Interview

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ANDERSON: I’d say that they’re about that size. A human would want to be about the height of an iPhone to really feel comfortable in them . . . a tall human.

COCKER: And these rooms are from different periods in history?

ANDERSON: They have rooms that represent different periods in America, but then they also have ones that represent the Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI periods . . . I’m not knowledgeable about what distinguishes one Louis from the next, but if you look at these rooms, you can make some guesses. They have an art deco one, and one that’s about Los Angeles, and different things like that. It’s worth visiting. So why are you in Chicago in the first place? It’s because of your producer, right?

COCKER: Well, you can’t call him a producer.

ANDERSON: We’ll call him a collaborator.

COCKER: An “engineer” is what he likes to be called.

ANDERSON: So he’s an engineer, but he’s a wonderfully talented engineer.

COCKER: Steve Albini is, yes. The way Steve and I came to work together was that when we played a concert in Chicago last July, we went to his studio and did some recording—and I enjoyed it, so we came back. But Steve is very precise about the fact that he doesn’t believe in the role of a producer. He thinks that, generally speaking, producers try to take all the credit for a record, when really it’s the band that should take the credit.

ANDERSON: That sounds reasonable.

COCKER: He and I have had many discussions about that because, while I think it’s an admirable position to take, there is the fact that just by being part of a process, you do alter it, don’t you? There isn’t really a way to be completely transparent. So it’s a nice thing to aspire to, but . . .

ANDERSON: Well, I would imagine that different producers have different goals. Somebody like Phil Spector is not necessarily looking to learn what an artist specifically has in mind and how he can help them achieve that—he has his own goal or result in mind. So maybe Steve Albini doesn’t fall into the Phil Spector category.

COCKER: No. Steve would be like the anti–Phil Spector . . .

ANDERSON: Is Phil Spector in jail now?

COCKER: I don’t know. I thought his murder case was going to be retried, and then I kind of lost contact with what was happening.

ANDERSON: Me too. I’ve completely lost contact with Phil Spector altogether at this point. [Editor’s note: In April, Spector was convicted of second-degree murder.]

COCKER: But what we’re talking about in terms of Steve’s approach to making records has to be somewhat similar to what you get with certain directors in the film world. I know that some filmmakers strive for a kind of naturalistic approach, but you’re never going to capture something that’s really natural—just the simple fact that you choose to put a frame around something means that you’ve already chosen one particular thing to put more attention on.