Paul's guitarist Rusty Anderson because Rusty just released his first solo album 'Undressing Underwater'. (www.RustyAnderson.com)
GK: Hi Rusty, good morning to you!
RA: Yes good evening over there.
GK: Welcome, you're at home and just awake?
RA: Yeah I'm at home and just kinda getting going
you know.
GK: So you live in LA?
RA: Yes, Los Angeles, been around here a long time.
GK: Last time, in an earlier interview, you were still
in the middle of the 'Back To The World'-tour.
Now that it is finished how do you look back upon it?
RA: Oh well ghe ghe, it's one of those things, that takes
a while to put it all into perspective, because you do
such sort of grandiose gigs and it's hard to even
imagine being there in a way.
GK: You played with one of your idols, I heard, it already is
a long time ago, but did you ever think of dreaming of
playing with one of The Beatles then?
RA: Well you can see on the DVD that I had such a dream…
GK: Yes and now when you put it into perspective, was it a great experience?
RA: Well yeah, I can't even put into words, it's something I never thought really would have
happened, consciously anyway. And I feel very lucky; it's been nothing but fun,
a great experience.
GK: Ah great, but now you've been recording an album, Undressing Underwater, would you
please explain the title?
RA: Well, I like the image of it, I like the way it was sort of a double negative, I like the
image of water, the way it's so overwhelming, it's said that in dreams water represents
relationships and sexuality and all that. The whole thing with the fish out of water..
GK: That was my next question, the hand with the murene and the fish on the other side…
RA: Yeah, I didn't quite understand it myself, there's something about it that compelled me
and what happened was: I was in a restaurant and there I started drawing on the
pieces of paper they have on the table, I came up with the concept and I thought:
"That's interesting". I sort of held on to it and I ended up using it for the record.
I like the way that it went with the title. I like the dreamy and psychedelic of it and…
GK: Kinda like your website, the man under water trying to get his trousers off…
RA: Yeah right.
GK: I only heard fragments of the album and I read an interview,
with lots of details about everything, tell me any details you want
us to write about, because I can imagine you didn't tell it all yet?
You talked about songs, like "Hurt myself" you experienced in your
youth…
RA: Well I can say the recording process was pretty cool. Paul said:
"Let's plan something" and I realized we had only three days
to do it so I quickly booked a session, everybody came on board
and David (Kahne) said: "Sure I'll produce it" and because it had
to be organized so quickly because we were just about to go to
Mexico City and then Japan and then everyone would disperse,
so we quickly found ourselves in the studio, I was singing the song, Paul was playing bass and then
made a mistake and he goes: "shit!" and I felt felt it was me, mad at myself for not learning exactly
how I thought it should, it just made me realize how human we all are.
GK: "Coming down to earth" is your favourite song, you say. Why?
RA: In a way it's my favourite song, there's something about the simplicity of it and it's a
certain type of song, points in a different direction, for the type of song I feel like
I'm most proud of it. Perfectly, balanced and simple…
GK: Your harmonies with Parthenon Huxley are very beautiful…
RA: That was a lot of fun doing that, it's because of the cord structure of the song, very
Gershwin-like, I love Gershwin and Debussy so I pointed in that direction a little bit.
GK: And the harmonies come back on "Ol' Sparky".....
I almost got the feeling John and Paul singing together.
RA: Ah haha,
GK: Are there any more plans to record your songs and then sing together with Paul?
RA: Oh no that's just one thing that happened….
GK: It's so beautiful…
RA: Well basically the plans of Paul are to… we're doing some more recording for his record
and rumour has that there's more dates coming up in Europe!
GK: Ah, when?
RA: June, May and June maybe but I can't really say for sure you know..
GK: Well if it's a secret, I won't tell anybody!
RA: They're still not certain.
GK: So you're recording another album with him?
RA: Yeah, but he takes his times, he wants to sort of experiment, I know he has his
methods; he has made a whole lot of records…
GK: He's pampering the baby now?
RA: Yes he's pampering the baby, has his own agenda, but yes it's been a good process
with him, a lot of fun.
GK: You're currently doing some dates in the States for your own album. How's that going?
Is it a proper tour or just a couple of dates here and there?
RA: Well right now it's sort of dates here and there partially because I'm working with Paul.
I'm hoping to do more dates with my thing in the Summer.
GK: And you'll come to Europe too, to promote your album?
RA: I hope so, yes, no definite plans to do that, but we'll see,
I'm still dealing with all the other business aspects, so..
GK: When was your album released?
RA: It's released online eh Late December.
GK: And that's the only distribution you do? Through your website?
RA: Well the thing is: instead of waiting for perfect record deals and a lot of lawyers and
release dates being pushed back and all that stuff, I just wanted to get it out there
and start the process. As far as distribution and licensing and record deals and all that,
that's in development at the moment.
GK: Who's in your live band now?
