From SUPERTRENDY.COM / 2000

NOTE: The following interview was conducted in 2000 when Arlin Godwin was working under
the project name Darkangeles.

DARKANGELES is the name given to the music of Arlin Godwin. His tracks have been at the top of the MP3.com charts for the past year and he seems a hit on all continents. Hollywood Correspondent Winfield Scott spoke with Arlin recently about his music and life.

How old are you?
Old enough to know better.

What is your horoscope sign?
Gemini.

Wow. All the great artists are always Geminis. How are you like your sign?
Most of my friends say that I have a lot more personalities than the usual two you find with a Gemeni. But I am hard to know I suppose. There's a lot hidden under the hood.

How long have you been playing musical instruments?
I've been playing since I can remember. My parents always had a piano in the house so as soon as I was big enough to climb up on the stool I was playing. I started by just picking out things I would hear my mom play on her high tech Zenith stereo. This was the sixties and Zenith was the Sony of that era.

When did you realize you had a gift?
I always heard music in my head---from the time I was a little kid. I remember dozing off back in second grade, which I guess would have been when I was about 7 years old, and I could hear or imagine all these symphonic things going on in my brain. At that time I thought everybody could do that. I guess I didn't find out until years later that this was a fairly unusual thing to be able to do. From that point of course it just became a matter of getting what was in my head down on tape or whatever. But I was musical from birth, just the way some people are mathematical. I was pre-wired for it.

How is your newest work different from previous work?
Well the last 5 tracks that I've completed--I say it this way because a lot them don't get completed for whatever reason--are all pretty much song-based. All but one of them has lyrics and vocals, lots of vocals actually, and several of them actually have a serious R&B vibe going on in them. This I attribute to having gotten heavily into Tina Turner this last year---I saw her in concert twice because this was the last time she was going to tour and missing that would have been just a sick thing to do. That woman is absolutely incredible. Both on record and on stage. She is amazing and her style got into me a little bit I think. I love the way she sings ever so slightly ahead of the beat. She doesn't wait for it to arrive---she's just off on her own thing. And that whole Tina trip got into me and has definitely influenced the latest tracks. I mean, they're still me, they're still DARKANGELES tracks, but I can tell that Miss T had a hold of my brain at the time that I recorded them.

What do you think of the MP3.COM/Universal-Vivendi marriage?
I think the Universal-Vivendi/MP3.COM deal is too recent an event to really make predictions about. I know that a lot of the 'artists' at MP3.COM---particularly the ones who don't seem to be too serious about their careers, are screaming bloody-murder about it---automatically assuming that it will be a bad thing because Vivendi is a business and of course a lot of moronic so called 'artists' are terribly down on the whole notion of Capitalism. They're all for money if somebody's giving it to them but for some odd reason big companies should not be allowed to make dollars. This is nuts and needless to say---hypocritical. America is all about money and trying to be a success. I like money quite a bit and wouldn't mind making some before I go to the great beyond. I'm not in music for the money. I would make music whether I got paid or not and I always have. But a lot people in this day and age in America don't seem to understand what this country is about. It's about making money and having the freedom to do that. So, I don't just automatically have a knee jerk reaction to this deal. I imagine it will be like most things in life----a mixture of good and bad. And I'll deal with it as it comes along. I see no reason right now to panic and start denigrating Universal. This is the biggest music company in the world and a lot of what we all listen to is brought to us by the people at Universal Music Group. I'm with holding judgment until I have more info.

What do you really think of Napster?
My view on Napster is quite simple and will no doubt piss off the folks out there who think it's cool to steal from artists. I do not support the theft of anything including music. Stealing is not good for society, for you, for me or for anybody. It undermines the basic deal we all make with one another when we try to be civilized and have governments and live reasonable lives. I think a lot of kids don't understand how many hours artists spend sitting in dark rooms alone trying to work out all those lyrics and all those key changes and all those drum parts. It's very, very hard work. I can tell you. I spend hours and hours and hours working on my stuff and I do not want it stolen by some 'fan' who thinks music grows on trees. I doubt these same people would go to their jobs and work for nothing. Napster is a non-issue as I see it. Artists have gotten screwed by record companies for ever and ever and now the fans--some of the fans, are getting in on the screwing. God bless artists. Without artists there is only silence and nothing to steal or listen to.

What do you think of Jerry Falwell? I want the Jerry Falwell story you promised.
Falwell is someone who I came in to contact with years ago because my dad was involved in all of that. I came home from college, and home had been moved to Lynchburg, VA where Jerry has his empire. I have mixed emotions about Falwell because if you met the guy in a bar you would like him. Not that he would ever set foot in a bar, he wouldn't. But he's got one of those personalities that's very hard not to like. He's extremely charismatic. But on the other hand he's a religious fanatic who condemns whole sections of the population to hell. Despite the fact that AIDS is overwhelmingly a heterosexual disease on this planet he insists loudly from his pulpit that AIDS is God's punishment on gays. My question would be pretty simple: "What about those millions and millions of AIDS victims in Africa---the vast majority of which are straight people? What about the fact the homosexuals are a very small percentage of the world's population?" Jerry ignores these facts because they don't fit his preconceived notions. He's like anybody who's involved in religion in a fanatical way---he thinks he knows what's best not just for himself but for you and me and everybody. And I don't go for that. What's funny to me, and I mean funny-scary, is that Falwell will stand in his pulpit and say flat out that he's in favor of freedom and of having the government leave him alone and leave the American people alone---but he really isn't for real freedom. He's for HIS version of freedom. He doesn't really believe that I should be able to do what I want as long as I don't hurt anyone. He doesn't even believe that I should be able to do what I want with my own body in the privacy of my own home. He thinks he has an interest in getting into all of that private stuff. He actually believes in his particular agenda and he takes active steps and works very hard to make HIS version of freedom into law---which then has an impact on my life and other people's lives who do not share his view. I am essentially a libertarian---and I actually do believe in personal freedom, and that includes the freedom to do things that other people might not like---as long as I don't hurt them, steal from them or whatever. And I certainly feel that other people should be able to live the way they choose without being persecuted for it. That is real freedom. The freedom to leave people alone! But people like Falwell believe in a very narrow definition of very limited freedoms. Still, if you met him......you'd like him.

