The Chameleons' Mark Burgess Is Having The Time Of His Life

An interview with Indy CD & Vinyl's Andy Skinner

Mark Burgess is back touring with his legendary post-punk rock band The Chameleons, with an Indianapolis stop on Wednesday November 6th at Black Circle. This tour will feature a performance of their 1986 album "Strange Times" in its entirety, plus new songs and classic hits. In advance of the show, shop co-owner Andy Skinner sat down with the English-born rocker to glean how he is doing, what this tour is all about, and get some insight into playing songs that are almost 40 years old. As it turns out, The Chameleons' Mark Burgess is having the time of his life. [This interview has been edited for clarity]

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Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: The last time I saw you was on the beach in Huntington Beach, California in November, for Darker Waves Festival.

Mark Burgess: Right, yeah.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That was a good time. It was a thrill.

Mark Burgess: Good one, yeah we enjoyed that one.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Although I'm sure you didn't love playing in the middle of the day, right?

Mark Burgess: No, but I mean ordinarily no, ordinarily, you know, from past experience we wouldn't have done it, but it was such an amazing bill and it was such a great and generous offer that we couldn't really say no, and that and I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable festivals I've ever done.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That's fantastic. That's actually I wrote a question for you for later, actually, about some of your successes, some of the your favorite memories of of playing concerts, and that sounds like this was one of them. Now, is the reason you enjoyed that Festival because of the crowd, or was that because you saw friends, the location, or just a combination of everything?

Mark Burgess: No, it was the the festival itself, the way it was organized, the way it was put together, the efficiency of it. The generosity of of these people, and providing right little taxies to take us to and from each of the stages. So we caught some of the some of the big names that day. I mean, it was just a really relaxed. Those things can be very unrelaxed and very stressful. But that was enjoyable from that point of view. It's that ordinarily, festivals, they're not something that I enjoy for various reasons. It has mainly to do with the way that, you know, you kind of shunt it on and then shunt it off the stage so quickly. It's all very stressful energy kinda deal, and you don't really have time to take stock or anything, and your set is usually cut down to, like, 40 min or whatever. And it is all these different factors why I'm normally not into it, but that that one was really enjoyable to do.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Tell us about Texas, is this now where you live or a temporary accommodation?

Mark Burgess: No, I live here. I have been living here, but I'm not here a lot. I share the house with a couple of other people. I'm not here a lot. But this is really the closest thing I've got to home at the moment, really.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Is that because you're touring so much lately?

Mark Burgess: Yeah, mainly, cause I'm on the road a lot. And then we had 2 years of Covid where I couldn't get back in the the US, because at the time I was on an O-1 visa. Now I'm on a green card residency but at the time I was on an O-1, and they wouldn't let me back in for about 2 years. I couldn't get home, so that was ...interesting. They shut the gate 2 days before my flight.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That's just not fair! It's one thing not being home because of tour, it's another thing not going home because you can't get there. But as far as touring goes, you said you're not home a lot now because of shows. Are you finding yourself touring more now than you did back in the day?

Mark Burgess: Yes, absolutely. I mean last year. Well, I mean, last year was a slightly different, because we had some of the Covid over-spill and rescheduled gigs. You know things that we had to cancel prior, that we we fitted into last year. But even this year, I think this year we're on about 85, or 86 performances for the year. So yeah, we're touring way more than we did. That's for sure.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Well, how do you find it? I mean it's a great profession to have and you've had such an incredible career, but your fans must know: why do you still do it? I mean, obviously it takes a lot of effort. It's not easy.

Mark Burgess: I love it. I mean, I absolutely love it. It's the playing, performing live, and touring. It's the number one thing for me in what I do. I love recording, I mean, that's a whole different animal and I really do enjoy that as well, the writing and the recording, but the performing is where it's at for me. Always has been. I've always felt Chameleons were primarily a live band, and and I just love it."

