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sweetsubharry · 4 years ago

Note

Can you rec some omega harry fics pls?

Yes I can!! ^-^ So because this is a particular favourite of mine I counted 68 fics in this list so as a warning it’s a long list!!

In case no one makes it to the bottom I’ll say it here too! Please stay safe and read the tags!!💕💕

'Cause Your Embrace Keeps Me Warmer by scribblewrite

Mates and soulmates are two completely different things. Mates are two people, an alpha and omega, who bond together while knotted together when the alpha bites a bond point on the omega’s body. It ties the two of them together forever or until one of them breaks the bond. It's normally the step after marriage. One could only hope to meet their soulmate.

You Could Be My Ever After by scribblewrite

His heat was gone, finally gone, and he'd been able to sleep for longer than thirty minute intervals. Not only that, but he was in his alpha's arms. He felt warm, and safe, and protected, and he honest to god didn't want to move. Harry and Louis spend the next couple days together after they've bonded with Louis taking care of Harry and the two of them getting to know each other better. Louis and Harry meet for the first time and, being soulmates, Louis's rut and Harry's heat are triggered.

Fill My Heart With Sweetness by loopdelouis

Harry's a late bloomer, but since his luck is shit, it's no surprise that he'd be the last to get a heat, but the first to get pregnant. In high school.

Let's Embrace The Point Of No Return by sweaterpawstyles

Louis was a whole new scale of beautiful, he was richer than Harry could've ever imagined, and he was the most powerful, dominant alpha that Harry had ever come in contact with. The only problem now is that Louis is also Harry's boss.

Louis believed Harry was an alpha, and had no idea about how he had lied about his status just to get an interview with Louis. He was in too deep now and he couldn't look back.

Harry is an omega intern at an all alpha company. Louis is his boss. There's some complications.

Count The Wolves And We'll Sleep Tonight by scribblewrite

Louis's the Alpha of a powerful pack and Harry's his omega.

When Harry's taken by rogue alphas, Louis will do anything to bring him home safely.

turn the sky black into a sky blue by orphan_account

Harry forgets that noses exist. Louis is a badass motherfucker. They bang.

“I’ve been in love with you since I dropped my books in the hallway and you made fun of me when you picked up my John Green novel off the ground.”

Our Lips Are Made Of Candy by Waking_dreams

“Your knot, please, Louis,” he managed to whine. He needed it, that extra stretch and burn that made him Louis’.

“Fuck,” Louis moaned, and his thrusts became unsteady. “Can’t do it here, baby, Hazza, can’t—“

Or, Harry accidentally missed a few doses of his medicine that controls his heat and starts his heat in the middle of Biology. Oops

I Can't Hear You by kikikryslee

"I’m not supposed to be built this way!" Harry said. "I’m supposed to be shorter than you, and you’re supposed to be stronger than me and-“ “Harry!” Louis tried to interrupt. “And what if I’m not supposed to be an omega? What if my body screwed up somewhere or something? What if I’m not supposed to be your omega?” --- Or, the one where Harry is self-conscious about his body because it's not the 'typical omega body' and Louis shows him why he loves that.

You Know I'll Be by JustAnotherShadow503

Louis Tomlinson, 27, is the personal photographer for well-known model Harry Styles, 21. Louis, an Alpha, has been in love with Harry for years, though the younger man has seemingly not presented yet.

Or, the one where Louis is in love with Harry, tries to be a martyr at his own expense, and is a hopeless romantic.

Or, the one where the author is shit at coming up with summaries and hopes you'll read the story anyways.

I'd Go Out of My Way To Make Sure That You're Okay by littlepinkbow

This was for this prompt: "Harry's embarrassed about going into heat, but Louis decides it's up to him to teach Harry to be more open about what he wants."

As Small As Possible by Mickey_D

Harry is a rather shy omega who's quite convinced everyone (except his best friends) laughs at him behind his back and sometimes to his face.

Louis is a confident alpha who is taken with his best artist's friend.

Zero Means Nothing When I'm With You by StripedAndBowtied

Louis doesn't know what he's looking for until he finds it.

Harry just knows he may defy his gender norms, with his height and clumsiness, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want litters of pups running around while he does domestic things all day long.

In other words, boy meets boy and no one can stop pining.

Boys Fall Like Dominoes by orphan_account

Harry slips into an early heat while riding the tube. Naturally, that's when he meets Louis.

Looking In The Dark by orphan_account

Another self-indulgent a/b/o fic. This carries on from the same verse of Boys Fall Like Dominoes. As per always, you can find me on tumblr : domestic-harry

Enjoy! -Lis xx

Too Hot (Hot Damn) by louissass

“I’m what?”

“You’re in heat, baby,” He repeats, frowning when he catches the look on Harry’s face. “I thought you realised?”

Or, the one where Harry goes into heat in the middle of a concert but doesn't realise because of the heatwave.

i don't wanna be your friend, i wanna kiss your neck by crybaby

Harry has been in love with Louis Tomlinson for four years, five months, and thirteen days.

Harry had fallen in love with Louis Tomlinson like how he’d seen in movies, and how he’d read in all the books he’d stolen from Gemma, headfirst and shameless.

The only problem was, that in films and books, love was always either returned instantly, or else it took time for unrequited love to lose the first two letters, and since the first option was obviously not true, Harry decided he would wait for the second to become reality. And so Harry waited, three years, eight months, and four days, before his heart had been broken by a gentle rejection and a misplaced blowjob, before Louis and Gemma had packed up and gone to Manchester for university.

(Harry is a hopelessly romantic omega and Louis is his sister's best friend)

Drape Me In Your Warmth by fookinglousers

TMH era fic where Harry is an omega whose heat comes a little earlier than expected and really, who is Louis to deny him his knot?

pick my petals off (make my heart explode) by orphan_account

It’s when he’s frantically looking into the medicine cabinet for something to take that it hits him. He stares at the bottles of pills in horror, realizing what’s going on with him.

He’s completely forgotten about his suppressants. And he’s been spending so much time with Louis, too—of course the alpha’s constant proximity is going to trigger it.

He breaks into a sweat, now recognizing the hot feeling twisting inside him.

He’s going into heat.

(harry unexpectedly goes into heat in the middle of finals, and louis, being the good boyfriend that he is, helps harry through it.)

harry, you little shit by juliusschmidt

Harry’s an omega and he’s learning to like it. A lot.

All These Lights by MediaWhore

“People vote for alphas because they’re strong and they’re not only beautiful but also mesmerizing. They make you want to give them all of your attention, make you want to beg for some of theirs back. They’re shiny, oozing sex appeal and a commanding presence, and people always want more and more. Omegas are enticing too for sure, but it’s not the same. It makes people uncomfortable. It doesn’t make them want to root for you.”

the canon fic where Harry is an omega and dreams come with a price.

Pretend It's Okay by TheIfInLife

Harry and Louis are busy with life. Busy watching Zayn and Niall's twin boys, busy hanging out with friends, busy with life. And they forget Harry's suppressants.

taste on my tongue (just can't get enough of you) by messyjessy08

“Babe?” Louis asks, running a hand through Harry’s hair, soothingly. “What is it?”

Harry shakes his head, teeth digging into his bottom lip, sharply. “My—it’s—”

Louis’ eyebrows furrow in confusion, “What, Harry?”

He pulls a hand up to his chest, pressing hard against one of his pecs, “My fucking—her crying’s making them—Lou.”

Louis gasps, understanding. He reaches a hand up, pushing Harry’s aside, and thumbs gently across Harry’s nipple, somehow already dark and swollen, without having touched them once. “Harry,” He says in a low voice, chest rumbling at the sharp gasp Harry makes.

“Lou, they’re fucking—’m leaking.”

(Harry and Louis just had a baby and it's been a while since they've had sex.)

you took your toll on me (you got a hold on me) by messyjessy08

“Well give us a twirl. Let’s look at you from every angle.”

Harry cocks an eyebrow, gaze heavy. “Alright.” Pulling back the tail of his shirt, he spins slowly, pausing when his back’s facing Louis.

“Harry.” Louis attempts to gather his wits, speechless. “Baby.”

“Thought you might like that part as well,” Harry says, a smirk in his voice.

Thick strips of lace drape delicately over his skin, just under the bottom of his spine, connecting with thin elastic straps that move across his arse, leaving little sections of bare skin showing. The straps connect to form a diamond pattern, creating an opening right over where his hole would be. The skin surrounding it is already shiny with slick. Louis’ breath gets trapped in his lungs.

(Harry and Louis have the weekend to themselves, they make the most of it.)

This Thing Upon Me (howls like a beast) by SadaVeniren

Harry and Louis weren’t meant to be together. They’d met when they were put together through their university’s AO MatchUp, a program that set up alphas and omegas based on the schedules of their ruts and heats so they had someone to help them through it. It was pure luck that they were put together.

Lunch Break by purpleeyestelllies

Harry decides to bring his alpha lunch at work and surprise him with a visit from him and their baby daughter. Louis gets more than one surprise.

drunk on rose water by brainwaves

It’s the first time in a few years that Harry has a strong desire to risk everything for something he loves.

The last time, it was being a fashion model. This time, it’s Louis.

with his educated eyes (and his head between my thighs) by orphan_account

"We're...we're not the same," Harry says softly, looking at his hands. "I don't care," Louis replies back, fire and fury in his eyes.

or where Harry is just a little boy in a world full of arseholes, Louis is in way over his head, and destiny is a bunch of shit.

Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by LSFOREVER

"It's gonna be perfect," Harry whispers, taking Louis' face in both of his hands, nosing close but not yet kissing him. "Always is. You always make everything perfect."

"Good. Whenever your heat finally kicks in, I'll make sure to treat you perfectly too... I'm gonna bond you so hard."

or, Harry's heat is coming up and they've planned to finally bond, so Louis decides to plan a very eventful and loving week leading to said bonding.

resolutions and lovers in the kitchen by orphan_account

Their dinner’s probably going cold, but this feels monumental. So instead of sitting them down on the table and talking about it face to face over chicken and pasta, Harry just puts his hands over Louis’ where they’re settled on his lower stomach, not letting the moment slip past them. He takes a deep breath, carefully arranging his thoughts. “She looks really lovely, Louis. Positively glowing. Her bump’s so big, and…” he trails off, breath hitching slightly when Louis lifts his hand higher, settling it right over Harry’s stomach, and that’s—

“And what, baby?” Louis asks, voice now dropped to a whisper, and Harry has to take a moment to collect his thoughts.

“She, um. She knows about you, of course, and she asked me when we’re—when we’re having a baby of our own.”

(harry teaches little kids and louis writes sports articles. they're trying for a baby.)

Make It Work by fanshae

Prompt: Arranged marriage AU. Harry is an omega who has reached the age where he must be married due to his family's income status. Only the aristocratic omegas are exempt. His parents try to hide him but eventually the government gets word and in punishment, gives the omega to a spoiled aristocrat son of a lord, Louis. Louis is more than thrilled to have his own omega and once Harry goes into heat, he explores the boy with fascination and unintentionally impregnates him. This leads to a boy used to living carefree and drinking the day away with other nobles to having to face fatherhood.

This is only vaguely similar to the prompt so I'm sorry to OP in advance v.v

Stars Will Align For Us by 2tiedships2

"The serial monogamist is single," Niall said by way of introduction when he sat down across from Harry in the canteen.

Harry sipped his chocolate milk. "What are you going on about?"

"Your alpha dream boat," Niall said. "That tiny little footie player? I heard from Hannah that he's broken it off with his boyfriend so he’s single and ready to flamingle. Now's the time to make your move."

