MONIKA BIELSKYTE / IS JUST LIVING ENOUGH FOR YOU, OR WAS IT NECESSARY TO ‘MAKE SOMETHING’ OF YOURSELF? & IS SEEING & EXPERIENCING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH IN ITSELF OR IS THERE A NECESSITY TO ENCAPSULATE IT SOMEHOW, TO CREATE SOMETHING OF IT, TO PRESERVE IT FROM BEING FORGOTTEN?

BRETT ANDERSON / a few years ago i seriously thought about retiring into a life of personal happiness. the idea of rejecting creativity did seduce me for a while. i think there's a simple, naturalistic part of me that wishes living was enough, but i think, unfortunately, my ego & the need to express myself dictate that i create too. i'm aware that the need to leave a legacy is quite an infantile concept but i also think that doing something with your life gives it some meaning & adds color & depth to its other corners. it's too easy just to intellectualiSe yourself into nothingness. without wishing to sound glib, i guess i find life, nature & art so stimulating that i need to kind of emulate those visions with my own twisted language. i suppose it's the competitive, obsessive 13 year old in me that can't just leave it alone when he senses the possibility of making something that might matter, to others, yes, but ultimately to myself.

[..]

MB / IS DIFFICULTY TO COMMUNICATE, LONELINESS OR ISOLATION SOMETHING YOU STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH TODAY?

BA / I'm naturally not a very sociable person so i suppose i have a tendency to willingly isolate myself. i prefer the company of books to most people but do passionately love being with my family & close friends for whom i would happily die. years of being in a successful band turns people into socially retarded, emotionally crippled fools. i saw this happening to myself & predicted the lonely life that was waiting to claim me & managed to wrestle myself away from this inevitability like a dreamer struggling to wake himself from a nightmare.
i still can't do small-talk but now have the capacity not to want to go & shoot myself in the toilet in the middle of dinner parties.


/ Excerpt from A CONVERSATION WITH BRETT ANDERSON. ENTIRE 10 PAGE ARTICLE WITH EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW ONLY IN PRINTED EDITION OF SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE ISSUE003 / FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE







/ BRETT ANDERSON AT HIS HOME IN LONDON / MAY 2010 / PHOTOGRAPHED BY MONIKA BIELSKYTE





POSTED 01.56PM BY LUKE MAYES / SEE ALL POSTS RELATED TO THIS AUTHOR