Time and Time Again With Daylight Fading Single What Song Was Tagged? Counting Crows

Here's a piece I've dredged up from the archives – early on 2004, to be precise. At the fourth dimension I was working for the BBC's Top of the Pops website, which occasionally involved interviewing guests who had come to the studio to play on that week'south bear witness. The highlight was when I got to accept a sit downwards with Adam Duritz, the homo behind what I would probably nominate as my favourite band, Counting Crows.

Here'south the interview, from April 2004, conducted in a dresssing room in TVC before their functioning – and yes, you could see me on the broadcast, right at the front end, singing along and dancing like a mad thing 🙂

How'south your new drummer Jim Bogios settling in and how has the departure of Ben Mize affected the band?

Adam: It's worked out peachy. It meant we had less vacation time because we had to do all the rehearsals but Jim's really great – groovy drummer, bully guy. We've all known him for a long time also, so he fits right in. It wasn't similar he was a new guy coming in. I've been friends with Jim for years, Immy [David Immergluck, Counting Crows guitarist] used to play in a band with Jim, and I know him through Sheryl [Crow] too. So it's going existent well. I mean, you miss Ben because you miss Ben, because y'all spent nine years together and every once in a while I discover myself looking for him to tell him something, just I only have to call him. I did a radio show in Dublin the other twenty-four hour period, DJing for two hours, and I had some of Ben'due south demos with me and then we opened the 2d hour with one of Ben'southward songs and information technology made me remember how skillful they are. I know i of the reasons he wanted to stop is that he wanted to go do his own affair, and he'due south really skilful. Nosotros've got tapes of that show and our before ones too, and we're going to put them up on our website.

'Big Yellow Taxi' is a cover version and is a hidden rails on the album, so why did you release it as a single rather than one of your own songs from 'Difficult Candy'?

Adam: I don't think nosotros would accept released this equally a single until some time next twelvemonth, probably. There were other songs we were planning on doing first. We were in the middle of releasing 'Miami' but this film 'Two Week's Notice' came to united states and said 'we want to utilize this in the credits, we want to utilize information technology in the film, nosotros want to build the ad campaign around information technology, we desire to make a video also and use this song to portray the moving-picture show'. That was merely too big a deal to laissez passer up. It's hidden on the record right now so if we'd had more time we would have planned ahead to information technology existence a single, it would have been listed and at present nosotros're dealing with the fact that a lot of people don't even know information technology's on the record. Simply they made a video for us, and information technology's in the film, which is a hit in America, and so there'due south a lot of reasons why it made sense to do this song. It'south probably most six or eight months before than we would take but what are you going to practise… it's turning out cracking.

You're on record every bit being very disappointed by the reception of 'Recovering The Satellites' just that later on you felt people came to appreciate it for being as proficient as it is. How do you experience virtually the reception of the new album, 'Difficult Candy'?

Adam: It'due south skilful. You have to understand that at the fourth dimension of 'Satellites' my entire feel with the record concern was that when I put out a record 10 one thousand thousand people bought it, that was merely what I causeless happened, and that everyone loved the records we put out. I don't call up we got a bad review for 'August And Everything Subsequently'. But what you realise afterward you lot've been in the business for a while is that people develop opinions about you that don't have anything to do with your music, they similar or dislike you for a million reasons, they like or dislike you lot for your final tape. Y'all can put out a record that'due south crap but if they loved your last record they're there for you, and you tin put out a great tape merely if they hated or came to detest your last tape at some betoken… I think 'Mr Jones' got on everybody's nerves after a while, information technology certainly got on mine and I dearest the song. And then by the time 'Satellites' came out I think people were fed upwards with information technology, well the critics were in any instance. Information technology still sold millions of records.

