Please be aware that even though I consider my english quite good, it is not my native language. The interview is translated from danish to english from an article posted in jp.dk (14/3-2015). I have cut out some of the usual stuff you have all heard a million times.
Enjoy
Interview intro/teaser article:The British rockstar Mark Knopfler watched a movie about a man, who was very passionate about his motorcycles.
The movie interested Knopfler, who loves both two-and four wheelers. The movie is made by the danish instructor Henrik Hansen.
He is born in 1966 and has for some years been working with both photoshoots and movies. His short story about motorcycles has
been shown at several moviefestivals. Henrik Hansen works in both LA and in Europe.
MK: ”He made a beautiful movie. Henrik tells the story in a very fascinating way – he is an artist. So I called him, and asked
if he was interested in producing a small movie for me. And fortunately he said yes” says Mark Knopfler.
Henrik Hansens movie about Mark Knopfler has it´s baseline from the new album, ”Tracker”. But it is not a traditional musicvideo.
In the movie you get around the 65 year old Mr. Knopfler as both guitarist, songwriter and owner of a studio in London.
Jyllands-Posten has visited Mark Knopfler in British Grove Studios in London, for a chat about running a big studio in a time
where other studios are closing down. We also talk about the songs on the new album, about fame, and about why he ended
Knopflers old band Dire Straits, who released six studioalbums with ”Brothers In Arms” being the most successful.
When ”Brothers In Arms” was released in 1985, it became a huge hitrecord, topped the hitlists and won many awards.
It was also the album that to a certain degree marked the change from vinyl to CD.
MK: ”We were with a record company that was part of a big affiliate, which produced CD´s. So we were there when the things happend”
notes Mark Knopfler.
He says that as a 2015 music consumer he discovers new songs and albums by streamingservices, in which he subsequent invests in,
in either CD or vinyl.
MK: ”Recently I discovered a few records, which I bought for my wife Kitty (the actress/author Kitty Aldridge, red.).
"It was CD´s, and she was very glad. It could also have been vinyls. I think that it will once again be popular to give music
on CD and vinyl as presents. Because it is something special, says Mark Knopfler.
MK:"Since downloading and streaming services was introduced, the CD has had difficult times as a music format.
”But the CD and the vinyl works for me. The music sounds great in both formats,” he says.
Mark Knopfler grew up in a time where tape recorders were popular.
MK: ”It was not the best sound in the world, but it was good enough for me. And there are people saying that tape
recorders are in for a comeback”.
Headline: Mark Knopflers warns that it can have big costs to be exposed to fame and idolization.
MK: "I have never heard anyone say that fame itself is a good thing. On the contrary you can see in any child who has been
exposed to idolization, that is has been damaging in some way".The interview *********** Mark Knopfler is laughing. One of the worlds most successful, and most wealthy british artits has just noted, that his
state of the art recording studio in London is not a business in which he can make a lot of money.
MK: "But as long as my accountants say that I can keep the studio running, I will certainly do so. It is not about making
money out of it, it is about having a studio that lives up to my demands, and gives me the freedom to do what I like to do,
and when I want to do it. It is a great privilege, really".
We are sitting on the first floor at Mark Knopflers British Grove studios in the western part of London.
The exclusive interview has come to light because Mark Knopfler is releasing his eight and new solo album, ”Tracker”.
It is the latest album recorded in his own studio.
On ”Tracker” Mr. Knopfler is tracing his past with stories from when he was a teenager, and from the period where he still
had yet to make his breakthrough as a singer, songwriter, guitarist and leader of the rockband Dire Straits.
From back then when he could not afford his own studio.
British Grove Studios is surrounded by human settlements and is more anonymous than decorative.
The studio is a longstreched building of bricks, with either high placed windows or with windows that are protected and non-transparent.
To the right of a wooden door at the facade, is a door phone.
A kind voice asks for my errand and the door is opened. A young female receptionist welcomes me, while a young man approaches
me and offers coffee or tee. After a few minutes Mark Knopflers manager, Paul Crockford shows up. He informs me that the
interview will be a little delayed.
Crockford explains that Mark Knopfler is under time pressure to finish some details for a new soundtrack.
(Knopfler has been doing soundtracks since his success from 1983-1984 with the releases of ”Local Hero” and ”Cal”.)
After Mark Knopfler finishes his work in the studio, he says that he is recording a soundtrack for a movie called
”Altamira”, which an old friend is responsible for.
MK:"We had talks for years about making something together and it looked like it would never happen. Then suddenly he got
the oppertunity to make a movie about the drama that occured when the Altamira-cage was found in Spain."
"I was actually close to being finished with the production, but because of last minute changes to the movie, I also need
to change the soundtrack to fit the changed scenes", Mark Knopfler explains.
He sits in an armchair in a livingroom-like room. Next to the coasy room is a big conference room, while downstairs
holds the access for the studio facilities.
