transcript of the interview made with Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione on 1 June 2006 in Milan at the only Italian date of the tour for Yes Virginia.
G: You are back for the second time in Europe and this will be one of the last date before returning to the United States for the tour with Panic! at the Disco. I would ask you the impression you had from the European public than the American one you are working on more often.
B: Fantastic, this tour is proving to be strong when the support of the people here. We did some memorable date in England at the beginning of this tour, then France, Germany, Austria and so on ... supported us in an incredible way, it heats this reception. We realized the first time we played, people were enthusiastic and encouraged us about everything we expected, incredible.
G: Recently in Berlin have been exhibited in installations based on photos taken by German artist to your band, you've also mentioned Amanda you anywhere. It made me go back to your mind after the youth in Europe and particularly in Germany, your next job with the Shadowbox Collective as a street, the famous Eight Foot Bride of Boston.
European culture has a strong historical roots in our society and its signs are present in the music of Dolls, your German experience has transformed the way you make art or was already well established when you get here?
A: It 's really an interesting question. I think the most important thing is not the fact that I came here in Europe and has heard his music, which I will have been affected. More than anything I have been personally affected by the experience of leaving home, a comfortable life for the first time in my life I felt disoriented.
I had to completely take care of me, find an apartment, create me a new life and overcome the language barrier. That was certainly the year in which a person became fully independent, with no restrictions, it was a turning point in my life.
I did not create anything when I was in Germany, I deliberately avoided to get a piano in my apartment at that time I began to be depressed and homesick, things were changing.
I have not found the friendships that I expected, I started to lose ground, it was time to return, to regain possession of my life, that I had abandoned.
But it's funny because I have not had a chance to meet more German and European culture in America, is the same paradox that being on tour: I see a lot of things but the glass of the bus. They are often exhausted and the few days off, the only thing I do is sleep and I'm not going to go around.
I learn more about European culture when I'm home, I sit with a cup of tea and read. I hate things to tourists such as "sit on the bus, hey look at these castles, quick" no way.
It makes me think of a saying popular, says such a thing as "the wisest man in the world can learn a lot more sitting in his room and going around the world."
Sure, it's important as you approach, there is so much to know and learn, you need to determine what is the way you absorb it all.
G: The words in your songs. The importance of criticism, an attitude which is not very common nowadays, to terminate or to simply show the reality as it is. Yes Virginia continues a trend that is common also the first album, which includes among others a very enigmatic song: Half Jack.
A: What about Half Jack? It 's very simple. It 's interesting to listen to people talk about it more and more excavations in the end it becomes clear. It 's sad, I wrote when I was twenty, I was struggling with an inner conflict about not actually know my father. It is not a totally negative report, not perceived as unreachable, unfathomable, he brought me up easily.
My parents divorced I had just one year, all those who had separated parents come to a point in life when you ask them what is present in their lives, because you have created and you six biologically related to them.
Around the winds have begun to address this question, I felt grown up enough as a person, living alone and I analyzed my behavior.
I began to wonder who came and certainly belonged to my mother it's hard to tell what came from my father.
This has given rise to the song, the fact that my father had not been there to take up its responsibilities, the fact that he has given me life.
I read a book written by a boy adopted and the problem was the same, not knowing where you are.
G: It 's one of those songs that make you come the goosebumps.
A: Oh, it's just like all the other songs Amanda Palmer, there are interpretations and trends to explain the marks on the frustration of having to define the role necessarily exact. It 'hard when people are outside force telling you who you are, where you come from and what you should be or become. A part of you rebels but it is how people perceive you, and so the question is: where is the truth? it is interesting ...
AND. Dresden Dolls was not an album for all, requires a listening mood and willing to solitary introspection. Yes I think that Virginia is a more popular audience, this tendency to be open to a wider audience is confirmed by the choice of going on tour with Panic at the Disco, some of the old fans seem not appreciate. What brought you to the decision and you have repented?
A: Definitely do not regret it. I think we're a band growing and we are forced to take a certain kind of decisions, but you never know what the right one. The decision to go on tour with Panic has a simple reason: to reach a portion of public higher education and I am confident in our music, until we compromise on how we do it all goes well, the choices we make to reach the public but are always subject to criticism.
We said that was fine, and I know that we will be pleased with this tour, you'll probably feel ready to go on tour with Britney Spears after ... maybe ... I think [laughs]. Do not think
what kind of audience is, if we do what we do [to Brian], only if we play to that audience, if any of them come in contact with us and our music and come out thinking "I want to take their cd" then there we'll get it done.
AND: Do you think that your music has changed and so has changed the way that you promote?
A: No. B: No.
A: The fact that the second album sounds more commercial is false, most of the songs were written at the same time or even previously to the first disc. It 's just a matter of choice, including producers, manufacturers have chosen the most "rock" of the first. Not
is that we have come to say "hey, you make a commercial recording.
AND: So, what is your music in the future?
A: I have absolutely no idea! I remember when we finished the first album was just released me and said, "I think I already know what songs to put in the second." And if I look back I can say that I've taken almost all. I can say the same thing for the third because I still have several songs written long ago that have not yet been recorded.
I think if we had a bit of time away from touring to write some new songs and Brian and I would have at least 15 old songs that we would like to see engraved on a disc of the Dresden Dolls. But who knows, I can not tell you exactly, maybe this will take yet another 3 years ...
AND: There will be a song sung by Brian?
B: Yes, and it will be played with the Sitar and the Tuba.