Information technology was difficult considering I knew they weren't reviewing it really because they were talking about it every bit a folk stone record and 'Satellites' is a loud, heavy guitar, sometimes most punk tape in places. The concluding matter it is is a re-hash of 'August And Everything Later', it's completely unlike which is, I recall, why a lot of people had problems with it – they weren't fix for 'Angels of The Silences' to be the unmarried that came later on 'Round Hither'. They weren't expecting that, peculiarly considering there were about seven or 8 radio songs on 'August' that went out and up the charts on their ain just from radio play without us doing anything nigh it. And and so when you've heard 'Perfect Blue Buildings' and the next song you hear is 'Angels of The Silences' you wonder what the hell is going on. The first thing on that tape is 'Catapult' which is simply screaming loud guitar noises… I'm trying to remember what the first 4 songs are… there'due south 'Catapult', 'Angels of the Silences', 'Daylight Fading' and 'I'yard Not Sleeping', which is as well a bunch of caterwauling noise. And then three out of those four songs are actually loud songs, and the quaternary, 'Daylight Fading', is sort of a jangly guitar song, simply three of those were really non what people were coming to united states of america to hear.

I still beloved the record. It'due south a very raw record. The vocals on 'August' are very, I don't want to say slick, very well sung but on 'Satellites' I purposefully made them really raw, I permit cracks go in my voice, I wanted to vocals to exist like scraping your nails on a chalkboard sometimes. What you realise equally you keep in this business is that it's not for those people, you do it for yourself and it turns out how it turns out because you can't bother making the music they want you to brand, information technology's a wasted chase.

Y'all had a hard time dealing with the attention y'all got later on 'August', only at present you seem a lot more comfy and mellow virtually being famous. If you lot could go back and give your younger self advice on how to handle what was coming what would you tell him?

Adam: I wouldn't really give advice to me. I don't really remember I acted weird at all. I think the thing people confuse virtually fame is that they think fame is something you do, only it'southward not, it'southward something other people practise to you. I have bug with massive amounts of people acting like idiots around me. I was the same guy but the globe started acting like complete idiots and I've got no patience for information technology. And also I don't really similar a lot of people to be honest with yous, I'yard not really that kind of guy, and of a sudden everyone was in my face and I wasn't really into it. So I don't know what I would have done differently. It was then new and strange. The example I've used over and over is that if yous woke up on Mars ane morning time you'd take to take a while to adjust to the gravity only after a while you lot do. You run across, there was a certain affair that was my life up to 1993 and there was a certain affair that became my life after 1993 and it was very dissimilar and very sudden. Only at present that is my life, and it'due south been my life for ten years now, and then I'1000 quite well adjusted, I know how to deal with people, I know how to talk to people, I don't feel like they're attacking me I but experience like they're coming up to say they like the music almost of the fourth dimension.

On which note, yous post diary entries on your website, and talk to the fans virtually their bulletin board posts, and that dialogue has been a little prickly at times. Do you lot ever wonder near the wisdom of making yourself and so accessible?

Adam: No, because I think it's for that. These are a lot of songs about someone having troubles with the globe, someone who doesn't fit in with people, someone who doesn't get along with people and is solitary for that reason and I don't desire people to get comfortable with them and think… I'1000 non your dream come true, don't confuse me with your dream come up true, because that's not what I'm saying in those songs. The guy in those songs is not the greatest guy in the world all the time. Then what I want to exercise on my website updates is be me. I recall it's a really cool affair to give your fans is a real… it's actually me, information technology's non sanitised, I don't agree with everything they say, I'yard not their best friend all the time. Sometimes I tell them about how I feel and it's great, sometimes I tell them nearly how I feel and I'm furious, and if they talk crap I'll telephone call them on it and I don't have any problem with that really. And they do get really ornerry at times, simply any. I likewise remember that the internet makes one person seem like a thousand people and yous can accept three nutbags who decide that it is their duty in life to argue nearly everything because that's the kind of people they are. Information technology doesn't mean everybody's that way but I think I do terminate up in arguments with the nutbags more often than not.

Which of your piece of work are you most proud of and which if whatsoever of your work would you quietly sweep under the rug if yous could?