Harry sipped his chocolate milk harder to keep himself from replying.

Or the one where Harry is an omega at a loss of how to get past his pining and gain the attention of Louis...especially considering the alpha is always in a relationship.

Watch the Sun Coming Up by SadaVeniren

As Louis approaches his thirtieth birthday his pack is desperate for him to find a mate.

Harry has always expected one day he may settle down with a nice alpha and they would continue to live in his small hometown.

Together they somehow will make this work.

Dancing Shadows by SadaVeniren

The house was quiet by the time Louis walked up to it. He’d been away for a week and while it wasn’t the longest he’d ever been away from the pack, it was the longest he’d been away from Harry and the kids.

i'll be hurt from the heat (running from the heat) by itiswhatitisbutterfly

It's engrained into him, nothing else matters, protecting Harry at all costs is what pumps his heart and floods his veins. It’s just, he didn't count on the one thing Harry would need protecting from would be himself.

(Harry and Louis are in love, and they are probably soul mates. They just can’t be bond mates because despite the undeniable pull, it's them against the world.)

A Howl in the Night by emeraldharry

They've been trained to become Alpha protectors of their city, tasked to battle gruesome beasts and put their lives at risk on a daily basis.

Louis is a skilled warrior and dedicates his life for the protection of others, along with his four adopted brothers and comrades; Zayn, Liam, Niall, and Harry.

Troubles emerge when Harry proves to be a little less like the older Alphas, finding it hard to become who he's supposed to be and failing to reach other people's expectations towards him as a soldier.

Somewhere along the way, Louis and Harry realize that there's more than brotherly love between them, and that the world they live in requires a whole lot of suffering and sacrifices.

The biggest challenge yet arrives when the choice finally comes down between two things: their love for each other, or their responsibilities to the world.

[alpha/beta/omega dynamics with a twist]

Pretty Please (With Sugar On Top) by angelichl

Harry is a sugar baby omega who cons rich alphas for a living. Louis is a rich alpha with too much self-control.

Peppermint and Lavender (and Coffee) by 2tiedships2

“He was there again,” Louis announced by way of greeting. “Lottie was right and she can never know.”

"What the fuck are you talking about?” Niall asked as he snapped his laptop closed.

“The omega, Niall. He was there today. Just sitting in the corner looking pretty. Or at least his back is. He hasn’t turned around when I’m available to see. I know he’s beautiful though.”

"Okay?” Niall questioned. “What does that have to do with Lottie?”

Louis let out a huff. "She told me I shouldn’t work at a coffee shop. She was right.”

Or the one where Louis might have met the love of his life in a coffee shop. But that’s not how it’s supposed to happen.

Shadows Come With The Pain That You're Running From (Love Was Something You've Never Heard Enough) by hlftanna

“Thanks, Ni, I guess I needed to hear that,” Harry sighed and wrapped his own arms around Niall and squeezed him tightly not caring if Liam would be mad. He missed Niall so much.

“Does it really come as a surprise to you that I’m right? Shaking my head, Haz. You should know me better,” the brunette teased. Harry giggled again.

“You know Hazza, you really are so different to all the other alphas out there. You’re soft, caring, cuddly and sweet and those damn dimples. So freaking pretty, it’s almost annoying. I would hate you if you weren’t my best friend. You’d really be a brilliant omega. Nature really did a number here,” Niall mumbled. It was his turn to smash his nose into Harry’s neck and Harry was extremely thankful for that because he wasn’t sure he had his facial expression in check at all.

Or a Band AU in which Harry isn't allowed to be who he really is and the North American Tour might bring some unexpected truths into the web of lies and also a bit of heat that has very little to do with the summer in the US.

Home (It's You) by sunniskies

When Louis left his high-powered life in the city to settle down in the suburbs, he had hoped to one day fall in love and start a family. He certainly didn’t expect to meet the omega of his dreams within five minutes of moving in.

He also didn’t expect the love of his life to hate him so much.

Or, Louis and Harry are neighbors who can't seem to get along...until they fall in love.

sometimes green and sometimes blue by itsmiz

Harry's an omega, and Louis is an Alpha. They're best friends growing up together on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., but they've always been a bit more than friends.

little bitty rattle (and all our dreams are comin' true) by itsmiz

Louis and Harry are young mates in love. This is the story of them expanding their family, and all the love, hormones, and events that come with that.

cradles and crayons by itsmiz

Harry and Louis continue to expand their family.

Just Jump by jaerie

Finally, after years of suffering alone, the insurance plan at Harry's new job covered omega heat services. As a grown omega adult, it finally felt like the right time to try it out. And, since taking an entire week of heat leave would really put him behind at work, using a service to shorten it seemed like a responsible decision. At least that’s how he rationalized it. He was nervous about his decision but it was too late. The doorbell rang.

“Hi!” The alpha said again and Harry took the hand he offered and shook it firmly. “I’m Louis from Omega Services. It’s nice to meet you.”

Want It Flowing Through My Streams by screwstyles

Wimbledon ABO AU: Harry has just qualified for his first Grand Slam, and he’s prepared to make the most of it – that is, until his heat unexpectedly hits him only a few days before his first match. And it’s just his luck that Louis Tomlinson, the resident bad boy of British tennis, is the only person around to help him.

hard to confess by hereforlou

One, they only did it without a condom once (and a half) and not during his heat. Never during his heat. Two, he never once forgot to take his birth control (he’s almost sure). Three, his plan is to be married for a year before he even starts trying for a baby, and not only is he very, very single, him and Louis aren’t even sleeping together anymore. Which brings him to reason number four why this can’t be happening: Louis. Louis doesn’t want a baby with Harry.

(Or, the one where Harry knows he messed up and Louis knows nothing.)

Just a touch of your love by thegirlontheblackhoodie

“What if something happened to you? What would I say to Niall?”

“Nothing, he would have to wait to see my corpse on the news like everyone else.” Deadpanned Harry. Louis’ gasp was all the answer he got. Ok, so that might have been a bit too much. With a calmer voice, he said, “It’s really fine. I’ve walked to the tube countless times, I can handle myself. Just go home and tell Niall to stop mothering me.”

Louis was finally walking by his side and gave him a sideways glance before talking. “He doesn’t know, does he? Of your, uh, condition.” Harry tensed and his breath became erratic, but he didn’t say a word. Louis continued. “His nose probably hasn’t picked it up, and you’re lucky Liam’s also a beta, but it took me a minute to confirm it. Your scent is gettin’ so…” He seemed to struggle to find a word. He didn’t finish the sentence, but the emotion in his voice made Harry’s tummy churn.

Or, Harry is a touch starved omega trying to get through it on his own. Louis happens to be the only alpha around to realize it and offers to help.

Face Your Fears by SadaVeniren

Harry is a single father, pretending to be a beta after his alpha mated him and left him. He’s getting by just fine raising the twins when Louis walks into his bakery. Too bad him and Louis will never be a thing.

I Just Want You to Stay by SadaVeniren

“Remember the vet job up in Edinburgh I interviewed for right before your rut?” Louis nodded. “She just called me back. I got the job. I start next year.” Harry let out a shriek as he said the word year and he clapped his hands in delight. “Isn’t that great! Full time vet job! New animals to meet! A new environment!” He settled his eyes back on Louis, who was still standing there in front of him with wide eyes. “Isn’t it great, Lou?”

That seemed to jolt Louis out of his thoughts and he nodded immediately, opening his arms up for Harry to dive into. “Holy shit, yes. Congratulations. Come here,” he wrapped his arms around Harry and cuddled him close, pressing his nose into Harry’s neck. “Holy shit,” he whispered.

aka Louis and Harry have been roommates for four years, comfortable in their routine and their relationship. But all of that is about to change.

kiss with a fist (is better than none) by orphan_account

Harry and Louis don't get on at all.

BUT they do, in fact, do an awful lot of getting off~

Harry startled visibly, shaking off his deer in the headlights look and huffing quietly. Louis took a final, lingering glance along his scant frame, except the puppy chub at his hips, and then kept washing his hands with a faint sneer. He expected words, biting and sarcastic, as usual. Instead, he was met with silence. Confused, Louis turned back to him as he dried his hands, ready with a scathing remark. It died on his tongue. Harry's eyes were locked, very deliberately, on his crotch. His crotch, which was still unzipped, and therefore dick on display. Oh fuck.

“My eyes are up here, Styles,” Louis growled, cheeks flushing despite himself as he reached to do up his fly.

“Leave it.” It rasped from Harry's throat, thick and shaky. Louis froze, fingers cupping himself.

“Excuse me?”

Sigh Softly by aalexandravictoriaa

It was an unconventional nest, to say the least. Quite inconvenient too, not that Louis would ever dare admit that. The fact that his omega was nesting could only mean that he was pregnant and Louis’ chest rumbled at the mere thought. Harry stirred from his perch, blinking his eyes open at the sound of his growling alpha. Louis shushed him immediately and tucked him back into the safety of his nest. Louis just so happened to make up the majority of said nest.

Do Not Falter (There's a Star Ahead) by LadyLondonderry

It's Christmas Eve, and every single one of Louis' family members are crowded inside his little flat. Really, what more could he ask for on his birthday?

The present he never knew he wanted - in the form of an omega from his past - might just make this his most memorable Christmas.

a body wishes to be held & held by turnyourankle

Harry wants to return the favour after Louis helps him out with his heat.”

the beast you made of me by orphan_account

The bell tinkled, and Harry froze as an overpowering scent, musky and thick, crisp and slightly sweet, yet utterly masculine, delightfully tickled his senses. Harry's eyes slowly slid up to see the source of this wonderful scent, and his breath was taken away at the sex god before him, all muscled and compact and utterly screaming of Alpha. Icy blue eyes stared him down, set off by sharp cheekbones, a stubbled jaw that looked yummy enough to nibble on, and caramel hair, which was lazily gelled, a few pieces falling over his forehead. His skin was tan, his hands strong and steady, his biceps still clearly visible even through his jacket. Every fiber of Harry's being stood at full alert.

The one where Harry's a vanilla-sweet Omega and Louis walks into his bakery one day.

How Much My Heart Depends by lululawrence

Louis is an alpha working as a fraud analyst who keeps having Bad Days. Harry is an omega working in Quality Support who shares a cubicle wall with Louis and only wants to help. Maybe this is the perfect chance for them to finally meet face to face.

A Tentative Peace by colourexplosion

“I dunno.” Harry’s not whining, he’s not. He pulls himself free, finally, turns away and busies himself again with the dishes. “I didn’t want it to be weird.”

“It’s not weird,” Louis says, appearing in Harry’s periphery when he leans against the sink. “Biology, innit? You know I’m always here for you.”

It stings. Louis won’t sit and have a conversation with Harry, but sure, he’ll fuck him through a heat like it’s nothing. “It’s a little more than biology,” he mumbles, but Louis either doesn’t hear him (not likely) or flat out ignores him (very likely).

(Or, A/B/O featuring omega!harry and alpha!louis.)

Seeing Blind by zedi

Louis finally turns his head in Liam’s direction, knows his face is showing the longing he’s been aching with ever since it took root in his chest. “What the fuck do I do, Liam? He wouldn’t want me like that, but I want-” his voice cracks, and he turns his face back downwards. “What do you do when you’re not perfect for the person who’s perfect for you?”