MK:" I have tried to create a studio that builds on the best traditions from Great Britain and America, within the
recording history of music. In this house you can record in an old fashionend, analog way, and hereby create a raw sound
if that is the ambition. On the same time we have the most modern, digital technology available, if you for example
want to make a soundtrack for a movie", he says.
Mark Knopfler found the location for his studio by
"sending a few people out to hunt down a suitable and available place".A few years back it was a reality, and afterwards it took three years to establish British Grove Studios, with both
a big studio with lots of space for a band, and smaller rooms for other facilities.
Since then is has been used by famous bands like U2, Nick Cave, Jamie Cullum, Roger Waters and Sting among others.
British Grove Studios has numerous times been declared one of the best recording studios of the music business,
and won prestigeful awards.
MK:"There is a lot of sympathy and backing up this place, because it protects both the modern style and the traditions.
There is equipment here that originally was placed in some of the most renowned studios, and the people who helped finding
and restoring the gear and equipment, also worked in for example Abbey Road Studios, Air Studios and Decca Studios"Mark Knopfler says.
He previously had a, -quote: "horrible home studio", where many mistakes were made.
MK: "Unfortunately we discovered the mistakes too late, when the recording were brought in to a larger studio.
Then the bass or something else sounded terrible and many times we had to start all over again".
"Here I can work 24/7 with songs on my own or with a technician, or I can gather a big band and get a lot of stuff
done, and much faster than by renting a studio. This project is also about being effective", he notes.
Mark Knopfler rejects that the studio is a nostalgic trip. He holds the same attitude towards the "Tracker" album.
MK:"I do not look back in either a nostalgic or sentimental way. There is one advantage in getting older, and that
is that you get a bigger and deeper perspective of time, the time that has gone, and things that once were".
The track ”Basil” is about the poet Basil Bunting. I was about 15 years old When I met him, and he was as old as I am now.
I met him at a newspaper in Newcastle where I worked as a gofer. Basil would rather write poetry than doing his job,
while I, as a teen, was more busy with girls, music and the future.
Another song ”Beryl”, is about Beryl Bainbridge, who is one of Mark Knopflers favorite writers.
Beryl Bainbridge got her breaktrough in the 70s, where she reached a larger audience, and received very good reviews and was honoured with different awards. She never received the prestigeous Booker Award, even though she was nominated five times.
MK:"If she had lived today she would have received the Booker Award. Back then the literary environment was dominated
by men and university cities like Oxford and Cambridge. There was a lot of prejudice in that environment regarding a
writer like Beryl Bainbridge. One thing was her being a woman, and something else was her coming from the workingclass
in Liverpool".
On the track ”Beryl” Knopfler uses the sound of Dire Straits’ breakthrough hit, ”Sultans Of Swing”, which was released
in 1978.
MK: "It made sense to create a musical style from back then to a lyric, which is about the 70s, while the song
”Laughs And Jokes And Drinks And Smokes” sounds different, because it is about something else that happened
before the period of Dire Straits. When I was young, we all smoked and lived like resilient optimists, even though
we did not have any money. We were not afraid of anything, and I was hitch-hiking my way through Europe with my guitar
on my back".
MK: "There was several reasons for the long period of time before the breakthrough came. I worked my way up, nice and
quiet as a musician by playing in all sorts of contexts. But I also tried many other things.
I had manual labour and for a few years I was a journalist. Journalism taught me how I could boil something big,
a feeling, an emotion, down to lyrics in a song".
MK: "I am grateful that I was an adult man with a lot of life experience, once the success exploded.
It was so massive.., we toured the world with several different scenes, and underway came even more trucks, drivers,
roadies and other stage people. If I had been young, this massive fame would have given me many traumatic experiences.
Because I have seen how success can be damaging".
He notices that it has become a trend among children and teenagers, to seek a fast lane of fame by entering different
sorts of realityshows on TV.
MK: "They are more concerned about being famous than actually becoming something. They think that it is funny to
be famous. I have never heard anyone say that fame itself is a good thing. On the contrary you can see in any child
who has been exposed to idolization, that is has been damaging in some way".
MK: "We became so huge that the only intelligent decision was to stop. Besides that I was starting to write songs
that required violins, flutes and harmonica. But I continue to play many of the old songs as I know they mean
something special to the audience. There are couples who has been married to the sound of ”Romeo And Juliet”.
But it is not good just to copy the old style. It is important for me to re-create the old songs in an ambitious way".
MK:"I love to play the guitar. I see myself as one who uses the guitar in a creative process, writing and creating.
If I had to make a living exclusively by playing the guitar, I would need to practice a lot more, and be able do to
a lot more. The guitarists in my band are fantastic and dedicated in another way than I am.
For me it is about creating a synergy between the guitar and the lyric. Sometimes the words comes very fast,
and other times it takes years for the words and lyrics to fit a given song.
I am happy to announce that there is no magic formula".
Mark Knopfler rejects with a grin and with a shake of his head that he one day will go down the same path as
Beryl Bainbridge and Basil Bunting.
MK: "I am a songwriter, not an author. I would not be able to write an exiting message to the milkman..."
