The sharp eye of XTC gets fuzzy. READ: Fuzzy Warbles, The Excerpts VISIT: Andy Partridge's Ape House SHOP: Morphizm Marketplace STUDY UP: Wikipedia: XTC AllMusic: XTC

[by Scott Thill]

For the last few decades, XTC has delivered some of the most exquisitely crafted, cerebral pop music on Earth. And the man behind the band's prodigious influence and its most memorable songs -- from "Sense Working Overtimel" to "Dear God" and beyond -- is none other than the engaging Andy Partridge. Other than being a songcraft wiz, he's also a riotous interview, and a self-described "packaging whore" to boot! And did I mention generous? He's mashed more or less everything he's ever made into the multi-volume compilation Fuzzy Warbles, and even let Morphizm publish excerpts of the liner notes, which are hyperlinked below, so read it and weep (with laughter).

All of it adds up two compelling pieces on Partridge , XTC, Warbles, the proliferation of home tech, why he has to sleep nightly in a Jacques Cousteau fantasyland and why, most importantly, God is paying him back in pain for "Dear God." Dive, suckers!

Morphizm: Jesus, you are one productive man. Fuzzy Warbles is the size of America's national debt. To what do you attribute your stream of
productivity?
Andy Partridge: I guess looked at in one big lump the whole Warbles set looks gigantic, but you have to remember that those recordings stretch back as far as 1978, right through to today. So they were captured over a long timespan (you do the math). If I'd written and recorded them over six months then yeah, that would be something. Still, it feels great to hold the mass of them in my hand. I am so proud of that box artwork, best I've ever been involved in. It came out just as I hoped it would when I started issuing the Warbles a few years ago. I'm a real packaging whore. I love every aspect of it.

Morphizm: What does Fuzzy Warbles say about your longevity, especially now that there are so many XTC pretenders around?
Andy Partridge: The XTC pretenders, well, they're on their own little journey. They're chugging through a place I visited in the late '70s. I wouldn't want to go back there myself. I've done that. But to so many younger bands, it feels like a new place, a new idea. I don't begrudge them anything; it's an age thing. The older you get, the more easily bored you become.You've done it all and been everywhere. But if younger kids want to go on the same trip using my ticket...I'm OK with that. I don't need it anymore.

Morphizm: How are you feeling? Between the injuries and tinnitus, one imagines working this much with music can be painful as hell. Is there indeed a fine line between pleasure and pain for you nowadays?
Andy Partridge: Health has been shit, yeah, but it only makes me more optimistic. The broken ring finger tendon has now pretty much healed all its going to, and I'm playing again. I do have some complications with the pinky next to it, but hopefully some injections might sort it out. As for the tinnitus trauma, I've been spending every morning for the last few months sitting in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber,which is helping. I get to live out my Jacque Cousteau fantasies in a fake kind of diving bell. During the time I haven't been able to play, I've had my shed re-wired and re-jigged so hopefully the next lot of recordings that seep out will be better quality. It just seems weird that to the two big injuries have been with my music-making organs, my hands and ears. Maybe my song "Dear God" pissed him off. 

Morphizm: How has the creative process, and the way technology can capture or dilute it, changed in the the years since you first messed around with home recording?
Andy Partridge: Home recording has changed out of all recognition. It's much easier to get a better quality recording -- perhaps I should say different quality -- than it was even ten years ago. But too many people still make the mistake that better gear means better songs, and that is so wrong. You can't buy better songwriting; that still takes time. Because I'm a packaging slut, the net and all its downloading delights leave me cold. How I still mourn the passing of the widescreen gatefold vinyl sleeve. You just can't challenge the cardboard, the colours, the heft and smell of the plastic, the paper bags, inserts, extras.

Morphizm: What about iPods?
Andy Partridge: iPods are OK, but records are for much more than just listening to. Besides the net means that everything is so easy and empty. Click...was that it? You can't whack hanging about in a record store with your mates, leafing through the racks, flirting with a beautiful assistant, eyeing sleeve art, communally listening, having a vocal opinion and sharing. The net makes us all a nation of Billy No-Mates.

Morphizm: So the internet has just made everything suck more, is what you're saying.
Andy Partridge: Is there any chance we can do the rest of the questions over the phone? I'm the world's slowest typist. It's taken me two hours to get this far.

October 4, 2006