RA: Eh nobody you know, some friends of mine from Los Angeles, actually one guy, Dusty
played drums on one of the songs, and Todd and Matt but I sort of call it
"Rusty, Dusty, Musty and Todd".
GK: Ha, yes I read in the interview "Rusty, Dusty and the Placemats" or something like that.
RA: Ha-ha, making fun with it.
GK: Have you been involved in other session works after your album was finished?
RA: I do that in between things, eh
GK: You're a busy guy!
RA: I did Courtney Love but I don't think that's out yet.
GK: Okay, well I read Lisa Marie Presley, Melanie C, Enrique Iglesias in 2003, now you add
another name to it then. How do you manage? There's only 24 hours in one day!
RA: Ha-ha, oh well, it's not that crazy, it works out, it's interesting of being a freelance
person, I kinda going all over between writing songs and playing on people's records
and then playing with Paul, but the thing with Paul, that sort of takes the most of
the.., when that happens it supersedes things because it's..
GK: You're quite busy with that right now?
RA: With Paul?
GK: Yes?
RA: Well we're going to do some more recording, I guess in a week or 2. After my first
and last gig before Paul, at Spaceland (Thursday 5 February 2004 red) they will be
starting shipping the gear off to England. When I get back we'll do some more.
So on different parts of the world I have different things going.
People are flying all over the place.
GK: After the gig you're going to record in London again, what about your own album?
Will you have time to promote anything?
RA: The whole promotion machine is gearing up, normally when you set up a record,
like a major release at once, it takes months of setting it up, but I decided
to get it out and then do the set up process which is now.
GK: "Sentimental chaos" was your last written song. Do you have any songs left now?
RA: Oh yeah, basically when one does a record, for the most part, especially this is being
my first solo record, you pick from a wide body of songs and you find the ones that
you think are gonna make the most sense for that record, but yes there are other
songs that I wrote.
GK: Any chance that one of those songs will be appearing on a new McCartney album?
RA: Oh well I doubt that because so far, as far as writing collaborating with Paul it hasn't
happened, but who knows, I just let that go where it wants to go.
GK: As I said before, I love your voice because of all the nice harmonies on your album,
please try and do some vocals together with him.
RA: Well we did that on the tour and on the last record, Driving Rain, it's interesting,
everyone has his own way of putting things together, and Paul has his style and
that the Paul-thing, you know.
GK: Is Paul collaborating now with someone, like he did with Elvis Costello for example?
RA: No I don't think he's in that place doing a collaboration thing.
GK: Back to your songs "Cat box Beach". Police influence, I hear Stewart Copeland, nice
drumming, how did you come about Stewart? You were friends with him?
RA: I was in a band with him called Animalogic a few years back, so we remained friends,
he does soundtrack work and different things and I played on some of his stuff
since being in that band, the band had Stanley Clarke in it also, so when I asked him
to play on my song he said: "Yeah sure" and he came down, we did it, it was really fun.
He's one of my favourite people, so sweet and such a talented articulate musician,
his drumming is very musical, he plays different eh…
GK: I thought of "Walking on the Moon" when I heard your track. Brian Ray plays on it too.
How's contact with the other guys?
RA: Oh yeah we went out for food and drinks the other night, we hang out, keep in touch.
And we work a lot together of course.
GK: Yes and you'll keep on working together, I believe? With a new record and a
new set of dates coming up?
RA: Yes exactly we're firing up the machine again. Abe played on a few songs on the
record, and Abe and Brian did some things together, a soundtrack for a movie.
Yes we all work together, but it's a little harder because Wix lives in England and
the rest of us here.
GK: In a previous interview you say Paul's a quick learner, what about you;
you're such a great session worker, What did you learn the past years?
RA: I learned a lot about singing night after night, what my voice can do and can't,
definitely rising to the next level. As far as Paul, the way he works, I never toured on
on that level before you know, with private planes and so on, and how many people do
have to be involved to make things go smoothly. Also to have people around you that
you like. Because a lot of times in tours there's some bad apples.
GK: And your own band now, no bad apples and glad when it's over?
RA: Oh no, it's a great group of guys, really good friends, super sweet, I feel really proud
to play with them.
GK: Of course you'll play your album songs, anything else?
RA: We might turn up with a little surprise cover or something.
GK: Well tell me, I'm far away, won't tell anybody.
RA: Ha-ha, I'll wait on that one, the internet travels fast, we'll keep it, there might be a
little surprise, we're working on possible shows coming up, maybe for the second half of
March and the Summer. Maybe in April, there'll be more recording with Paul in April so…
GK: Well, is there anything you want to talk about? Did I miss anything?
RA: No, I don't think so, have to run, just tell about my website www.RustyAnderson.com
GK: Okay Rusty Anderson, I thank you very much for talking to me, have a nice day
and hope to hear from you soon!
RA: Okay Guus, see you soon, bye bye!
A few days later we heard the first details about Paul’s European tour that Summer of 2004.
And in August 2004 we met in Liverpool at the annual Beatles Convention.
