“I dream of
talking to Putin”
Brian May
Interview
by Stephan Rehm Rozanes – May 2022 edition of ‘Musikexpress’, Germany.
Translated
by Alison Sesi.
(Translator’s
note: This text is back-translated so the quotes are not necessarily verbatim).
Like
Harrison Ford, who has again been firing shots around him as Hans Solo, going
back to the future as Rick Deckard and even soon to dig out the whip as Indiana
Jones, Brian May has been increasingly using the 21st century to
return to his iconic roles. That’s how it’s been since 2005 – back on stage as Queen
with different singers and due success, and finishing – after 37 years – his
doctoral thesis in 2007, he is now reworking his solo career album by album.
He started
off in 2021 with a lavishly endowed re-release of his solo debut BACK TO THE
LIGHT, with which, in 1992, he lifted himself out of the depression that had
been triggered by the deaths of his father and Freddie Mercury. In 1995, after
concluding, for the time being, the Queen chapter together with drummer Roger
Taylor and bassist John Deacon and his band’s commercially most successful [sic]*
studio album, MADE IN HEAVEN, he assembled songs from the widest variety of
projects for his second solo work, ANOTHER WORLD, a title that fits into
today’s times much better than into 1998, when the album rather sank. We’re connected
to May in London, where he receives us in the way he’s known from his almost
daily Instagram and YouTube videos: with distinctive silver mane and the slightly
cranky little glasses chain which prevents his sight aid from going astray. It’s
the classic look of the absent-minded professor, which May, with far-sighted
responses, certainly belies in every way.
Can you
hear me okay?
I can
see and hear you well.
At least
the hearing should surely not be possible at all – you played your first
concert 57 years ago; the so-called the ‘Wall of Death’ -with up to 15
amplifiers coming out of the backline - is legendary.
Well,
your own voice doesn’t hurt you like everyone else’s does. In fact I do have a
bit of hearing loss and I also know where it comes from. It’s in my left ear
and was caused by the snare drum, which is simply very loud. I have problems in
the range of 2000 to 3000 hertz, which is a little unfortunate, because that’s
the range you need to be able to distinguish voices from each other in a
crowded room. So you don’t catch everything that people are saying to you any
more. But I don’t want to complain. It isn’t serious.
What’s more
than serious, on the other hand, is the current situation in Ukraine. You in
particular, having played two of your biggest concerts there, in 2008 with Paul
Rodgers in front of 350 000 people in Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, and in 2012
with Adam Lambert in Kyiv’s Independence Square – just the irony of those names
- must be deeply upset by the news these days.
It
breaks my heart. There’s also a terrible feeling of helplessness which keeps me
awake at night. It’s simply awful to realise that you can’t do anything about
the unbelievable tragedy that’s unfolding there. It stuns me that the world has
made such a huge mistake in allowing it; that the whole world can’t do anything
against a man who’s losing it. It does my head in that we’re in this situation
at all. Every day I see Ukrainians, who are very close to us, losing their
homes, their livelihoods and their security; families are being torn apart. And
I am involved in some aid projects – you just do what you can. But I have a
feeling that it’s just a drop in the ocean. I dream of meeting Putin and telling
him to his face: “Come on, hell, do you really want to do this, seriously?” It’s
beyond the power of my imagination that a person wants to cause all this
suffering. I can’t get my head around it. And as an animal protectionist I’m
dealing all the time with people who have absolutely no compassion. There are
people who can look on as animals are tortured to death and don’t feel
anything. But here you have a person who can look on as people are tortured to
death without feeling anything. Unbelievable that something like this can happen
in the 21st century.
In the
bonus material of the ANOTHER WORLD re-release there’s a radically reworked version
of ‘Hammer to Fall’, being the only song from the Queen days, with lines like,
‘For we who grew up tall and proud / In the shadow of the mushroom cloud’,
which, in the face of the threats of this war, sadly seem very contemporary
once more. And don’t we want to accost Putin shouting: ‘What the hell we
fighting for? Just surrender and it won’t hurt at all?’
I’ve
been thinking about that often over the past few days. My generation really did
grow up under the permanent fear of nuclear destruction; we also saw the beginnings
of the policy of détente; the balance of power, always assuming that it could fall
apart at any moment. Crazily enough, that didn’t happen -that’s how it worked
at the time. I think that there was still some restraint back then on all sides
– I don’t like to say decency, but perhaps commitment…logic. But as soon as you
have one lunatic, to whom nothing means anything, it breaks down. Many
are saying that we’re experiencing the return of the Cold War, but that isn’t
true: we’re dealing with a very Hot, real and destructive war. It does me in to
see that another generation has to grow up with the fears that troubled us. Now
the situation is even worse than it was for us.
