reactions to the soundtrack

At this stage in your career, are you concerned at all by critical reactions to your albums ? You’ve reached a status where records will sell regardless of any in-print negativity, that much’s obvious, but on a personal, artist level, have you ever been affected by anything written about one/some of your past albums ? Although it’s not a solo album in a strict sense, the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack album (of 2005) was met with a rather mixed reception, for example…

With Drawing Restraint 9, because it was a soundtrack album, it was such a different project – to enjoy it you kinda had to be into Matthew [Barney]’s stuff, the filmmaker, and see the film as you listened to the music. So I didn’t really take the comments on it that seriously. Also, there are complications where people listen to it in context to my earlier stuff and try to find continuity, which of course doesn’t make sense. But overall I don’t believe in the artist that does what he or she does only for power and people, and to be famous and all that stuff. I also think, though, that it is just as bad to totally isolate yourself from the world and people – then the love starts to go out of it. So I try to be somewhere in the middle ; there is no one answer. You have to tightrope walk all the time, to keep yourself open enough to communicate and retreat enough to plant new seeds and grow.

www.drownedinsound.com, April 24 2007