Gavin Friday has a new record out, 'catholic' - see the video of the track 'Able' below. Here's the second part of an exclusive interview with U2.com - and here's part one.
U2.com: Do you get protective of U2?
Yeah, I get protective. And I get challenging. Sometimes I’d be more radical than they would be. But we all work hard, and we’re good at what we do. If I’m working with U2 I usually end up in hospital for a week when I come home, because everything is hard core, you know?
U2.com: How come?
If you’re setting up something like the 360 Tour, it’s such a phenomenally big thing. You arrive at 8am for meetings, then you’re down in the rehearsal studio, then you’re in the stadium, then you do some run-throughs, then there’s a meeting and you watch all the videos, and you’re going to bed at 4am in the morning and you’re back up at 8.
U2.com: You’ve referred to yourself as U2’s 'aesthetic midwife'.
Yes. I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but when they’re getting something up and running, that’s when it’s hard. No album, no gig, no tour, is easy. If it was... When I went to record this album of mine, I was dying after a time. You have to push and push and push.
U2.com: But finally the baby was born! How was the creative process for you?
I had many, many people - from Lou Reed to Antony Heggarty, even The Edge - all saying they’d guest on the album, but I made a decision to have no big names on there. I wanted it to have a life of its own.
So I decided to work with someone who didn’t know me, Ken Thomas. He’s a beautiful English man, and he said to me, one song will lead us... Strangely enough it was the last song on the album, ‘Lord, I’m Coming’. It’s like a surreal prayer, and it came out of nowhere like a gift; so we crafted it, and it started telling us the mood of the album. The real magic happens, I believe, when you follow your instincts and your intuition.
U2.com: catholic wrestles with religion, but is it ‘religious’ itself?
When I listened back to it, I thought, it’s so religious... but it’s not. There is a searching, even in the feel of it. Spirituality and a belief in God is important, but I have no time for organised religion.
I was sent to the Christian Brothers and if it wasn’t for the repression of Ireland by the Catholic church, the Virgin Prunes wouldn’t have happened. I am a product of that, even though I was fighting against it. Now the Church doesn’t have the stranglehold it did, I’m reclaiming the word ‘catholic’, and using its true essence, which is ‘for everyman, universal’.
U2.com: The writer Patrick McCabe contributed something for the sleeve notes?
I sent the album to Pat, and he lived with it for a few weeks, then came over to Dublin and we went out on the wreck... And he wrote this surreal, beautiful piece, which is about the fall of Ireland economically, the fall of the Catholic church in Ireland, and a son losing his father.
U2.com: How do you hope people will engage with this album?
The biggest compliment you can get is when you write a song like ‘Blame - inspired by the death of my father - and someone comes up and says, 'Thank you for that, because I’ve been there, too.'
U2.com: What was it, ultimately, that helped a little gang called the Lipton Village to achieve so much?
There’s different theories. We’re 70s kids, from a country which never experienced the boom in the 50s and 60s. We had a lot to prove. And we were the first generation that was saying, we’re going to America, and England, and Europe. We had that drive.
But I have this weird theory about why myself, Bono and Guggi are so driven. Aside from music and the arts (and a sense of humour) we had one thing in common: we all had a very tough relationship with our fathers. We all had this man that constantly challenged us, but never gave us love. It was like we were trying to prove something to him, and to the world. In hindsight, that’s the link for me, between three friends who are still close.
You can’t blame these men; they came from a very harsh background, and they didn’t know how to love. They didn’t know what they had on their hands, either - I broke my father’s heart when I formed the Virgin Prunes, you know? He didn’t know what was going on. But Bono and I were both blessed to have good moments with our fathers before they passed away.
When his daddy was dying, Bono would go up to the hospital near where I lived, and he would sit and watch him, and he did these incredible drawings of his hands, and of him lying in bed, and there was just so much love. It would blow your mind. It was just incredible.
If you look at a lot of creative people, there’s usually a parent missing, or something wrong. It’s not rocket science. We’re all pretty vulnerable and simple.
U2.com: You have this refrain on catholic, “The best is yet to come.” Are you an optimist?
A pessimistic optimist. Absolutely.
U2.com: And with such an eclectic career, how would you like to be remembered? Steve Stockman recently described you as a 'national treasure'.
That’s a very nice compliment. But I’ve a lot more to do; I’m ambitious. I never sit easy. You find out who you are when you create, and you write. This is the world according to me. It’s my life. It’s in my blood. I have no choice.
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