Monthly Archives: April 2022

Few are the men who take risks and who risk themselves for others. As the poem says: Few are those who flee from the noise of our world and follow the hidden path. Where they have gone, the few wise men of our world have been. (Fray Luis de Len). This is because we are accustomed to protecting and caring for ourselves in a frenzy of selfishness and narcissistic hedonism. For this reason, the few men and women who go against the current, who leave the mold, those who understand life as a gift to serve others, make such an impact. Jesus of Nazareth was one of these people.

Holy Week is also called the Semana Mayor the most important week of the year by Catholic Christians. Within Holy Week, three days stand out: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, known as the Easter Triduum.

I want to refer to the meaning that this has, not only for Catholics or believers in Christ but for all humanity, the annual commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday.

In a world of inconsistencies between what is said and what is done, the figure of Jesus of Nazareth stands out authoritatively and draws attention, even today, dividing history into two parts, with his absolute transparency and consistency between his life and his preaching, through his deeds and with his words, between what he announced and denounced. He faced his death on the cross to the very end.

The figure of Jesus of Nazareth stands out authoritatively and draws attention, even today, dividing history into two parts

Passion and death were the fruit of his choices; all of them originating in his acknowledgment of God as Father and of all men as brothers, and, also, from his absolute certainty that happiness and the meaning of human life are achieved, not in the search for the power to crush and trample or in seeking ones comfort and pleasure, or in the accumulation of material goods, but, rather, in the generous giving of life in love, forgiveness, service, and solidarity with all, especially among those most in need: whoever selfishly guards and squanders his life loses it, but whoever spends it in love and service to others gains it forever (Cf. Mk 8:35).

That is why the Christian life, the life of those who, 2,000 years later, confess Jesus, the Christ, as their way, truth, and life (Jn 14:6) and who follow him as his disciples, is above all a way of life: the same life that He lived and that follows a logic that does not coincide with and instead contradicts the logic of the world: Because you are in the world, but you are not of the world (Jn 17:15).

In this clash of criteriabetween the world and the Gospel of Jesus persecutions are born and with the persecutions, the cross: Whoever wants to follow me must take up his cross (Mt 16:24); the same cross that He faced with complete authenticity, courage, and fidelity to his convictions and his commitments to God: Do not make my Fathers House into a den of thieves (Mt 21:12); his commitments with man: Because the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mk 2:27); with the truth: For this I was born to testify to the Truth (Jn 18:37); with freedom: Woe to you hypocritical Pharisees (Mt 23:13), When he saw that they wanted to proclaim him king, he fled (Jn 6:1), Go and tell that fox that I continue on my way (Lk 13:32); with justice: I want to give the same to the last as to the first (Mt 20:13) and fraternity: There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for ones friends (Jn 15:13).

For all these reasons, his preaching was rejected (No prophet is accepted in his own native land) (Lk 4:24). He was sentenced to death as a blasphemer and a false prophet, and he experienced the profound crisis of his sufferings and his death on the crossas a free gift and a total surrender: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (Lk 23:46)

The life of Jesus, like that of no other person in history, is marked by contrasts, by the disconcerting, by paradoxes, as a permanent sign of contradiction (Lk 2:34):

As has been said, his life and uninterrupted sequence of paradoxes reach their maximum expression in the events that we remember during Holy Week. Now, we can mark this annual commemoration as a walk through a museum of antiquities, a memory, and lamentation for unjust events that occurred in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, without implying, affecting, or transforming our present.

But there is an authentic way to commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of the Nazarene and, more than that, to make his lifes work more valid and current today. This consists of remembering what happened in the past to Jesus, the person, butat the same time and in that lightto review, challenge, question, and renew our entire present, to build a better future.

Because that Friday, 2,000 years ago, continues impacting our lives today in the sufferings of those who commit themselves to carry their own crosses and those of others, and in the lives of the Cyrenians and Veronicas who lighten the lives of others.

