|
WW: You clearly have a sense of the history of the folks who were involved in that band. Do you consider yourself a student of rock music? Or is it something you absorb more than study?
SL: Well, I definitely study things in general. Music, especially. But I think to really learn something, you have to absorb it. So I would say there’s a degree to which both of those things are true. There’s something academic about being a musician. You do have to know about notes and scales and records and people and history. But I feel like unless you really absorb it in the end, you’re just going to know a bunch of facts and numbers that don’t mean anything unless you really internalize them. I would say that about anything in life, though. You have to study, but at certain point, it has to get under your skin, there’s no point.
WW: There are probably a lot of people who would assume that, given your lineage, you wouldn’t have to study. For you, is music a combination of something that comes naturally to you and something that you have to approach as a student of sorts?
SL: I think a lot of people assume a lot of things. But for me, I do study music very diligently. That’s the only way that I can understand playing music – by working. I don’t really see any other option. Even if you have all the talent in the world. I think even Jimi Hendrix probably practiced a lot. The thing that separates people into groups of the brilliant and good and mediocre are the talent that they have, but also the amount of work that they’ve done. So I think both are very important.
WW: I saw you playing bass many years ago with Cibo Matto, and you really seemed to be enjoying yourself. The delight was very evident on your face. For you, has it been a challenge to go from being a supporting player to the person in the spotlight? And are there degrees to which you look back with fondness on the days when you were in the background?
SL: \So it’s equally as gratifying, but easier.
WW: You’ve been the center of attention your entire life. Is that one reason why it’s nice for you to be a supporting player at times? Or is it more that the concept of being part of a team is especially appealing to you?
SL: For me, what’s gratifying about making art has nothing to do with the attention. The point is that I enjoy being a bass player of a band as much as I enjoy being the singer-songwriter of a band equally. Just one of them has that annoying aspect of having to be the center of attention and the other doesn’t. That’s the only difference that I see. I don’t think I’ve been the center of attention my whole life. I’d disagree with that. I don’t see the world that way. But I do think that when you’re onstage singing songs that you’ve written, and performing that album you’ve written and made, you are the center of attention for that particular project. For the project of my life, the project of existence, I don’t necessarily feel that I’m the center of attention of it. But the project of Sean Lennon’s Friendly Fire, I do feel that I’m at the center of the attention of that project. And I don’t find any benefits from the attention. I’m not someone who wants the attention necessarily. I don’t mind it when it’s pleasant and people are having a good time, but generally that’s not the reason I make music. The reason I do it is that I really enjoy the process of making and playing it.
WW: And you want to share it with as many people as possible?
SL: Yeah, there’s something really great about sharing your music with people. But I wouldn’t say I want to share it with as many people as possible, because that sort of implies the horizon of millions, and that definitely isn’t my goal. I like to share it with the people who are worth sharing it with – the people who like it
|