Interviews

The Web USA

The Story behind 'Ice Cream Genius'
Words by Steve Hogarth
Assisted by Bonny Alberts
Mixed and Engineered by Dan Sherman

The point of making this record was to fulfill a long-term ambition to make an album about me, and what's going on in my head. It was an opportunity to have some fun, do my own thing and see what happens, off the cuff. It's not like I'm trying to start a solo career or anything, if that was the case it would have been an overtly commercially poppy album. I purposely wanted to make an artistic statement, a variety of styles, to work with an unexpected selection of musicians. In that sense it's utterly selfish. Yeah! It's all my fault!

I called it Ice Cream Genius because, during the recording sessions listening to the band playing, I spent much of the time doing just that! It was a pleasure and a treat to work with the other musicians-hand-picked from some of the best bands in the world-and to discover, first hand, their phenomenal talent and empathy.

Most of it was written since I came back from Krakow in November last year. The evening shadows stretched themselves and stretched me a little and the animal woke up and ideas emerged.

I met Dave Gregory from XTC years ago when he lent me a mellotron for the How We Live album, and I ran into him again a couple of years back in Milan, where I bought him an ice cream. We talked about doing the album from time to time over pints in Oxford pubs the last few years.

I've got this Rickenbacker electric 12-string that I bought in San Jose on the Holidays in Eden tour. I took it home and plugged it in and was a bit disappointed with the sound of it. Dave came around and fell in love with the very sight of it. He plugged it in at my house and it suddenly sounded like the best guitar in the world-jangling away like a dream! It was a deeply humbling experience... the first of many! Dave's all over this record, a bit like a chameleon when it comes to guitar sounds.

I always got a spooky vibe from Richard Barbieri and his work with Japan and now Porcupine Tree. I asked him to provide ghosts and spirits for the album. He liked the songs and turned up with a Prophet5 and a witch's hat and sprinkled spirits across the top of it all. Everything he did painted exactly the right pictures and took about five minutes. His subtlety is only equalled by his taste.

Craig Leon was introduced to me by Dave. XTC had worked with everybody, Todd Rundgren, Steve Lillywhite, Hugh Padgham, but Dave recommended Craig. He'd signed the Ramones to Sire Records years ago, and he's been producing for ages. The Ramones, Blondie, The Bangles, Talking Heads, Jesus Jones, The Pogues, The Roches, Bob Marley, Kid Creole, The Fall, Front 242, the list goes on. He moved to England and married Cassel Webb, a singer/songwriter signed to Virgin. She used to work with Patti Smith at Electric Ladyland Studios in New York when Hendrix was there. Between them they seem to know everyone in the history of rock and roll. Very Exciting...

Craig put me onto the rhythm section of Clem Burke and Chucho Merchan. They'd been a rhythm section for the Eurythmics at one point, Clem's been in Blondie for years and they've worked together on a number of things in the past. Clem's got that very distinctive thrashy-but-tight energy in his drumming and he had no trouble playing to some of the really free things I'd gotten on tape and wanted to keep. Chucho effortlessly covered all the varying styles. He gave Nothing to Declare a jazz flavour whilst Cage gets into a dub thing at the end, and You Dinosaur Thing has that seventies dinosaur groove thing.

We did the main recording at the Racket Club and moved on to Sol Mill in Cookham to record the vocals. The house and studios were owned by Jimmy Page, but Chris Rea recently bought the place. There's still a little studio in the garage, next to the mill stream which houses a desk and some old valve mics previously used by Led Zeppelin to record all those fantastic albums... We mixed at Van Morrison's place, the Woolhall in Somerset.