Because all the events that happened to Jesus, the person, repeat today and shed light on the lives of those who are capable of washing the feet of their brothers and of building fraternity by breaking and sharing bread or in the death sentences and the unjust deaths of so many innocents. Because that Friday, 2,000 years ago, continues impacting our lives today in the sufferings of those who commit themselves to carry their own crosses and those of others, and in the lives of the Cyrenians and Veronicas who lighten the lives of others. Because the falls experienced by Jesus, on his way to Calvary, clarify our falls and because his nudity illuminates the lives of the millions of dispossessed in a thousand ways in the world.

Today, although we have become accustomed to a thousand forms of suffering and death, we are called to build a world in which the perfection of man is found in the new commandment of love, according to the ideals, values, and criteria of He who was crucified by his hanging from a tree (Acts 5:30).

~

Mario J. Paredes is the Executive President of SOMOS Community Care, a network of 2,500 independent doctorsmostly primary care doctorswho attend to approximately one million Medicaid patients of limited resources in New York City.

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How the contrasts of Good Friday reach beyond believers - Aleteia

This coming weekend, a brand new nightclub is opening up in central Barcelona named Les Enfants Brillants.

The 400-capacity club sets up for the first time in Carrer de Gurdia just off the citys Gothic Quarter from the same team behind Barcelonas Input club in Poble Espanyol.

"With the opening of Les Enfants Brillants we seek to accommodate a different club experience in every way we can," the clubs manager, lex Molina, said on its opening.

Read this next: Spotify partners with FC Barcelona to rename Camp Nou

The nightclub will "create an atmosphere in which the public feels comfortable while immersing themselves in a world of hedonism in which they can enjoy good music every week, he added.

Opening this weekend on April 16, Les Enfants Brillants first club night features just two artists, Ferro and Monile for an unforgettable opening. We hope to see you all for this first dance, the club announced.

The club nights second event will take place just a day later on Sunday, April 17, welcoming in one of the mainstay artists of the French minimal scene, Traumer, for his Les Enfants Brillants debut.

Read this next: Snar festival announces full line-up for 2022 event

The Parisian is going to translate his passion for drums and percussion into certified dancefloor magic. Get ready to enjoy a versatile set where he will alternate genres mixing soft productions and more ecstatic tracks, the club added.

Divided into two spaces, Les Enfants Brillants features a main room where DJs will play through a soundsystem made up of 12 L-Acoustics speakers. In the other half of the venue, an in-built cocktail bar allows for a step back from the dancefloor.

In the weeks following the clubs opening events, line-ups feature Priku, Josh Baker, Kid Moss, Javier Carballo, and a collaborative event with French promoters Yoyaku.

Find out more about Les Enfants Brillants here.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter

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Brand new nightclub to open in Barcelona this weekend - Mixmag

As Miami is upon us and with Ibiza on the horizon Xtravaganza Recordings very own Alex Gold, presents Stranded in Paradise (The Anniversary Remixes). Marking a highly anticipated release from the labels front man.

Titled Stranded in Paradise and welcoming a selection of fresh 25th anniversary mixes, the record serves up a firm dose of Xtravaganzas trademark sound as one of dance musics original trailblazers enter into their twenty fifth year.

Xtravaganza Recordings requires little introduction and was seminal in shaping early dance music culture, with the label also having played an instrumental part in launching Armin van Burrens career, with the release of his debut Blue Fear back in 1997.

Whilst Alex Gold and the label are also credited with executive production and crafting the early stages of Chicanes career, releasing and developing the first two albums and Balearic favourites Behind The Sun & Far From The Maddening Crowd. Xtravaganza then went on to create an enviable stable and clock up a number of much loved and classic releases, with the label firmly cementing itself in electronic music history.

Founded in 1996, by the legendary music producer Alex Gold his natural A&R talent, coupled with an unrivalled entrepreneurial spirit saw Xtravaganza become one of dance musics true players and pioneer much of the early Balearic sound, delivering hedonism on a truly global scale. Notching up over fifteen million sales, the label would also go onto deliver two UK No1 hit singles and its internationally famed formula, for an accessible and cosmopolitan, Ibiza focused sound has remained true throughout.

