Interviews

 Radio interview (Radio 3, Poland)
September 1998

Exclusive on the net at Brian May World : The May-keteers Homepage


Question 1: Could you compare your latest album "Another world" to the previous one "Back to the light"?

Brian May: (laughs) Oh yes, I think it´s better and more in touch with the world.
 

Question 2: Are you pleased with it?

Brian May: Yes, I am pleased with it. It took a very long time and I was about to put an album out probably two years ago, but I waited until it´s really good enough to make the album that I wanted. It is more represantative of my own journey and has someting to say. I think I would feel bad if I went on the road again and I didn´t have something to say that I thought that is important.
 

Question 3: Can you say something about Cozy Powell?

Brian May:  He was something wonderful, really a legend and something of a hero to me. He became a very close friend. If he walked into a room he would bring the spirit of the whole place up always and suddenly everything seems like it´s fun again. A great personality and somebody wonderful being direct with. I could always throw any suggestions and he said "yes, yes...I´m gonna try it". With a lot of musicians it´s difficult to do that, you know?  Cozy was always open and always positive.
 

Question 4: Are there songs on the album, which have something to do with Queen?

Brian May: On the whole no. There are few things, which lead across. In fact there is one song on the album "Why don´t we try again" and that is something quite personal for me from a few years ago, and I didn´t feel it was right for a Queen-album so I saved it. And  there was a moment towards which I  thought "Yes, this is good for this time".
 

Question 5: Do you have any plans for the future concerning your music?

Brian May: Well, I guess I follow where the road leads. Everything is changing, that´s for sure, you know?  Nothing is ever the same and I have the same feelings about music as I did in the old days but I have a different world, a different life and new feelings every day, so I guess I follow the road and I don´t know where it´s going, really.
 

Question 6: Is it hard recording your own albums?

Brian May: Well I think making the "Back to the light" album was the most difficult thing I ever did and it was a big mountain to climb, because it had to be the right quality after all those years with Queen. I had great people to intercat with, so making the fisrt album required the greatest strength, I suppose. That was a milestone for me.
This one I thought would be easy, but it wasn´t. I had faith usually, I had faith that I could get to the point where it would be what I wanted.
 

Question 7:  Aren´t you afraid that the music is nowadays days more and more computerized? How do you feel in this strange, divided world of music?

Brian May: Yeah, on the whole I don´t like it. For me it´s something I have to use very sparingly. Through it you can see things very graphically, which is very good, but in the end...music, which moves you, which is what I´m about, it has to be human beings.
For me it has to be. You know, I can program drums really well (laughs), I tried to do it for a long time, but then when a real drummer comes in, especially Cozy on this album, something else happens. It becomes a human thing and you can feel the force and the emotions and there´s nothing like that. Computers will never do that.
 

Question 8:  Tell me please: What´s going on with other musicians from Queen? I know that Roger Taylor has recorded a new album, "Electric fire".

Brian May: Yes, that´s right and John is very quite and mysterious.He´s doing things with his children. He has 6 children, so life is quite different for him, and he seems to be happy with that.
 

Question 9: Do you still meet them?

Brian May: Yes, we meet for fun and we´re good friends.
 

Question 10: Do you have any plans to work with Roger and John?

Brian May: No, and I think at the moment we don´t think about it too much. For me it´s healthy to move away and to move on and find new ways. I really don´t  get up and think about Queen in the morning. I get up and think what I´m doing and I like it, and I feel that there are new places to go (laughs).
 

Question 11: There is a rumour that George Michael was going to join you and that you would play together as Queen. Why didn´t it happen?

Brian May: It´s not possible, because it would never be the same. It was a great moment, we had a wonderful career, but without Freddie it´s not Queen.
 

Question 12: Will you also play Queen songs on tour?

Brian May: I will play stuff from the new album, some Queen-things...some of them are quite unusal. I´ve tried to find things which have not been played before. We do a little collection of Queen-tunes. I feel very easy about it. For the first time I was very concerned that I didn´t want to play Queen songs. Now I feel like I´m seperated, so I don´t mind playing Queen things, so I feel free to play anything from any time period really.