STEVE HILLAGE - "I'm radical"

Grinning, Steve Hillage sits on the sofa in the office of his London label Snapper. Today, the guitarist, famous for decades for his radical innovative frenzy, doesn't want to conjure anything new out of his hat. His face is sunbathed in the triumphant satisfaction of the last day of summer, which is nevertheless like the zenith of midsummer. That's how the guitarist feels. In front of him lies a thick black monolith with the inscription "Searching For The Spark". A treasure chest with 22 CDs, many of them unpublished, two books, two small brochures and lots of bonus material.

Behind the name of the 65-year-old lies an unusual musical vita, which began in 1968 with the band Uriel and Arzachel respectively, described a first climax with Gong, brought unbelievable blossoms in jazz rock and prog in the seventies, and in the new millennium is breaking new ground with the techno project System 7. Steve Hillage may never have been at the forefront of the guitar heroes of the seventies, but he was one of the most influential instrumentalists of his day. "Music is my way of expressing myself," says Sub. Capt. Hillage, as he was once known on the gong record "Angels Egg". "Music is what I do. I can't do anything else. I've been making music for so long, I'm obsessed with her. Music has always played an important role in society. It is always connected with rituals and the meeting of people. And many people can find a higher level in music. Music stands for idealism and strong emotions. It's an art form. I call myself an artist."

Hillage thinks little of categories. At the end of the seventies he had been busy with it in the song "Unidentified Flying Object" from the album "Green". "On a purely practical level, I understand why there are categories and genres. This helps to sell music, but it also creates orientation if you are looking for inspiration. But when it becomes a fetish, it's terrible. I'm always about the big picture. I've always wondered why you have to assign music to tribes. I think that's wrong. Divide and conquer. But we shouldn't let them divide us. "If the kids are united, they will never be divided"

Lest mehr im eclipsed Nr. 185 (November 2016).