OR the one where Harry’s an independent omega who likes to have his fun and Louis is the blind alpha that changes Harry’s priorities.

wanna taste your heart, don't interfere by orphan_account

Harry still remembers how unsure he felt when he first told Louis, how self-conscious he was. Louis had been nothing but understanding and kind, though, reassuring him that nothing’s going to change between them, that they’re still best friends regardless of sex. Harry had been mostly relieved at that, because he really doesn’t want to lose Louis as a friend over this, but another part of him had been a bit sad because… well, because nothing changed between them. Or rather, there is change, but it’s completely one-sided as far as Harry can tell.

This change being him not getting enough of the way Louis smells. He just can’t help it, is the thing, unable to stop himself from trying to subtly press his nose against the fabric of Louis’ shirt by his shoulders. He still smells like faint cologne and sweat, which is enough to make Harry start feeling slightly dizzy.

(harry presents as an omega, louis is his alpha best friend, and there are hidden feelings that just get harder to control.)

A Distant Hazy Light by green_feelings

Life’s pretty ordinary for Harry. He lives with his best friend, got into university just like he’s planned, and manages to support himself just fine for an unbonded omega. If he sustains that lifestyle by getting paid to help alphas through their rut every now and then, that’s nothing to be hung up on. Until he’s hired by an alpha that turns everything upside down.

Or, Harry’s working on taking Louis’ walls down, until he builds his own up.

London Calls Me a Stranger by Thatscoolbutwhataboutlarry

"Hello, my beautiful, conceited coquette."

"Hi, daddy."

Or the one where Harry is a tease, and Louis is his new neighbour.

Between the Shadow and the Soul by orphan_account

“It’s just easier to stay in Donny and train, Haz,” Louis says quietly. “Two transatlantic flights in less than a week right before a big match is a terrible idea. We should have known that before, but...”

Harry nods. It’s reasonable. It’s totally, completely reasonable and Harry can support that. Another five or six days of not being able to hold Louis’ hand and kiss him sweetly is killing Harry, but he can handle it. “Okay, so that’s, what, the 20th that you’ll be coming over here?”

Louis hesitates, and Harry has to bite back a frustrated growl. “I’ve got writing sessions and time in the studio scheduled as of yesterday, plus I’m supposed to get papped clubbing in London again and just… it’s shit but there’s no time to make the trip until early May, at the least.”

Or, Harry and Louis spend a month apart.

Wonderland by jacaranda_bloom

Louis has always loved lazy mornings in bed with his mate, but now that his Omega is carrying their pup, they’ve reached a whole new level of wonderment.

OR the one where Louis loves to worship his Omega’s body and Harry loves to let him.

All I Needed by FallingLikeThis

Harry is the omega captain of the Slytherin quidditch team with a team that won't listen to him. Louis is the alpha captain of the Gryffindor team who doesn't know how to offer help without seeming like a knothead, pushing his opinions on Harry. When he comes up with a rather questionable plan to try and get Harry to ask him for help, they may just both get what they need.

Come In and Change My Life by lightswoodmagic (sarah_writes)

He’d had the same neighbours since he’d moved into the building, a lovely, wealthy couple in their late sixties who had always invited him around for tea on Sundays. Martha had dropped off homemade biscuits the day he’d moved in, so Harry figured he may as well repeat the sentiment. He could hear someone getting closer to the door just as a flush ran through his body; oh fuck. His heat was close, too close to be knocking on a potentially unknown alpha’s door, but it was too late. The door swung open, and Harry’s mouth dropped. He’d never been overly interested in football, couldn’t find the fascination in watching men run around after a ball for hours aside from their uniforms, but he knew who this was. Louis Tomlinson, alpha, captain of Manchester United, star in a number of Harry’s heat addled fantasies, was his new next-door neighbour.

Or, Harry and Louis become friends when Harry looks after Louis' cat during away games, until one night at a party changes everything between them. It's just a shame Louis' going to be away for the FIFA World Cup for three months.

Put It Into Words by orphan_account

“It’s a good storm though, our families,” Louis says, flopping down on to the bed and cuddling close to Harry. He tucks his arm around Harry’s waist, kissing his temple. “The Cheshire house is perfect to raise the baby; your mum’s close, and my mum can stay in the guest bedroom when she visits.”

“And until then we have the long weekend to ourselves.”

Or, Harry and Louis go on a babymoon.

No Love Like Your Love by Rearviewdreamer

When it comes to saving the world from itself and convincing rich CEOs of environmentally harmful companies to go green, there's nobody better than Harry Styles. That is, until Louis Tomlinson, his ex and former Alpha, is involved.

We Are Inevitable by mmargarita

“What’s the second flaw?”

“The second inevitable flaw in your plan is:” Louis stood straight and walked towards Harry, grabbing his chin. Harry’s breath hitched. “Us.” Louis smiled. “We’re inevitable, baby. We’re soulmates, and we both know it. You just need to come back to me.” . . . 30/07/2020: This work has been edited and corrected, and now has 7k words more.

Take Me As I Am by lovelarry10

“Suppressant? But… why would I need a suppressant? Alphas don’t take suppressants.”

“You’re right, they don’t.”

****

Secrets. Lies. Deception. Betrayal. Self-discovery.

Alpha. Omega. How far will they go to hide the truth?

to wrap me in paper by juliusschmidt

Louis hasn't been keeping track of his ruts, but, it turns out, Harry has.

If you’ve made it to the end then congrats! and please stay safe and read the tags!!💕💕

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allthesebeautifulmistakes · 4 years ago

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tagged by: the lovely and talented @hvitserkk, thanks!

tagging: @redprairielily, @buckeybarns, @kiekiecarrera, @meneatyoghurt, @taraknowless, @ohbuckybarnes, @captainkilly, @supervalcsi

1. why did you choose your url?

It's a lyric from one of my favourite songs: 'Cardboard Castles' by Watsky. It's about creativity and going after your dreams and perseverance. This specific line "... how we make and create all these beautiful mistakes", has just always hit home for me and it's something i try to live by. I tend to be really overly critical of myself and so trying to remind myself that good things can come from 'mistakes' is beneficial to my mental health..

2. any side blogs?

No. I don't make gifs or edits and besides that i keep my blog for me. So I don't care if one thing/ship/fandom is 'overrepresented'. Tumblr is escapism, I don't feel the need for it to be that organized..

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

Since late 2013. I was kinda a late bloomer when it comes to fandom I think..

4. do you have a queue tag?

No. I understand why people do it, but I don't really care for people to know if I'm online or not. My anxiety really flares up when I feel people are waiting for me to reply to a text or email, so I don't need that one here to. I'm on here to get away from that..

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

I was going through a little bout of depression and my favourite shows were the only thing getting me through the days, the only things in my life I was looking forward through. Also I've got a bit of an obsessive personality and I like that on here nobody will mock you for loving a tv series to the degree that I do. Also a big part of the fun of consuming any media for me is thinking about it or discussing it. I think that's also why I enjoy an open ending to a story, so I can fill it in for myself. And I like to hear how people interpreted someting differently then myself. It's part of what makes tv or films based on books fun for me, seeing how other people imagined the characters, interpreted the story. How it's similar, how it's different. And tumblr gives me all that..

6. why did you choose your icon?

I loved Still Star-Crossed and I loved Rosaline, still do, that show deserved so much better, honestly I'm still kinda wainting for a second season.. Also Lashana Lynch is gorgeous and talented.

7. why did you choose your header?

I don't have one..

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

I'm not sure, it's probably one of the kind of mini-reviews of tv episodes I used to post, honestly not really sure why I stopped doing those. Lazyness I guess, might try to pick that up again..

9. how many mutuals/followers do you have?

I've got 220 followers and that's honestly 220 more than I ever thouht i'd get, because I just like to reblog stuff..

10. how many people do you follow?

I follow 171 blogs, I think most people follow more, but I generally only tend to follow blogs that I've got most fandoms in common with and that's not an easy thing to find. So I just go into the edit tags a lot as well to find content..

11. have you ever made a shitpost?

I think one needs a more intersting life for that..

12. how often do you use tumblr?

Daily. Every now and then I see people posting that they're taking a break from this site and I'm like: How??

13. did you have a fight/argument with another blog? who won?

I enjoy a good discussion, but getting into fights/arguments on the internet is just pointless. I feel like the most peole who do that don't care to support their opinions with actual arguments and see changing their opinions as weakness, so...

14. how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I feel like most of those post don't argue why I actually should reblog them well enough..

15. do you like tag/ask games?

Yes. It always feels nice when someone tags you in something..

16. which of your mutuals do you think are tumblr famous?

Is there really such a thing? How many followers is tumblr famous?

17. do you have a crush on a mutual?

No. Unfortunately I'm only attracted to men and I don't think I follow any..

#tag #about me

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folklovered · 6 years ago

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How I love Taylor Swift as an aromantic asexual

Hello! This is my official Tumblr coming out as aro ace! *exciting announcement trumpets*

Obviously this is a big part of my life but first and foremost I am a Swiftie.

I feel the need to preface this because aro ace is still very misunderstood as an orientation, whenever I come out to people in real life I’m often met with:

“You just need to find the right person”

“Your just a late bloomer”... I’m 20

“Soooo... you’ve never even had a crush”

“But everyone loves sex”

“I wish I was”

“I don’t believe you”

It’s really common amongst aro aces to feel left out because we just can’t relate something that is supposedly the most central part of human existence: sex and relationships. I grew up listening to my friends talking about their crushes and just lying and pretending to have crushes because I thought that's what everyone was doing. I later found out everyone was for real and started to be bullied for being the odd one out.

I’ve spent hours of my life wishing for crushes to develop on boys or girls just so I could feel ‘normal’ not broken or like some kind of freak.

All of this is reinforced by media with 99% of songs on the radio being about breakups and being in love, I’ve never seen a film or TV show that doesn't have some kind of romantic subplot with any that have any potential ace character being ‘fixed’ by the end.

Which brings me to Taylor and her music

I’m the first to defend Taylor by shutting down the critics that say she only writes about boyfriends and breakups. Of course that's not true, to name just a few of her songs that aren’t:

The Outside

A place in this world

The best day

Innocent

Long Live

Shake it Off

Bad Blood

I did something bad

You need to calm down

However, it is true that love, romance, relationships and sex play central parts in a lot of her music

All of Taylors albums carry overriding themes of romance

Debut was about whimsical teenage crushes

Fearless was about daydreaming of true love and happily ever after

Speak Now was about fairytales and enchanted nights with a lover

RED was about intense heartbreak and the complexities of being in love

1989 was about figuring your way through relationships and working out how to make it work

reputation was about tough times but feeling your lover is always there ready to catch you through it all

However, I still find ways to personally relate to her and her songs

One thing I do when I’m going through something (good or bad) is writing a Taylor lyric that summarises how I feel. Some so far have included

“I’m standing alone in a crowded room”

“I’d like to be my old self again but I’m still trying to find it”

“I screamed so loud but no one heard a thing”

“it was the end of a decade but the start of an age”

All of this is a credit to Taylors talent as a songwriter. She goes a level deeper than most by exploring the emotions behind what she's writing about

For example, I cannot relate to ‘call it what you want’ on a surface level because I will never have a chain round my neck from a lover willing to run away with me but it is something in the way Taylor has written it which makes it sound like how a hug feels. Its one of my favourite songs as it never fails to make me feel comforted

I was initially tentative about the lover era because when I’m struggling with my identity the most Taylors who I turn to and I was anxious the album was only going to be love songs making me feel even more alone. I was wrong to ever doubt her ME! is a self-love anthem and you need to calm down gives an incredible shoutout to the lgbtqa+ community.

