"... if you wanted to be an artist there had to be a motiating force which was more than simply wanting to add attractive objects to the world,"
Brian Eno.
Over the last few weeks, I've been reading 'On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times Of Brian Eno', by David Sheppard and consciously trying not to finish it too fast. Mostly because, as a biography of an artist and musician it's really thorough and entertaining- but as a list of inventive ideas to get out of creative ruts, it's absolutely amazing. It covers all of the notable albums and acts Eno has been involved with, Roxy Music, Robert Fripp, Talking Heads, Devo, David Bowie, U2. I haven't gotten to the Coldplay bit yet (if there is a Coldplay bit). To be honest, I'm still a little bit torn between my strong admiration for Eno and my strong nausea for Coldplay on that one, but I'll listen to the album before I decide.
Throughout reading I've been underlining whole sections where Eno stumbles upon a (generally fortuitous) route out of a creative impasse. His most admirable characteristic really is his willingness to embrace mistakes and accident and to continually put himself on the spot in whatever situation he finds himself in. It's encouraging to read about someone who seems to be so endlessly curious about everything and his own potential in the world. I've been feeling fairly burnt out since my Graduate Exhibition in June, and ran myself into the ground by taking it all a little too seriously, so it's nice to see someone who is just curious.
The book is definitely worth picking up, even only for the more ridiculous rockstar anecdotes, like the enduringly bizarre image of Eno and Bowie returning home to Bowie's apartment nightly from the exhausting recording sessions for "Heroes":
"Here, Eno would gorge on bowls of wheat flakes while Bowie, too fatigued to even heat up a stive, broke raw eggs into his mouth before collapsing into sore-eyed slumber."
Apparently raging heroin addiction does untold damage to your table manners.
Also, anyone who knows me will know I'm a big fan of Alan Moore too, so the below audio of Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) interviewing Eno for a BBC Radio 4 show called Chain Reaction is great too, it's highly recommended:
1 comments:
so hard to not judge a book by its cover... such a niiice cover.
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