You Are the Magic An Interview with Johnny Marr By Sirona Knight & Michael Starwyn

His new band, Johnny Marr and the Healers, takes their name from Marr's fascination with 19th century mystic Madame Blavatsky's book, The Secret Doctrine. The bank is composed of bass player Alonzo Bevin from Kula Shaker and drummer Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr and drummer for The Who during their 2002 tour of the United States. On the Healer's debut album, "Boomslang," Marr has written all the songs. Writing songs and singing lead vocal is a first for Johnny. In the following interview, he shares some of his insights on writing songs and capturing creativity.

Describe a little of the creative process that went into your first album, "Boomslang"?
The first track on the album, " The Long Ride," I was taking the kids away for holiday, and there was a beat on my laptop. I went to bed late because I was trying to get things together. I lay down to go to sleep, and the entire tune including words and melody came instantly to me. At first I thought, "Well, I'll remember it." 10 % was saying I'll remember it, and the other 90 % saying you know you won't. So I went down stairs to the studio, and set out the basic idea on my laptop. For the entire ten days I was on vacation with children, I carried this song around with me, telling myself, "Don't forget it, don't forget it." I used these mental devices to remember all the different parts. I became obsessive in a way about it, and at the end I leapt out of the taxi, and ran into the studio, and I was able to put the whole song on tape.

Do you feel your creativity comes in waves?
Your creative antenna has to be on. I like the idea of being on the road and be like Bob Dylan, where there's this stuff constantly coming out. I think your body clock is very clever and in my case, my energy levels go down and up and down and up, reaching for the big burst, which for me is show time. I think my best writing comes out of this sense of exuberance., rather than second impression or too much reflection. Exuberance is an energy that you tap into-even if the song is somber, there is a flash of energy that created it. Health and natural energy is more important as I get older.

I noticed on your web site that you answer questions from people. What's that like?
I do a question and answer thing on the Net that is not bad because I don't do it too often. What I do is lie on the floor, and goof out somewhere, but I get my friend who is quite funny to read them to me. And he's a little bit of a slave driver. He reads them out and I answer. He's good because he stops me from getting too pretentious or pompous. He's good at deflating my ego. I like it, and I think I surprise a lot of people on the q and a thing because it shows I have a really good memory. I am able to remember amazing details of songs I recorded over fifteen years ago.

Your answer to one of the questions on the Net indicated that you write the melody and then the words. From listening to the album, it sounds like the melodies stem from guitar parts. Does the guitar fuel your creativity?
Yes, the guitar often suggests melodies to me. But on the album, some of the songs I consciously went back and made them less melodic. I didn't want too many emotional highs. There were even a couple of nights where I got a big bag of grass, and recorded the songs. The last thing a person on grass wants is too many emotional highs. That's the reason some of the music sounds the way it does. Don't throw that chord change in it might bring the cops with it. But seriously to get back to your question, I didn't want any unnecessary hysteria in the vocal. I didn't want to listen back to the first album I sang lead vocals on and realize that I had tried too hard. I did the same thing with the words, but that was more about keeping a sense of ambiguity about them. Not vagueness, but leaving room so that people can draw their own interpretations. That's why some people have called it psychedelic or hypnotic.

Although it's your first time singing, your vocals seem like a logical extension of your guitar playing and songwriting?
That was one of the attractions of this band was me singing, even though initially I wasn't going to be the singer. I wanted whoever was going to be the singer to come from the same sea as the music. In the past I have been very lucky in that the people I have been involved with have been full of surprises. I never knew the way the record was going to turn out. In the Smiths, I would often present Morrissey an instrumental record if you will. It was like I would present him with a landscape of Manhattan or London, and he would come along and stick a big banana in it, and I would go, "What is that?" Then I would have to readjust all the other elements that I put into the project.

Sounds a lot like a surrealistic painting?
Yes it is. Although at the end of the day I know I'm just talking about Pop music. But if you're subjective about, that's just what it is, particularly after 60 hours of your week doing it. I enjoyed that period while it was happening, This time out, I wanted the picture to be just as I intended it to be right from the start. I was totally into the idea of the vocals melding into the music. I really didn't want to deal with a big personality. Melding with the music was what was most important.

It sounds like your making a work of art?
I really do get poetic about it. I try to keep a sense of endeavor and creative aspiration almost to a mystical extent with trying to keep a feel about things and not driving yourself totally crazy, chopping your ear off.

I like the idea of it being eclectic while at the same time sounding like it came from the same person, giving it continuity.

From the beginning I've always worked under the assumptions that the people that buy my records are essentially like me. Sometimes you come across certain dogmatic writers who underestimate their readers or listeners, and assume that they are as dogmatic as they are, and the world is only big enough to listen to electronic or rock music.

You are the magic is one of most favorite things I have ever done. I really like the phrase "magic." With this particular song, the music suggested sensuality to me. Because I am writing the parts, words and music, I included this sensual-ness within the song. The words are very simple, but hey seem right to me, and conveyed what I wanted to express, which was the telepathy and rapport and to people can build up. It doesn't have to be necessarily physical, but just contact between two people. In an erotic and sex sense, I like to think of it as a mantra anyway. I may have finally recorded a song that you can "screw" to.

It sounds like a mantra.
Yes, it to me is the direct way and highest compliment that I could pay someone, and you might as well say it 25 times. Without sounding immodest, this whole process has been totally worth it just because I recorded that song. When I'm on stage and playing, it's an expression of my seriousness. It's my way of getting my heaviness across, seeing as it's usually impolite to burden people with your heaviness. Music is the way to your heaviness out without bumming anyone out.

Many songwriters indicate that writing songs is a form of therapy. How does this work with you?
It's so weird, I've now been in a situation where I'm talking about the whole thing cause I'm writing the whole song-music, melody, and words. Because of this, there were issues that I could no longer brush off with poetics and convenience. These issues were happening to me in the "right now."

Much of art and music is a process of being in the moment and expressing it. How do you feel about this?
I guess if we could stay in the moment we'd all be monks, right? Staying in the moment is amazing. Improvising on guitar or any instrument is very much like surfing, if you are five seconds in the past or two seconds into the future-- you're going to fall off into the ocean. It really is like that. I can't complain, and I'm lucky I can do it, otherwise I'd be laying some ponderous concepts on my friends. This way I can just get it all out.