Mark smiles ear to ear and continues, "And you know I have always had wanderlust, so it satisfies that, you know, even though you don't get spend a whole lot of time in place."

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Right, simple things like laundry and all is a luxury.

Mark Burgess: There are all those logistics you have to get your head round. But you know, by and large, the benefits outweigh the problems.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That's such an inspiring thing to hear and when you come through Indiana later this year with your tour, what now? I mean, especially with all the years that you've been touring, what can fans now in Indiana expect from a Chameleons show this fall?

Mark Burgess: Well, they're gonna get the full band for the first time, because I mean, you know, Danny, who's now a permanent member of the band, hasn't been here before... and, we've had to make compromises before with different lineups. We don't have to make compromises now in what we play. That's one thing that is different and better. I think the band sounding better than it's ever sounded, for me personally, I mean, I know I would say that. But it's not for me to judge. Really, it's gonna be the audience that makes that determination at the end of the day. But I feel that the band is stronger, better. We're gonna be playing the new single, which is, gonna be good, I think. Although... it is a performance tour. It is an album performance tour which, to be perfectly honest with you, in the past I've not really been a great fan of. I always thought that, like, album performances should be kind of one-off events, special kind of one-off things to do at all. I have done it before in Europe, at least primarily in Europe. "Strange Times," though, it's different, because it's a challenging record to do live. And now, what's that's what makes it fun to recreate that on a stage is a little bit more of a challenge than it would be say, for "Script of the Bridge" or "What Does Anything Mean," basically, or any of the other ones that we did.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Is that because of the instruments and the the way that you recorded the albums? How is "Strange Times" different to perform live versus the other records?

Mark Burgess: Yes, the way that we structured the album out, having some tracks flow into others, and it was a step forward for us in terms of songwriting, because it was, you know, we were starting to hit a more mature kind of level with our writing in songs like 'Tears' and 'Seriocity' and even something, you know, things like that we were starting to become a little bit more mature in our writing, which made it more interesting to perform right.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: I'm betting at that time in your life it was more difficult to take your creations from the studio to the stage?.

Mark Burgess: Yeah. And then there are some songs in there which we never did after recording the album like 'Time.' We never played "Childhood.' We never played 'Seriocity.' We never played them. So it's good to try to put our heads together, scratch our heads and say, "Well, how are we gonna do this live?" You know, because it's a different dynamic than make when you make an album. I always kind of had the feeling that you make it for somebody who's gonna listen to it on a pair of headphones, or it's a very intimate kind of thing, and you're taking them on a journey, because I'm old school, right? I still think in a vinyl record. So I'm like, start at the beginning, and you take them on the journey to the end, and that's the kind of dynamic, whereas a live show: it's bit of a coming together where you celebrate the music together, and you're pulling from all the different periods. And you're structuring a set that has a certain build of dynamic. The two are very different. So to actually perform an album in its entirety live? You know you're doing it in a way that it wasn't really meant to be done. "Strange Times," as I said, because of all of these nuances, makes it far more interesting. And I think the fact that we've never done this in America before is another thing, and we have done "Strange Times" performances in Europe, we actually recorded one, but it wasn't with Chameleons. It was with a bunch of friends. We would play as Chameleon's Vox, and we were just celebrating Chameleons music, you know. It wasn't really an actual band in the sense that we write together, and you know - now, we're all like, "if you take one component out of this band now I think we would seriously miss them," which I think we don't want to cut down what we could play, live, and stuff like that. So we don't have to make those compromises and you're getting the band as it actually sounds. We are going to be playing a record that was really popular here and was very well received. I think your show, it's gonna be good. I think if you if you like this music and you like this band, you're really gonna be blown away by it.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Well, that's fantastic. It's helpful that I do like your band, and I do like your music. So that's that's easy for start. You got one.

Mark Burgess: That gives me faith, that's helpful!

