An interview conducted by Stephen Kijak for his documentary "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man", november 2004
[Interview with Ed, Jonny and Colin]
From the director: Sitting across from Jonny, Colin and Ed I didn't realize I was nervous until we were rolling for about five minutes. "So what do you want to ask us?" Trying not to conduct the typical interview I travel with stacks of Scott LPs and singles. I want the experience to be tactile, and they get right into it, never having seen Scott's albums on vinyl, the gatefold sleeves, the notes, the lyrics. They've never heard the "Nite Flights" tracks so we start there. Amazing to see these guys grooving on an old Scott track for the first time.
[The first 2 lines here weren't included in the final movie but were posted on the director's blog.]
Ed: On Your Own Again, that for me, whenever we go on tour, I've always got Scott 4, and like, about day 40 or whatever, I just put it on and it works, it's become the soundtrack to alienation on the road, it's brilliant. It's like when you're in love, or you're out of love and your heart is broken but you sort of wallow in it because you love it, you know what I mean? It's horrible but it's romantic.
Jonny: We're long time fans. When we're writing new songs there tend to be names that keep coming up amongst the band in reference to the new songs...and its usually Scott Walker, Can...
Jonny: You know, a lot of our songs were called "the Scott Walker song".
Ed: Creep was.
Jonny: Creep was, yeah certainly. When we recorded it, that was the title...we always keep coming back to his records and his music.
[cut]
Jonny: What I understand, when he was working on Tilt, he did some in RAK, where we did some stuff. And it was strangest collection of instruments lying around.
Colin: That's right!
Jonny: How was he going to make a record with timpani and...
Colin: Orchestral percussions!
Jonny: Yeah, it was very bizarre. The ghost of Scott Walker was hanging over the whole recording. Didn't Nigel drive down to the first session of OK Computer, another one of our albums, and drove past Scott Walker on a bicycle in South London?
Colin: That's right!
Jonny: He was really excited, he'd just seen Scott Walker!