NO ANGEL - IAN HENDERSON answers a burning question or two about his new video - Angel Town.

Cape Town based folk singer/songwriter Ian Henderson has released a new video to accompany the second single off SUPERGLUE, his latest studio album. PY-TV takes a good look and dials up the heat...

PY: Congratulations on the video for Angel Town! Its different and very personal.

IH: Thanks - that's probably a pretty good byline for the music as well.

PY: We are going to put you on the PY-TV hot seat for a second. Do you mind?

IH: I'm delighted, actually.



ANGEL TOWN VIDEO created by Ian Henderson & Shanna Jones

PY: Looking at the video, I see a lot of footage taken from the "Infecting the City" outdoor arts festival - were these scenes recreated or the actual events?

IH: Recreated, for copyright purposes, of course. We had a cast of 249 and we promised them the world.

PY: Did you get permission?

IH: What?

PY: Why so much footage of Long Street and the CBD?

IH: My DOP Shanna Jones insisted. I wanted to shoot the mountain, Camps Bay and Sol Kerzner's new hotel at the Waterfront. And then retire to the drawing room for cognac.

PY: Do you really like Cape Town?

IH: I confess - I have an ambivalent feeling about it. As if I should like it a lot more than I do. It's a bit like the guy with the kids, the car and the perfect job and wife who everyone is telling should be happy. I look around everyday and it's so beautiful, and there are so many cool kids doing all the right things, and the euros think it's wonderful, and Gucci and Prada are here... but something's still missing. I'm sure it's just me...

PY: Is Cape Town really an 'Angel' town?

IH: I was being polite - when I wrote this song I really had a menagerie of vicious little devils on my shoulder. But it was a statement of hope and belief in the future.

PY: Is Cape Town the best place to be for your music career?

IH: Live local, think global. There's no right place to be right now. I went to NYC last year thinking I might move there, and although I love that city it's also got its issues. I'd like to be closer to a big market, but airfares are cheap and Europeans have a fascination with all things African so I'm trading on that.

PY: Who are your top five Facebook friends?

IH: I only use Facebook for keeping in touch with ex-girlfriends and they keep de-friending me so at the moment I think I only have three.

PY: What is happening to the music industry?

IH: It's alive, well and throbbing with potential. It's three short crawls from the grave. Depends who you listen to. Almost nobody is buying records, but the burn to create is more than alive and well everywhere. Maybe the whole business side of things should fall to pieces to drive the no-good, lame, fake-ass pop whores and their motherfucker managers and business entities into the drain (yes, that includes the whole of Idols) so that real music can get some limelight again? I'm beginning to think I honestly don't care and that the point is to create and carry on and do your thing because you want to.

PY: What did you dream last night?

IH: No idea. (but I was tempted to make something up…)

PY: You are most like which of these artists?:

A - Jim Morrison
B - Rick Astley
C - Paul Young
D - Kate Bush
E - Beck

IH: If I was hipper I'd say Beck, if I really didn't give a fuck I'd say Rick Astley, but the honest answer is probably Kate Bush. I was in love with her in the Cloudbusting video when I was nine.

PY: Have you ever starred in or directed a "home movie"?

IH: As the man said, "I never inhaled".

PY: How much has the album Superglue cost to produce and market?

IH: Hmmm. Not sure, really, but it was damn cheap to make considering the quality of the production and the artists who played on it. If we're billing time, on the other hand, it was so expensive even I can't afford it. I'm planning to be in Stockholm to record the next album at the end of this year, and when I told my record company guy what the budget would be he choked into his latte and told me a well known SA band had just spent five times that on mixing their record in New York. Apparently you can't make a good record for that amount of money. Watch me!

PY: If you were stuck on a desert island with a wind up grammophone, and only allowed one of these records, which would it be?:

A - David Bowie - Low
B - ABC - The Lexicon of Love
C - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
D - Neil Young - Harvest
E - Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
F - The Beatles - Abbey Road
G - U2 - Achtung Baby
H - The Beatles - Revolver
I - Radiohead - OK Computer
J - Bjork - Debut

IH: Revolver

PY: Why?

IH: While I appreciate their place in the musical pantheon I'm no Bowie, Led Zep or Young fan. Let's be honest, OK Computer is a depressing record (Kid A would be much more my thing), Bjork is like pepper - you can't digest too much of it. U2? Na. Van and The Beatles would be close, but I'd take Revolver for enduring interest and cause I don't know it all that well.

PY: To blog or not to blog?

IH: Well, I do but I'm crap at it. Let's face it, it's one hell of a step up on twitter, but I suppose I should feel guilty for contributing to the endless soup of nonsense floating around in this big bucket that's supposed to be storing our valued cultural consciousness.

PY: Mmm… well yes, at least it isn’t Twitter.

Ian Henderson's new album Superglue is available for download from itunes and at major retailers in South Africa. For more information click here.