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: I do have a personal question about this, though it's something that I don't have any experience with whatsoever. And the question is: do you have any difficulty whatsoever connecting with songs that you may have written 20, 30, 40 years ago? Or is is all of this still so meaningful to you?

Mark Burgess: Yes, still relevant. In fact, I think it's more relevant now than it was when I did it. To be honest.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: How so?

Mark Burgess: Well, cause there were certain things I saw coming down the pipe when I was a kid, and I could sense where things were heading in terms of, like, our streets getting more violent, and I think they alienation is increasing, even though we had the advent of Internet. I think it's giving us the illusion of connectivity. But in actual fact it's made us feel more alienated. But really because of the methodology of communication, for example it's easier now to interact like this (Mark gestures to the screen implying the video chat we were on) than it is to go down to a club and hang out and meet people. And that way, you know. I mean, I'm sure that still happens. But you know it's it's just giving it completely a different style of communication that I think actually alienates more than it connects, even though it seems it seems like we can connect with anyone all over the world at the press of a button. It's the manner of how communications changed. So I saw it, and I saw that coming very much, I think, the desperate need to hang onto one's individuality has become more relevant now than it was then. That's something else. So coming mainly because of my own influences, my cultural influences were always things that championed the individual. To retain our individuality in the face of all this conformity. All of those things, I think, are more relevant now than they were then.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That that is really great to hear. I am going to be happy to report to our readers and to the fans coming to your show that you're not going through the motions, and that you're very much a sincere musician.

Mark Burgess: Oh my goodness yes. Go through the motions? Not at all. I couldn't do that, I couldn't do it. I mean. if this was, you know, if this was just a... I can't think of the word. If it was just a way of paying the bills, if I didn't feel it was as potent as it is, I couldn't perform it.

Mark Burgess: Perfunctory is the word I was looking for. There's nothing perfunctory about any of this. You know. Sometimes you get to a point, I mean with Chameleon's Vox, I got to that point, really, because I wanted to do something new, and the people around me love the Chameleons, and that's why they were doing it. That's why they were playing it and everything. But there weren't people that I felt could take us forward in terms of writing. It was purely a performance thing. Whereas now I've got, I believe, with Reg (Reg Smithies) coming back, especially obviously with Reg stepping back into the band, but also with Stephen (Stephen Rice) on guitar. Now Todd (Todd Demma) on drums, Danny (Danny Ashberry) on keyboards. They all bring something to it where we've been recording a new record. It comes out well, we actually, I don't know when it comes out, but we're gonna finish it in July. We're about halfway through it. And everyone's brought something to that, you know. That's that's made it what it is. And this is the first time that I felt in a real proper band. And so, since the original band disbanded, so...

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: It sounds refreshing.

Mark Burgess: Yeah, it does. Cause I was at the point where I think "you know what? I think I'm done with this. I really wanna do something new." And then Reg, coming back, gave it impetus. And then, as all the pieces fell into place, I'm like, "oh, no, I could make a new record with these guys, right? We we can make we could make a Chameleons album with these people."

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Never see I was writing correct. So you've.

Mark Burgess: No, I don't know, but I know I brought, because originally, having made that decision that we're going to do it right and start saying No, say, Oh, look! I was in a state of trepidation because I hadn't worked with Reg in such a long time. I haven't written with Reg in such a long time, although he's my oldest friend. You know we, he and I'd be friends for over 50 years, so he's my closest friend. But I thought it was going to be like pulling teeth. Really, I thought we were going to be a lot of sitting around the studio waiting for things to happen. I've written a lot of songs and ideas, but I couldn't visualize them fitting in to the Chameleons ethic. I couldn't really see it. And then what what started to do was like I'm gonna say, "I'm gonna I play you something that I've done," and they go like, "oh, fuck! We love it," you know, and they'd all put their input in and elevate it way beyond what it was you know, because in some cases I wasn't even sure how to execute this. I knew there was a good song in there, but I didn't know how to execute it. And it was the input from everybody else that got us to a point where I'm like, "wow, this is right. Now, man, this is really happening, you know."

