UN is an ‘entirely corrupt body’
In an interview with Russia Today, Waters talks about the release of Roger Waters: The Wall, the media, and the UN.
It is an entirely corrupt body with wonderful intentions and often with very good men at the head of the general assembly – and rather inferior men pulling the strings behind the Security Council…There can be things that are fundamentally important politically – particularly in the Middle East where everyone is fighting everyone else as hard as they can all of the time – which can never actually get the support that they deserve, or a lot of the things can’t … unless the United States decides that they can.
He also criticizes the media.
[The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are] a mouthpiece for the government. The people, you Americans, would have to wake up to the fact that these newspapers and the rest of the media are not giving you the news.
New York Times interview
Waters is interviewed by the New York Times, where he discusses The Wall.
Maybe the making of the piece was my way of escaping from the cell of isolation I found myself in as a young man. I’ve spent my life trying to find the courage to expose myself to other people in order that they may love me or not, and to discover who other people are and get them to expose themselves to me. Which is tearing down walls.
He says that after the final performance of The Wall in 2103 he decided to visit his father and grandfather’s graves.
I had an absolute need to go and visit my grandfather’s grave, because I’d never been. And I knew I wanted my three children to be with me; I wanted them standing by that grave with me. And I knew I had to go and visit the memorial to my father, which was in Monte Cassino, because I’d never been to that garden, either. Here I was, 70 years old, and I had never done it, so I had to do it. And I thought, This is what the movie’s about, so we will film it.
He says he is working on a new album, with the working title Lay Down Jerusalem, the story of a boy who has nightmares and asks his grandfather, “Why are they killing the children?”
The grandfather promises that they will find out the answer to that question, and so they go looking. And, of course, they don’t find that answer because it’s too difficult.
Amused to Death interview
Waters discusses the 2015 edition of Amused to Death, talking about the release on vinyl, sound manipulations, and its relevance today. When asked if it’s an angry record:
Angry no., Angry feels sort of undirected to me. Is Amused to Death sarcastic? I’ve definitely used sarcasm from time to time in my songwriting career. Probably some of it is sarcastic, and probably some of it pretends to by cynical, but it’s not. There’s nothing cynical about the record at all. I’m often described as a being a cynic, and I’m not.