home back to interviews	Interview With A Big Fish John Mitchell February 2001
	To interview somebody you know so well, is actually very strange. Because of that, the following turned out to be more of a conversation than an interview. A conversation about music in general, John’s favourite bands, his mother, Arena and of course The Urbane. I had a good time talking to him. Hope you enjoy reading about our conversation as much as I did having it.  Besides the fact that I wanted to talk to you about music in general, I also wanted to talk to you about the next Urbane album. How is it going? Well, the next album is going to be called Glitter. And so far I’ve written 14 songs, of which 12 will be on the album. Two of them have been finished already and for the rest of them, we’ve just been doing guitars and vocals. I’m really, really pleased with it. I think it’s much better than the previous one, so I’m really pleased with it. It’s the best thing I’ve done anyway. Any plans for live performing after that? Well, hopefully yeah!! Depending on which record label we will be at. And that’s three possible record companies at the moment.  You’re still negotiating? We’re still talking to various people. It looks very positive and we’ve got a lot of interest. I’m just really, really pleased with it and every time we go in the studio and every time we put another drum track down, it’s like ‘yeah this a really good song’. I remember it’s like when we first got into The Police, it’s like how excited I felt about this music. It’s not like The Police though, I just can’t believe that when you’re playing these songs it’s like ‘wow I wrote that’. I’m not saying ‘wow, how great am I or anything’. I’m just so pleased that… It came out that way? Yeah, let’s face it. Before you write a song it doesn’t exist. How many songs we’ve done, they’re all… I wish I could play you some stuff! ‘Cause I actually got some stuff that’s almost finished. I just like the fact that to me… the songs seem perfect. It’s like they all have been written or that they were just waiting to… It’s weird, I can’t really explain it. But I’m just so pleased with the way it’s turning out. And you like singing! I love singing. Who are your ‘examples’? The guy from the Goo Goo Dolls, I think he’s great. Who else? I’d say Sting, but that’s more musically, not singing-wise. I don’t know really, singing-wise… Basically, the guy from the Goo Goo Dolls, I wish I had a voice like his. Really wonderful. Have you heard any of it? No, send me some or take something with you the next time.  Yeah, I really have to, ‘cause it’s great. I actually may have something in the tour bus. And what if The Urbane album becomes such a success that you’d have to choose between The Urbane and Arena? Well, I can’t see that happen. Why not? If you get enough airplay. Well, I don’t know. Maybe. It never really crossed my mind. You know, we’re doing the album and half way through, the Arena stuff comes up and we do that. I never thought about choosing between the two things. I wouldn’t like to make such a decision. I would like to do both things, cause I enjoy playing the guitar in Arena. But I also really enjoy singing.  And just imagine you have this number one hit all of a sudden?! Well, we’re talking about doing Time After Time. I know it’s not my song, but I really like it. We’re talking about doing that as a single. And you’ve played Afraid Of Sunlight during The last Urbane gig? Why did you choose that song? Because I think of that as one of the best songs ever.  Why? Why is it the best song ever?  Yeah, do you mean lyrically, musically? It’s got such a beautiful chorus. When I hear it, I’m thinking… They have got so many really, really good songs. But I mean, that one, for me, it’s so beautiful, when he [Steve Hogarth – eds.] comes into the end and he sings that really high… just the last bit, it’s so gentle. And it’s just like such a relief. I can’t really explain it. It’s such a beautiful song.  You have plans to cover any more Marillion songs? No, not really, I can’t really sing. You can’t really sing? Come again? Well, you know I can’t really sing like… Well, you can sing! Well, sort of. I don’t want to do any injustice, ‘cause he has a fantastic voice… Well, I don’t have to tell you anything about Steve Hogarth’s singing. But that one seemed to work out really well, the way we did it. And the other band members? Do they like it as much as you do?  Yeah, they love it. It’s such a thrill when we sing it. I don’t really know what he’s singing about, but it seems to make sense when you sing it. All the lyrics seem to flow into, I love the lyrics as well. Well, I don’t know who wrote it, but it’s a wonderful song. He did (i.e. Steve Hogarth). He did. Well, that doesn’t really surprise me. How do you feel about being famous? I’m not famous! Well, okay sort of. In the small pond that we are, the big fish in the small pond of progressive rock, I don’t know. I find it uncomfortable.  