And so the album came very quickly. I mean, within the first few weeks of recording. I think we had an albums worth of material that we're still sifting through. We're gonna have more material than we need by the time we're finished, and every time we complete an arrangement, I mean, not complete the recording in full, but we get the arrangement down. We can hear it when we kind of look each other and go, "this is really special! Actually, this is something really special happening." And that vibe has gone through everything that we're putting together. And we're all really, you know, we're excited by what we're doing. And I think that's always been the benchmark on all of our records was that we had to be excited by it, and if we were excited about it, we hope people like it, but we don't really care whether they do or they don't to be like. We hope they do. But it's not like something that we're anxious about, you know, cause if we ourselves are happy with it, if we think it's great, then that's it. It's a Chameleons record. Take it or leave it, you know.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That actually answers the question I was going to ask you about how the new writing was gonna square with the older songs, both for you and for the fans, but from the sounds of it it what I'm what I'm gleaning is that you, as a group, have found that magic.

Mark Burgess: Yes, I believe we have.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Squared the old songs with the new?

Mark Burgess: Well we have to play legacy stuff, right? Obviously we are going to play legacy stuff. But what was very conscious in my mind was that if we were going to do a new record, I didn't want to do it with a guitar player's sound who'd left the band 20 years ago, right? I didn't want to take somebody else's guitar sound, even though it helped forge our sound, I didn't want that and that kind of made me think, "well, what is it going to sound like then?" Because it was Dave's (former Chameleons guitar player Dave Fielding) input was so huge he was massively important. But he's not, you know, he hasn't been in the band for 20 years, so I didn't want to steal his guitar sound. Do you know what I mean?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Well, you've got that spark back now. So you got it. That's a really rare thing to find once, even twice, but to continue to find this magic multiple times in your career is very lucky.

Mark Burgess: Found it. Yeah, we got it. We we actually did get it, and it's an interesting way that we did it because it started with 2 nights that we were playing at the Ritz last Christmas, where we were doing a history of the Chameleons over 2 nights. So I'm like, okay, well, let's take some of the unfinished stuff that we did right the very beginning and do that as a beginning, as as a starting point to take us through. You know, feel "In Shreds," "Script of the Bridge," et cetera. So we did that and we were playing them, we're arranging them and and kind of adding things to it, and you know, finishing them. And then he was going "Why did we not play these?" We can't. Why did we throw this stuff away, or why didn't we develop it, or why didn't we do it? So I said, "well, we should record it." And I'm thinking to myself, was "that'll get us started" because I'm still at this point, thinking it's gonna be a difficult process getting new material. So rather than sitting around going into an expensive studio you don't start sitting around starting from scratch. This music, it'll get us up off the ground and running if we rework, and then record these reworked legacy songs with this band. And then so we did that. And the results were like, "Wow! This is actually looking really good. This is like the best recorded version of 'The Fan And The Bellows' I've ever heard," right? It's like, fresh and it's exciting, and it doesn't sound like it was written 40 years ago, or whatever. So then, that impetus that we got so excited by that, we carried that on into the writing and the developing of the new material. So now it seems like in my mind, it seemed like what we did is we went back in time right to the very root of the band, you know, before we'd even got our Peel Session right? We went back to that point and worked on those things that we'd initially thrown away when we went on to do the Peel Session. And you know the Peel Session took us off in that direction, and it was all, really, you know, a great experience when my life changed immediately, and all that stuff. And we got a name and all that. But now what we've done is we've gone to that point instead of going that way we've gone. Let's go. Let's try. Let's go this way. Right? Let's go this way, and we've gone off on the tangent almost. It's like we've rediscovered ourselves as we were in the beginning, and it's obviously The Chameleons, I mean.

We we test drove a new song at an acoustic gig a while back. And that's one of the big songs off the record, because we were excited to hear how people would react. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive in all of that, hearing this and going "Yep. That's the chameleons, all right."

