On Beulah Land

“On Jackie’s Strength I have two unreleased songs that are coming out as part of the CD, as part of the “Jackie” package. Obviously Jackie is one, and Never Seen Blue, and the third track is called Beulah Land. These two songs were also written for Boys for Pele and recorded for it but weren’t right, so I held them, and now they feel current; they feel like their time is now.”

"Cooling is a song that was written for Boys for Pele and it didn’t really fit in the album, so it came out as a B-side for Spark in England; you can get it as an import. And I play it a lot now; I tried to put it on this record but it didn’t really fit.”

“I wish she had been on Pele, cause I think it would have been kinda cool for a volcano to say, This is cooling faster than I can”

"This is a b-side that should have made Boys for Pele and didn't and then probably should have made choirgirl and didn't. That usually happens with b-sides."

"I can't say that! The other songs are hearing me say this. They're zooming in from all over the planet, wherever they are. Leather was down in Costa Rica. And now she's here right in my face saying "If you say a different song... there'll be no more high heel for you, girl!" Do I have to answer that? I know what I'll do, I'll take a favourite b-side, because the album girls get a little sensitive. For a favourite B-side it would be between Cooling and Never Seen Blue."

"There are loads of songs that won't be on the album. I've cut 35 tracks and it's been a bit brutal. But, it's become fairly obvious to me what this album is and isn't. It's coming down between two songs to complete the album song order. The guys even have bets on it in the studio, meaning which one will make it. Mark wants one, the Dutch guys want another, and I'm the one who has to decide. Mark has fought for a B-side to get on the record, and it's pretty serious. I'm saving yet another for a film, because I think it will work better elsewhere. Her name is Cooling, and she isn't gonna be heard right now."

“So I was, we were in Cornwall, we were hanging out, a bunch of us and the great thing is we always had this saying that ‘it’s six o’clock in the world somewhere’ and that means you can have a drink. You know, when you think it’s too early to drink and we don’t drink that much. That depends on who we’re comparing ourselves to. But we have a European um way we look at things. It’s not like we never kind of go to work. I can’t play the piano if I’m doing anything ‘cause I can’t find it, for one thing. And then once I’m sitting on the stool I still can’t find it. So, there was a time though when we would decide it was six o’clock and it was like nine-thirty in the morning and one time we were having this moment and my friend Tam was telling me a story about a girl named Betsy Brown who used to torture her and come up to her.. She does this thing, she used to come up to me and go, ‘Hi, I’m Betsy Brown, do you do judo? I do judo.’ And I went into the studio and this kind of happened...”

"This is on the live album, it never made any of the albums, this one, and um, she kinda made her way on in the last minute on the live album."

“The whole thing about Siren was I was asked to um, do this music to this film, Great Expectations. And um, when I saw the rough cut of the movie it was a bit of a different thing than it ended up to be. But point is, the scene that they asked me to do, um, when I first saw it, I was on the water and my concept of his character um, who was Ethan Hawke playing the part of -- they call it Finn in the movie. But it's Pip, right? That’s the correct Great Expectations person. Anyway, I felt like those guys were on a boat fishing. And uh, they had had this grunge music there -- being a manly kind of thing and I’m like, screw that, that’s ridiculous. If you’re gonna do a manly thing on the water, go Polynesian, 800 years ago. Go into the sirens and do it correctly. I mean the Miller time and all the baited worms all this stuff from the great tackle shop -- blow that. Go and find the sirens, make your sacrifice, cut off a toe, do what you're supposed to. Be good guys. So I decided that it would make his character a bit more enriching if um, there was this mythological element of the sea creatures.”

"When they gave me this project, I felt really challenged. I tried to contribute something that I thought would add a different subtext to the scene and give Ethan Hawke's character a different angle. 'Siren' evokes the spirit of the ocean and of a female presence...a primal, primitive sense."

"There's a romance that's happening between her voice and his character. A lot in this film, I become the voice and...as he's a little boy I'm the voice in his head. And so as he gets older, I'm still the voice in his head. Kind of reminding him what his feelings are."

"...and I would have never written this piece had I not seen the picture."

"The pictures inspired me, this film inspired me in a huge way. I mean it gave me chills when I saw it. Real chills. And touched a place in my heart and I...I knew that I wanted to be a part of it."

"Well I've been making Bloody Marys for the crew because you have to just I do think when you do get to the music side of things even though people are working really long hours and working really really intently because things have to be so accurate. There isn't the same kind of freedom. When I'm doing an album for myself I have so much freedom. You're designing songs ya know to picture and it has to work. I mean my god I've seen Ethan Hawke from every angle you can possibly imagine going, 'ooookay Ethan, ya know, seen that side of you' and because they gave me the scene to do while he's fishing. I didn't get to do the scene while Gwyneth Paltrow ya know strips. I don't get that scene."

"There's a scene where the little kids kiss right and their tongues touch and there's this moment where your heart just goes OH god and I think that if that doesn't touch a place in people. People talk about being affected and when those kids touch their tongues ya know it's as hard core as Pulp Fiction to me."

"I didn't enjoy doing Great Expectations in the end because it got politically weird and people weren't forthright anymore. And, you have to understand something, having a studio tell me what to do after we'd made an agreement isn't what I considered having integrity."