So yeah. It happened. I interviewed 3D literally right before their show in Dublin, backstage at the Olympia on the 7th October 2009. I was ushered up to the band’s dressing room with only about an hour to go before the show, while Martina was on stage during the support act. I thought leaving it this late in the day for the interview, it would have been rushed, but 3D was very relaxed about the whole thing and didn’t feel rushed at all. I’m certainly no interviewer by trade, a bit shaky in one or two places, but I think it all turned out quite reasonable in the end, so please don’t lambast me too much on my interviewing skills! And thanks to 3D of course for taking the time out and Dave for arranging the interview and Ex for helping on the transcription.

For a bit of context towards the end of the interview in the last 5 minutes, I brought along my scrapbook I had made about Massive Attack to get signed. I’d been wanting to get it signed for 2 years and tonight it finally happened. So, thanks for making this fan really happy! A few more images of the scrapbook are located here. You should also check the transcript for the pictures we were commenting on.

Here are some of the most interesting quotes:

• Will a live DVD/CD ever officially come out? - “Massive Attack live and Massive Attack on record are two different things I’m not sure of putting a live DVD out - it defeats the object - you should be there. Otherwise what the fucks the point. Some bands sound like they do on CD verbatim and I think OK, maybe you could listen to the fucking record”
• On what cities they like to play live in - “Napoli’s a great one for obvious reasons. Paris, Naples, Athens on the top of the mountain, is a great fucking city. The places we seem to have a real connection with people outside of the UK, probably more than the UK. Bristol’s good. Paris. Dublin. Glasgow. Lisbon. And Athens. And Napoli. Those places we always connect, always an understanding, some sort of bond”
• On how the new album is going to sound and how the artwork will look - “The sleeve is, is a kinda like a map of a place. Sorta real but and fictitious, populated. The thing about this album was that it started to feel that every track had a different personality, but it all came from sort of weird place, somewhere and somehow connected and I like the idea of that being, rather its Bristol circa 1983, lost in time or some time in the near future”

Anyway, here’s the audio (close to 1/2 hour) and the written transcript below it. Might be a few typos in the transcript but its close enough.

Cheers and remember to leave a comment!

Interview Audio

Interview Transcript (Microsoft Word)