Mark: Any new album on the horizon?
John: Not yet! I guess it’s like, never say never; we’re obviously a lot closer to making a new record than we were before we started playing again, so anything’s possible for sure!
Mark: Good answer! So, for the uninitiated, who haven’t had a chance to see you live before, what’s the live show like at the moment?
John: It’s like forty minutes of break neck rock and roll, with like long drawn out reflections of the human condition, and then right back in to very calculated and precise rock and roll!
Mark: Sounds good! So, as San Diego’s second most popular musician, what’s the scene like there, these days?
John: Who’s the first?
Mark: Someone told me yesterday you were the second most famous musician from San Diego, so I thought I’d go with that! Tom Waits apparently, just pips you at the post due to his age and beard!
John: Bah! I’m not the first, not the second, maybe the fifth or sixth (laughs). Most think Frank Zappa as he lived here for a while, and then people say Jim Morrison because he lived here for a little bit, and also Iron Butterfly, the band not the person!
Mark: Let me rephrase that then! As San Diego’s seventeenth most famous musician, how’s the scene there?!! (both laughing again)
John: Yeah, the scene is what you make of it; I mean there’s a scene everywhere, people here, although there is the distraction of the good life, living in the cornucopia of Southern California, there still is a large, healthy group of people doing interesting things.
Mark: I actually went there for the first time, last year, and I thought it was a great place, and I wondered why I’d been wasting my time in LA previously! Anyway, we only have a couple of minutes left, so here are a couple of our generic questions. If you could have been a fly on the wall for the recording of any classic album, what would it have been for you?
John: Well you know actually, it’s a long list of songs. A lot of songs I love you already feel like a fly on the wall listening to them. I would have liked to be physically there for a lot of songs, just to feel the ambience of the year, and see that that what I’m hearing is how I envisioned it, and how it actually was. A lot of the songs would be recordings from the fifties and sixties, when things were done a lot more ‘live’ - It would be cool to be there, and see that kind of band playing in a room with a couple of mics and just playing. I’d love to see if some of those songs that sound so ferocious and unhinged on record, were really like that. It is a pretty long list, recordings from New Orleans, from Memphis, places which were basically hot beds of musical activity in the mid 50’s, up to the mid 60’s.
Mark: I just wondered as well, have you read through the promo the Soundwave guys have given you, on the website?
John: I haven’t.
Mark: Apparently, you are like the hot girl, that your girlfriend didn’t want you to see! I don’t even know what that means!!
John: I guess I’m flattered to be referred to as “girl”, I guess! Because usually, everything that we do is dude centred and a lot of that has to do with being guys in a band! The testosterone levels are a bit high, so it’s nice to be compared to something remotely feminine, I guess! I don’t really get it!!
Mark: Yeah, it confused me when I read it too! I thought you might be able to shed some light on it, but, obviously not!!
John: I’m actually pretty good at coming up with stuff, but I didn’t come up with that one! Maybe someone selling the tickets is pretty!
Mark: There’ll definitely be a few people who want to check you out anyway!! The final question we ask everyone is what is the meaning of life?
John: I think the meaning of life, is don’t look back!
Mark: That’ll do! What are The Sultans doing at the moment?
John: You know, the last show was about a year ago. We did record a couple of songs a couple of years back that never came out, there was talk of a rereleasing a couple of records that we never put out on Phonograph, only on CD. We’ve been talking about putting that out on record with a few extra songs on it that haven’t come out before. It’s kind of weird because the last show we did was actually the best show we have ever played! The line up’s always changed a little bit over the years; we’ve had some different members…(at this point the operator cuts in, after failing to give us the one minute warning beeps, and we are told to say our goodbyes)...
Mark: Thanks for your time, John.
John: Thanks for your interest, I appreciate it.
Mark: See you soon. Bye.
Speedo spoke to Mark Diggins October 2013 |
