Guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford was a member of a group called The Anon when he and fellow Anon guitarist Anthony Phillips collaborated
with Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and drummer Chris Stewart (then members of
The Garden Wall) on six songs. Those songs were sent to BBC DJ David
Jacobs and singer/songwriter Jonathan King. The latter came up with the
name "GENESIS" and launched one of the world's most versatile and
enduring bands.
MP: The band's been together for about 25 years. Are there any plans to acknowledge this?
MR: I think we'll slip on by, actually. We haven't actually agreed when we start from, so we'll never actually get it together. The first album was '68 or '69, and I was writing with Tony and Peter when I was 16, which is beyond 25 years. I think it's kind of nice not to do a song and dance about it. I'd rather just come out and the next thing you hear is another good album in a few years' time.
MP: I understand the past three or four albums were written in the studio, with no prepared material at all.
MR: I think it works well because, in the past, the bulk of the strong stuff has been group written. And that's probably no coincidence, because all that stuff, everyone is kind of in it. The feel enthusiastic for all those bits, really, whereas when you're working on someone's bit or song, sometimes it's great, but sometimes you don't all probably feel as strongly. And I think because we do so much stuff separate from each other, it's nice to keep Genesis for what we do, which is writing together.
MP: Has the band become more relaxed?
MR: Yeah. I think when we started off we were keen to prove how brilliant we were in those days. You've got a lot to prove. Later on, you learn more about you craft. You realize that if a particular song requires someone to play one note the whole way through, that's what's good and that's what you'll play. You learn to arrange and write for the bit, not for anything else.
MP: Most of the songs on WE CAN'T DANCE are a little bit longer than the conventional three or four minute pop song. Has the CD opened up your writing?
MR: Well, not really. I'd say 10% of our songs are under five minutes. I find it very hard to write under five minutes. To me, seven minutes is quite a short song. That's the way we work. It's not even as if longer is better. Some of the Beatles' songs are about three minutes and they're fantastic. We've done short songs; I mean, a short song for us is really four minutes. An awful lot of what we do tends to lend itself to being extended a bit.
MP: Some of those extended pieces ended up on the second live album. Why did you release two?
MR: Well, basically, the two albums are the live show. We tried to make it one, but we couldn't seem to make it work. It meant losing quite a lot of material, especially some of the old stuff, like an old 20-minute medley which wouldn't fit onto one CD. Also, probably more important than that, what works on stage over 2-1/2 hours, which is alternating with short and long songs and building the set up and down, didn't work on record. It felt kind of weird, you know, two or three short songs and the two or three 15- or 10-minute songs. And then we had the idea to split it up and sort of keep a different mood for different albums and it seemed to work straight away when we did that.
MP: You mentioned the old medley earlier. How did you choose the songs for that?
MR: We happened to know that last time out some of the songs in the medley were due for retirement. We just got a whole list up. We had a lot more we tried a bit and you just kind of work it till it seems to fit. To be honest, this medley is better than the last couple, I think. I couldn't say why. We just got lucky. We managed to get some of those jams to work and the combination of bits made a strong twenty minutes.
MP: What do you try to get across to your fans in your concerts?
MR: To be honest, having had a good time. Just to have enjoyed the music, enjoyed themselves, or enjoyed the show. I don't care which area they enjoy. Some people go for just the music and don't even see the production or the lights. To be taken away from their lives a little bit.
MP: Do you enjoy making videos?
MR: Yeah, we do. I make four or five videos ever year or two, so it's not a large part of my life. What is hard is that sometimes you've got a song that you really can't do much with. That's just the way it is and you shouldn't do anything more than just do a simple version of the song. Luckily, this album lent itself to some quite funny videos.
MP: Phil [Collins] seems to be the "star." How has the rest of the band reacted to his name being almost synonymous with Genesis?
MR: Well, not too badly, really. People identify with the frontman. That's what a frontman is, I think. But I think it's a superficial thing. I think when you listen to the music, the differences are there, but it's the same voice and it's a very strong image. When people comment along those lines, they haven't really thought about it, and when you talk to them about it and discuss things, they kind of end up saying, "Well, I see what you mean, actually."
MP: On a TV special, you played the main riff of "I Can't Dance" acoustically. Are there plans to appear on MTV UNPLUGGED?
MR: I don't think so, no. They wanted us to do it just as we were rehearsing for the tour, and it really wasn't possible. Maybe I'm wrong to think this because the whole point of the program is to rearrange songs so they work in that mode, but an awful lot of what we do is more sonic than some of those things. I worry that if we did it, we'd end up biasing the set we did toward things like "That's All" and show only one side of our music. What I like about it is the idea that you do something different, but there are no plans.
MP: Are there plans for another Mike & The Mechanics album?
MR: Yeah. Funnily enough, I've been doing some writing for the last couple of months for Mike and the Mechanics. We're doing an album in the autumn, I think. I'm due some time off. I plan to take some of the summer off, but I love writing. I can't stop writing, really.
