As a tribute to Robbie Robinson, who has died aged 80, Uncut revisits our last interview with him, from our October 2019 challenge.

In 2019, Nick Hasted interviewed Robbie Robertson for Uncut about Sinematic – his first solo album in eight years. Additionally up for dialogue have been his upcoming soundtrack for his outdated pal Martin Scorsese’s new movie The Irishman and two Band tasks: a reissue of their second album and the documentary, As soon as Had been Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band. Now learn on…

Robertson is within the strategy of addressing the bizarre logistics in his present workload. There’s a new solo album, Sinematic – his first since 2011’s How To Turn into Clairvoyant – in addition to a rating for The Irishman, the forthcoming gangster movie directed by Robertson’s outdated housemate, Martin Scorsese. However regardless of such thrilling present tasks, the previous is rarely too distant. The Band story continues to beguile. First, a brand new documentary, As soon as Had been Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band – based mostly on Robertson’s 2016 memoir, Testimony – opens the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition on September 5. A Fiftieth anniversary boxset of The Band’s second album arrives a number of months later, in November. Fortuitously, Robertson is just not solely comfy managing these a number of profession strands concurrently – he’s, it transpires, equally comfy sharing candid reminiscences from his earlier life. A large-ranging dialog with Robertson will cowl his function within the collapse of The Band – “I ended herding cats” – and heavy instances dwelling on Mulholland Drive with Scorsese – “We crossed the road.” However Robertson can even acknowledge the magic at work within the music he has been making for greater than 50 years – and the deep friendships cast alongside the way in which. “I like Dylan like a brother,” he acknowledges. Certainly, Robertson reveals {that a} new collaboration with Dylan might quickly be added to the slate. There are different long-standing
conspirators, too – Van Morrison, who duets with Robertson on Sinematic’s opening observe, “I Hear You Paint Homes”, is “hilarious – he cracks me up”. In the meantime, Robertson attests that his artistic relationship with Scorsese is “proper up there” with Dylan and The Band.
Speaking of Scorsese, Testimony concluded with The Final Waltz – the director’s movie of The Band’s last live performance at Winterland Ballroom in November 1976. Robertson reveals {that a} follow-up quantity is imminent. “This subsequent guide is heading into the fog,” he guarantees. “I’m going into nice element on the destruction and magic that went collectively throughout that [late-’70s] interval. There was a very long time once I didn’t wish to discuss it. I may solely see gloom. I didn’t perceive why individuals could be the way in which they have been.”

“When The Band separated in 1976, it was alleged to be a time for therapeutic,” he continues. “For every of us to look within the mirror and say, ‘I’ve bought to have respect for this extraordinary expertise and this excellent music that we’ve been capable of make collectively.’ We created one thing that modified the course of well-liked music. A few of what occurred
afterwards was simply a part of a pure evolution. People have totally different goals, and also you separate off to observe them. Now once I can look again and write about it, it’s a lot simpler to acknowledge the requirements of what occurred.”
Though his bittersweet glory days with The Band are taking on a lot of his time in 2019, Robertson appears to not thoughts. “It was one thing that was so robust. I’m fully glad with it,” he says of his outdated group. “And with the documentary As soon as Had been Brothers, from the title that it’s not simply to do with The Band. It’s quite a bit to do with Dylan. It’s joyous and transferring. It’s from the center. So I’m feeling excellent about that. I’m feeling excellent about Sinematic. I’m feeling excellent about The Irishman, and the Fiftieth anniversary of The Band album. So, no, I don’t take into consideration unfinished enterprise.”