Across its expansive twenty five year history, some of the greatest names in dance music have appeared on the label including Tisto, Paul van Dyk, Above & Beyond, Chicane, Agnelli & Nelson, Chris Lake, Andy C (Groove Armada), Dhasse, Adam K & Soha and Armin van Buuren.

And further highlighting its far reaching level of influence and industry dominance, recording artists such as Bryan Adams, Marie Brennan (Clannad), Phillip Oakey (Human League), Chuck D, Public Enemy and Prince all went onto feature on the label.

Alex Gold himself (under his then Dhasse alias) was also responsible for the remixes of the London 2012 Olympic Games theme tune, the Public Enemy cut Harder Than You Think.

Fast forward to the present, as Stranded in Paradise takes up centre stage hold tight.

Listen to the track below.

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Alex Gold, presents 'Stranded in Paradise' (The Anniversary Remixes) - Rave Jungle

Read Time:9 Minute, 11 Second

Singer/guitarist Wafah and bassist Celeste, joined by drummer Lucy, are deep tan, a tightly wound trio who came together through friends, house parties and clubs of East London after Wafah and Celeste had spent some time in LA. Crafting vibrant minimal music that is wired, menacing and plugged into the uncertainty, cynicism and absurdity of our times. From hedonism to revenge pornography to deep fakes and real-world issues, their knowing music is laser-focused, reflecting the outer edges of society and culture.

Their second EP diamond horsetail will be available digitally from 6th May and on vinyl from 22nd July. Theyre currently in the midst of a tour with Bambara and Bodega.

I caught up with all three members via zoom.

Diamond Horsetail is the name of a weed killer because we want to do two EPs before moving on, so its like a nice second part of that cycle. Celeste explains With both of them, the name is chosen because there can be a lot of different meanings with the tracks. Its the sound of us coming together, they feel a lot bigger and bolder. More beefy and muscular.

Muscular fits with the artwork then. adds Wafa.

The artwork is like an amalgamation of a beefy bodybuilder and of a horse Celeste continues I dont know if you know the MEME, theres a really ripped dog and theres a really pathetic dog next to it, so our EP is like a nod to it. Theres a really ripped horse on the cover and a pathetic horse on the back, its basically because we love MEMEs. The MEMES get more and more niche as they go along and they end up if you havent seen the first one and a lot of our stuff is based on memes really isnt it, Lucy offers do you ever ascend on the first EP is written about a meme pageThe mood of the EP is a bit more cheeky than the first one, its more intricate in terms of the instrumentation and lighter in tone and its also an evolution I think.

French-speaking Wafah tells me. Its not about constricting us to an idea. We are feeling it out in terms of how the next step is going to sound. When things are added they are added because in that specific space something is needed there, not that oh I wanted it to sound like that, its more the sound of the song itself and what fits. Most of our stuff isnt structured, Camelot is not really structured, or beginners krav maga has three choruses and two intros.

Their recent single rudy ya ya ya is a short sharp shock of trademark deep tan: scalpel-like guitars gouge above an ominously skittish rhythm section with Wafahs pointed yet detached vocal laced in sardonic black humour that surrounds the melting public image of Rudy. Its about Rudy Giuliani, that scene in Borat 2 where he is caught with his pants down when he is seduced, or ambushed or punkd by the interviewer Wafah laughs. Celeste offers Some of our songs we are just trolling, and a bit cheeky. The Rudy song we are just trolling Rudy Giuliani and we watched Borat 2 and it gave us so much life and this can work its way in!

Last years debut EP Creeping Speedwells was awesome, as evidenced by deepfake, the breakneck, clanging guitars and dissonant homage to a heavy nightcamelotand insidious cold-wave anthem,hollow scene about the feeling of having to move through life with a certain level of detachment in order to function.