I also feel the need to point out that I am not saying you have to be able to relate to songs in order to enjoy them but Taylors music is something special. We do more than just relate to it. We feel it. I have never had a crush, I have never been in love, I have never had a boyfriend or girlfriend and I have never had my heart broken, all things Taylor has written numerous masterpieces about. I have however been rejected, bullied, felt isolated, alone and misunderstood. I may not be able to relate to the subject matter but Taylors writing makes me feel as though someone, somewhere, cares, wants me to be ok, and most importantly understands.

I love you Taylor forever and always

@taylorswift @taylornation

#Taylor #taylor swift #taylornation #taylurking #lover #reputation #speak now #fearless #1989 #red #asexual #aromantic #aroace #lgbtq

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robertemeryofficial · 6 years ago

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Behind the scenes with Stewart Copeland: Why dumb shit makes me happy (#1) - TRANSCRIPT

"If the only reason humans pro-create is Vivaldi, we would all be fucked…" -- Stewart Copeland

In this inaugural episode of the new ‘Backstage with Robert Emery’ podcast, RDCE talks to Stewart Copeland, the founder and drummer of the British rock band 'The Police'. Stewart talks about why he attributes studying 'Mass Communication & Public Policy' to becoming one of the worlds most famous drummers, why one of his balls is called Ben Hur, and how he grew up not knowing his Father was a spy.

Stewart is an American musician and composer. Apart from his most famous role as a rockstar, over the years he has produced film and video game soundtracks, written music for ballets, operas and orchestras, and in 2003 was inducted into the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'.

This whistle-stop tour of his life takes us through his nine years in The Police with Sting and Andy Summers, his solo projects as a composer, and his predictions of the status of orchestral and rock music in twenty years.

Listen Now

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Transcript

Hello, lovely people, and welcome to the inaugural episode of The Backstage Blog with me, Robert Emery.

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Now, you know me, I’d only mention a company if I used and approved of them, and I do. And you know what? The thing I love about them the most is that after seven years of wear and tear, my first bag still looks as new as the backpack I bought just six months ago. So, if you're a busy traveller and want something that is stylish and secure, visit thebackstageblog.com and click on Partners.

Hello, lovely people. Today I'm really excited to be having a chat with my friend, rock god and all-round crazy gentleman, Stewart Copeland. Stewart and I first met at a gig. He was hitting the drums as loud as he could to the soundtrack that he composed for Ben-Hur. Scarily, I was conducting the orchestra who were duelling with him. It was like a baked bean and a baked potato had forgotten which one was little and which one was large. From that moment I picked up the baton, I knew that not only is Stewart one of the world's greatest drummers, and not only does he compose like a modern-day maestro, but after 44 years in the music industry, he still has the passion and energy of an 18-year-old.

I'll be honest, it's my first time recording an interview with me being the one asking the questions, so please forgive me: like any good art, it’ll take a while to perfect. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this worldwide whistle-stop tour of Stewart Copeland and his life.

Robert Emery: Okay, so welcome, welcome, welcome. I think the first thing I would like to talk to you about is your slightly crazy childhood because I'm pretty damn sure this has had an effect on what you've done in life later on. I've done a bit of reading and I know you were telling me–we're here somewhere in Europe doing Ben-Hur but we'll talk about that later. I know you were saying the other night about you had a very interesting childhood because, if I've got this right, you were born in the states, you grew up in Lebanon...

Stewart Copeland: You missed out a bit. Egypt.

Robert: Oh did I? Okay, Egypt. But then you went to boarding school in Somerset, then you're in a rock band, and then you ended up back in LA.

Stewart: A couple of steps missing there but fundamentally that’s the story, that's the arc.

Robert: It's a bit of a strange, unusual upbringing. What is the reason for that? How did that happen?

Stewart: My father was a diplomat, otherwise known as a spy. He was, during the war, in the OSS. His job was obviously the Nazis, but as the war was coming to a close, they realised that the Soviets were the real problem. And so even as they were finishing up winning the war together, the Soviets and the Americans, they were getting into the beginning of the Cold War. At that point, the energy from the Middle East was very important and so the CIA... As the OSS was morphing into this new thing called the CIA, my father was down in the Middle East and his job was to make sure that the oil came west to our factories rather than north to the evil empire.

To enact that mission, they imposed dictators upon the people such as when I was born, my daddy was away on business. I was born in Alexandria, Virginia, which is a suburb of the CIA. He was over in Cairo installing Gamal Abdel Nasser who ran Egypt actually pretty well for the Egyptian people. Across the Middle East, in Syria and the other countries, basically, their job was to keep a stable system. They were not interested in social engineering or in democracy; they were interested in stability. All the people of that generation, they were completely comfortable with the concept of dictators otherwise known as monarchs. The idea of absolute power. These people were... My father used to like to describe himself as amoral. He said he would never have anyone assassinated with whom he would mix socially, and I don't think he ever had anyone assassinated either but, you know, he was a storyteller. What did you ask me?

Robert: Just about your childhood. But did you know when you were growing up?

Stewart: That’s why I was there. No, I didn't know any of this growing up. In fact, it didn't seem exotic to me at all. In fact, it seemed to be lacking anything exotic because we didn't have TV and at the American school... I was in Egypt very young, but my memories really begin in Lebanon in Beirut and there was the American Community School. For a while, there was a rumour that in my generation, that's when the Saudis first started sending their young princes to get a Western education: the ACS in Beirut was the western school, the American School in Beirut. From my gen, it was the first time we started to see Arab kids, Gulf state kids, amongst the Westerners who were being educated there and Osama bin Laden was one of those.

Robert: Wow!

Stewart: Many years after me. Of course, if he'd been there when I was there, I would have kicked his ass. But we didn't have TV and the other American kids who had been home more recently would talk about this Xanadu, this fabled place called America. In fact, most people outside of America in my generation heard of America as the shining light on a hill where the streets are clean, and the people are, you know, everything works, and the systems are new and all this stuff, and... Then, gosh, there we were living in dusty old Beirut.

Of course, now looking back on it, I am so glad I grew up in dusty old Beirut. But then my father's best buddy, turned out to be a British double agent, name of Kim Philby, and his whole scene was kind of blown by that blow. My good buddy, Harry Philby, his dad disappeared one night. Two weeks later, he turns up in Moscow. True Blue English, he was recruited in Cambridge and was a mole and rose up in the Mi5 and there was three or four of them, I think. Anyway, my father had to ship his family out just like that. We were there for 10 years and then in a two-week period we are out of there.

I did one term in London, at the American School in London, but ended up in Somerset at Millfield. After that, I went to college in America and then came back to London where I met these other two guys.

Robert: So, it was after you went to the states and then you came back to London and that's where you met the other two guys as you call them. Okay, fine. But when did you start playing the drums?

Stewart: Hard to say. My father was a musician before the war. I’ve still got his trumpet; it's a 1942-con or something, I can't remember the year, I looked up the serial number. The fancy trumpet’s like the SG of its day. He only devotes two or three pages about his jazz life in his book but he played with both Dorsey brothers, Harry James, Glenn Miller–for him that's déclassé.

Robert: You grew up with music around you?

Stewart: When he started a family, he thrust musical instruments into all the kids and I'm the fourth child. By the time I came along, the house was full of abandoned instruments and I picked up all of them and I just was lost on all of them. My father spotted the tell-tale sign of a budding musician, which is “you can't get him to shut up.” Any kid that you have to say, “It's time for your piano practice,” don't waste your time or his time or her time. The tell-tale sign is that kind of autism... that you can't stop the kid, and I was on everything.

Trombone, I think, was the first lessons I had, but I couldn't get to the seventh position. But the buddy of mine had a catalogue, Slingerland drum catalogue, with pictures of drum sets which for me, I was like pictures of power, motors... Really, looking back now, as father of seven, I realise that the drum thing was partly because I was a very late bloomer. All the way through high school, even when I was 12-13, all my mates were growing faster. Their voices dropped, they started growing beards, they started turning into... and I was still that squeaky little kid.

The drums were power. Boom, bam, argh! Suddenly the squeaky little kid, now I'm a big silverback bastard motherfucker coming to eat your children. For a little 12-year-old who was this squeaky little 12-year-old, that was power. Looking back, adding up all the impressions and memories, I remember the first show–actually, the British Embassy Beach Club party at The St George Club. Janet McRoberts was there and I'm playing Don't let me be Misunderstood or an Animals’ or a Kink’s song or whatever, maybe House of the Rising Sun and there's Janet McRoberts on the dance floor with that look. And I thought, “Shit! Whatever this is, this is going to get me somewhere.”

Also, I remember at The American Beach Club, overhearing two of the 15- year-old girls talking. 15-year old girls are just like an impossible dream for a 12-year-old, you know, and they're talking about how Ian Copeland–who was the coolest kid in Beirut, by the way. He was the leader of the motorcycle gang, Ian Copeland was the coolest kid on campus. They’re talking, “Wow, I hear the Black Knights have got a new drummer. Oh, cool,” or hip or whatever. “Yeah, it’s Ian Copeland’s brother. Ian has a brother?” They’re talking about this mythical being, the new drummer in the Black Knights–is he cute? I’m standing there, I’m a little 12-year-old kid standing there with my ice-cream. These 15-year-olds are talking about Stewart Copeland as if it's somebody.

And so, these elemental, deep, crocodile-brain part of the drive, the emotional drive, are very powerful. My theory is that music is basically part of the procreative process of the human being. It's our mating dance. It's our mating ritual. As my mother the archaeologist would say, it's our plumage, and at that young age, particularly at adolescent age, music is so... With my kids, I see that music is so important to them. Here I do it for a living and I still wake up every day and can't wait to make more music but I can get through an hour without hearing music. My kids? It's the young mating dance. So that was a very powerful impulsion to playing drums.

Robert: So, you figured this is a very cool thing to do, you get lots of good attention for this and...

Stewart: Here’s is one more factor. My big brother Ian? Coolest kid on campus? Couldn't do it. Which was very unsettling because one of the American kids... What happened was the Black Knights’ drummer, his dad got shipped back to the states, the drums he was using which are borrowed or something like that were lying... And so they’re, “Well, let's get Ian. Let's get the coolest kid in the school to play the drums.” And he tried to do it and I could hear him in his room, the forbidden sanctuary. I could hear him trying to get it... then he’d roar off on his motorcycle and I’d sneak in on pain of death and I'd get on there, and I can do it. Wait a minute, that's not right, I must be doing it wrong for me to be able to do it what I heard him not able to do, my hero and older brother...

Robert: You didn’t have lessons?

Stewart: Immediately my father spotted, “Ah drums, great! Lessons!” And I had lessons at everything. The minute he spotted anything, “Lessons!” Yeah, right away.

Robert: Something definitely clicked with you with drums.

Stewart: Yeah and they stuck. The guitar kind of stuck, too. I played guitar all my life, never seriously, never took a lesson, never really developed anything beyond my favourite three chords. But those three chords? Ah, you can have a lot of fun on A, E and D. Throw a G in there, F sharp minor even.

Robert: Alright. The interesting thing for me though is that when I was growing up, I played the piano and I played the cello.

Stewart: Cello? Excellent instrument. A great blues instrument, by the way. You put that thing on your lap, play it like this, and it's a fantastic blues instrument.

Robert: But I couldn't do it. It didn't work for me. I just could not...

Stewart: The piano did, though, right?

Robert: The piano, I don't know why. I’d just sit there, play, it was easy, it just happened, you didn't have to think about it, I didn't really do any training to start with. It just happened. But cello, it did not happen. I could not get it to work. So did you try any instruments out when you were young?