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That's awesome. It sounds very rewarding.

Mark Burgess: Yeah, it's rewarding. We run on our own faith, you know. It gives us a lot of positive energy to really believe in. You know, it's not just us. Right? It's not just us. It's them as well. So you know, we're really excited to sit here. See how it's going to be received.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: So moving this interview now to the show that's coming here where I live in Indiana. What do you know about Indiana?

Mark Burgess: So... very little.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: So you you wrote a song 20 years ago called Indiana - Why call it Indiana?

Mark Burgess: Well it's because the original version of it was on an acoustic album called 'Strip,' and the song, it was called 'Indian.' John wasn't on it because he couldn't be present at that session, right? He had other commitments, and he couldn't be present. So when we came to do the album, I wanted him to be involved in it, and I wanted him to have a piece of it, right, because it kind of almost made 'Strip' the demo for the album version. So just to differentiate between that version of the song the one that was called 'Indian,' I called the new version for the album 'Indiana,' so that when we did the press and the credits he'd get a shake of it.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Do you have any experience here? Do you know if you've been to Indiana.

Mark Burgess: No, I don't think I have!

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Well, welcome. We'll see you in November.

Mark Burgess: I don't think I've ever been through Indianapolis, or I might have been through it, but I don't think I've ever played there, or anything. Trying to recall it, but I don't recall that we we have. What's the capital of Indiana?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Indianapolis. Yeah.

Mark Burgess: Yeah, I'm sure that we didn't play that. I think this is the first time, cause I was getting mixed up with Minneapolis, which we have. But no, I don't think we've been through there before, although I know that the character Roy Neary, in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, lived there, and I thought that scene was a real road in Indianapolis, and I've been trying to find it. But of course it wasn't a real road, it was a sound stage actually, just up the road in Mobile Alabama is was where it was. But I actually wanted to find that road. I thought it was a real road in Indiana, but it's not.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Well, let's try something else then. If we're going through memories, and you don't remember ever coming to Indiana, I got one for you. I want a story then. What is your best memory, or your favorite memory of playing a show in your career?

Mark Burgess: My God! Oh, my God!

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: If you if you can pick.

Mark Burgess: Berlin, 1983.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: And what happened in Berlin in 1983?

Mark Burgess: It was the first time I ever went there, and it was the first time I got a full understanding of what it was, because I had, you know, I'm ashamed to say, even though I did history, I'm ashamed to say that I had this idea that East and West Germany was exactly that that the Rhine divided the two.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Bahahaha.

Mark Burgess: Turns out it wasn't like that at all. It was West Berlin, basically an island right? A spot, an island right in the middle of, I want to say Soviet territory, because I mean total sense of purposes. That's what it was. But going through the corridor and through Checkpoint Charlie, and getting all of that. Such stuff was extremely interesting but extremely stressful. Yeah, it was a very stressful experience.

So we get to the venue, and I'm immediately I'm met by a lady in a look to be in a early forties. She was called Monica, and she ran the venue. She's the promoter, And she ran the venue, and she immediately met me with a silver cigarette case, and she opened it, and in there, were these like, hand-rolled joints with her initials on them. Right? And she gave me one. She she gave one to me, and is the best fucking weed I've ever smoked in my life, right?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: So you go to Berlin in the 1980s. And after all that stress of getting there and being in that vibe, you find out Berlin weed was the way to go?