You live in Washington D.C., where did you grow up?
I was born in Pensacola, Florida, and grew up for the most part in Florida. I will never live there again. It was hot. Indescribably hot. And full of bugs! It's a great place for a vacation, but not to live.

How long have you lived in Washington D.C.?
I've been in Washington for 12 years now, and I love it.

How is it different from where you grew up--what do you like or dislike about it?
There's not much that I really dislike about D.C. Despite what people might think, D.C. has a very rich musical scene and plenty of clubs and places to dance and see and hear live acts. The Washington Area Music Association is an active part of the D.C. scene, and holds an annual Cross Town jam kind of thing in which lots of local talent play out in clubs, and this is really great for baby bands trying to get noticed.

You've said that you idolize the Pet Shop Boys. I think your music is even better than what they did. Do you know if any of the Pet Shop Boys have heard you music?
I am a great admirer of PSB and even got to work with them for 2 days back in 1986 just as "West End Girls" was taking off in the U.S. At that time I was working for Black Entertainment TV here in Washington, and the boys came on a BET show called Video Soul and I was on the crew. At that point they were not at all famous and were actually very normal and down to Earth and were kind of shy. I remember them kind of sneaking into the control room after we shot a lip synch performance of "West End Girls" and they were so shocked at the sight of themselves on the monitors. They got the giggles and just laughed at themselves. They were very cool but obviously extremely talented. I don't know if they have ever heard my stuff. I have no contact with them now other than to hear their stuff when it comes out. I have every thing they've ever put out and I really do consider them a huge influence---but then I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Chris's arrangements are so imaginative that they boggle the mind sometimes. And of course Neil's lyrics and the vocals are completely unique.

Do you see yourself ever going to Hollywood?
I was in Hollywood about five years ago and actually had a good time although it's so different from the East Coast. Of course everyone from the East thinks that Hollywood is a sparkling, shiny place. And you get there and you find out that it's actually this magnificently shabby paradise with all these clubs and bars and just blocks and blocks of sin and debauchery---which of course I greatly enjoyed. I loved it. And I loved the sun and the fact that the weather never changed. That was wild. Seven days of exactly the same clouds in exactly the same place in the sky. Or so it seemed. WS: What did you think of the Grammy Awards this year? I actually did not see the Grammy's this year because I was recording that night and having too much fun to go turn on a TV set.

What do you think of Eminem's 'music'?
I think it sucks in the biggest possible way. I think to call what Eminem makes 'music' is really reaching. He's a poet, not a musical mind. And his poetry is of a limited variety. He's obviously full of hate, pain, and misery, and frankly if I want that kind of stuff I can read the Washington Post. I want to be taken away from that, not wallow in it. I certainly think he has every right to speak his mind, but I think he's a sad, pathetic cretin with an extremely negative view of life and of people, and really isn't it all about appealing to angry young teenaged boys? Eminem should bank all he can while they're young because he aint no Paul Simon or Sting. His career is about right now and about being a professional homophobic. He won't last. How could he? Ultimately people want beauty not ugliness.

Thank you. I was starting to wonder if I was the only person in the world who thought his crap was just that. Some of your lyrics are extremely dark, like the song about the boy who is killed during gay sex in Beverly Hills. Why did you choose Beverly Hills for the location of that story?
You are referring to a song of mine called "Wound Up Dead" and I really don't remember much about writing that. I think it was around the time of Jeffery Dawmer and the mention of Beverly Hills was in there I'm sure because it rhymes with "kills". The line is : "He took me to his house in Beverly Hills, 'cause that's the place he always goes, when he kills." I meant no disrespect to the fine people of Beverly Hills. And no that song is not autobiographical in any way.

Do you have stories and ideas that are so dark you can't even put them into songs or talk about them for fear of going to jail?
I do sometimes have lyrical ideas that I stop myself from using because they are just too out there. I have a very, very lovely song about suicide that I'll never release because it might contribute to someone doing that and I wouldn't want that. Sometimes the sexual content gets a little on the raunchy side. Maybe I should put that stuff out. The older I get the less worried I am about expressing that side of myself. Generally though I want to put out stuff that is universal enough that people can get something for themselves out of it. I try not to write "girl" or "boy" or "he" or "she" into any of my songs just because I don't want that kind of limit placed on how they can be interpreted.

Any record deals in the works?
There are a lot of things in the works regarding labels and so on. There are so many different directions I could go in. Right now we're just trying to figure out what exactly I want to do. I'm not really fond of the idea of going with a major label. I would prefer something like Tommy Boy or Astralwerks or a company with a smaller staff and more focus. I want to make sure I get a company that's really gonna go to work behind my records.

People always knock the big record labels, what do you think of them?
The big labels are BIG. And for that reason you can get lost. The horror stories are well known. That's why I think I would prefer a smaller indie label. Of course there are some great success stories that come out of the majors. The whole thing with Jewel and Atlantic is a remarkable story---in that they stuck by her for a lot longer than a major might normally and eventually she broke very big and made them a lot of money. So, you never know. I'm open to anything that makes sense.

Thank you Arlin.

© 2000 Supertrendy.com