Aside from having made two of the most spectacularly brilliant albums of the 90s, Portishead also have a nice line in the Media Event. Singer Beth Gibbons still refuses to do interviews after five years in the spotlight, her icy cool aloof image only broken by memories of her drunken speech on winning the Mercury Music Prize in 1995. But launching their second, eponymous album in 1997 with a concert hall gig in New York complete with the backing of a 30-piece orchestra was a masterstroke. They have recently released a live video and album derived mostly from that concert, and to promote this release Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley from the group spent two days in front of a computer answering questions over the Internet.
The event was organised by Music On-Line and was conducted via PortisheadÕs excellent website. Ben Ladkin and myself logged in for the BaggageÕs allotted 20-minute slot towards the end of the first day (for UK journalists Ð the rest of the world had one day to interrogate the band a couple of weeks later), armed with a few questions to cut and paste into the little question-asking box, feeling slightly apprehensive. Although internet interviews are becoming increasingly common, the novelty has not worn off and memories of one such event involving Radiohead which quickly degenerated into farce as people logged in pretending to be Thom Yorke sat uncomfortably on our minds. Add to that the impersonal nature of electronic communication - the lack of eye contact or tone of voice to gauge the effect of your question or the meaning of the answer - and the time lag between question and answer while you wonder if youÕve have mortally offended your interviewee with that question which seemed such pertinent and incisive journalism when you thought of it, and confidence disappears and suddenly once again you are that weedy student feeling overawed by the bassist from Schtum.
It turned out that we would be speaking (writing? E-questioning?) to Geoff Barrow. We started on time and everything seemed to be going fine. We had our opening strategy all worked out Ð first a witty ice-breaking revelation of how ÔPortisheadÕ was an anagram of ÔHot DespairÕ and ÔDire PathosÕ, followed by a question about hip-hop to show that we were cool and knew about his roots. We werenÕt quite sure where we were going from there, but felt certain it would work itself out. So, the anagram thing out of the way, we asked Geoff what he thought of the state of hip-hop and whether he felt part of it. "I think currently hip hop is good, all the independent stuff from New York and San Francisco. I think we have a relationship with hip hop but we are not it because we donÕt live it."
Half our time had gone, so we moved onto a new tack Ð in light of PortisheadÕs reputation for spending years in the studio and carefully thought-out orchestral gigs, did Geoff think he was spontaneous? "I donÕt think I was for over 10 years. I was in a kind of working coma but I am beginning to be more spontaneous every day. IÕve got to learn to take chances more." Did he think that changes in his life change the tone of his music? "Yes, absolutely, in the same way that the changes in your life will set the mood for any creative work."
Portishead live are not quite what youÕd expect Ð tracks you think you know mutate, becoming even more intense than on record and tend to evolve with time. "We have changed a lot from the start of the tour which was ten months ago. We started to explore new areas and let go a bit more. When you are playing live, but you are recreating loops, you always have to hold back but we found a way to not lose it completely and still maintain the vibe. In another way, we just learnt to express ourselves more live and not be frightened of letting go." What would the ideal venue for a Portishead gig be? "We have played so many venues now, itÕs really hard to say. We have played up to about 50,000 people in France on one night - that was excellent but then we have played a small club in Seattle to 600 people and it has been just as good - it really is a hard question to answer.
As long as people are listening, weÕre happy."
With that, our time was up. We retreated from the cyberspace into the real world, rubbing our eyes and still listening.
Portishead were web-conferencing(?) with Tim Down, in October 1998.
Complete Portishead Press Conference archives can be found here.