Mark thinks he still has a lot to learn as a guitarist, he tells in a super exclusive interview.
By Jørgen Kristiansen
Foto: Max Svenningsen
I never experienced Jimi Hendrix on stage, but was of course dazzled by the fierceness with which he played. The last day I was at the Yorkshire Evening Post as a journalist, the message of his death ticked in on the telex, and I was to write his obituary. Of course it would contain his background history, but also a lot about my personal loss. But there were hardly many readers that discovered that.
For a few years MK was a journalist. Reviewing records and concerts were only a modest side-job he had been offered. Mainly he was to focus on large and small crime cases as a court reporter. – I learned a lot as a journalist, like I’ve learned a lot at the countless jobs I’ve had since. It’s not the only job that has given me something. Mark Knopfler, 30 years, guitarist, composer and singer in Dire Straits is, traditionally speaking, a super star.
The Dreams
- There is absolutely nothing negative in becoming famous. Let us be honest and admit that that’s what most people dream about. I did it myself. When I was 11 years old, I saw Elvis on TV – and since that day, I would often stand in front of the mirror with a tennis racket and dream that I were Elvis, Mark says to “Vi Unge”.
- There are other ways in which I have lived out my dreams. I’ve bought a Saab Turbo – nice car. I’ve also bought a house in London, currently a few workmen are messing about, but I still haven’t bought a single piece of furniture. But it’ll be OK – a bed should do to begin with, he jokes.
Mark Knopfler, that is beginning to show a little baldness and has a faint resemblance of a robust Art Garfunkel, is a pleasant fellow with a healthy appetite and a natural curiosity for life. He does not only want to talk about himself. He also wants to know how it is to live in Denmark. What are the prices like? The Taxes? How does the ordinary guy live? – The music industry is all right. But lately too dominated
by lawyers. We did our own record contract. That’s rather uncommon. Normally there would be a whole bunch of lawyers present at the signing of a contract. You do it to secure yourself. So the lawyer of the other part hasn’t written anything in tiny letters, or made a wording so clever that you end up being deceived. In that manner there is today far too much energy in rock music, doing the wrong things – it would be far better invested in the music itself.
The Parents
It is Marks guitar that has placed Dire Straits in a class of their own. Plus of course the music he writes. But is he satisfied. – Me – a good guitarist? No, I’m just competent. I think I’m an OK composer, but as a guitarist I still have a lot to learn.
Back at his parents there was a piano. The father was a municipal architect, higher middleclass. – The first I started playing was some boogie-woogie riffs on the piano. Far later I started playing on the guitar.
After quitting the job as a journalist, Mark began studying at the University of Leeds. And during the studies he got married. But the marriage didn’t last – a few years later they were divorced. They didn’t have any kids, but someday Mark would like to get married again. And have many kids. – I love kids, they are so spontaneous and real.
Before he could live as a professional musician, he tried many different things. Including being a schoolteacher. – But at a certain time I got aware that it was the music that had my biggest interest. My parents didn’t like it much. Until the moment when I got a contract, I was almost looked upon as halfway a destitute. But now the relation is quite all right.
The Deroute
Mark is bitten by sport, but most on the TV screen. – I like football and the more violent kinds of sport – boxing and racing. I also like reading a good book, among others I’ve just read Knut Hamsun.
-But that aside, my world of interest right now is travelling. You learn so much from travelling. Also much negative. Our tours in USA haven’t been purely positive experiences. There are many places where apathy is evident – people don’t do anything, even though their houses and buildings are collapsing around them, due to lack of maintenance.
- And the worst of all: TV. The Americans are terrible afraid of getting bored. Therefore their TV shows are over energized.
The worst thing that can happen in American TV is a break lasting a few seconds. Even the pauses in a dialogue are cut out if they last for more than a few seconds.
- The Americans are so marked by their TV culture. Like in TV, everybody walks around playing a role.
Mark summarizes the 12 months of fantastic success, which brought Dire Straits from obscurity to world fame. – Of course it’s great. It’s just what we have been dreaming about. Right now I have the possibility to make a few dreams become true. But it doesn’t mean that much. When you’ve been through a few months of success, you realize that possessions mean nothing. I’ve always been happy in all the jobs I’ve had. And that’s quite a lot. And not a single one of them I would have been without. As a musician, I could only imagine playing in South America and behind the Iron Curtain, and then those dreams would come true too.
Translation: Claus Bischoff