| Am I Alone in This? Bill Bottrell in the January 2001 New Settler |
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tragedies. But then we took it more serious, put the cabaret thing together - added on a bass player and drummer from San Francisco (who are now no longer with us: their ambitions got bigger than ours.) We tried to maintain the origins throughout. We're preaching heavy things, and I realized awhile back that sometimes the rhythm section doesn't even know what I'm singing about. Because there are so many other layers of stoking there - the happiness, the dancing, the celebration. Your son's mother left you after his death . . . BILL: Yes. Blames you, I imagine. . . Did you have a day where you were at least able to put a veil on that past, so recent and painful. That day you sat |
at a kitchen table and birthed the Stokemen while in your bedroom, a child sought its way into the world? BILL: It was the beginning of a wonderful eight months of building and creating the likes of which I'd never felt before. And it was the beginning of a new persona for me - or an old one I'd always been hiding. So, the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain: it does fit you. BILL: It's true. And it is a beautiful way to put it. How did you alter the old Albion School? Transform it from a flophouse to an abode that is like walking into an Asian experience. BILL: And all I did was clean it up and |