Creeping Speedwells, is the name of a common garden plant. It was called that because 2020 was a really tough fucking year, so we found a newfound respect for weeds of the world finding their way up through the cracks in tough conditions! Explains Celeste. Its a double entendre but its actually about weeds. The name was chosen because they can have a lot of different meanings.

Each deep tan composition captures the mood of that moment. Its a document where each element has to play its part, like a living breathing organism rather than overly thought out, overproduced songs, little wonder they are influenced by artists like The Cure and The Fall and one can even hear elements of the likes of Television, Young Marble Giants or Siouxsie and the Banshees. Whatever fits will go in the song. Its a timestamp of this moment. Part of it is also because we write collaboratively when we sit down and discuss it. Explains Celeste Waf and I will sit down and we get a metronome out and we will pick a speed. When we are doing lyrics we sit with the song when its just at the beginning, just an instrumental and say ok what does this song feel like? Wafah continues Its also what fits but it needs to fit the mood of the track as well. As a three-piece, I feel all the parts need to be strong and to be able to stand alone, theres no room for hiding.

Working with producer Dan Carey last year released a more improvised single with Speedy Wunderground called tamus yiffing revenge. He recorded us in half a day. Celeste explains. It was speedy! Lucy adds

Wafah continues It was fun. It was a fun day, it was a memorable day. Its exciting being in that studio with all those machines, it looks like a big bunker with electronics and machinery and its like whats going to come out of this wall of machines?

Their single beginners krav maga from earlier this year carried an important message. Raw, inventive and cool, with metallic guitars and scampering rhythms punctuated by dexterous vocals, it was another superb single with a wry take on contemporary themes. The band expand on the meaning behind the song.

beginners krav maga is a response to the idea that womxn should take self-defence classes in order to feel safe on the street at night. Womxn shouldnt have to. Yet it seems like every day theres a new Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa or Aisling Murphy. Educate your sons, brothers, guy friends. Male violence against womxn is an epidemic and it needs to stop, so we made a pop song to talk about it.

Being a subject that was very much on our minds, it felt wrong to write a whole bunch of songs without making reference to it, making art when you are working collaboratively, and this work being a period of time, and not referencing something like that, theres two layers to it Wafa explains I was really impressed by how many men were posting in complete solidarity. We are moving in the right direction. The reason for the title is if you ever search for the most deadly martial arts and krav maga is the most vicious style of fighting there is. It was saying that as a woman even if I was taking the most vicious hand to hand combat then I still wouldnt feel safe.

For a band on a swift ascent, lockdown in 2020 presented its own very real challenges for each member of deep tan but also made them more focused on songwriting. It was frustrating but in a way it gave us time to write material. No gigs to go to so time to write. Wafa tells me. In some sense, it was one of the best things to happen when lockdown two happened, I was made redundant from my job and we worked so much, we would call Lucy up and have listening sessions and make a playlist, so we made the best of the time we had. Celeste remembers.

I dont take part loads in the lyric writing from my perspective it kind of internet-based thats just natural coming out of lockdown Lucy notes The internet is the way most people interact with each other I feel like its taking effect on the songwriting. Theres one song about loving your mobile phone. You work all day on a screen then in your downtime you are staring at a screen

Its called device devotion about being addicted to your phone Celeste reveals. Its like a shield, you can choose when you are in front of someone you have to be interactive but with the internet, its more selective. Wafa observes of social media she adds that Its like everyone shouting at once

The Social Dilemma on Netflix goes into the brain of all the algorithms. Celeste remarks it gets really dark, its like the presence of social media in our lives, how it is now is tearing our social fabrics apart. The algorithms can be used to sway elections like in Ethiopia there has been this huge political divide because of hacking or Trump in America where these divides have led. It also talks about how the response your brain gets is like a dopamine rush similar to what you would get from gambling. Like whenever your phone lights up now our brains are now wired to deal with our phones its completely in the addiction centres of our brains and how dangerous it is.

