The Raft Talks Survival And Music With Willy Mason!
What have you've learnt from your 'survival book' so far?
I learnt how to make water out of dirty water. You've got to like boil the water, catch the steam on piece of rag and then squeeze out the rag. (laughs)
Has that come in useful yet?
No, not quite. In Texas I came close. But then I realised there's 2400 convenience stores just about everywhere with stuff like that!
Do you think you will need that book being in the music industry?
(Laughs) I don't know, I'll have to wait and see. You never know what's going to happen and living in my van, I just like to be prepared because there are a lot of parts of the country that I am not familiar with. There's like strange animals and stuff. So, I make sure I know what to watch out for.
Do you know what to do if a bear comes running at you?
Yeah, run! (laughs)
Talking about the record, did you have a clear idea when you were setting it down about what you wanted to achieve or did it unfold as you were recording?What do you think about when you are travelling around in your van?
All kinds of things but I like to try and imagine like looking out of the window now imagining what that would look like say 50 or 100 years ago. I like to look at people and imagine what they will look like when they are older and what they used to look like if they are older. That keeps me pretty busy (laughs). There are a lot of things.
Already in this country there is some great press on you. Does that in any way affect how you feel about your music, knowing people are writing good things about you?
I still don't know how I feel about that stuff. It still kind of feels like when you are little kid and your parents come to see you in a play and they are like "oh you were great". You are like "yeah, right" and it doesn't register it just seems like it is the polite thing to say. It feels good, it's nice that people like it, at least I try not to let it affect me. Like when I first started getting good receptions in general, like when I played my first gig in New York and people kind of liked it. It did drive me to work a little harder and to take writing more seriously, but I still basically go through the same cycles of writing and not writing. And the same cycles of high self esteem and total self-doubt… all that crap you know.
"Where the Humans Eat” What's that about?
It's about my Mum yelling at my cats to get off the table. That's it! (Laughs)
It also has some more metaphoric suggestions in it. I typically like people to figure out for themselves so I don't know if I want to add that in there. You can if you want to. That was like the literal thing but I wouldn't have written it if I didn't think it had some other significance besides that… I'm still kind of figuring it out but it kind of goes back to like the way society is and like humans cutting themselves off. I didn't write it with that kind of crap in mind but the table seemed like a metaphor for the universe at that kind of time.
Yeah, totally. I had no plan or anything. I didn't even know what songs I was going to use. Sam (Willy’s brother and guitarist) hadn't even heard half the songs… it was all very spontaneous, spur of the moment stuff.
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About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
