Is this single a deliberate attempt to avoid the style of Blurt?
"No," he drawls - Ted drawls
in a manner that would make Noel
Coward sound like a racing
commentator - "It was just a
desire to do something like that".
"Blurt recordings have always
been "son et verité", no studio
techniques involved at all ...
snapshots. Basically, it was the
first time I used a studio."
For a man whom we had ignorantly supposed to be a doyen of raw and nasty punk rock noise, and therefore perhaps a supporter of some DIY ethic, Ted is well fond of the fab time one can have in a studio. Luckily, the temptation to play with all the buttons was dampened by the point of 'Violence'; Ted and producer Steve Beresford set out to make a deliberately simple record, and thus we are spared awful bonking noises and clever bits. Ted is still keen to emphasis the importance of the studio. "It makes the simplicity more powerful; it could never have been done without the technology."
I wonder if Ted has ever wanted to make a nice conventional record.
"I may get to be extremely orthodox by and by."
Do you think that's likely?
"No"
As he spills coffee down his
sleeve, we started talking about
lyrics. 'Love Is Like A Violence'
contains a series of dazingly odd
phrases; it's a poem.
The B-side,
'It's Only Lately That Stalins Have
Begun To Roost' - and who could argue with such a little - is
more of a collage. But first to
'Violence'.
What's it, I enquire, about, Ted?
"I thought it was pretty goddam straightforward ...", he says, bemused. He allows for ignorance, and adds, "well; in your own words, you tellme what you think it's about, and I'll tell you whether I think you're a complete idiot or not."
I hazard an interpretation. The ending of romantic love via the intrusion of reality, disillusionment, disappointment? How many marks do I get for that?
"C plus ... Isuppose that comes into it. I'd rather not say anything about it really."