The name ANOTHER
WORLD expresses a painfully topical wish. Thus the title track also deals with parallel
universes. Have you, as a doctor of astrophysics, and as a guitarist who on
stage delivers spectacular solo-duels with yourself using echo devices, ever
considered what it would be like to play along with another version of yourself
in another universe?
I’ve
actually already done that! In a video for the new edition of my first solo
album BACK TO THE LIGHT I meet my 1992 self. Then we play guitar together. That
was a really fascinating experience. It’ll also be continued in the forthcoming
videos, this duality. I like to play the old Bri off against the young one. Something’s
coming your way there soon!
In the song
‘Business’ it says ‘It’s a hard business to make it on your own’; at the end of
the album there’s the instrumental hidden track, ‘Being On My Own’ – were these
about taking stock after the 20-year Queen frenzy?
Somehow
yes -also you see here again that songs inevitably have various potential
meanings. I wrote ‘Business’ for a British comedy series about an eternal optimist:
‘Frank Stubbs Promotes’ (1993-1994), but as soon as you start the music-making, you invariably come across things
inside that are just waiting to get out. So for a moment I merged with this
very insecure character who’s always trying to make it but is constantly
experiencing setbacks…so it can be claimed that I’m a successful rockstar - yes,
okay. But as a human being, as a person, I find life really difficult. I don’t
want to be ungrateful; I’m actually very grateful for a lot that’s happened to
me. But every day, every hour and every minute I feel life’s hard. I think that
it’s the same for everyone, regardless of whether you’re rich and famous or
not. You constantly have to make decisions, manoeuvring yourself through your
own doubts and fears. That’s what it’s about in the song – for that reason it’s
not written from the perspective of a rockstar, but from that of an average member
of the public - someone who’s constantly analysing themselves. That’s me - and
I can’t do anything about it.
In the past
you’ve repeatedly spoken openly about your spells of depression. Having already
collated your many interests like the guitar, stereoscopy and astronomy in book
form, I’m asking myself, and hence you too – if a written summary of your
experiences with mental health couldn’t be a project in the near future?
I’m in
contact with a lot of artists on Instagram – with other musicians, designers,
poets – and recognise myself in a lot of them. An amazingly large number of
them consider themselves worthless, as rubbish, and are about to give up. In
direct conversations, person to person, I’m even able to help sometimes. I find
ways that I can talk them out of striving for perfection and constantly punishing
themselves for not achieving set goals. But I can’t provide guidance as to how to
get over depression. If I knew the way out, I wouldn’t be depressed. But I do
get depressed. Just a moment – I just have to move - the battery’s about to go
on my laptop (walks
from a living room into a conservatory) - in my view the closest to a guide is a book
by Melody Beattie called ‘The Language of Letting Go’ – it’s a miracle. Then
there’s the serenity prayer of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, which consists of
just a few words – but for me is the most powerful text in the world to help
you cope with all your crap. (May is referring to
this passage: ‘God, grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change /
courage to change the things I can / and the wisdom
to know the difference’).
Parallel to
the re-release of BACK TO THE LIGHT, a coffee table book was published with
illustrations of you by the artist Sarah Rugg. A special edition of the new
ANOTHER WORLD comes on to the market with a book which is a collection of fan art
from all over the world. At the beginning of January you invited your Instagram
Community to make contributions. What has been created is a further declaration
of the enthusiasm that has been shown towards you for decades. How does someone
with strong self-doubts handle this admiration?
(laughs)
I don’t know if I can answer that question. It surprises me all the time and
sometimes I wonder if I’m being narcissistic by encouraging these activities. But
it simply allows people to be creative in a wonderful way, so that’s why I got involved
with it anyhow. Besides, in this way, artists receive the attention that they normally
don’t have in any other outlet besides Instagram. So they become a bit more
visible. The fact that I’m their inspiration makes me proud – it feels good. Of
course, it’s strange – now and again I leaf through and think to myself: “My
God, you’re looking at pictures of yourself!” But they aren’t just portraits,
they’re also pictures of my work, my channels, my journeys – experiences that
I’ve shared…that they’re encountered in this way makes me realise that the
communication has worked, that it’s sincere. I also have this theory – please
interrupt me if I’m getting boring – I often wonder: what is art, actually? And
why should I of all people have the answer to that? In any case, many people
associate art with purity; art is supposed to occur in a vacuum and for its own
sake - and of course, it mustn’t be commercial. I think that’s all wrong,
though. For me, art means conversation. You produce it because you feel it
within you, but also because you long to communicate with the people out there.