Adam: There's demos of ours from before 'August' that I don't think are then great but I'm non really that embarrassed by them because the truth is everybody has them, y'all not of a sudden born not bad as a musician. And I didn't release a lot of indie records with bands and so that people could hear my development upwards towards 'August'. So there's material out there which I don't think is so great only which some of our fans are completely enamoured with, which makes me think they accept no taste at all in music, which is borne out by some of the other bands they similar other than united states sometimes! But that'due south life. I don't love that material so I don't similar to hear people shouting 'play this' simply it doesn't really bother me that much – I'chiliad just not going to play it.

As far as what I'm proudest of, I really love 'Satellites', I just recall that album is incredible and it actually holds upwardly to me. On 'August' the songs concur upward, I actually honey every song on that tape merely some of the performances are unconversant and sort of youthful. Nosotros'd just been together a little while when we made that tape and nosotros didn't quite understand how to play some of those songs yet, they're so much better live today that'due south it'southward hard to love them in that form. All the other records I really dearest but probably 'Satellites' the most, probably just because it was such a bound forwards for us and the songs are and so gut-wrenching and beautiful and it has my best song on the record – I really remember 'A Long December' is the best thing I've ever written.

There's a solo piano version of that song that you lot did on a Dutch TV bear witness that I've seen which is quite remarkable…

Adam: That's actually a great story. What happened that twenty-four hours is that this cameraman kept walking right in front of me and putting the camera betwixt me and the audition and sticking the camera correct in my face up and I kept saying 'get out of my face' and he just wouldn't go out of my face. So finally, after two or three songs, I said 'you know what, I'm done' – information technology was my temperamental days – and I walked. I went upwards to the dressing room and they came upstairs afterwards and said 'is there any way y'all can come back down and play 'A Long Dec' and I said 'yous know what I'one thousand not going to play it, you desire to hear me play it bring a camera up here and I'll play it for you lot right at present'. Then they brought a photographic camera upwards and that was like… I was angry but I knew I was screwing upward. So I'd never played information technology like that before, it was then unlike, it was very anguished. Information technology'southward a great version, I love that version.

'I'chiliad unmarried and miserable and I've got four albums of bitching nigh it that I would offer equally proof.' Are you lot ever worried that if the right woman walked in through 1 door that your muse would walk out the other?

Adam: No, not really, because I've been in relationships and written lots of songs. I've written some of all-time songs… I wrote most of 'This Desert Life' when I was falling in honey. I read once that someone asked Van Morrison that and he said that's crap, if you're a crap writer then maybe, but if you're a good writer you write. And I can write, I can write an article for a book on movies, I tin write updates on our website and I can write songs. I can write songs for our records, I can write songs for 'Josie And The Pussycats'. I really think that it'southward what I do. I'm certain they would be different but there's and so much difficulty in relationships that I think there would be things about that likewise. It'due south just so hard. Just songs about falling in love are great songs, I was falling in beloved when I wrote 'A Long December' and that's the best vocal I ever wrote, really.

Finally, what are you listening to correct now, what are you hearing that's turning y'all on?

Adam: The band that's touring with us correct at present, this daughter Gemma Hayes. I've been listening to her anthology all the fourth dimension, especially at present that she's playing with the states. I got information technology about a year agone over here and I've been trying to get her to come on tour with us forever, it's such a beautiful record, she'south and then good, she actually knocks me out. I've listened to that a lot this week. What else… I've been listening to this Slade anthology that I got, I take to get into it more considering I've only heard information technology once, but it'south so adept. I had never really listened to Slade but it's a actually awesome tape. At that place are all these songs that other people covered that you didn't similar the covers of but they were actually actually not bad when Slade did them. The Slade version of 'Cum On feel The Noize' is a fantastic vocal and I just didn't go the versions that much. I just heard this album 'Fitzcarraldo' by the Frames, they're an Irish band. Gemma was talking about them a lot last week so I had a friend get me their tape, I was simply listening to them in the room and information technology'south really good.

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