Stewart: We’re going to have to work on a theory for that because pianotude you’ve got. That works for you. But two hands interacting to make one note seems to not work for you. I’m the other way around, see? Guitars, no problem. I can work on piano every day and I still can't play Mary Had a Little Lamb so you’ve got that gift.

Robert: Yeah. Yeah, but it's only piano. Piano conducting. But I tried many other things over the years, I tried clarinet for a while, couldn't do it, and it's just so concentrated what I can do with my music–what instruments. You sound like you're the sort of guy who can pick up anything, can give it a good damn go and have a bit...

Stewart: Whether I can or not, I will pick up anything and give it a damn good go.

Robert: And you have lots of instruments at home?

Stewart: I have the world’s largest collection of the cheapest instruments money can buy. I got trombone, I got bassoon. I got timpani. I got clarinet, I got viola, I got violin. I got cello. I got baby cello, I got bass guitar, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo. I got all kinds of instruments.

Robert: And you’ve tried them all?

Stewart: Oh, yeah. Well, I get on eBay, then I haven't got a mellophone. So, I get on there and I look for mellophones or euphoniums; I love brass instruments above all. In fact, today I played an Alpine horn which is 15 feet long and guess what? A- Extremely light, made out of bamboo or something. B- really easy to play. Doesn't require a lot of breath at all, it's like playing on a trombone. Very impressed out there... [Makes a trumpeting sound] You know, not that hard.

Robert: Let’s just rewind back in time a little bit. You formed this band called The Police. How long was it from your starting point to all of a sudden something happened where you just went sky high?

Stewart: It was incremental, but every step headlining the marquee felt like a stellar, “That's it. We've made it. That's it, we're done. We're there now!” And then the next step happens and like climbing a mountain you think there's the shoulder there and we just get to there and that's going to be the top of the mountain–you get there and there's more mountain. It was very much like that. But we did star for a good two years, where we were playing the clubs and all of our gigs pretty much were cancellations by the genuine article punk bands of the day. We were a fake punk band. We were using the punk haircut as a flag of convenience because really, it's all about the hairdo. The stance.

Sting and I were both on the cusp, born in the early 50s. We were the tail end of the hippie generation where so by the time we got into our teens and wanted to rock out and be young adolescents or young adults, it was old and stale. Even though we were steeped in it–he was in jazz and I was playing in Curved Air, kind of an art rock band–we were still the tail end of the last generation. It was all stultified and everything, along comes Johnny Rotten and the Punk-O-Rama, and suddenly it’s just “burn it all down, bring it all down.” Musically, I had nothing in common with that except the fact that I like raw aggression in music. I like it. It's comedic actually.

I liked all that and they were like children and so Curved Air was running its course as an art rock band, so no problem. Cut the hair, peroxided blonde, turn my collar up, and let's go punk. And we did but the critics *[18:59] spotted us in a heartbeat as not the real thing. But fortunately, all the real thing, The Clash, The Damned, Eater, The Jam, all these bands, they didn't know how to hire a truck or a PA. They were managed by one of their mates who didn't have a clue, and so most of The Police's early dates were cancellations by other bands. I’d get a call on a Thursday afternoon saying, “Generation X can't make it.” I can. I got a Rolodex, I know three guys with a truck, I know three guys with a PA, I can get that together, I can get out to Islington, pick up that truck, the PA. “Fred, the PA, can you make the date? Sure.” I can pull it together and get that. And so all of our dates were like “not Gen X”...

Robert: I'm going to pressure you on this because I know you say it's incremental and I know you say it's like climbing a mountain, but I still believe that there must be one ... There must be a gem somewhere, a little story, a little something happened which put you on that clear direction.

Stewart: Many.

Robert: What is it? What's the one that comes to mind?

Stewart: If I had to pick out one, it's hard to say the one that was the payoff of all that which would be Shea Stadium where the Beatles played. And when you play at Shea Stadium, that's officially you have conquered America and you're in the footsteps of The Beatles. That was pretty darned exciting and it turned out to be the best show ever. We were a pretty hot band but some nights just really went to another level and we amazed ourselves. Actually, we were pretty full of ourselves most nights, but that was a particularly good night. Our first stadium, too. Then we got sick of stadiums.

Robert: So that was your first stadium, yeah?

Stewart: I think so. It felt like the first anyway but then we got to the top and then stayed there for a couple of albums before we were right at the top. There was no sign of the... The ascent was on a straight line when we threw in the towel because we had that folly of youth. Well, actually it turned out not to be folly. It turned out to be wisdom in a way of, “I don’t need these guys.” Usually when you hear band members say that, you try and advise them against it. But in our case it actually sort of turned out to be a good thing that we threw in when we did. We never saw the other side, the inevitable other side of the parabola. And so when we picked it up 20 years later, our thing was still pristine.

Robert: Crazy. So, you've done many, many things in your life and you've achieved an awful lot and I'll talk about composing in a minute. But first of all, do you have something that you have not yet achieved?

Stewart: Conducting. Watch your back, mate! I've been advised no matter how gifted I think I am, how easy I think it would be, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. I'm already trying to establish myself as a real conductor.

Robert: Real conductor or...?

Stewart: A real composer. Throw in amateur conductor and the learning curve with that, and there's been a 30-year learning curve with writing for orchestra. I didn't pick this up overnight: I've been working at this and trying to figure this out for decades, and I'm sure conducting would be the same sort of journey. Which I would be really happy to make that journey. I'm in for the long haul on things. I'm good for the long mission. I conduct small-scale all the time–my singers, my soloist when I'm working in the studio, bringing the singers in, and I understand how to breathe for them and so that the indication... There's more than just there it's [breathing loudly] there. Those nuances and I understand the rhythm and I took a conducting seminar and I really enjoyed it. I did a movement of... What the hell was it? It was a big huge Bach movement or something. Not Bach... Anyway, it was fantastic.

Robert: How many players did you have?

Stewart: The musicians union sent about two or three chairs of violins, one of the brass. It was pretty skinny but all the different choirs were represented and it was really, really a lot of fun. The most fun part was that my reading’s much better now than it was then and putting the things in two, three, and... I just love that because the first lesson I’ve learned was the opposite of drumming where you groove and you are the groove and you feel the others... And there, you have to run ahead of the cart and you’re ahead. You’re not grooving with the band; you're pulling them. You're out in front.

Robert: I’ll do you a deal. The next time we do Ben-Hur, and we have time...

Stewart: Ben-Hur is hard.

Robert: Then I get you to conduct that, yeah?

Stewart: Let's do that. I will take you up on that with Tyrant’s Crush.

Robert: Okay.

Stewart: And you can play drums.

Robert: You don't want to see that. You absolutely don't want to see me play drums. I’ve tried before.

Stewart: You threw down the gauntlet.

Robert: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you said you wanted to conduct. I never said I wanted to play drums. I’m happy playing...

Stewart: What's the quid pro quo here then?

Robert: That I get to laugh at you conduct.

Stewart: Done. Deal. I’d love it. I mean, who's got rehearsal time with 60 highly-paid musicians?

Robert: Okay, so you're a very busy guy and you've achieved a lot, you've conquered a lot, you've had very different aspects of your career, which means that you are a very driven person. You must be a guy who gets...

Stewart: It doesn’t feel like driven.

Robert: No, but you are. You must be.

Stewart: Compared... To me, other people they talk about this thing which is probably just as much as a mystery to you. The strange word, the strange concept called “procrastination.” Can you imagine? I mean, how's it possible to watch TV when you’ve got a mission to do? It's not a matter of being driven, it's just a matter of “there's a mission to do–let's go do that.” TV is for when you haven't got a mission or any... Eating food or sleep is for when you haven't got a mission. It doesn't feel driven or anything, it's just like...

Robert: What are the tips or the tricks or anything that you do to keep yourself energised, to keep yourself going, to get up in the morning to go and do what you need to do? Do you have like a ritual you have every morning for breakfast, or do you...?

Stewart: Well, yes. At my age, I have a ritual for everything because the running repairs on this battered old frame... You just figure out that if I go to bed this time and if I eat that and do this and don't do that, I guess my day is going to be better–and you have all these rituals. But I don't think any of these rituals are connected to motivation. I learned very early in life that daydreaming is a critical activity, that daydreaming isn't just wasting time. In fact watching TV– I'd rather stare out into space and imagine some great fantasy that I get to play my drum for the huge orchestra and I get to write all the music myself! And it goes [triumphant tune] and it's really fantastic. Just imagining this and imagining this...

If you have a daydream that really sticks and you keep going back to it, and you fill in the details of it and to make the daydream work better, you start filling in the details... It has to be realistic so the details that you add need to be substantiated by, “the way I got to being able to play with that big orchestra was that I met this guy. How did I meet a guy? Because I was...” Actually, what you're doing is concocting a scheme as the daydream. If it's a really powerful one that really draws you and you keep chewing on it and going back to it, you're actually working up a plan. Like we get the band with just three guys in it and one of them's got to sing. I have the guitar and the bass player’s... got to be a singer because my singing is terrible. And it'd be great... Before you know it, your daydream is a mission.

Robert: Do you think that has any connection whatsoever with the fact that you're a very talented musician and you've got an amazing gut feeling about music? Do you think the two are interlinked in any way, shape, or form?

Stewart: My oldest brother Miles, he is driven. He's driven, and he has excellent musical ears, but did not get the gift of creating art himself. He is a brilliant receiver of art. He understands the Zeitgeist and he's picked hits and he's had hits after hits after hits that he's had. My other brother Ian as an agent, same thing. Neither of them can play. Ian, the coolest kid in school, tried to play the bass and he can just about, but he did not get that gift. The driven thing...

Robert: So you believe you it is a gift?

Stewart: Yeah, absolutely. It is a gift. I don't know where it comes from, I'm so grateful for it, I'm humbled by the fact that I was granted this. I kiss the ground beneath my feet that I've been granted this gift. I do not feel that I earned it. I do feel an obligation in a way to service it and to... It is such a gift that I feel that it would be a crime for me to let it languish in a way. I don't know where that idea came from. Maybe my daddy taught me that or something.

Robert: Okay. So we’re doing here, in Basel, Ben-Hur...

Stewart: And you are the big orchestra and I get to write the music!

Robert: You’re such a crazy guy.

Stewart: That only took me 64 years to get that.

Robert: You went from being a drummer, a rock star, into a composer. It's a bit of a strange leap. I can't really think of anybody else who has done that...

Stewart: Once again, it wasn’t a leap. It wasn’t A and then a B. It was A– I guess the biggest leap was I got an incoming phone call from Francis Ford Coppola who says, could I come down to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he's prepping–rehearsing, shooting a movie–and would I come there and just kind of like hang out and talk music and concept and stuff? So I get down there and the cast at that time, they're all kids. Every single one of them has now won an Academy Award. Diane Lane, Matt Dillon, I’m so terrible with names... Laurence Fishburne, Mickey Rourke, all of them. Dennis Hopper, they've all... But they were just kids; that's a diversion.

Anyway, so he just wanted to talk music and I got in there. Okay, I'm a little bit obsessive, and I said great. We talked high concept and he had this idea that... the reason he called me is time ticking, I remember like high noon... I want this teleological, inexorable movement of time with rhythm concept. You know, I love concept. Daydream: the result, the produce, the fruit of daydreams.

Robert: So he called you because he realised that the rhythm was such an important part and...

Stewart: Because his 18-year-old son says, “Dad, you gotta call Stewart Copeland from the Police.”

Robert: Okay, and then...

