Images Of Peter: Finding Peter Godwin, Part Two

Interview by Emily Carney

In this continuation of Popshifter’s interview with singer/musician Peter Godwin from our January/February 2010 issue, Peter discusses his memorable music videos, musical production, his new album with his project Nuevo, and plans for future projects.

Popshifter: Your songs from the early 1980s were paired with visually arresting images for their time. . . one of my favorites is 1979’s “America In My Head” (from your time with Metro). It seems like a video version of a Dior advertisement from the seventies, or a Helmut Newton photo shoot, with the glossily made-up woman. . . what visually influenced your music videos at that time (think fashion, movie directors, or photographers)? Also. . . did the man who was shot in the flat next door fare all right?

© Helmut Newton

Peter Godwin: My very first video experience was the video for “Criminal World,” directed by Keith “Keef” Macmillan who shot some interesting videos for the wonderful Kate Bush and Blondie. This was essentially a performance video with no narrative or tricks, unless you count the black leather catsuit I was wearing! I only have this on poor quality VHS tape (and I don’t have a player) and I’ve never seen it online. . . so if anyone reading this has it digitalized, I would love to have a copy, or they could upload it to my YouTube channel petergodwin13 or to theirs.

Like you, I also like David Rose’s video for “America In My Head”, which was the second single released from the Metro album Future Imperfect, after “Gemini”. . . I love all the Americana montage; I think that’s very clever and connects nicely with the lyric. You’re observant to have picked up on the Helmut Newton vibe; I was always a fan of his work: those amazing black and white sensual, erotic images of women, so powerful and original. They were daring in the depiction of woman’s desirability, but never sleazy, cheap, or obvious. He’s all over pop imagery actually; there are some very famous iconic images he created for Grace Jones and Roxy Music, for example. And certainly an influence on Madonna’s Sex book; the photos by Steven Meisel echo Newton’s work, in my opinion.

That Metro album was reissued as America In My Head on Oglio Records in the US a couple of years ago and still sounds pretty fresh to me: guitar-lead, New Wave, but not so far from a lot of contemporary indie rock bands. The video was shot in Christine’s apartment, a Parisian artist friend. Christine was my girlfriend at that time and inspired quite a few songs. “Flame,” from the first Metro album, was the the beginning of our relationship; then there was “Christine” from New Love, the second Metro album and my solo track “Baby’s In The Mountains” was really our swansong, a snapshot of the whole thing, as it ended. . . Christine and I are still very close friends, all these years on.

I recently posted the video for “Baby’s In The Mountains” on my Nuevo website, because that song feels connected to the Sunset Rise album, especially through its dance-groove energy. It was also the only Peter Godwin solo artist video that had a budget, albeit a small one. For this reason, it’s probably my favorite video of my solo work.

Those pre-“Baby’s” early videos directed by David Rose were shot very raw on tape, not film, and made for literally zero budget—using friends’ (and my!) apartments for locations—and always involving friends in the “cast.” The only time we escaped home locations was “Emotional Disguise.” Part of that was shot on Saint Lucia, an island in the Caribbean. The way we managed that was that David had a financed job in Barbados and I took a holiday in Saint Lucia and we rendezvoused there. Unfortunately, as you can see, we weren’t lucky with the weather: stormy weather, story of my life! We filmed in between the rain.

Click here to read more from Peter Godwin on. . .

Music Video Influences
Maturing inspirations
Poetry and Collaboration
Artistic suffocation
Chemistry and Alchemy
Old souls
Catharsis
Changes
Transcending technology
Everything Is Possible

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