An Interview With David Rovics (2/3) By Nicholas Boldock

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3).

"Yes, you do get that," he says. "The mainstream media is critical of political music and it's often viewed as depressing and preachy... but so-called political music can be very broad in terms of what it can do to an audience." "Writing political songs isn't a marginal thing to be doing - this is the mainstream. There are people everywhere writing about all kinds of stuff going on in the world today - you have to remember that people writing songs and speaking out is something that predates the music industry..."

"On the other hand, when you've got someone who is just writing songs about one experience they had with someone in bed - that's pathological!" David Rovics' relationship with the music industry is an odd one. Though almost all of his albums are commercially available, he also allows his entire back catalogue to be downloaded for free via the Internet. Not a unique stance by any means, but certainly unusual. He hosts his songs mainly on the Soundclick.com website, and from this website alone he has had over half a million downloads.

"When you include downloads from other websites, it's probably over a million", he says. I wonder what prompted this refreshing approach to marketing his music. "I'm just trying to get the music out there", he says, a phrase he will use more than once during our interview. "You can get it out there more by giving it away than by selling it... If you don't have access to the airwaves, you've got to be creative. Giving it away on the Internet attracts a much larger audience and creates a sort of buzz." Certainly there is an enormous market for David's music.

In a contemporary world where the words of the Governments of (in particular) Britain and the United States are presumed to be cloaked in deceit, primarily because recent experience has taught us that this is usually the case, the dissenting voice will always have an appeal.

Added to this, David's songs are often shockingly forthright, if not without occasional humour. His song Falluja (from 2005's For The Moment), told from the viewpoint of an Iraqi insurgent, is particularly hard-hitting, though when I ask if this ever causes him problems, I'm pleasantly surprised at his answer. "No, not really. Most of the people who are listening to my songs are already anti-war, so it isn't an issue. And although that song, on one level, is a song about Kalaschnikovs, I think it's a really moving song.

It tends to get a really good reception, though the people who like it the most tend to be the most militant... the best response I've had for that song was when I played it in West Belfast." Surely he must run into opposition, at least sometimes? "Occasionally some of the songs about the Israel/Palestine situation cause a problem, because they see the pro-Palestine angle... but generally, no."

His latest album, released last year, is Halliburton Boardroom Massacre. The title track tells the story of a fictional Iraq War veteran who returns from the Middle East, critically ill after being exposed to depleted uranium, and heads straight to the oil giant's headquarters with only one intention ("And if I'm going to die I'm gonna take some of them fuckers with me"). The album also includes the incredibly moving New Orleans ("Here we are in the richest country on the Earth, where the colour of your skin determines what your life is worth"), a song that manages in a little over four minutes, to capture perfectly the sheer desperation of what happened during the floods of 2005.

Although I am aware that he must get tired of being asked to talk about politics in interviews, it is an unavoidable subject and one that David seems perfectly happy to discuss.

Continued .... Next Page (3/3)

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