Stewart: And he did and I got in there, we bonded and his deal is that he finds people that he just senses has something, and he gives them their voice. He doesn't direct them. Oliver Stone told me every single note, “What's that note mean?” But Francis, once he got a connection, you're on the wavelength, he just turns you loose which he did and I had to figure out myself how to score a movie. Which I played that one all myself and I played mallards and weird guitar parts and funny little sounds. For them, since I didn't know how you do it, I had to invent the wheel for myself which is another word for–others applied this term and I was happy to accept it–revolutionary. That's not how you're supposed to do it but it's still...wow, that worked.

But at one point he did turn around and say, “I need some emotion. I need strings,” and immediately alarm bells, he's going to get some schlock artist in here, who’s going to like string... Francis, I got that. Yeah, you're right. We need some strings.

Robert: And that was the first time you'd worked with an orchestra?

Stewart: Yes.

Robert: So, you threw yourself into it at the deep end?

Stewart: Oh no, I’ve played in the school band.

Robert: Okay, yeah, but I mean as a professional... You threw yourself into the deep end as a composer who...

Stewart: I had these chords that I had worked out and I can play them one at a time. Okay that chord, okay stop the tape. Okay, play that chord and when it comes to the next chord it's... Okay roll the tape... Bang! And I can do that kind of thing. So for strings, all I had was footballs. Holders [singing sound]. I didn’t know how to write anything else. So, the first question is I call up a contractor and he says okay how many strings would you like? I go, how many? I don’t know. Strings.

Robert: Just strings.

Stewart: Strings. How many is strings? He says, Well, two guys is strings but it’s going to sound like two guys. If you want like I guess what Francis wants is a big wash of emotion. I don’t know, I think we ended up with maybe a dozen-20 guys, something like that. Somebody else looked at the chords and put it on a chart properly and I'm going, Yeah, I remember that from school. I actually did learn in college–I was at the California School of Performing Arts where I learned figured bass harmony and the fundam...

Robert: Figured bass, the most boring thing in the world ever.

Stewart: That's as far as I got.

Robert: If anybody out there doesn't know what figured bass is, don't even bother trying to Google it.

Stewart: It's critical.

Robert: No, it's not. It used to be critical. It’s now very, very boring and confusing.

Stewart: No. But what it did tell me is to not just do a barre chord up and down the neck like that, like a guitarist would do, and it tells you that you can use inner voices, let everything move in a different direction, and so on and so forth.

I was in a music school with other kids who'd studied the piano since the age of seven and I was the runt of the litter. One day she said, “Okay everybody, here's your homework. Write 16 bars.” Well-voiced chords for 16 bar. I had a million tunes in my head so I figured out something that I already and figured out applying the rules that I’d learned in her class to something I already had and she goes to the class and she plays okay by Johnny and she plays Johnny’s piece. Yeah, very good. Okay, yeah, good. Okay, Stewart... You’ve got a parallel fifth there and you haven't really resolved that but it’s kind of interesting the way that doesn't resolve there and resolves here. Now, you're not supposed to do this here, but there's kind of that note there. This would be what I would teach next year.

Robert: I remember this from being a kid.

Stewart: Yeah, and she finally ends up with, “Stewart, this is an actual piece of music.” And that totally at the bottom of the class, everyone just... They can sight read, they've done their ear training... I was just trying to become... I was starting at college age to learn the fundamental building blocks of music where everyone else in class had started much younger. I might have started playing music very young, but understanding the building blocks, the DNA of it.

So, as long as I was there. When I went to University of California in Berkeley, I didn't get into the music school. They gave me the ear training test and they played eight bars of a tune and transcribe it. They play me an interval, identify it, all this stuff: fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail. I studied instead, mass communication and public policy.

Robert: Mass communication and public policy!

Stewart: That's how I conquered the world.

Robert: Holy crap. Okay.

Stewart: Much more useful. If I had actually gotten into that music department at UC Berkeley, I would now be the timpanist in the Ohio Symphony.

Robert: Okay, so I'm going to try and back you into a corner here for something because you told me you've got a kind of philosophy about something. I forget what the phrase is that you use but something to do with being dumb.

Stewart: The dumb shit.

Robert: There you go. It’s the dumb shit. Okay. Can you just explain that?

Stewart: Well, artists, for instance, have very bad taste in whatever their art form is because we're slobs. The popular music, I hear it and I can dance. I don't mind it, I like it I guess. But what I really seek out are the things that are a little challenging that put a gimp on it that are .... I don’t mind pop music, I love it like everybody else. But what I seek out is something a little beyond and so I'll miss a hit.

My brothers... That's a hit! They can identify it and so on. I'm a little bit further out there. So, when I'm writing music or working on something, my manager will come and say, Stewart, that’s great but what's that? That's the best part! You see...Then like, you call it the best part–sounds like a wrong note to me. Oh. And I have to reconsider–it's the dumb shit. Actually that’s dumb ass. Sorry.

Robert: Dumb ass and dumb shit.

Stewart: Totally different things. Sorry, sorry, forgive me. I’m going to finish dumb ass first. So, he comes in with dumb ass in comprehending, unsympathetic to how many hours I've put into that artistic revelation. I need a dumb ass every now and then to come and pop my bubble and say, “I'm sure it's really on some intellectual plane, I hear what you're saying.” You need your bubble popped every now and then. Every artist needs some dumb ass, usually provided by spouses.

Robert: Okay. Yes. My experience...

Stewart: You get some dumb ass at home? Careful, careful, careful. Who’s in the corner now, bitch?

Robert: Yeah, you got me. Yeah, fair enough. She’s going to kill me.

Stewart: Let's talk dumb shit.

Robert: Dumb shit.

Stewart: Let's get into some dumb shit. A good example of dumb shit. I played the Letterman Show, big national American TV show and it's drum solo week. So I go in to play a drum solo and I have a piece of music that I wrote for a ballet, I work up a chart for the Tonight Show band and they're cracking players, those guys. We work up a thing and play, and I play my drum solo and at the end it took a lot of music to build that thing. Format, the piece of music, the writing, there’s the education writing, the charts that I practice. Years, a life in music went into making that thing–serious application, a vocation. And at the end of it... throw the sticks up there [swishing sound].

Well, go on social media, how'd that go down? It's all about the [swishing sound] Did you see how he threw the drumsticks? Yeah, wow, the drumsticks... That Copeland man it’s like he plays with these... the drumsticks!

It’s the dumb shit. No matter how much vocation went into every other aspect of that performance, it was the dumb shit.

Robert: It is the dumb shit that the audience identified.

Stewart: It’s something that stands out. I mean, I’m sure they were very impressed by everything else, they wouldn't have been impressed by the thing unless they were impressed by all the rest of it subliminally, but the thing that caught their eye and that they're talking amongst themselves about is that odd little piece of nothing, that throwaway little something.

Robert: Okay, so here comes the corner. You like the dumb shit, the audience likes the dumb shit, but you don't write music which is dumb shit. You write music which is not always easily accessible. It can be but not always. It's very intelligent music.

Stewart: You're answering your own question.

Robert: No, I'm not because I don't get it. If you know an audience likes dumb shit, why don't you write dumb shit?

Stewart: Here's the two things going on. Remember how here's the main stream of where everyone else and I'm kind of running parallel and not quite bull's eye level? That's me here, see? All the dumb shit’s here, see? Up here, trying to connect with that thing, occasionally I throw in some dumb shit and that's the connection. And I understand that my music is a little astringent for some, perhaps. What I find to be a comfortable easy place in musical atmosphere might be not... Sort of disturbing or not... People gravitate towards feeling good and what makes me feel good sometimes it makes other people feel sad.

Robert: But why are you not...

Stewart: As a professional film composer, I got pretty good at identifying exactly what chord has... You know, this is happy, that’s sad, this is happy sad, and this is sad. There's a big difference, believe it or not. Now, as a technician, I understand perfectly how to go for this emotion or that emotion but my personal taste is you describe it as being slightly off centre and I'm flattered. I take that as a compliment.

But the dumb shit is to drop the barrier, to break the ice, to welcome aboard... I use it as a way to break the ice. Instead of being alienated... Oh, that was weird. Oh, ha-ha-ha, that's kind of funny at least, or whatever. So, I’d be careful that I have first of all, I do my thing, then I get a little dose of dumb ass... Telling me, dude, this is like a little out there, and then reminded by dumb ass, then I go and apply some dumb shit.

Robert: And then it makes everybody happy.

Stewart: Well, it makes me happy. It seems to work. I've played my... I’ve used it in front of really adverse audiences and seemed to get a result.

Robert: You're so good at answering questions, I genuinely can't tell whether I managed to back you into that corner successfully, or whether you wriggled out of it. But I don’t care. You’re very good at it.

Stewart: That's the briar patch. Please don't throw me into the briar patch. No, not the briar patch. Oh, you're throwing me into the briar patch! No, no, no. Okay.

Robert: Tell me. 20 years’ time, what's the business going to be like? What do you think is going to be happening with orchestras, with pop, rock music? 20 years’ time, what would be your prediction?

Stewart: I don't know how orchestras will survive but I would say that they will probably be branded and that because they have a champagne quality that applies sophistication to a product, that they will be useful as... and hopefully government institutions will recognise the value of here's an art form, here's a body of our culture that cannot sustain itself commercially. It cannot. An orchestra, 60 guys or 90 guys or 110 guys, they cannot sustain themselves as a commercial enterprise. They need either private donations or government donations. Where’s the world going to be in 20 years? I would suspect that orchestras will be, as they are now, be vehicles of what they can do, which is impart dignity upon a product.

Robert: Okay, and what about rock, pop?

Stewart: It will always be here. It always has been, always will be. For rhythm... Simple EAD chords, all the revolutions of music. It’s all about the haircut, change the haircut, change the style of music, first you grow it long and then you cut it short. I remember my mom saying, “Stewart, why can't you have long hair like all the other nice boys and girls?” Because mine was like [scraping sound] peroxide. Everything about my outward appearance said, “Fuck you, I'm going to eat your children.” That was the intent. Whereas I was a little soft little...

Robert: Oh, you were a timid soul inside. Bless you. All right, so that's your prediction. Just jumping back a bit.

Stewart: Well, here's the thing. There will always be rock music because if there isn't rock music, there will not be sex, and if there is not sex, there will not be anybody. It’s a part of our natural process.

Robert: It is now, but what...

Stewart: It always has been.

Robert: Well, you say that, but what about when Beethoven was around?

Stewart: When Beethoven was around was not early.

Robert: Beethoven was the kind of rock music of his day. I mean, he was so challenging when he wrote some of his music, and I'm sure that would have been the element of it.

Stewart: I suspect that Beethoven was not the rock music of his day. I suspect that Beethoven was the pampered servant of rich people and their sophisticated sublimated carnal desires. But out there on the streets of his town, the people were dancing into the streets, not to Bach music. That's my suspicion, I just made that up. That’s going to be a guess. Your readers or your listeners will write in and say, No, no, no, not sex. But I'm sure popular music of his day would have been rhythmic and would have been dancing and would have given the male of the species and the female of the species an opportunity, an impulsion and an audio permission to thrust their pure dander at each other, and to display their genetic superiority through body motion inspired by music. That's what music is.

Mozart? Bach? Those are sophistications like many other of our crocodile- brain behaviours. Are sophisticated and turned into a high form; humans do this. We take fire and we turn it into a jet or the internal combustion engine. That's what we do to fundamental building blocks of physics, that's what we do. And the fundamental building blocks of our music, which is part of our libido, which is part of our mating dance, you can develop that and it turns out the combination of physics, the human mind and sex produces high forms of art. But that's not what's really going on. Those are like the caveman drew on the painting because he had... High art painting is not necessarily where it came from, but that throb, rock ‘n’ roll, Bach was not that. Bach was not rock 'n' roll. He's like the rock star of his time. That's his position in society but that's not the function of his music.

