<Astan Magazine Interview>

AND ALSO THE TREES INTERVIEW

Notice : This interview was not issued on the magazine, so please let me know if you
found any mistake or omisson. Thanks in advance.

Interviewer : Why have, times for you two "and also the trees"?

Simon : There are a lot of changes in our personal lives, we had to uproot and move from our family,
gifted to children, and Justin went to London, and I went to Geneva, and a lot of things changed in
my life, and I had children...

Interviewer: Children…?!  But you didn't expect?! (that you didn't expect??)

Simon : I'll tell you ??? I'm trying to get all symmetric…
...and with all the changes, for a while we didn't know whether "AND ALSO THE TREES" will be one
of the things? that went with it.
And then, When Justin was helping me immigrate to Switzerland in the van, taking all my belongings, we
started talking about doing our album, and that was in 2000.  And we'll do another album, we'll do it, we
all talked about it and we decided, 'Yes, we'll do it.'  Purity for the love of making music, for no other
reason, I mean, it's generally always been like that, but particularly this time it's been just way if its
necessary for ourselves, it doesn't matter if it never gets released, or if we don't tall? or anything, that's
just...that's just what making? music together and for that experience of writing...

And of course it took longer, because we are all living in different places and more organization and...
it took a long time.

Justin : Yeah. Lots of things that went on before or in between the loss time, and this one was it's a long
time, it takes long time when we are mixing records, have a fighting, we do, but we did a lot of other
artistic things in between that time, like doing mixes, remixes, making films, doing design, all sorts of stuff,
its broadening and you know, horizon, and...

Interviewer : From horizon to horizon.

Justin : Yeah.

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer : Why did you move over to Switzerland? ???make money from bank account and move to American dollars?

Simon : Well, it'll either be that or ??? and the other one's a woman.
Guess which one it is!

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer :What have you done to and Switzerland ??? other kinds of parts ???
What are you also artistic difference???

Simon : Our vision...
I was traveling in India, working for a humanitarian foundation.

Interviewer : I see...

Simon : I went to take photographs of projects in India; schools, children, and this one was helping
different people, I traveled around several remote areas of India, meeting people, and taking photographs,
and afterwards I exhibited little black and white photos, I used to be a photographer, I should say, before
I became a musician, I was a professional photographer.  Then I printed the photographs and had
exhibitions and...

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer : You're now into, some kind of Russian music, when you playing a guitar, ???
for you when you were very young ??? ?

Justin : Actually, not Russian, but I know what you mean...
But I think when we talk instantly a long long time ago, I saw somebody playing the mandarin, and it was
a street musician, and I think it was in Florence, and it was a great sound and I had it subconsciously
It must have gone in, because after that, I started that song, which is in...

Simon: When you started going to club, one of your priorities was to try and make it sound like a guitar,
wasn't it?

Justin :Yes, exactly. There's a lot to do with a guitar, I think.... There's a lot of challenging things that
you can do.And I've tried to sort of...

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer: What kind of music do you listen to? For instance, at home?  Artists?

Justin : ??? 60s, I mean there was ???

Interviewer: Last night ???

Justin : We've been taken to the wonderful ???

<Live video comes in>

Simon :When we started working on "Further From the Truth", we realized we'd let go of that and
wondered if we should find something else that sort of, to focus on, some other scene... some other
country...something to bring it all together, and then we didn't. We just said, "No, this music is coming right
from inside of us. And let's leave it like that."

Interviewer : I was saying that take a look at the new record and that was closer to the
other work? “Land to the Last Way???” You would agree with that?

Simon :I think I would, because I think what you get with the "Further From the Truth" is a bit of a
reflective work in a way that it comes from inside us, it comes from deep inside us. And of course inside
us is our past. And there were times when we were working on this album in the studio taking it (taping?)
when I was hearing some of the music anger or kind of madness that crosses? ??? it reminds me of it's
nostalgic, but it's not retro.  

<Live video comes in>

Simon :We were in this all gothic school house that was falling down in the process of being renovated.
We were in a basement, it was actually the dormitory of a girls' school. ???
And it was great, you have dust all over the floor and all over the windows, and looking out the gardens
and things. And I'm playing music and I felt really really happy. I thought, "This is great," but it reminds
me of a long time ago when "And Also the Trees", and almost back at the beginning. And I worried, that
for a moment, I thought, "Are we being retrogressive?" And I thought, "No, because it doesn't sound retro
sounds just now."

Interviewer: Not sound retro.

Simon :It's got good feel of that. But it's not retro. And so I think we all thought about that, and we
accepted it and said, "No this is part of us. Our past is part of us. we shouldn't hide from it if we can be
ungrateful.

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer: ??? romantic persons? Some of them are ???, others are ???.

Simon :No, no, I think... well, I wouldn't. All my, unfortunately for my wife, all my romanticism comes out
of my music.

Interviewer : I see, I see. So you're not the guy with the room with the ???

Simon : No, no, I'm a miserable case.

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer : Do you think where does it go in the future?
Where does ??? your imaginations or dreams go?
And the passion and the love and the money that you have in the Switzerland banks?

Simon:In the bush.
It's up in the air, again because we don't know.  It's going to become more difficult for artful.while
we were away. But I think having being away from music for five years, has made me realize how much
I really missed it.

<Live video comes in>

Interviewer : I'm always happy when I see you that the bands like you are so good on
stage, so wonderful time... Ok then, thank you so much.

<Live video comes in>

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