UNCUT: Sinematic covers plenty of deep floor. Did engaged on Testimony and As soon as Had been Brothers put you in reflective temper?
ROBBIE ROBERTSON: I feel there was a way of freedom after Testimony. It made me really feel extra comfy about reliving some stuff. Additionally engaged on The Irishman after which As soon as Had been Brothers got here collectively in a pleasant gumbo. For this document, I felt a freedom to let the whole lot come collectively. Do you attempt to maintain all these tasks separate, or does one
naturally inform one other? I’m drawn to it. A main instance of this stuff bleeding into each other is “I Hear You Paint Homes” – which is the identify of the guide The Irishman is predicated on, I Heard You Paint Homes. It’s a wierd expression. It means, “I hear you kill individuals” – to color homes is the splattering of blood. Van Morrison was in Los Angeles, and we normally get collectively when he’s on the town; he’s an expensive outdated pal. I went again to my studio and performed the tune for him. The subsequent factor I knew, he had a microphone in entrance
of him, I confirmed him the phrases. He simply nodded and stated, “All proper. Let’s go!” So we sang a duet. It was a enjoyable, immediate, loopy collaboration. You get them typically, however not usually sufficient.

Has Van modified a lot because you first met him within the ’60s?
I don’t know… I do know that he pulls no punches when speaking about one thing or anyone. He’s very deliberate and trustworthy in his opinions. However to me it’s fantastic, his nature. I’ve simply recognized it so lengthy and I embrace it. It’s simply edgy. I discover Van hilarious – he cracks me up!

On “Let Love Reign”, you sing about “this lovely damaged world” – although the overriding message appears to be one in all peace and optimism. Is {that a} throwback to the spirit of the ’60s?
It was impressed by John Lennon’s name for peace. Folks say that dream fully died and fell aside inside. However, no, I don’t imagine it did. It’s the premise for the most effective of issues. That era, who got here of age through the late ’60s and early ’70s, stood up and helped cease a warfare. Love gained. Peace gained. We hope that that may proceed. I used to be driving in LA sooner or later and “All You Want Is Love” got here on the radio. I do know it’s a naïve factor, however I believed, ‘You recognize what? That’s going to dwell endlessly.’ This different shit goes to be right here and gone.

“Lifeless Finish Child” appears to handle a basic a part of your life with the road: “I bear in mind the place I began from.” Is that the case?
“Lifeless Finish Child” was an expression that was round once I was rising up for somebody who will get in bother on a regular basis. A part of my household got here from the Indian Six Nations Reserve. It was actually robust to get anyplace if that was your background. On the opposite facet, there have been largely Jewish gangsters. Even once I joined Ronnie Hawkins once I was 16, I clearly bear in mind him telling me, “You’d be doing time if I hadn’t employed you.” I’d snicker and go, “Oh, no, no.” However there was undoubtedly an excellent probability that I may have simply gone down the unsuitable road one evening.

With that background, did you’re feeling like an outsider?
I don’t know. As a result of once I stumbled into music, that occurred on the Indian reserve. All my family, cousins and uncles and aunts appeared to play devices. However I used to be drawn to the guitar due to cowboy motion pictures. When my mother and father bought me my first guitar, it had an image of a cowboy on it. It was the Indians on the reserve who taught me how one can play.

So the Six Nations Reserve was important in creating your early musical life?
To begin with, once I was very younger, and we might go from town, Toronto, to go to the family, I believed, ‘These individuals, they’ve bought it made. They know how one can dwell.’ As a result of they’d this reference to the wilderness and the earth. They know how one can develop issues and make a weapon in a minute, and so they all carry knives. All people performed music, and knew how one can run into the fields and decide wild strawberries. There was a magnificence to that, and to the waterways that they swam. So I grew up pondering they’d it made. It wasn’t ’til years later once I heard individuals say, “Oh, it’s actually too unhappy in regards to the Indians.” I slept with all of my cousins of their rooms. I used to be an solely baby, and so they’re all collectively, and I’m pondering, ‘That is improbable. You don’t need to really feel such as you’re alone.’ There was that a part of it. There was the music it afforded me. There was a way of my very own heritage in my mum, which I carry with me.

“Lovely Insanity” touches in your time dwelling with Scorsese within the late ’70s. The lyric refers to Nic Ray’s movie Larger Than Life, a couple of man whose life spins uncontrolled after he turns into hooked on a drug. Was James Mason’s character in that movie somebody you recognized with again then?
[Laughs] Maybe! I used to be watching it with an eye fixed like, ‘Jesus, that man’s loopy!’ On the identical time, you’re proper – it most likely was me saying, “I understand how he feels!” Within the ’60s and ’70s, there was a particular insanity within the air. At the moment, Martin Scorsese and I’d watch motion pictures on a regular basis. Larger Than Life was one in all them. I believed, ‘I like driving near the sting. However I don’t wish to go over.’

