Phone Interview with Queen
Light Music Magazine, September 1975
This interview was conducted via international phone call to London, England. Queen, the British hard rock band causing the biggest sensation since the Beatles, was keen to answer our questions! Brian May's story about his handmade guitar was particularly interesting, as was the band's attitude of constantly striving for improvement and challenging themselves.
LM: The Japanese tour was a huge success! Freddie, what are your feelings on it as the leader?
Freddie: Queen doesn't have a leader. Each of us is the leader, and yet not the leader. I'm the lead vocalist, but that doesn't make me the leader of the group. When we have to make a decision, the four of us put our heads together and decide. We do get into heated arguments about new songs and such during recording, but ultimately things are decided by all four of us, so I think the advantages of our approach outweigh the disadvantages. Especially the three of us other than John—we've been together for over eight years now. So no matter what happens or how we fight, I can't imagine us breaking up. And even John has been with us for four years now. [LM: Apparently, Freddie and Roger ran a makeshift antique shop together about five or six years ago. They had a huge fight when Roger accidentally sold Freddie's jacket to a pretty girl. They both stormed out of the shop without saying a word and left it open all night!]
LM: What were your impressions of Japan?
Freddie: I think it was valuable in that all four of us felt a renewed sense of responsibility and determination towards our music, a kind of fighting spirit, after seeing our popularity there with our own eyes. It made use want to be sure we never betray these fans in the future. On the other hand, there's also a sense of fear. It's wonderful to be able to experience firsthand that there are people on the other side of the world who feel the same way and love the same music as us.
LM: In Japan, Led Zeppelin is very popular, and Queen is also incredibly popular. Do you think there's anything you have in common?
Freddie: We've been accused of simply copying Zeppelin, but I want to emphatically say that's absolutely not true. They have their own musical style, and Queen has our own musical style. Of course, all four of us like Led Zeppelin and listen to their records. But we would never let anyone call us derivative. [LM: Everyone got strangely defensive when the topic of sounding like Zeppelin came up. It seems that they have had some very unpleasant experiences with that in the UK. Freddie Mercury in particular, being one of the principal songwriters for Queen, seems to dislike being told that they sound like another group.]
LM: Is it possible that Queen's musical direction will change sometime in the future?
Freddie: Music changes along with the social landscape, and our perspectives and ways o thinking are constantly changing, so we can't say for sure that it will never change. But I think that the fundamental aspect of hard rock will never change. If you listen to our records, you'll see that all three albums have different sounds and different characteristics. This is obvious, of course, but it's also true that we are always looking for different sounds. There are musicians who carefully maintain the same approach and the same sound for many years, but Queen is different. That said, it's certainly not easy to find songs with a different atmosphere while maintaining the Queen sound. But the fact that Queen has embarked on something new amongst the many hard rock groups out there is proof that the Queen sound has something that other groups don't have.
LM: Was the massive success of Killer Queen expected?
Freddie Killer Queen wasn't a song we wrote with the intention of releasing as a single. We were discussing, as usual, which song from Sheer Heart Attack we should release as a single, and we decided to go with this one because it had a slightly different feel to it than what we'd done before. We don't write songs specifically for singles. We choose from a large pool of tracks intended for albums.
LM: What do you think of Japanese rock fans?
Freddie: We had some idea of what rock fans on the other side of the world were like when reading books and hearing about them, but we never dreamt they'd be this passionate. We were also surprised at how young some of them were. [LM: In Japan, 15-17 years old; Freddie said fans in other countries are in their 20s.] But we think that the fact that the fans are young is a good trend because it means that rock, especially hard rock, has become more widely accepted. If fans around 15-16 years old are moved and understand what we have achieved and are expressing that at their age, then that's wonderful.
LM: What are your impressions of trends in Japanese music?
Freddie: We think Japan is amazing. I only know it superficially, but from what I've seen on records, radio, and TV, I find it incredibly interesting. American groups or singers that aren't very well known in the UK, or that people have never even heard of, are introduced here, and European musicians who are unknown in the US hold concerts...
LM: I'd like to ask about the sound aspects. Who decided which effects to use?
Freddie: We decide together, but things like the feel of the song and where to put what kind of sound are usually decided by Brian and me.
LM: You us a lot of amplifiers—do you carry them all with you?
Freddie: It's an incredible amount, really. Last tour the total weight of all the equipment was about 15 tons.
LM: Brian, what materials is your guitar made out of?
Brian: That's a question I get asked often. As you may know, my guitar was handmade by me and my dad over a period of about two years. The materials used are wood from a 200 year-old fireplace, and the parts are a variety of things we picked up here and there.