We were done by July 20, just in time for a week off before I started on the next Marillion album at the Racket Club. The album was released late February, on Intact through Castle Communications. I went through Castle because, they paid for all the studio time, why not let them release it? -H

Ice Cream Genius
1. Evening Shadows 4:28
2. Really Like 5:21
3. You Dinosaur Thing 5:03
4. The Deep Water 8:02
5. Cage 7:04
6. Until You Fall 3:59
7. Better Dreams 3:59
8. Nothing to Declare 6:33

H - vocals, piano, samples
The following people screamed
genius all over this record:
Dave Gregory - Guitars
Richard Barbieri - Synthesizers
Clem Burke - Drums
Chucho Merchan - Bass guitars
Luis Jardim - Percussion

Written and arranged by H except Cage written by H & Hunter

This record was dreamt up at home and away and was recorded at Brisbane House, The Racket Club, Sol Mill and The Woolhall.

Produced by Craig Leon and H. Mixed by Craig Leon.
Engineered by Stewart Every, Additionally Stuart Epps, Michael Hunter

Here's kind of a run-down on all the songs and what they're really like:

The Evening Shadows is a psycho song about a little creature that wakes up at night and wreaks havoc. It's a bit like Syd Barret meeting Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in a dark alley.

Really Like ... I really like you, but I wonder what you're really like? It's a white afro-funk number. The great Luis jardim did the percussion. I was trying to get the Talking Heads rhythm section to do it, but Chris and Tina were busy with the new Heads project.

You Dinosaur Thing is a sixties-ish homage to old rockers, about the fashion aspect in music and being past it before you've even got started. Straight ahead rocker, slightly evocative. The riff is somewhere between Free's All Right Now and Smoke on the Water. I wrote the riff on my guitar, but Dave plays it so much better!

The Deep Water is a poem set to music. It's about my own death and my own love. the music is like a movie-very visual and ambient. But at the end the water runs dry to desert and the song turns from ambient to rhythmic.

Cage defies description. It's about waiting for a letter, or for the phone to ring. You'll just have to hear it. It's like something Peter Gabriel would have done seven or eight years ago.

Until You Fall is another head-down rocker, like Julian Cope's World Shut Your Mouth. A sort of Velvet Underground feel, a Lou Reed verse with an XTC chorus.

Better Dreams is just voice, string quartet and a sprinkle of ambient guitar and flute. It's about Los Angeles for the first time, how it struck me. I remember getting into an elevator lift and when the doors closed I realised it was just me and Debbie Harry. Then it stopped, she got out and Little Richard stepped in!

Nothing to Declare is all over the place in style. We used to live near Heathrow and I used to watch the 747s climbing over my house. I wondered where they were going. I often thought it must be somewhere warmer and more exciting than rainy old England. I wrote this lyric back then. -H

Hogarth and his band of geniuses hit the road in early February for a little promotional jaunt through the countryside. After a warm-up gig in Oswestry, Shropshire, UK, they travelled to London, Amsterdam, Koln, and Paris-yes a reprise of the Made Again Mini-Tour in a way.

The musicians were the same as on his album: H, David Gregory, Richard Barbieri, Chucho Merchan and Clem Burke, plus Aziz Ibrahim on guitar. The set list for all gigs was:

Intro (Aziz & Rich) * Really Like * You Dinosaur Thing * Cage * Better Dreams * King (the Marillion tune!) * The Evening Shadows * The Deep Water * Nothing to Declare * Until You Fall * break * The Last Thing (bonus cut from the single) * Senses Working Overtime (an XTC number) * Living For the City (an old Stevie Wonder number) * break * reprise of You Dinosaur Thing

"In Koln H played Hollow Man and Easter on his own, before the band rejoined him for Dinosaur Thing. It was spine tingling and everyone, H included, shed tears. Amazing." - Rob Crossland, UK

"They were very well received. After King-which I thought they were very brave to do, but they did wonderfully-someone shouted, 'Better than the original' H laughed and said, 'Ssshhh, they're here!' Indeed a couple of 'em were, and they had to queue to get in! "After the gig I thought it would be a giggle to get Steven Wilson to pose with H for a pic for Fish. Steve W. was there to see his compatriate Richard Barbieri play keys. They both agreed and I sent it up to the big bloke. He has printed it in the latest issue of "The Company'!!!" -Jill Douglas, UK

the web usa
Issue 13 - June '97
Page 44, 45