Jason Amopp

Texto-entrevista por Jason Amopp, sobre processo criativo envolvendo os sons ambientes de “Chill-Out Or Die (the ambient album)” (1997) com a esposa-autora Jem:

“Neverthelss, Würzel was getting to like this ambient lark. Enlisting the writing skills of his good lady Jem, he set about bringing her never-ending ideas to fruition. Many a long night was spent slaving over a hot four-track Fostex machine, evoking sonic spirits left, right and centre.

Würzel could describe it in similarity enchanting terms, but frankly that’s not his way.

‘Me and Jem would get fucking wasted, and sit there ‘til the early hours of the morning. When I was playing for about four hours at a time, some of the stuff went a bit off the track, after a while. It would start getting away from ambient, getting heavier and heavier. I couldn’t resist it! All of a sudden there was all theses waves of distortion coming in. Jem would say things like, ‘What’s that buzzing noise all the way through?’. I said, ‘That’s a fucking guitar!’ But she didn’t like it so we took some of that stuff out. As a result, there are some very smooth-flowing pieces in there’.

Not to say that ‘Chill Out’ doesn’t feature guitars. Good god, there are plenty of them. They just don’t make your eyes and ears bleed. This, ladies and gentlemen (drum roll optional) is Würzel‘s Long-Awaited Mellow Side. Isn’t it?

‘Well, a mellow side came out of me when I wrote ‘Bess’, he notes. ‘I don’t think this is that mellow, although it’s great music to chill out and relax to. To be honest with you, I’ve been thinking about playing something like this since the early seventies, when I heard stuff like Tangerine Dream‘.

‘I have no intention of calming down on the guitar at all’, he pledges. ‘I’m not to do an Eric fucking Clapton and start playing bollocks. As soon as this one’s out, I’ll be kicking ass again!‘