Why? Why do I find it uncomfortable? Well, because people make all these presumptions about you. They come up to you… When I was on stage in London, somebody was shouting my name and I went up and shook his hand. And he gave me this shirt. It’s a black shirt with dragons on it and it’s like somebody has gone out and they spent like 25 pounds on this shirt for me and they don’t even know me. I find that nice, but very strange.  But you do have ‘heroes’ as well… Oh sure, I have heroes. Yeah, absolutely.  Why can’t they have them? Well, they can have them. It just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know. It’s a different thing, I suppose, if you’re on the other side. It’s not something I’m particularly comfortable with. I think looking up to people…I think if we didn’t have anybody we idolized we wouldn’t have anybody to set our standards by.  Musically seen or? Musically, yeah. Entirely musically. For instance, U2, there was also something really strange about U2, there is this untouchable quality about them; there was something all surreal about them. There were like… not comic book heroes but… I’m trying to think of the right word: they were so removed from reality. They did Pride (In The Name Of Love) and I… I don’t know, I just… It’s an irony, cause one part of me would love to be like out on stage and have the adoration of people, but on the other side, it’s not something I, you know, I find it very uncomfortable. I don’t understand it. So why did you make the decision to be a musician back then, cause you knew that this could happen! It wasn’t for the reasons that… Well, you know: the same reason you did The Cage. Music evokes such an emotional response. It has nothing to do with…  All right, I’ll be honest with you: when I first started playing the guitar [laughs], I don’t know, I wasn’t very old [laughs again] and I kind of thought to get the girls interested [laughs] but that soon disappeared and I just really got into playing the guitar. And I forgot about it for a long while, and then I joined Arena and I remembered how much I enjoy playing the guitar. If Sasha [John’s son – eds.] comes up to you when he is 12 years old and says ’well, dad, I’m going to be a musician, whether you like it or not’, what will you say to him? Well, I know he is already going to be a musician, ‘cause he is a very creative little guy. You know, one thing I’m grateful for is that my mum never ever forced me to do anything. My mum always said ‘you have got to do what you’re best at and you’re best at doing music, so you’ve got to do that’. And she never for one minute said ‘go to college and become a …’ I’m not academic in that respect. I’ll never be good in a job in computing or anything. I’ll fall asleep on the first day!  But you know all the songs! I hear you play virtually anything during sound checks (The Police, U2, Yes, etc.). How do you do that? You just hear them and play? When I listen to music on the radio or whatever, after a while you don’t even have to pick up a guitar; it’s strange, sometimes you hear the song and you hear the chords, ‘cause I’ve got perfect pitch and you can see where the chords are on the guitar, you can visualize them and you just pick it up. It’s weird, I hear a song on the radio and I just pick up the guitar and I won’t even tumble around. I just pick it up and play the song and there it is… Okay, about Arena now. There seems to some magic between you and Clive when you write music together?  I’m sure he’s quite amused by me, ‘cause I do this other stuff, this Urbane business and I don’t know what he thinks about that. It’s not a bunch of school kids playing punk music or whatever, there is a certain amount of thought that goes into it and I think he appreciates that. When it comes to Arena, yeah, we work very well together. I don’t think we ever argued about anything, I never argued about anything musically with Clive ever. We did spend a lot of time on Moviedrome, the actual song. We spent a lot of time discussing how this was going to go and how that was going to go.  You know what the funny thing is: many people think that Waiting For The Flood, ‘oh that has got to be John, all these heavy guitar bits, that’s got to be John’. And the funny thing is that it’s completely the opposite. Waiting For The Flood is completely written by Clive; all these heavy guitar bits: all Clive. All the little piano bits in Moviedrome, you know the bit in the middle with the piano, I wrote that when I was seventeen. Seventeen? What did you do? You kept it for so long or did you suddenly remember that you had the piece of music?  No no, the ….. [hums a bit], it was a song. It was just me and my four track. You kept it for ten years. I know, I thought that’ll be really good.  It was. I mean, it is.  Thank you. Finally: anything to add to this ‘interview’? [Thinks for a long time…] No, not at the moment.. Thank you! Thank you John! Have a good gig tonight! By: Natasja Gravendaal