Mark Burgess: Yeah. Go figure, and then, get this, I go and see the roster of the people that are playing, and I'm looking at the next one at this venue and I see Birthday Party, right? And I go, "Oh, wow! Birthday Party!" And right then I see The Fall on the list, so I'll cut The Fall coming out right, one of the favorite bands of mine, right? And then I look further, and I see Birthday Party again, and then I see them on the flyer again, and I see Birthday Party again right the way through the calendar. I'm like. "these guys can't fucking stay away from this place," right? So that sets me up. I'm like, "this is gonna be great," right? And then I start meeting people arriving a little early. They've got dressing room access, I don't know why, and there was this young lady - a beautiful girl, beautiful leather jacket on, and she's looking at the where all our rider food is, right? We got all this fresh fruit and cheese and all this garbage, and it's all laid out on the table, and she's looking at it, and I'm standing there helping myself. So she goes, "Do you mind if I have some grapes?" And I say, "Yes, please help yourself. She she takes a sprig of grapes, and she holds it in front of a jacket, and this little head comes out from under a jacket, and she's got a little rat underneath. She's got a pet rat with her, and the pet rat starts eating the grapes. And I'm like, "whoa, okay, that's unusual," right? And and then I learned that it's actually a thing at that time in Berlin, where all these, like, trendy people are all coming in and they've all got pet rats with them. And they carry them, and they go around, and they take them to gigs and stuff. That was completely new. And then we come to the show itself, which is probably, I personally think, one of the best shows we ever played. And we were so into it, and so up and so excited that we started writing as we we wrote a song on stage we we had this idea. It was half an idea. Dave really wanted to do it. And we're so high on everything from the whole day, the whole night, and everything, and we go, "Yeah, okay." And I'm just making shit up on the microphone, and we wrote a song.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Just, extemporaneously? Right in the middle of a set?

Mark Burgess: Yeah, we just spontaneously wrote a song, and then we came off the stage and we talked to our sound engineer. Steve, our sound man, he says, "did you enjoy that?" I said, "Oh, wow, so good! "Like, I wish we'd taped it!" He goes, "I did." Steve taped the whole thing, and it came out, actually, as a live album originally called 'Aufführung in Berlin.'

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: What a fantastic story, just fantastic. What a heads-up move from Steve to get that whole set including the extemporaneous track. And then, did you properly record that song that you did on stage? Did that become something?

Mark Burgess: Yeah, we we we did recorded it for the second album. It's called "One Flesh."

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Fabulous. I'm so glad to know that story. I have one last group of questions for you, based on the fact we own and run a record store. So actually, we have questions about your record collection. Do you collect records?

Mark Burgess: Yes, I I do, although half of them vanished in the divorce. But yeah, I've I've still managed to keep them.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Hopefully, not the good half.

Mark Burgess: Some of the good ones went, I'm afraid. But yeah, I mean, I've you know. Yeah, I absolutely love vinyl, I love the format. It's almost a fetish. Actually, to be quite honest with you, it's everything about that format and the the artwork, the the reading of the stuff when you're listening to it. The putting on the record on the terms of the flipping it over. Everything involved with that format has never been better, in my view, by any of the improvements in technology or anything. I'm not in an audiophile. My deck is a very average deck. I don't really care the the digital one sounds. I don't care about that really. Digital masters, though I mean, when I first bought the Beatles catalog on CD, when it first happened, I did appreciate everything George might have done on that to make it sound like that. I mean, I really did but unless you have that level of focus on preparing it for CD. I think it suffers to be honest.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Do you have a habit of shopping at record stores? Do you go record shopping?

Mark Burgess: Can't walk in one, because if I walk in one I'm gonna spend money!

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Good!

Mark Burgess: And then figure out how I'm gonna get them home. Happened to me in China. I mean, there was a time I went, and I was in a record store in in Beijing and like, truly you would never have found it, that shop. But I went to this place, it was almost like a pawn shop, and there was this secrecy of it, but even though there were records I knew full well I could probably find in a, you know, in a good shop back home. Well, I don't care. Give me that one and that one and that one. Can I get a discount? Yeah, I must have spent about 150 bucks, and I'm like a sherpa carrying them out. And then I've got to get them safely on the plane and back, and all that business.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Riding in your coach seat on the plane with them on your lap.

Mark Burgess: I can't walk into the record shop without buying, so I've got to buy when I'm there or avoid it entirely. I've got to buy something something, you know. I can't not do it.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: What have you been listening to lately?