You have this urge to give and analogous to that arises the urge to take. And
that’s conversation. Instagram has changed and extended my view of my art. It
makes me very happy to get reactions and to be able to react in turn to the
reactions. That didn’t exist before. As Queen we paved the way to the acceptance
of the fact that the audience at a show is just as important as the band. That’s
how it must be. But this personal feedback that I now receive via Instagram has
broadened my horizons and enriched my life.
In an old press
handout from the early 70s you already listed under ‘dislikes’: ‘liver, noise,
cold feet, non-contact’. Did Instagram save your neck through the pandemic?
The
worst thing about the pandemic was that I couldn’t leave my house. I couldn’t
go to my studio; I couldn’t record music in the way that I wanted to; of course
I couldn’t tour or give public performances. What do I do as a musician, then?
The only platform that was available to me was Instagram. It’s international
and works on two levels, so I went in as if it were the most natural thing in
the world. That was, for me, the place to be. I was really glad to go on
there evening after evening during the lockdown, to jam with others - that got
me through this time – this terrible time.
You’re
wearing a T-shirt with the logo of your series of re-releases, the ‘Gold
Series’. You only have two solo albums – in my estimation a series would have
to consist of more than two items.
The immediate
next follow-up will be ‘Star Fleet’ (Allstar EP from 1983: May spontaneously
recorded songs in L.A. with Eddie van Halen, Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon, session
musician Phil Chen and the Queen keyboardist Fred Mandel., among which was the title
track, being the theme tune of his son James’s favourite Sci Fi series at the
time) – at least that’s what I’m planning. This’ll be exciting
because I’ve never done remixes before, but this material should be remixed. I
also want to fish out a few outtakes.
Across the
board there’s still a lot of diverse, partly obscure material which could be put
together in a kind of anthology: your release of the theme tune of ‘The Amazing
Spider-Man’, your hit ‘Rockstar’ with Rapper Dappy, a song collaboration with
Soundgarden...
Yes, I’ve
really got a lot of stuff. When I look to the horizon there really is still a
lot that I can pack into this series. That’s plainly a good feeling too. It’s
like clearing up at home: you put the whole stuff in order, stow it in boxes,
perhaps tying a pretty ribbon around it. What’s more, it’s important to me that
everything’s available again- so far it hasn’t been on Spotify, Apple or
anywhere else. This recycling, bringing things full circle, gives me a great
deal of pleasure.
Not all of your
projects with other stars passed off as harmoniously as ‘Star Fleet’ did – in
1982 you opted out of the collaboration with David Bowie for ‘Under Pressure’
before the last mixes.
Yes,
that wasn’t easy – that wasn’t a straightforward relationship. But I’m very
fond of him and, above all, have a lot of respect for him. I’m very sad that
he’s no longer with us.
On the one
hand you work in a very academic way – in science as well as on the guitar- on
the other, you’re very spiritual. Does that become inevitable when you occupy
yourself in-depth with the universe?
I’ve
never believed that science and faith contradict each other – unless the belief
is a fake one. I don’t adhere to any earthly religion. But for me science
reaches a limit at some point, and everything that goes beyond that can only be
explained in a spiritual way. In this I’m different from Stephen Hawking – he
thought that the acceptance of a God would contradict the laws of physics, but
I don’t believe that. Stephen Hawking is naturally much cleverer than me. Even
so, I have my own instinct and my gut feeling. Life consists of more than the
physical world – I consider that almost undisputed.
*(Translator’s
Note: The second best-selling studio album after ‘A Night at the Opera’).
HE WILL ROCK
YOU
Brian Harold May was born in 1947, and like Freddie
Mercury, his subsequent fellow band member, grew up in the London suburb of
Feltham, without ever having met him there. Mercury developed into a fan of
Smile, the band of guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, and replaced
its singer Tim Staffell in 1970. Together with bassist John Deacon they became,
as Queen, one of the most successful bands in history. May wrote such rock
classics as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Who Wants to Live
Forever’ and ‘The Show Must Go On’ for the band. He put his already started doctoral
thesis in astrophysics on ice in favour of his career as a musician, not taking
it up again for completion until 2007, and has been allowed to call himself Dr.
Brian May since then. He has published scientific books about the universe and
his other passion, 3D photography. But most important to him is his commitment
to animal protection. May supports over 25 aid organisations. His second
marriage is to actress Anita Dobson and he has three children. Since 2012 he
and Taylor have been touring throughout the world, together with their new
singer, as Queen and Adam Lambert. At the end of June they’re to be seen in
four concerts in Germany and Switzerland.