Throughout that interval, you and Scorsese have been bachelor coke fiends dwelling in an unfurnished house with blackedout home windows. The tune sees this era as a important stage in your relationship…
Yep, that’s very true. Earlier on, I might need thought, ‘Holy shit, man – we’re fortunate we’re nonetheless alive.’ I may have dwelt on that. However now, when Marty and I discuss this, it’s with a specific amount of pleasure. We all know it bought darkish. However more often than not once we revisit this in our reminiscences, it’s with a little bit of a smirk. ‘That was harmful. However, boy… that was enjoyable!’

How does your 40-year artistic partnership with Scorsese examine together with your different important relationships – with Dylan and The Band?
It’s proper up there. Typically Marty will say, “I don’t know of what music we should always have with this.” Then with one other film, he’ll go, “I’ve one concept that I feel would possibly work.” It circles us with prospects, the circle will get narrower, after which I’ll experiment and I’ll ship him some concepts. Typically, I’ll ship him music that already exists, that goes fully in opposition to the grain of the film, and it really works like magic. Typically, I’ll write a brand new piece. Marty says, “As long as it doesn’t sound like film music.” That’s rule No 1. I despatched him the final piece of music for the movie final Friday. There was a scene that reminded us of some French gangster motion pictures. So I labored with an incredible harmonica participant from France, Frédéric Yonnet. The music’s a selected factor that’s laborious to explain, even whenever you see and listen to it. Folks round Marty stated, “God, this music’s unbelievable, however I don’t know what it’s.” And I’m like, “Good.”

You’ve additionally bought the Fiftieth anniversary of The Band album arising. You recorded that in Hollywood. How a lot did the setting – the warmth and daylight – impression on the classes?
We went there as a result of the climate in Woodstock was getting in the way in which of the work. It was a survival intuition – we’ve gotta get out of this ice storm! So the choice to go to Hollywood was born of comfort. As soon as there, we created a world in Sammy Davis Jr’s poolhouse – it was like going into one other dimension. The music we made was virtually the alternative of our environment. I don’t understand how a lot impression Hollywood had – though a few of these songs have been like little motion pictures in themselves. I’d at all times had an dependancy to motion pictures.

Listening to The Band now, the stability between the 5 of you appears so easy. Did the writing and recording circulation simply as naturally?
It wasn’t a breeze in any respect. We needed to work laborious to get to a spot the place we have been glad with the tales we have been telling, and staying true to the music that accompanied them. We tried issues that didn’t work in any respect, and needed to cease. However the course of was that we might head into the pool-house round midday, and I’d play the fellows a brand new tune on the guitar or piano. With the fellows, we have been at all times searching for a clue, a beginning place. No one needed a jam session that was a tune. I needed it to really feel prefer it was rising out of the bottom. So I’d educate the fellows the tune. All people would study the chord development and we’d fiddle with the tempo, making an attempt and suggesting various things to 1 one other. Then we might have dinner up on the home, the place my mum did a number of the cooking. Later, we’d come again down and begin recording. We’d normally get the tune to a spot that we knew it. Then, after sleeping on it, we’d nail it. It was a strategy of studying, digesting, imagining – a ritual that led to this sort of musicality.

Is that album nonetheless a profession highpoint for you?
You recognize, the whole lot modified… Among the guys in The Band began experimenting with heroin. Heroin separates you. With out that exact togetherness on this group, it wasn’t potential to remain in the identical huddle. By the point we made Stage Fright, it had a number of of the most effective issues I wrote. However it was extraordinarily troublesome after that. So issues go. After I look again on it, it was a part of the journey. We have been on a path, and we discovered one thing extraordinary, as a lot as any group in historical past. I’ve put collectively this Fiftieth-anniversary bundle to commemorate The Band. It’s a toast.