Mark Burgess: What have I been listening to lately? I've been listening to a project that's on a friend's vinyl label in Berlin. They're called Spitmask. It's very aggressive and quite edgy. And it's, you know, it's sonic. It's a sonic experience that we say, but that's what I'm listening to right now, what I've have been listening to lately. I haven't managed to catch them live yet I mean my my partner lives in Berlin. She actually went out, and she's seen them a few times. I'm looking forward to seeing them because they're you know they're quite provocative, shall we say.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Thank you for that. I'm gonna check them out. Last question: do you have any recommendations you would want to pass on to our readers, many of whom are musicians themselves?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Whether it's a record, a movie, or a book, something that you love, that you feel might inspire someone else.

Mark Burgess: Wow!

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Yeah. The Mark Burgess recommendation.

Mark Burgess: Okay, so just give me a second (tips furiously on his smartphone)... Ok, let's start with music. I love Broken Bells. Do you know them?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: You bet.

Mark Burgess: Fucking love that band. I love a lot of their records.

Mark Burgess: Damn. I'm having trouble on the spot like this.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: That's okay, maybe it will help to explain here's how I got this question. So, in the 90s every year Rolling Stone magazine would put out their 'college issue.' And as part of that college issue, they had little sidebars where they would interview very quickly, interview famous people of all stripes. And they would ask these famous people, you know, if you're gonna talk to a college student - someone who's about to be graduated from college, what is the one book, the one movie, and the one record that you feel would help complete their education, beyond their studies. I always loved that idea of of just telling somebody in my life, "you really gotta do this. Wonder if you've ever heard this record, boy. This will help complete your life, your human education." And so, Mark, if you have one, a record or a movie or a book that you would recommend. What would that be?

Mark Burgess: Well, my music is my first thing, but there are so many records in my life that I've done that I couldn't name one. Do you know what I mean?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: I perfectly understand.

Mark Burgess: I know. I know that I almost stopped wanting to be a singer when I heard (Jeff Buckley's) "Grace," because I just thought, it's just like, what is the point? What is the point of even going on after this guy, just because? This guy is actually just come from heaven, wherever heaven is, and done this, and this is nobody. No, I'm I can't take anybody where this man takes people, you know? But then again, there's been so many records that have done that to me. Really.

Books wise, putting it in the context that you just did, I would recommend 'The Tao Of Physics' by Fritjof Capra. That really helped me look at the reality of the world in a completely different way, because it meant that I didn't have to be a physics major to get glimpses and insights into how reality works. The Buddhists. The Taoists and the Buddhists were able to do it, because when you put their stories side by side with what modern physics is taking us, they're parallel, they are saying the same things, but by completely different methodology. So I would say definitely, try and pick up a copy of The Tao Of Physics. Jesus.

All right, now a movie... another Capra. I would say for me personally, "It's A Wonderful Life," by Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart that film. If you ever were, if you ever at a situation in your life where you think I wish I'd never been born, like things would be better if I had never been born. If I ended my life, everything ending up in tears because it really touches you. I've become welling up now just thinking about it. It teaches you that you can positively influence the world just by walking through the world just just by walking through it. You don't even realize the impact that you have on somebody, and you might not even remember the incident that did it, that you've saved somebody without even realizing that you've done it. And if you take you out of that equation, and you were able to see what might have happened in that situation had you not been there to intervene. Not being there to to interact with it would have been very, very different, in a negative way. So that is, that to me is one of the most profound movies that I've ever seen, and I want I make a point of watching it every year.

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: Mark Burgess. That is, that is righteous. Thank you for that. Thank you for your inspiration. And and I really look forward to you playing for the first time in Indie this November. I really appreciate your time.

Mark Burgess: Thank you. Thank you very much. Maybe I could come around the shop when I come through?

Andy Skinner / Indy CD & Vinyl: We would love it!

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