In the lyrics of device devotion there are a few references in the social dilemma like whenever you unlock your phone its like spinning the wheel in the casino Celeste notes so when Wafa sings I spin the wheel I spin the wheel also there are references to random browser searches.

Its a Pavlov reaction, your phone rings the bell and your like a dog panting Wafah adds.

Its rare for acts to write about the internet without it sounding try-hard, with deep tan its part of what inspires their artistry, how can it not when most of us spend our lives online? Theres a resistance to it because people think that they want a song to be more timeless but ultimately it is because of what we are actually living. Initially, I had that feeling. Celeste observes. We can do both as well. Diamond Horsetail has BDSM overtones and is a revenge story Wafah points out about dousing someone with poisonous liquid.

Tour dates:14 Apr Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh [Supporting Bambara] SOLD OUT15 Apr Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh [Supporting Bambara] SOLD OUT16 Apr Stereo, Glasgow [Supporting Bambara]18 Apr The Leadmill, Sheffield [Supporting Bambara]19 Apr Hare and Hounds, Birmingham [Supporting Bambara] SOLD OUT6 May Focus Wales, Wrexham7 May Are You Listening Festival?, Reading20 May Zerox, Newcastle21 May The Great Eastern Festival, Edinburgh22 May Record Junkee, Sheffield24 May Rough Trade, Nottingham25 May Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff27 May Headrow House, Leeds28 May YES (Basement) (Mood Swings) Manchester29 May Hare & Hounds, Birmingham1 Jun Venue MOT, London22-24 Jul Truck Festival, Oxford

https://deeptan.bandcamp.com/

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IN CONVERSATION: deep tan the (songs) feel a lot bigger and bolder. More beefy and muscular - God Is In The TV

Gilbert Gottfried, who died on Tuesday at age 67 after a long battle with a genetic muscle disease, was a true comic's comic. A throwback to setup-and-punchline humor in an era dominated by storytellers and observational comedians, he relied on impeccable timing and a peculiar style part whiny voice, part squinted eyes to pummel his audiences with joke after joke. HIs delivery made him unique and unforgettable, and his mastery of an audience left his fellow comedians in awe.

"If Gilbert wanted to kill, forget about it," stand-up comic Ritch Shydner told Salon. Shydner often had the unenviable task of following Gottfried at New York comedy clubs.

He relied on impeccable timing and a peculiar style . . . to pummel his audiences with joke after joke.

Born in Coney Island, Gottfried grew up in a small apartment above the hardware store his father and uncle ran. He was an awkward child who earned his fellow students' acceptance by becoming the class clown . . . at least on the days he attended school, which were few and far between. Whenever he could, he played hooky, spending his days in the library reading books. At home, he lived in front of the television.

Gottfried decided early on that show business was his calling. "I couldn't sing. I couldn't dance. I wasn't particularly good-looking," he wrote in his autobiography, "Rubber Balls and Liquor." "I had no discernible talent or admirable qualities, although I did like to do voices."

When he was still in high school, Gottfried developed a string of impressions that amused his family so much his sister decided he was ready for a real audience. She took her 15-year-old brother to "Hootenanny Night" at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. His first gig went well enough that Gottfried continued to perform there weekly, building his act and eventually performing anywhere he could in the nascent 1970s Manhattan comedy scene.

In the early days of cable, MTV gave Gottfried his big break, hiring him to record ad-libbed bits to be aired between music videos. His MTV presence led to a brief stint on "Saturday Night Live," which in turn earned him a series of movie roles. After appearing as an accountant in "Beverly Hills Cop II" alongside his former "SNL" castmate Eddie Murphy, Gottfried became a regular performer, often creating memorable characters with his unmistakable voice. His most notable role: Iago the parrot in "Aladdin."

RELATED: Bob Saget, a dirty daddy: Appreciating the darker elements of the talented comedian's work

"Our hearts are shattered at the loss of our beloved friend, collaborator, behind-the-scenes mischief maker, and most irreverent spirit, full of light and magic," wrote Linda Larkin, Scott Weinger, and Jonathan Freeman, his co-stars in "Aladdin," on Instagram. "Gilbert Gottfried, you were one of a kind."

