened that I started at the second zi-dipp. Phil then looked over to me like a dog that doesnt understand. With his funny face.
SZaW: And you?
Banks: I looked back as indifferently as possible. I think he gladly would have smacked me one.
SZaW: And you stayed totally cool?
Banks: Yes, on the outside. Inside as well, actually. Its no use to get upset during a concert. Just makes everything fall apart.
SZaW: You acted, as if nothing had happened?
Banks: I acted as if nothing had happened. We took our time for a few bars, I then began with the first zi-dipp - and everything was alright again.
SZaW: God, that takes a fair bit of nerve.
Banks: Later on the song changes its rhythm once more, again owing to that darn drum box, this time it was usually Mike (Rutherford) who played a wrong guitar note. Splaaaaaash! A beautiful song that sounds so simple but in truth we counted ourselves to death on stage! Three, four, three, four, zi-dipp! F*ck! Wrong! And so on. Poor little Phil. But that asynchronous drum box he had fallen in love with since "In The Air Tonight" was his idea, not ours, so...
SZaW: Wasn't he annoyed? After the concert?
Banks: No, he rarely was annoyed.
SZaW: You wrote a suite for the London Philharmonic Orchestra that was released on CD recently. Even if the CD reminds me of very old Genesis compositions: it's a completely new territory for you.
Banks: On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, no. Genesis did have its classical elements, didnt it?
SZaW: On the one hand, yes, on the other hand, no. In the end Genesis songs were still songs, very English, werent they?
Banks: Yes, you are right there, actually. I had a problem with this art rock thing. Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and that stuff, showing off your skills - I think we did not belong to it.
[I have no clue how to translate Leistungsschau, but I guess thats what he meant.]
SZaW: So are your songs from the heart rather than the head?
Banks: The songs I wrote for Genesis on my own - "Afterglow" and "One For The Vine" - probably came from the heart rather than the head. Music should not be brainy [top heavy?]. It should move you. I mean, even the guys from Radiohead or Coldplay point out how strongly we have influenced them with our earlier stuff. If my children play Radioheads "OK Computer", it sometimes feels as if theyre playing a track with my keyboard parts from the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway session.
SZaW: Back to your classical CD. It sounds romantic, even old-fashioned, if you like. Is it possible that you have always been a very conservative person deep down in your heart?
Banks: How do you mean that?
SZaW: As a person.
Banks: Politically?
SZaW: For example.
Banks: No, not politically.
SZaW: You voted for Blair.
Banks: No, neither the Tories nor Blair. Like so many people here in England, however, I am surprised about Blairs huge interest in constantly waging war. Possibly a psychological thing. . .
SZaW: And otherwise?
Banks: Well, Ive been married with the same woman for 30 years, I nearly have spent my whole life here in Surrey.
SZaW: Could one say that you are one of the most unspectacular guys the rock industry has ever produced?
Banks: Hmm. . .
SZaW: Hmm?
Banks: Yes, probably. I am so unspectacular I wouldnt even have noticed myself, if you had not mentioned it to me! That probably hasnt been easy for the music journalists, either, during all those years: Ive always been the nerd behind the keys.
SZaW: That should leave you cold, though, shouldnt it? You are considered one of the cleverest keyboardists in rock history.
Banks: Thanks, but we also were considered as indescribably boring normals by many of your colleagues. Particularly, after Peter (Gabriel) had left us.
SZaW: But you could live with it, couldnt you?
Banks: Yes, I actually could. I never did care about it. But Phil usually got bashed in a manner that was really adventurous.
SZaW: The journalists hated him.
Banks: Yes, I sometimes had the impression it was some kind of competition: Hey, if you still havent given Collins a roasting today, just join in! In principle you could say: We were loved by many musicians and by our fans - but hardly by the press. I still remember how proud we were when Lennon praised us to the skies at the beginning of the 70s.
SZaW: Is it more difficult for young bands today?
Banks: With Genesis we needed ten years, until 1979, before we were making money for the first time. The record company spent an awful lot of money on us, for the tours, for the albums. They didnt earn a cent with Genesis. Would a record company bother with a band for such a long time these days? No. The young ones dont have it easier today, within no area, the pressure is higher than it used to be.
SZaW: How do you spend your life here in the country?
Banks: I read. Boyd, Rushdie, actually a lot of novels. I drive to London and visit exhibitions. Then I think about what I see. As you said, nothing spectacular.
SZaW: To live here in Surrey, to sit and read in one of these attractive gardens with a weather like today, to drive to London in the afternoon to visit a beautiful exhibition, to be rich. Mr.Banks - that IS spectacular!
Banks: Do you think so?
SZaW: Yes.
Banks: Well. Then its all a question of relation again, probably. But I really dont feel like complaining.
SZaW: What kind of exhibitions do you visit in London?
Banks: The whole traditional stuff, of course, 18th and 19th century. Newer things as well: The Saatchie Gallery may be a big hype, but Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin are fascinating. Last year I was at the Turner Prize Competition, great stuff again. Oh well.
SZaW: I would not associate you with punk art straightaway.
Banks: I think theres a lot of great things in the field of fine arts! Punk music, on the other hand, was a bit overrated, dont you think so?
SZaW: It has always been the correct thing to listen to the Sex Pistols, of course.
I look forward to being here and continuing to serve the Genesis community.
