16 April 2008 at 10:29 posted by Jean-Yves 1 Comment

Highlights from dEUS-fr's summary of the Tom Barman interview in French mag "Noise" -- just the stuff we haven't heard from other interviews:

  • It's still a mystery to Tom how Pocket Revolution had commercial success and allowed them to play in many major venues.
  • He doesn't like the idea that his songs have to grow on people, even the ones he feels are "too commercial".
  • The biggest challenge in songwriting is about being both direct and simple. He gives Beck as an example of someone who drew inspiration from Bob Dylan. The mark of great songwriters, besides their complex and ambitious work, is the ability to write songs which are like gifts to other musicians -- eg "Everybody Must Get Stoned" in Dylan's case.
  • Tom thinks what makes dEUS stand out is that most songs have structural breaks: toying with rock'n'roll clichés in order to better avoid them is critical to the dEUS sound. He thinks that Lenny Kravitz is the king of plagiarism.


1 Response so far.

  1. Anonymous says:

    compare that second quote with another one where he critizes some people for having a fast food approach to music (back in 1999)!