Throughout his career, Gottfried's acerbic joke-telling remained his calling card. From his regular work in comedy clubs to his appearances on "The Howard Stern Show" and on Comedy Central, he worked as blue as he could, often tackling material too edgy for most comedians.

"Gilbert was a marvelous mimic and impressionist," Shydner told Salon, "but it was his daring assaults on forbidden subjects that caused the other comics to bow at his feet."

"It was his daring assaults on forbidden subjects that caused the other comics to bow at his feet."

Sometimes, his willingness to take comedic risks cost him. In 2011, hours after a devastating tsunami hit the coast of Japan, Gottfried tweeted jokes that seemed to minimize the resulting human suffering. Although they were tamer than some of his regular material, the insurance company AFLAC which had cast Gottfried as the voice of its commercial duck fired him from the gig.

Actor/comedian Gilbert Gottfried performs at the International Myeloma Foundation's 6th Annual Comedy Celebration hosted by Ray Romano benefiting The Peter Boyle Research Fund at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre on October 27, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for IMF)One particular Gottfried joke went far past edginess, however, into a transcendent stratosphere, enshrining him in American comic history: "The Aristocrats."

For a short while after Sept. 11, comedy felt both inappropriate and impossible. The networks pulled their late night talk shows off the air, and the media declared that the age of sarcasm was over. Laughter seemed like collateral damage in the War on Terror. After two somber weeks, however, Comedy Central decided to go forward with a roast of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Gottfried decided that leaving comedy moribund would mean the terrorists had won, and he wasn't about to let that happen on his watch.

"I just wanted to be the first person to make a really-poor-taste joke about September 11," he wrote for Vulture.

And did he ever. Gottfried opened with a joke about not being able to get a direct flight from New York to California because they needed to stop at the Empire State Building first. Then he told a self-deprecating, defamatory joke about the Muslim version of his name: "Hasn't Been Laid."

"I just wanted to be the first person to make a really-poor-taste joke about September 11."

Vinnie Favale, producer of "The Howard Stern Show," was there in the room when it happened. He told Salon that after that opening, "There was a shift in the room." The audience wasn't ready to laugh at recent events. No matter. " . . . Then he went right into the Aristocrats joke and stole the show."

The beauty of "The Aristocrats" the legendary, long-winded joke about a family that performs a lewd vaudeville act for a talent scout is all in the telling. As Gottfried's description of the family's deviant act stretched on, his whiny voice turning staccato and getting louder, audience members slowly surrendered to the bit, some literally falling on the floor. By the time he ended the gag with its classic punchline the agent asks the family what they call their act, and the family says "The Aristocrats" Gottfried had jump-started comedy, sending a clear signal that it was not "too soon" but rather it was OK to laugh again.

Gilbert Gottfried performs at The Stress Factory Comedy Club on November 25, 2015 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Getty Images/Bobby Bank/WireImage)

In recent years, he started "Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast," which revealed a new side of his comedic mind. Each episode offered penetrating insights into popular culture built on Gottfried's encyclopedic knowledge of comedy, movies, commercials, and cartoons.

RELATED: Interview: So, Gilbert Gottfried, about those tsunami jokes . . .

One particular target of his podcast criticism was one much-beloved 1986 Matthew Broderick movie. On Broderick's birthday, Gottfried took to Twitter to wish the actor well, but opened with a savage assessment: "I still f**kin hate 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'"

Although the film might have seemed innocent when it came out, Gottfried argued, a story in which Bueller's nihilistic hedonism triumphs over characters who were just trying to do their jobs and care about others landed differently during the Trump era.

"His podcast is a comedy treasure," Judd Apatow noted on Twitter. "What a terrible loss."

Gottfried was known for his gentle, almost shy, offstage presence, a significant contrast to his bombastic stand-up persona. "He was the sweetest guy in real life," Favale recalled. As widely beloved as he was by comedians, however, his family treasured him the most.

