Mojo - The Music Magazine

DECEMBER 11 WITNESSES a unique evening at the BFI Southbank as two MOJO favourites – folk-rock weirdo Lightspeed Champion and Hal Ashby’s brilliant 1971 movie Harold And Maude – come into alignment.

Cat Stevens’ Harold And Maude soundtrack – long unavailable and only this year released (on vinyl only) by director and rock buff Cameron Crowe’s Vinyl Films label – is one of the greatest film companions of all time, and much the best Cat Stevens album bar none, showcasing the once-ubiquitous Anglo-Greek songwriter’s uncertain, searching side at the expense of the cloying, evangelistic bits.

Lightspeed Champion (aka Dev Hynes) will follow a presentation of the film – the morbid and hilarious story of the relationship between teenage Harold (Bud Cort) and septuagenarian Maude (Ruth Gordon) – with a set of interpretations from Stevens’ soundtrack. You can book tickets/find out more here, or read on, as Dev took time out of rehearsals to share with MOJO’s Danny Eccleston his enthusiasm for Harold And Maude, and love of Cat Stevens generally…

MOJO: How did you get involved in the Harold And Maude event?
Hynes: I got an e-mail from the British Film Institute asking me if I wanted to play at their screening. I was honoured. People who know me, know that one of my biggest obsessions is cinema. I try to watch at least two films a day, which some people think is slightly insane.

It’s a habit you can handle?
It’s completely manageable. Take the spare minutes in your day, add them together, and you can feasibly watch at least one film. I’m also known for not discriminating on quality [laughs]. Yesterday I managed to watch one film - Scar 3D.

You really don’t discriminate on quality.
There was absolutely no need for the 3D! The best 3D moment was when one of the women poured a glass of water and it looked like it was sloshing on the audience. I didn’t make any difference to the horror.

When did you come across Harold And Maude?
I was probably about 15 or 16. A friend brought it over and we watched it one night. But it’s weird – I’d kind of forgotten about it until they asked me to do the songs. I’ve recently moved to New York and people there seem to be obsessed with the film. It’s a cult there.

What connects with you about the movie?
I’m a sucker for lonely characters who find a connection with each other and watching that build, no matter what context it’s in, whether it’s Harold And Maude or Titanic. And I guess like most teenagers I was quite morbid and obsessed with death.

And Cat Stevens?
I knew Cat Stevens’ songs through the primary school I went to. I imagine everyone had to sing Morning Has Broken, wherever they went to school, but our Headmaster was a hippy so we had to sing the whole Cat Stevens songs songbook.

Which ones stayed with you?
I Think I See The Light, which is one of my favourite songs from the movie. And Trouble. But our head didn’t just make us sing Cat Stevens; there was Dreamboat Annie by Heart. I loved that song. All my guitar playing comes from Dreamboat Annie.

Knuckling down to learning the songs, what did you discover about Cat Stevens?
It’s weird. I’m a really big fan of top lines and of melodies and chord progressions. But my favourite artists have something Cat Stevens has. The only way I can describe it is… [pauses] it’s as if they have a cloak over the music, and every now and again they will show you this really great melody line that just pokes through. It’s such an impressive way of writing. If I had a melody like one of Cat’s I’d thrash it to death and show it to everybody. If you can hold back and give people just a glimpse of it, that’s genius.

How do you respond to his world-view, his spiritual quest?
I guess I’ve always wanted to believe in something on a higher level. I was raised deeply Christian and when I was 13 I was a “born again” and went to Christian camp and everything. And then I guess I read the Bible one too many times; I think if I’d have stopped at the third time, I might still be a Christian! So anyway, I’ve always been really envious of those who truly have a sense of religion in their lives.

I always think with your songs, that you don’t fret too much about if it’s a cool thing to say it or not, it’s out there…
Somewhat a bad habit I feel [laughs].

Obviously Cat has a different set of issues on his mind, but it seems, to paraphrase one of his later songs, that he can’t keep it in. Do you sympathise with that?
I definitely do. That’s something I respect in many songwriters, just letting it out. And that’s the thing with Cat Stevens’ songs: there’s no shield. He’s just letting it all bleed out on the table.

What’s your approach to the Harold And Maude songs?
I’m going to strip them down, go really bare and sparse. It’s going to be me, an acoustic guitar, piano on some of the songs and a violinist – might get Emmy The Great to accompany me if she’s around. But with I Think I See The Light I want it to sound completely urgent and completely manic. This song has got ascents anyway but I want to express the sense of letting everything out, no pauses for breathing or anything. So I’m going to try to do that.

So, in terms of where you’re heading next, is this a little cul-de-sac you’ve wandered down? Or does it chime with your new material?
It’s interesting, a lot of the influences for the new record are soundtrack composers – but more the classical sort like Bernard Hermann and the Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi [Sonatine, Spirited Away]. But I also made a conscious decision that this album is going to sound really British, almost in a ’60s, ’70s sort of way. Lots of strings, but violent strings!