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Richard Fortus
interview |
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Recently we asked Richard Fortus if he could answer some
questions for us. He didn't feel comfortable answering questions about GnR, but in the
following, he talks about how he met Frank Ferrer, Chris Pitman's status in the band, and
how playing with Izzy was, among other things. The questions were mostly put together by me, but with
contributions from the other admins at the Source: Mango and jazjme. The interview
happened thanks to jazjme, so on my behalf: thanks for that. Most GnR fans may not know you all that well, but I'm
pretty sure I remember seeing this acoustic Love Spit Love video back in the mid 90s on
MTV Europe, and I think it must've gotten quite high rotation as well. I realised this
while listening to that Love Spit Love album, and I have to say it's a pretty cool album.
How was it to record that album with Richard Richard: I actually did 2 records with
Love Spit Love. Richard Butler had asked me to
help him write a "solo" record after we finished a Furs tour. We began writing and after a while he decided that
it wouldn't really be fair to call it a Richard Butler album, since the 2 of us had
written everything together and it had more of a band feeling. After all of the songs were
written we signed a record deal and started auditioning drummers. We auditioned loads of drummers in NY. I was walking down St. Marks and ran in to Frank as he was
closing up a shoe shop. I remembered him from
his old band the Beautiful. They had opened
for my old band (Pale Divine). His band had
just broken up, so I invited him down to audition and he got the gig. So we did the first LSL record and then toured to
support it. After that, we switched record
labels and signed with Maverick/Warner. That
label was really hot at that time, but they really dropped the ball on our record. I thought that was a great record, but we toured
and then Richard, Frank and I got together with John Ahston and Tim Butler and did a few
more Psychedelic Furs tours. Actually, right after the last LSL tour, Frank and I had
been playing with a couple of friends from the You also played in Pale Divine prior to joining Love Spit
Love. Richard: Pale Divine was my first band. We toured and became very popular in the midwest
and eventually signed with Atlantic records. We
toured with the Furs and during that tour the Furs asked me to join them onstage
everynight after our set. I worked with You've also played with people like Britney, N'Sync and
more recently Nena. How do you compare working with artists like these to playing with
GnR, Pale Divine, Love Spit Love or any other of your own bands. Richard: It's a very different experience
when you go in to do a session. It's great to
be able to take someone else's song and add something to it.
it's very different than when it is your song.
I enjoy them both equally. Could you confirm that Chris Pitman is an official member? Richard: I honestly don't know. I saw you live with Izzy this summer and you two really
seemed to hit it off live. Izzy wrote several of the songs you're playing, so from your
view, how does it feel to have him walk into the band now, and how is playing with Izzy? Richard: I really love Izzy. He's a real talent and it's easy to see where a
good 90% of the song riffs on Appetite came from after having played with him. I had the oppourtunity of getting to know him while
we were in Anything else you're currently up to that you'd like to
share? Richard: Recently, I've been working on
the new Spiderman 3 video game score, writing and recording with Puddle of Mudd for their
new record, i just played on a record by a new artist on Def Jam called Kerli, I'm doing
some music for Apple, Red Bull and various commercials and hopefully i will have time to
do some more recording with Crystal Method for their next record. |
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