"In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, friend and father to his two young children," they shared on social media. "Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert's honor.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Although a secular Jew, Gottfried did reflect on the possibility of an afterlife in his autobiography: "If there is a hell," he wrote, "and if that's where I'm going, there'll probably be an endless gag reel being played on some big-screen television of me trying to talk to women."

Fittingly, in his final social media post, Gottfried defended the right of comedians to work the bleeding edge in their material, just as he'd done himself throughout his career:

"Which is the worst crime? Chris Rock being physically assaulted or Chris Rock telling a joke?"

To the very end, he devoted himself to the art of the joke setup, punchline, and laughter and everything jokes can engender: great offense, deep insights and relief from great tragedy.

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Gilbert Gottfried, defender of transgressive comedy and a throwback to the great joke-tellers - Salon

Rocknroll was born when we were kids, says Brian May. We were the luckiest people on the planet. The Queen guitarist is chatting on Zoom but we are having technical issues, so all I can see is a black screen with the word Brian on it.

Somewhere behind those five white letters, from which emanates a gentle, thoughtful voice, is the glam-rock being whose towering curls form an iconic hairdo, an astrophysicist whose guitar riffs can shift tectonic plates, and who, in the white heat of the solo on We Will Rock You, sounds like he is setting fire to ice.

The 74-year-old has been thinking about the minor heart attack he suffered in the early months of 2020. It came as a shock to May, who cycles, has a low-fat diet and doesnt smoke.

He had stents fitted to deal with blockages in three arteries but, he tells me: The conclusion we came to was that it could have been due to an early Covid infection because we were in Japan and Korea just ahead of the wave. Queen were touring East Asia with the singer Adam Lambert in January that year, and May had a cough all through the trip.

More than two years later, the band will finally be back on stage, and the guitarist is focused on being fully fit when the tour resumes in Belfast in May.

Before then, there is the reissue of his 1998 album Another World, the second of two solo works that May released in the 90s, after the death of Freddie Mercury in 1991.

Both stand the test of time, yet the genesis of Another World was unusual. The ethereal title track was written for the film Sliding Doors but not used; the thrash metal Cyborg was created for a video game; and Business, which could have been a classic Queen rocker, was composed as a theme tune for the 1993 BBC comedy-drama Frank Stubbs Promotes, starring Timothy Spall as a down-on-his-luck promoter.

Given the traumatic sequence of loss at the time May had lost his father and his marriage, as well as his friend and frontman Mercury, which led to his 1992 debut, Back to the Light did the bleakness of his lyrics for Spall, I got nothing and no one in my life, have a personal meaning?

I have this theory that anyone who writes songs or poetry or paints cannot avoid being autobiographical, he says. Im a depressive. I dont wallow in it, but I have that in me, and sometimes it will take over, and thats how I will feel: Ive got nothing dont tell me Im a successful rock star, dont tell me Ive got money. Ive got a great relationship, Ive got great kids. Something inside me is telling me that Im failing and there is no hope. Its not logical.

May has been happily remarried, to former EastEnders star Anita Dobson, since 2000, yet one of the reasons the songs on Another World still feel relevant, he says, is that the same battles are going on and Im hoping I will still win them and hoping people who listen to it relate to that and will be able to win their battles.

There is a hint of a different kind of battle on China Belle, a hard rocker with a seeming subtext to its lyrics: You take her as you find her but you never can quit. I wonder if its about heroin. No, he insists. Ive never tried heroin I think relationships are my drug. I have a kind of addictive personality, but its not to substances. I never have been that kind of an animal. Thank God. That on top of everything else would have killed me long ago.

I mention an article Id read about the infamously debauched launch party for the Queen album Jazz in New Orleans in 1978, which reportedly involved the finest Bolivian cocaine offered from trays carried on the heads of dwarfs, nude waiters, snake charmers, and guests offered their choice of oral satisfaction in the bathrooms.

