Toledo Free Press Interview with Perry

[Mike]

5/25/2007
Arts and Life
MUSIC
Interview: Perry Ferrell launches new band
By Toledo Free Press Staff Writers

Perry Ferrell, formerly of Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros and founder of Lollapalooza, will release a new CD, “Ultra Payload,” May 29 with his new band, Satellite Party. Farrell was recently interviewed by Dan McClintock, senior rock programmer for WRWK and WXKR, Cumulus Broadcasting.
Dan McClintock: I've had the chance to hear a good portion of the Satellite Party record. How did you come to work with the Jim Morrison estate and access the Morrison vocal tracks?
Perry Farrell: Well, it was one of those beautiful, beautiful miracles that sometimes happen in life, kind of like meeting your wife or something like that. I was given permission to work on these tracks. There is one track that you heard, I actually have another, too. It's a song that was recorded 30 years ago, by, Jim Morrison and The Doors. And when Jim recorded it on Sunset Blvd., a few days after that, he took off for France, and we all know what happened from there. This track has never been heard before, and it tells a story of a heavenly host who's looking at the world from the vantage point of space and the heavens, and he calls the world, “the woman in the window.” And he tells us of her majesties and her travesties. He incites the people to do something good for the Earth. He says that he'll be doing great things for the Earth, he and his angel agents. And he says, “just try to stop us, we're gonna love.” And that became the mantra for our project.
DM: How did Satellite Party come to being? You have Nuno Bettencourt, arguably one of the most skilled guitar players.
PF: I met Nuno Bettencourt at Tom Morello's house. Tom was having a birthday party, and back there by the keg of beer, was this quiet, shy, young guy. And Tom said to me, “That guy right in the corner is one of the greatest guitar players you'll ever meet.” And I was putting together, at that time, programs for Satellite Party. I was writing it basically with computers and synthesizers and drum programs. And my next phase, my next step, was to put a live group to it, because I wanted that enthusiasm, that giant pageantry, the mysticism, the sensuality of rock. And so, I asked him if he wanted to come hang with me in my garage tomorrow, and it was the weekend, so he showed up with a small fender amp and a guitar, and he plugged in, and we started to lay tracks.
DM: Is Satellite Party a permanent line-up, or do you have sort of a rotating cast and crew of different musicians?
PF: I would say that the first thing that it is a party. So, I do have a great group of people that we are planning a tour with, on this particular record it will take us 18 months. So we plan to tour the world again and again, and we really have on the long term, a ten-year plan to start putting events on around the world, global events, that would be modular in size. They will vary from everything from 200,000 people in attendance to 2,000 people in attendance. It's only just starting. Our first tour begins in June, and we'll be doing Europe, doing the festivals and the clubs. And then we return into America, in late July, getting ready for Lollapalooza, which happens in August. From there we do America, so; hopefully we'll be running into each other out there in Toledo.
DM: Talk about Lollapalooza and what we can expect at this year's event.
PF: This year we're three days, at Grant Park, headlining on our Sunday night is going to be Pearl Jam with their only American appearance this year. Following them is gonna be incredible live groups. Muse, Daft Punk, Ben Harper, we've got our O.G.s; we've got Iggy and the Stooges, Patti Smith. We've got Satellite Party, Modest Mouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. We've got Interpol. We've got some wild, wild women this year. We've got Amy Winehouse, and Regina Spector, and M.I.A. And we've got 130 other groups on the grounds. It's gonna be an incredible, incredible weekend. One of the great highlights for American music in 2007.

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