Wywiad z Tomem Hookerem- czyli cała prawda o Italo

When I responded to Zeljko's request to do an interview, I was really honest and told the truth. I realize this is difficult to do for most people who have an interest in show business. When I hear Jennifer Lopez say on T.V.: "I love you, all my fans". I think to myself yeah, right, you suckers. She loves you, but she doesn't even know you all! I am not that kind of guy, sorry. A guy like Sting, would never say "bull" like that.

I didn't mean to offend anybody by saying that I don't listen to Italo Disco in Los Angeles but music comes in different colors and people are allowed to have different tastes. I listen to other stuff. I started as a drummer and would listen to Jazz Rock. Every musician I met was anti-commercial music and did the commercial stuff for the moula. James Last is a guy in Germany who became a millionaire doing musak and came to L.A. to record with Stanley Clarke and Chick Corea to make some tapes for his own personal satisfaction.

Eddy Huntington posted a message that I happened to read only because Marcello D'Azzurro told me about the message boards. When I read the post from Eddy Huntington, he sounded a bit tragic by saying "I felt as though I had lost a friend". First of all, to be honest, I haven't seen Eddie in 15 years! Although a very nice chap, I make a distinction between friends and people I meet through work. I've met a lot of people obviously with the work I did for over 15 years but only managed to keep a few real friends.

I honestly don't listen to Italo dance songs. I read another posting by a fellow called Raff who is surprised I don't even have a copy of one of my albums. The reality is, try and put yourself in my shoes. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE A FAN OF YOURSELF. Sting for example again, does not listen to his own music when he relaxes at home, I am sure of this. Think about it. Does Frank Sinatra listen to "Strangers in the night" when he has to sing it at every show? To me, singing is very easy to do. It's like driving a car for a Taxi Cab driver. I can't be impressed by anything I can do. I can only be impressed by what I cannot do. Therefore, I will be a fan of Youssoun'Dour or Sarah Brightman or Lance Armstrong who can win the Tour de France. That, to me, is amazing. Singing, or writing songs is very easy to me.

It was nice to read the post that said I was a "no bullshit kind of guy". Honestly, there is so much bullshit in the music business that people are not aware of, because people are a bunch of phonies to their fans. They don't want to upset them to lose any record sales. I, on the other hand, don't care about it anymore, so I am telling you the truth as it is. It's all, over and done with, now. Baltimora was Maurizio Bassi singing and not the scottish image who died of AIDS a few years later.... Valerie Dore was Dora Carofiglio and later replaced with Simona. Milli Vanilli were not the real singers, the Village People, Boney M in the seventies were an image band etc etc... I didn't start it all. It's just adults, trying to do business. When you spend all that kind of money, you're doing it to get a return and believe me, if you weren't a professional, you were out!

We HAD to write songs to the dance beat of the moment. We were all catering to the D.Js! If the tempo was not right, the song would be a bomb. Is this how real art is done? I remember talking with Turatti, that Mad Desire did well because the DJs could mix it with "Big in Japan". Songs would do well if we had a good intro so the "inexperienced DJs could mix it. If they couldn't mix it, the song would be a bomb... etc.. If it had the right tempo at the right time, it would do well. If a song came out a month later, it would be too late, etc. The Italian producers were masters at this.

The best songs I ever wrote, were the songs that sold the most and my favorite songs were probably the ones that sold the least. That's how it goes. Every true artist knows that commercial stuff sells. But the true geniuses are guys like Bela Bartok whom you guys probably have never heard of. Did you guys know that Phil Collins played drums in a band called "Brand X" and did the commercial stuff with Genesis? When I was a drummer, I would play some really cool stuff in front of 15 people in a Jazz Club and on the week-end I would play some crap in front of 5000 people and get paid triple!

Marcello D'Azzuro, a very nice man I met personally about 10 years ago,e-mailed me and told me about the reactions to my Interview and asked if I would come to Holland to do a show. I could come to Holland, but would I sing Future Brain, Don't Break my Heart or Bad Boy and who wants to see that? Isn't it better if Den Harrow mimes it like he has been doing for years?

Sincerely,

Tom Hooker