The piece suggested that May, not Mercury, had been the ringmaster is that true? No, I think the opposite, really. I was on the fringes. I enjoyed it, but generally my head was in another place. I spent at least half of that party in a car looking for the girl I hoped would arrive. The old addictive romantic in me was much more taken up by that than by what was going on in the party.

He looks back on that whole era of rock hedonism with a measure of humour and forgiveness, because life was different in those days, everything was different. I always tried to be a decent person, and consider peoples feelings.

I lived the life of a rock star, but not truly to excess. And there is a lot of confusion in there, because I got married shortly before we first started touring and thats not a great idea so I resisted getting sexually involved on tour, and for a long time, didnt, but then gradually, I think some of the walls came down. But for me, the music was always it.

The painful end of the bands glory years was explored in the recent BBC documentary Freddie Mercury: The Final Act. It told the story of the singers final years with Aids alongside accounts of others who lost loved ones when the disease took hold in the 80s.

Was Mays close involvement with the film a response to criticism that the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody which May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor nursed to the screen over 12 years had brushed over Mercurys sexuality and illness? I think thats bollocks, he says of the criticism.

The rumour persisted after the departure of Sacha Baron Cohen, who had been lined up to play Mercury, long before the Oscar-winning Rami Malek took over the role. Taylor recently opined, having watched his previous films, that Baron Cohen would have been utter shit as the singer.

Is there anger there? Its a shame because we got on very well for a while. And he did bring some energy to the project for which I will always be grateful but we parted in an unfortunate way. We said, We would like to part company as good friends and thanks for what youve done. His publicist then told the world that he had walked out on us. It ended up with him slagging off the film, and saying that he had quit because of there not being enough gay sex in it.

I dont think we skirted around anything, May notes. I think its all there. We didnt over-glamorise Freddie. And the boys who played us were so magnificent. They got inside our skins.

I dont think the film would have been a billion-dollar smash if all youre looking at had been sexual detail. It wasnt necessary. Im very proud of the film.

A sequel may be on the cards. There is a story we would like to tell because the end of the film is Live Aid, and of course thats not the end of the Queen story by any means, May confirms. But it needs to have a coherent story, and it needs to be entertaining, because Freddie would be the first to say: Dont put out anything thats boring.

Being part of a rock band that expanded the possibilities of sexual identity at a time when it was difficult to talk about such things publicly, does he have a view of the polarising topic of sex and gender in todays society?

I have to be honest, Im very old school, he says. And I have difficulty with a lot of the woke stuff because I think its very punitive theres a lack of empathy, a lack of perspective, a lack of compassion. And I find a lot of it damaging.

My generation has been vilified. Were viewed as having made the wrong decisions, and right now as having an unacceptable vocabulary. But changing peoples vocabulary does not change the way they behave.

As someone who likes to speak his mind, he says, he is constantly asking himself whether he is going to be misinterpreted, which he says has already happened. Somebody got the idea that I wouldnt have wanted a transsexual in the band, which is rubbish, because we didnt care.

I actually said: Did you not notice the fact that Fred wasnt exactly straight. He wasnt exactly English. He wasnt exactly white. Do you think it made a hairs breadth of difference to us? No. We were all musicians, young people with dreams. And thats all that mattered. We had a vision in music. And I think that innocence, sadly, has been lost.

What troubles him most about the present moment, though, is the way that truth has no value any more starting with Donald Trump and continuing with Vladimir Putin. Its not entirely new, he notes.

Weve been told there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We all protested and said: Tony Blair, do not invade Iraq. And he did, saying: Im justified. And there was no justification. So were not whiter than white. But the scale on which the violence is happening now, and the scale at which lies are being told is just colossal and desperately sad.

The fact that you can actually lie, bare-faced, and say, No, this isnt happening while somebodys being tortured to death that absolutely kills me.

Another World is released on 22 April

Originally posted here:

Brian May: 'A lot of the woke stuff is very punitive. My generation has been vilified' - iNews