LM: What's the name of the book you used to learn how to make guitars, and who published it?
Brian: We didn't use anything like that. I do know a craftsman who makes guitars though, his name is Jimmy O'Connor.
LM: How big is the cavity in your guitar?
Brian: Jimmy knows that one well! The cavity is made narrower than usual.
LM: And describe the pickups on that guitar if you would.
Brian: High, mid, and low tones are separate, and the settings are configured so that the treble is more prominent on the low frequencies and the bass is more prominent on the high frequencies.
LM: Do you use effects pedals?
Brian: Often I do. It's a machine that brings out the best characteristics of the guitar. [LM: Brian is such a guitar fanatic that when the others wanted to to go Akihabara to look at electronics, he dragged them to Ochanomizu along the way and they spent an hour searching for a white guitar that he had seen from the car window. That legendary white guitar has now joined Brian's collection!]
LM: What kind of amplifier do you have?
Brian: I mainly use Vox amps. I think it's better to use amps from the same manufacturer.
LM: What are the advantages of Vox amps?
Brian: Well I've used a lot of different ones in the past, but the good thing about them is that they can reproduce the tone of each instrument as it is.
LM: Where did you buy your Vox amps?
Brian: Usually from a music store near my house. I don't remember the name of it.
LM: What about Queen's PA system?
Brian: Well it's really less of a matter of the PA system itself, and more about the person who's running it. The machinery seems to be the same no matter which manufacturer you choose.
[LM: Roger, the drummer who is incredibly popular with the girls, answered the phone next. He's the one who backs up Freddie's vocals live with his incredibly high-pitched voice, which adds a unique touch.]
LM: What drums do you use?
Roger: Ludwig. I often kick and push the drumset around when the show is over, so the cymbals take a hit and the skins get torn, so I always carry spares.
[LM: He's the great drummer for Queen these days, but when he first became interested in music 12 years ago he apparently wanted to become a guitarist. He was also a lead vocalist at one point.]
LM: John, how many basses do you own?
John: About three in total. I don't intend to collect that many. Sound quality is the most important thing.
LM: I have one more question for Brian: What tuning do you use?
Brian: I lower the sixth string by one whole step, making it flat. That interacts with the E note on the first string. I use that as a base and then try to make changes to the fifth and second strings. This is different from D tuning. Well, that's what I've been experimenting with, anyways.
LM: I'd like to hear your opinions on other types of music.
Roger: I listen to jazz and pop music and I also quite like reggae recently. It's not that I just like any kind of music, but I'd like to try to listen to all kinds of music. [LM: While in Japan, Roger apparently went around looking at audio sets wherever he went. But in the end, he couldn't buy the stereo set he wanted because there weren't any models available for export.]
Freddie: I don't listen to jazz very often. I do listen to classical music, though. I listen to rock the most, but I think listening to a variety of genres is good for learning.
John: Actually, I really love funk!
Brian: Mmm I feel like I'm holed up in my own music to be truthful. I listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix quite a bit as guitarists I like, though.
LM: You seem to be on tour a lot these days. Does it ever cause you any mental or physical problems?
Freddie: Thanks to this job, I get to experience things that other people don't see or hear, so it's not a problem. I especially like being able to listen to music from all sorts of countries.
LM: What kind of music do you think Japanese people like?
Freddie: Queen's music! Music knows no nationality. What we found surprising was that the audience's reaction to the English songs was the same as that of American and British audiences.
LM: What are your plans for releasing new songs in the future?
Freddie: We're busy working on a new album. Stay tuned!
LM: When you were in Japan there were always female fans surrounding you wherever you went—is it always like that?
Freddie: Well it depends on the place. During our time in America and back home, we were chased around by fans quite a lot. But no one showers us with presents as gratitude to hear us sing like they do in Japan. Plus, Japanese fans are much quieter outside of concerts. Japanese fans are the best!
LM: With all that hype, do you feel proud, like you've really made it? Do you feel like a star?
Freddie: I don't think that being popular with fans is necessarily an indicator of the quality of our music. Above all, all the members of Queen are determined to keep working harder. Nobody thinks that because you're a star, you have to be this way or that a star should behave like that.
[LM: In the UK, lead vocalist Freddie is the one who receives the most attention and appears in the media most often. It's typical of him to be viewed with various biases. However, the real Queen members are four intelligent, friendly guys. They said "Being. star isn't the only thing we're looking for. Rather, we want to dedicate ourselves to creating Queen's music." We hope that everything that happens onstage—from the music they play to the lighting effects and costumes—will continue to show off their creativity!]