Robert: Yeah, but for instance, Paganini who of course...

Stewart: He was popular.

Robert: Yes, he was like the rock star of his time and he went bankrupt...

Stewart: And Mozart too, by the way, was in the streets and inspired by music the people were actually dancing to.

Robert: And Vivaldi Four Seasons, it's incredible music but...

Stewart: I'm surprised that they have any population in Europe at all. I'm surprised that they’re here... In fact, my whole theory, I'm just here begging to throw it all because I just made it up anyway as I was talking. Out the window. You see, Europe would be depopulated now if they were trying to procreate to the sound of Vivaldi. If that's the only reason humans procreate, is Vivaldi, we would have been fucked.

Robert: That's a brilliant quote. That's going to be the headline quote on this podcast. Great, okay, fine... Who knows, who knows? It’s a prediction about what’s happening in 20 years’ time...

Stewart: Get this. Who would have ever (thought) that the most effective music that gets right to the deepest part and releases all social training and everything and gives young males and young females of our species utter permission is a mechanised rhythm that comes from a machine. [EDM sounds] To the extent that it’s human is to the extent that it's less effective in releasing the libido and permitting these behaviours that would be utterly unacceptable without the presence of a strong beat.

In fact, people standing in a room, they’re not interested in procreating. There's music going but they're not even thinking about it. Their body’s moving to it. There's more to it than meets the eye. There's something deeply physiological, something evolved very deeply in our human behaviour.

Robert: Okay. And you yourself, you live quite a simple life, you don’t have a big empire with 100 orchestrators and...

Stewart: No. I don't have an engineer. I used to. All the people of my generation, their work day begins when the engineer shows up and when the engineer “got to go home to see my family,” then the artist, that's the end of his working day.

Robert: And this is kind of a bit of an ethos of yours, is keep it small, keep it to yourself.

Stewart: Absolutely. The Police was three guys and it was designed that way. I wanted this... Let it be three guys. And I have my own record company that I did my gosh darned self... What's the cheapest studio in London? Pathway, an eight-track studio. Well, let's go there, and I call the guy and I chisel him down. Yes, strip it back and strip it back so that you've got manoeuvrability is the main thing.

Robert: But do you not think though, if you have more people working with you, collaborating, working for you, that you can achieve more in life because more people are doing the stuff that you don't necessarily need to do?

Stewart: Actually, that has been someplace that I'm getting to. I am in the process of arriving at that happy place where I can give it up. All during my young Pac Man years and adulthood, I've always been very greedy of artistic “boss hood.” I want to play every instrument myself, and I want to record everything myself, and I want to mix it myself, and I don't want anything to happen with me out of... I got to be in it, I want to be into everything. The video-I want to make the video, and the video should be like this and it should be... Just like the idea of not owning every aspect of it is kind of alien.

But now with the passage of time, I've discovered that like a producer is really cool because all I have to do is do this and then he has to clean up the tapes and figure it out and do all this stuff. I've learned to give it up, to let other people play with the ball, and the results can be really good. In a band, you collaborate. I'm not talking about a band collaboration because there, it's a corporate identity and I feel that I don't have to do everything in the band, but the band has to do everything. The band has to decide on the album cover, the band has to decide what the video is going to be about. We're not going to have anybody tell us what to... And so in a band, it's a corporate identity. The band is me, it's my band, even though there's two other guys who call it their band. For each of us, it's my thing.

The thing that I will never have, even as much as I'm prepared to give it up artistically, I will never acquire an empire. I have no need and no desire for an empire. I look at fellow composers who have built empires, some very effectively. One of my erstwhile competitors, Hans Zimmer who’s a big film composer and he does incredible work...

Robert: He’s Swiss, of course. Swiss.

Stewart: Is he?

Robert: Yes.

Stewart: Of course, is he? I always thought he was German or Austrian but okay, Swiss. He has an empire. He has 10 guys. He learned to give it up. I don't have to write every bar. Or he writes the theme and I don't have to apply it to this unit, apply that theme to... I can have somebody do it for me, then check it. Then when he's done all the donkey work–of here's the start time, there's the art time, this is the BPM that lands on the chord and does all the... The craftsmanship part of it. He’s written a tune and that’s the art. Then the craftsman applies it to the scene and then the artist comes by and says, okay that works but you know what I'm going to do... And so he gets all the fun part.

But he has to give it up and let other people do it. He has to hire those guys and to hire those guys, he needs an empire, and to feed an empire, he doesn't actually go and get to be an artist as much as I would need to be. He has to take a lot of meetings, he has to get every action picture that's being made, he needs to get that work to sustain his empire. He can't like take a job every now and then like an independent... Like when I was doing that, I was independent. A job every two months would feed my family. He needs every movie being made, he needs to have like three or four Triple A action pictures in his studio being made at all times, or else having that Empire...

Robert: And that doesn’t interest you.

Stewart: In one sense, you can turn things over and like that. On the other sense, running the empire. There's a difference between having an empire and having a collaboration, and letting the creative ball, letting other people play with the ball sometimes.

Robert: Okay and one of your balls, of course, is Ben-Hur, the reason why we’re here. You wrote the music for the live performance that happened and launched at The O2 Arena a few years ago and now you've set it to play and run with the edit you did for the 1925 film. Do you have any other projects and films that you would like to do that? Have you ever seen another silent movie and you’ve thought, I'd love to score a film and... Or is Ben-Hur such a special thing for you that that's the one that's...

Stewart: Well, Ben-Hur came and got me. It was an incoming call to score as a hired gun composer, to score a stage production of Ben-Hur. I did that, the show ran its course. A huge, huge behemoth of a show. Started in The O2 Arena in London and it ran its course. And then I wanted to do the concert and so I found the 1925 film and that became a different journey. It's sort of like it came for me. I didn't select that film.

But other films, I've looked at some other films by Fred Nibler the director, but there’s just such a... It's such a huge... It took three years and it was kind of fun and I could easily do another one. Not right away, because I'm having too much fun with Ben-Hur. I mean, I haven't finished playing Ben-Hur yet. I also write opera, in year three of an opera that I'm writing for Chicago in Long Beach. I'll get around to do another film one day, I suppose.

Robert: Okay. All right. So, last thing. I’m 32-33 actually. I can’t even remember my own age now.

Stewart: You're bit young to be lying about your age, pretending you don't know how old you are.

Robert: What advice would you give somebody like me who is hungry, relatively young, passionate about what I do, and I want to make sure that when I'm a little bit older that I'm still hungry, passionate about what I do? What general sage advice would you give me, because I know you’re like a grand papa...

Stewart: Stu-daddy!

Robert: Stu-daddy! Do you have anything that you look at me, you’ve worked with me now for the past week...

Stewart: Well, I would say having worked over the last week, I would say that you have a couple of gifts that will take you where you want to go. You also have a surfeit of energy which takes you into empire building, we have discussed this. For your viewers, there's a backstory here: I've been lecturing this young man about casting aside the empire and getting on with the music because you don't want to end up like a man who I respect deeply but do not want to be like Hans Zimmer. Where he spends all his time in meetings, having to do the “not music” part of the enterprise.

I would say that at your age, you've got energy to burn, so go ahead build an empire. But I suspect that one day you will start getting that empire out of your life. There’s been a couple of times we've been on the streets, we were on the Swiss Riviera the other day and you're walking around the streets and you're on the phone dealing with something. I don't know what you were dealing with, but it looked important. Without an empire, I don’t have anything to deal with. I'm enjoying the day. [He whistles]

Robert: Very chilled.

Stewart: There you are, young man, young Pac Man.

Robert: Can that be my nickname from now on for you? You just call me Pac Man.

Stewart: Yeah

Robert: I like that. That’s very retro.

Stewart: Well, I have sons, several who are older than you.

Robert: You have seven children.

Stewart: I have seven children.

Robert: Boy.

Stewart: Yeah. Four boys and then three girls, and I'm proud to say that some of my sons are also Pac Men.

Robert: Yeah. So you like Pac Man?

Stewart: Well, that's what I try to raise them to be. At this age, from 25 to 35, that's your chance. Take no prisoners, just remorseless, just bite off as much as you can get and do it while you've got no baggage and just you know... Fight, scramble and then there will come a point where you want to put down roots and take it a bit easier, and that's called midlife crisis.

What the crisis is all about is you realise that that's the peak. That's where your youthful vigour got you and the rest of your life is the result of that 10 years span. That 10 years is setting up what the rest of your life will be. I would say, you asked for a piece of advice, focus your attention on the things that you know you'll still want to be doing–which apply to your gift, not to your acumen.

Robert: Okay. Well, I'll see you tonight on the stage.

Stewart: Absolutely.

Robert: Thanks, mate.

Stewart: We’re going to rock the house.

Robert: Thank you very much.

Stewart: In your bare feet.

Robert: Yeah.

Robert: Hey, it's me again. Sorry to bug you but as this is a new podcast, I need your help.

If you enjoyed listening to the fun I had with Stewart and you'd like more, then please head over to thebackstageblog.com, sign up and receive the next podcast directly to your inbox. It's also crucial that you get as many friends on and off social media to take a listen by sending them a link to the show.

Now, remember, this episode is brought to you with the help of Lat_56, the smart, sharp and efficient baggage company. So, until the next time, appreciate the music and the musicians will appreciate you.

Show notes

Stewart's Father, Miles Copeland Jr., is a spy [03.51]

Key points from Stewart’s childhood [04:45]

His father’s best buddy was Kim Philby, a double-agent. [07:20]

Stewart took up drums partly because he was a late bloomer. [10:03]

Why he believes that music is part of the procreative process of the human being. [12:07]

When his father spotted his talent, Stewart was signed up for drum lessons. [14:00]

The Police was modelled as a punk band and enjoyed huge success after Shea Stadium. [17:02]

A grand aspiration: Stewart would love to conduct a large orchestra. [22:00]

Stewart and Robert strike a deal for the next Tyrant’s Crush performance. [24:04]

The biggest leap from drummer to composer happened when Stewart got a phone call from Francis Ford Coppola. [29:15]

How he failed to get into the music school at University of California, Berkeley. [35:19]

A lesson in Stewart’s philosophy of the dumb shit and the dumb ass. [36:10]

Stewart’s prediction for the music industry in 20 years’ time. [42:16]

Another theory: without rock music, there will not be sex. [44:06]

If the only reason humans pro-create is Vivaldi, we would all be fucked. [47:03]

Stewart has no desire for an empire. [51:10]

Selected links from the episode

thebackstageblog.com

Miles Copeland Jr.

Kim Philby

The Police

The Black Knights

Ben-Hur

Francis Ford Coppola

Shea Stadium

Tyrant’s Crush

Hans Zimmer

Lat_56

Books, Music and Videos that feature Stewart Copeland

Strange Things Happen: A life with The Police, polo and pygmies - an autobiography from Stewart covering everything you need to know

Dare to Drum - a story of the rock star composer teaming up with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Ben Hur live by Stewart Copeland - a CD performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra

Orchestralli (+ bonus) - a 2 disk set of Copeland performing in concert with a select group of classical musicians on tour in Italy

Gizmodrome - a record of Copeland’s latest band, featuring Mark King (Level 42), Adrian Belew (ex King Crimson, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads) and Vittorio Cosma (PFM and Elio e le Storie Tese).

