Innerviews

October 6, 2023 6:59 AM

Anil Prasad's online music magazine Innerviews "delivers in-depth, uncompromising interviews that enable artists to speak at length about topics that matter to them." He's interviewed several hundred musicians over the years, including Tori Amos, Laurie Anderson, Adrian Belew, Björk, Ron Carter, Stanley Clarke, Keith Emerson, Béla Fleck, Robert Fripp (sort of), Jean-Michel Jarre, Kronos Quartet, Bill Laswell, Massive Attack, Public Enemy, Marc Ribot, Terry Riley, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Talking Heads (previously), Tanya Tagaq, and McCoy Tyner.
posted by Gerald Bostock (11 comments total)

How great to see Anil's name pop up here—knew him in the 1990s from the Mike Oldfield mailing list, so of course the first interview I headed for was his one with the man himself from 2013, and it's every bit as in-depth as I'd hoped. Loved the closing exchange. Anil, if you run across this thread, hello from Amarok thirty-odd years ago!
posted by rory at 8:23 AM on October 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wow - this is an incredible collection. I love how eclectic it is - the Ron Carter interview was great, and so is the interview with Kansas drummer Phil Ehart.

I've picked out at least a dozen that I want to come back and read when I have more time - and I'm especially intrigued by artists who have been interviewed more than once, like Vijay Iyer and Tori Amos.

This is a wonderful wealth of conversations. I am so grateful to know it exists. Thank you SO MUCH for posting this, Gerald Bostock!
posted by kristi at 8:26 AM on October 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Reading the Bill Laswell interview, which is a gem. He mentions an album that he did (Technovoodu: Astral Black Simulations) with some Herbie Hancock electronic stuff for Sony that is still unreleased and "didn't come out officially."

I managed to snag a copy on CD-R at the Downtown Music Gallery at a recommendation for music stores on Ask Metafilter about 4 years ago. I love how Metafilter keeps delivering musical goodness for me. And it's neat to have an album that officially hasn't been released... (It's not bad. I doubt it will make Sony zillions of dollars, but it should get released!)
posted by jzb at 10:23 AM on October 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Recently read a spectacular interview they did with the prog rock band Porcupine Tree. I think I learned more about the band in three paragraphs of that interview than I'd known over fifteen years.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 12:45 PM on October 6, 2023

These are incredible! I'm loving the Robert Fripp one - so much depth about the way he thinks about process, the music industry and creativity. And of course everything is broken into lists and categories ...
posted by chbrooks at 2:36 PM on October 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hey chbrooks - you’ll likely enjoy the King Crimson at 50 documentary if you’ve not seen it. Robert is such an interesting chap.

These are great - I’m a big Mike Oldfield fan and found the interview very interesting - off to listen to Amarok (if only to find the Morse code RB bit lol).

Great post.
posted by whatevernot at 3:19 PM on October 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Innerviews is the Lebron James of online music journalism.
posted by alikins at 3:38 PM on October 6, 2023

Far and away the best Oldfield interview I've ever read. I still don't like anything after Incantations though.
Off to read some others. Thanks for posting this.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:16 PM on October 6, 2023

man the Massive Attack part with 3D is uh pretty disheartening tbh
posted by glonous keming at 4:44 PM on October 6, 2023

Went right to Sheila Chandra. A whole world opened up.
posted by Droll Lord at 5:53 PM on October 6, 2023

I went right to the Tori Amos and 💖💖💖 A lovely surprise about the Christmas music; her work meant a lot to me as a teenager and #metoo, but I haven’t really kept up with her. We are blessed up here in New England with a fantastic band keeping old English Christmas music alive, so it’s a great intersection.
posted by maniabug at 8:45 PM on October 6, 2023 [1 favorite]