For years, you have been forged within the McCartney function: your bandmates resented you for it after which blamed you for splitting the group. These accusations should have damage you.
That I cut up the band up? That wasn’t the plan. There was a selected event once we have been going to maneuver ahead. I confirmed up, however not one of the different guys confirmed up. OK. I get the image. At that time, I ended making an attempt to pressure one thing to occur. The thought was that everybody was going to do their very own data, then we have been all going to return again collectively. Hopefully, everybody was going to get somewhat more healthy too. You could possibly see that The Band was a wounded animal, it wanted to heal. Throughout that interval, it wasn’t taking place. I’ve to be artistic, and work, so I went on my mission, doing what got here naturally to me. We have been in contact, all the guys, however there was a distance.
Rick [Danko, bassist/singer] known as me, “Hear, all the guys wanna go and play gigs and make some cash.” However I knew nothing had modified. I stated, “I can’t do it. I’m afraid one thing unhealthy goes to occur out on the street.” Positive sufficient, Richard [Manuel, singer/pianist] died. Then some years later, Rick died

There’s a line within the tune “As soon as Had been Brothers”: “We already had it out between the North and the South/ Once we heard all of the lies popping out of your mouth.” Does that discuss with the accusations Levon Helm made about you in his memoir, This Wheel’s On Fireplace?
Levon’s story wasn’t going the way in which he thought it was going to go. He used accountable Albert Grossman, accountants and attorneys. It was at all times anyone else’s fault when one thing occurred he didn’t like. Lastly they have been all gone and it was me. I wasn’t stunned. To say it wasn’t hurtful wouldn’t be true. I knew a number of the issues he was saying have been made up and ridiculous. I by no means responded. At that time, I felt just like the brotherhood didn’t have hope. The blokes have been dying; it was simply heartbreaking to me. When Levon died – and I bought there earlier than he died – it tore me in half. He was the closest factor I ever had in my life to a brother. I didn’t want something from him. I had what I wanted years earlier. I used to be by no means offended with Levon. So such as you have been saying, a part of that’s within the “As soon as Had been Brothers” observe. It was only a method of me expressing how a lot I miss the brotherhood.

Do you suppose a lot about Wealthy and Richard?
Yeah. I take into consideration the fellows on a regular basis. We spent plenty of time collectively, and made plenty of magic. Garth [Hudson, keyboardist] has his well being issues, and so does his spouse. I’m afraid about Garth. I simply need him to be OK. I like him. The story of The Band is extremely uplifting on some ranges, extremely unhappy on others. However that’s the way in which The Band’s music is, too.

When did you final see Garth?
The final time Garth and I met was when The Band have been inducted onto the Stroll of Fame in Toronto. I’d wish to see him once more, however he’s a little bit of a recluse. He’s not simply hanging out. I’ve bought to plan an excellent event to go go to him. I’ve spoken to him on the cellphone since. We don’t discuss stuff from way back. We discuss now. He had moved into a brand new place, nonetheless up within the Woodstock space. I used to be asking him in regards to the new pad and he was telling me about some new gear issues he was engaged on, and simply how he was doing. However Garth’s getting up there in years. All of us are, and I hope he’s going to be OK.

Dylan was there initially of The Band – and the top, too. When have been you final in contact with him?
Final week! Bob noticed the documentary, and he known as me and advised me that he beloved it. After which we talked about some new songwriting that we’d work on collectively. I used to be leaving the day after he known as. So I stated, “I’ll provide you with a shout as quickly as I get again, and we’ll take it from there.” We’ll see. You couldn’t make up the story of the expertise that I’ve had with Bob over time. It’s priceless. I hope we get to trigger extra bother collectively.

How do you stability sustaining The Band’s legacy and the necessity to transfer ahead with new work?
I don’t take up plenty of time on yesterday. I’m within the second, the challenges of the work I wish to do maintain me occupied, and there are such a lot of discoveries occurring. To simply accept the problem that’s on subsequent actually retains the blood transferring. I’m simply not slowed down previously. •