The Police: Everyone Stares - The Police Inside Out - DVD filmed on Super-8 giving an insider’s view of the band’s rise to fame and eventual split.

Related & Recommended Posts

#Stewart Copeland #The Police #Behind the scenes

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siarven · 7 years ago

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20 Questions Tag

I got tagged by @reinkings to do this tag game, thank you so much :3

1. Is there any scene from any piece you’ve written that actually scared you? If so, describe the scene.

Hm… I’m not really one for horror? I don’t really like watching or reading it so I haven’t really written any, either.

2. What genre do you feel most awkward writing?

Romance. I'm horrible at anything concerning flirting and stuff like that xD Horrible!

3. How many different types of writing do you write? Types of writing include novels, short stories, poetry, song lyrics, etc.

Mostly novel-length stuff, though they usually end up getting longer than just one book. Also short stories, and one-shots. I wrote poetry when I was younger (but I am probably rather bad at it). Also I never wrote a song, lyric-wise, only making up melodies etc without lyrics.

4. How old were you when you first started writing?

Writing as in writing stuff down, or storytelling? I can't remember a time when I didn't tell myself stories (out loud, until I managed to do it in my head later on). I started writing them down as soon as I could write, haha (so near the end of first grade). Most of the stories from that time are about "Feelie" ("Fee" means fairy in German...) who was, oh wonder, a fairy! And had veeery long hair. And a flying unicorn. xD The stories are kind of very cute and slightly embarassing, and very stereotypical XD Also there was Lisa, my next ... "OC". There were a lot of different iterations of her, because I never finished anything before getting a better idea and subsequently starting again from scratch XD

5. How confident are you in your writing?

Hm. Sometimes I am really sure that what I'm doing is amazing (usually when I just came up with a really mean plot twist or magic system or found the perfect solution to a plot hole) ... only that usually doesn't last very long XD I would be lying if I said that I don't care about what others think, but at the same time, I also don't? I'd love to be published one day but if it comes down to it, I'm writing for me, and only me. I feel so blessed to have found this community, and that there are others who are coming to love my characters as much as I do. But I would write these stories even if nobody were interested in them. So... I don't know, I think I'm getting better at the confidence thing :)

6. Have you ever written and posted anything that was very personal to you?

I don't think that I've ever posted anything? I write Morning Pages (sadly not as frequently as I should), which are 3 pages of stream of consciousness, first thing after getting up in the morning. It helps a lot. But it's also the sort of thing I won't ever upload anywhere cause it's deeply personal and I would feel very uncomfortable giving it to anyone. I've been thinking about uploading a cutesy (rather personal) short story, though. I wrote it for my mother as a birthday present some years ago :D

7. What inspired you to start writing?

I... have no idea? I've told myself stories before I could write, so... I have no idea. I should probably ask my mother if there was some sort of catalyst xD I didn't even start reading of my own free will until 2nd or 3rd grade, but since then I've never stopped so... xD Anyways, my father read me bedtime stories every night when I was small so maybe that? I never really watched a lot of TV until 10th grade when I discovered the mysteries of the online stream and suddenly had a lot of stuff to catch up to... and now I'm studying film xD (My parents are still confused by that because I was a kind of late bloomer concerning cinema and tv :D )

8. Which of your OCs do you relate to the most?

Uh... let's see. I think maybe Jouka? He’s from my wip firewings, and I love him a lot.

9. Have you ever written self-insert fanfiction?

Maybe not *fan*fiction but maybe self-insert fiction when I was young xD All that fairy and princess stuff... most definitely self-insert, haha.

10. What is your favorite piece you’ve ever written about?

Uhm… I haven’t written it yet? But when I’m done with Dreams and Shadows I’ll go and write Icicle Soul. It has some of my favourite characters, plot lines and plot twists in it and I’ve been looking forward to properly writing it since forever :D

11. How frequently do you actually sit down and write?

I try to write every day. It does not work. I always end up doing tag games instead because there are still so many to finish.

12. How many hours at a time do you do research on your writing?

Sometimes it escalates and I spend the whole day reading up on stuff on wikipedia and then end up source-riding until there’s no way back and I have 3000 tabs open. XD

13. Do you like to branch out in your writing or do you tend to stick to what you know?

When I was younger my stories tended to include a lot of the stuff I was interested in at the specific moment, and were influenced strongly by the things I’d read recently. Now I try to challenge myself a bit to write stuff that I’m bad at, or to use writing to explore things that I don’t really know yet :)

14. What would your antagonist of your current WIP say to you if they saw you in person?

I think that depends on if they know that I’m the writer or not xD If not I’d be far too insignificant. If yes, I would probably be subjected to a lot of threats, and curses. And assassination attempts, so they can wrangle control back.

15. Do you consider yourself your OCs’ god or just kind of a guiding hand (or other? If other, please list)?

Well. I’m not very good at being a god, I guess, since they always decide everything on their own. Or change, without me wanting them to. Or do something totally unexpected. So, I’m probably more like a guiding hand, haha.

16. What do you think you’d be doing with your time if you’d never gotten into writing?

Well, I do study 3D animation and do art, so I guess I’d be somewhat better at that because I’d have more time to practise. xD

17. Have you ever written a smut piece?

Nope. I'm very bad at romance and smut and stuff like that.

18. What was the first thing you ever wrote about?

Oooh. I remember a story about a tiger and a rabbit :D Also, the Feelie stories above… the first thing that ever got longer than a few chapters had no title and was vaguely like Eragon.

19. What is the most creative creature you’ve ever created for world-building?

Creatures are the best! Hm. The most creative creature… I don’t know, actually? They’re usually very plausible creatures because I want them to feel possible. Like, if that world really existed, it would totally make sense if the creature did, too, you know? I always think of evolution, too, and how it could have been formed by its environment and stuff like that. I have very big folders filled with that stuff :D I have bloodthirsty and very murderous unicorns in Morning Star, though, and for Dreams and Shadows there are tons of different kinds of dragons that I’ve put a lot of thought into. I have rebuilt Alearis’ ecosystem from scratch, and I just vaguely remember the horse-like creatures that exist in the world of Firewings instead of horses. Honestly, there are so many more but I have probably made more creative creatures for art-purposes.

20. Tell me one random fact about your WIP that you have yet to tell your followers.

Dreams and Shadows was born during German class in 11th grade. I had an image of a young boy in my head, standing behind his mother who was crying in front of his comatose body. It was only ever supposed to be a short story, and it was supposed to be this melancholic, sad and beautiful thing. And then I wrote it during NaNoWriMo and the original plot was done after 30,000 words but I still had 20K words left to write in order to win so Ava, his little sister, got a storyline of her own, and angels and demons entered the fray, and now Ava has somehow taken over the story and that slow, beautifully-sad thing has grown and become something else entirely :D It’s also no longer set in our world, the angels and demons have become something else, it’s one of my favourite worldbuildings yet and there are dragons! 200% better ;)

tagging: @madmooninc @romenna @asttralhell @lynnafred @authordai if you want to :D

#about me #tag game #tagging game #love these questions btw

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theresas-sound-world-blog · 4 years ago

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Theresa’s Sound World Interview

Person: Rosie Varela

Bands: EEP/ The Rosie Varela Project

Genre/s: Dreampop/Shoegaze/Indie

In my interview, I talk to Rosie Varela of US Dreampop Shoegaze band EEP and The Rosie Varela Project about music, inspirations, her music projects, the modern music industry and...Star Trek! ⭐️

❓When did you first feel the impulse to create music and why?

🅰️I wrote my first song around 1975, when I was 8 years old. I was inspired after watching “My Fair Lady.” I was the youngest child of five and a latchkey kid, so I was alone after school every day. I turned to singing and writing little songs to amuse and comfort myself. I had a little tape recorder I used to record little tunes with my vocals or on my flute.

Picking up guitar at 30 was an epiphany - I suddenly had a way to really write fully formed songs. And once I started, it felt like a flood of songs came pouring out. It still feels that way.

❓Can you name the top ten inspirations for your music? It can be anything, bands, songs, albums, books, poems, art, films, people...

🅰️1. AM/FM radio and shows like American Bandstand, Soul Train, and The Midnight Special.

2. My older brothers’ huge record collection that covered jazz, blues, oldies, rock, and latin music.

3. When I was a kid, I was inspired by The Beatles, Steely Dan, ELO, Fleetwood Mac, Tower of Power, Tom Petty, Motown, and Blondie.

4. Movies that have a focus on music - Woodstock, Blues Brothers, A Hard Day’s Night.

5. My first concert - Carlos Santana at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. A powerful and spiritual experience.

6. Raymond Carver’s short stories. Minimal and intense slices of life.

7. Movies that put characters in morally challenging situations like Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski, and Goodfellas.

8. In my late teens and 20s, I was inspired by the recordings of bands and artists like REM, Bowie, Talking Heads, and Peter Gabriel.

9. The Verve awakened me to what I call Proto Shoegaze. The textures and layers of “A Storm In Heaven.” And first wave Shoegaze bands like Slowdive, MBV, Ride, Catherine Wheel, and Lush.

10. The art and lives of Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe. Their independent and unapologetic dedication to their art has inspired me to do the same.

❓You’re known for your band EEP and more recently, your solo material in the form of the Rosie Varela Project, but can you say what you were doing before musically?

🅰️I think I spent from age 18-51 in a bit of a haze - working, raising my son, writing music in my spare moments, playing in cover bands here and there, and trying to find my voice as a songwriter. So I played every night in my living room and wrote a lot of songs that didn’t sound like me. It seems like I only recently found my voice.

So I’m a very late bloomer!

❓ Can you tell me a bit about how EEP got together?

🅰️I had been helping some musicians in El Paso to record their music, and through that met Ross and Sebastian of Brainville Studio. Because we worked so well together, we formed an experimental synth-based project called Something Something Sound System.

One day I wrote a shoegaze song for my husband that just came out of nowhere (in Spanish to boot!) and I recorded the whole demo at home in 2 hours.

“Hogar” was the first song I had ever written in Spanish. It felt really easy, fluid, natural, and everything just clicked into place organically. My husband Justin really loved it and encouraged me to talk to Ross about recording it as a one-off single. Ross, Seb and I started writing more songs and eventually I asked Serge and Lawrence to join us. The combination of our influences and ages made for a really great band dynamic.

❓How different is it working on a solo project without your bandmates?

🅰️The RVP is basically me taking songs I’ve written that don’t make it into the EEP catalog, in varied genres, and having fun producing them through a gazey lens alongside some of my friends in music. The big difference is I am learning how to produce my own music for the first time. My goal is to release 4 singles this year while I work on my 2022 solo album and so far it’s going well!

❓Have you found that Lockdown/ The Pandemic has impacted on you positively or negatively in a creative sense? Why do think this is?

🅰️For me, the pandemic has affected me positively. It forced me to adapt, modify, and accept a whole new model in making music. Songwriting and remote recording collaborations have had to become a bigger priority than rehearsing and playing live shows. I think EEP and I have pivoted pretty well in that aspect.

❓ I sometimes feel that although financially a lot of bands are struggling owing to miserly streaming platform revenue and (at the moment) no tours, getting music to an audience is easier than it was say, in the 1990s. It seems that social media is key. Have you any tips for bands/artists starting out in the modern music industry ?

🅰️I think figuring out your musical WHY is super important at the start. And every band member’s answer to that will build the collective creative effort and also the band’s calling card, so to speak.

Decide on your short-term and long-term goals and figure what you need to achieve each one.

Assess how each band member can contribute to them and make sure everyone buys in on those goals. If not financially, then with their creativity and skills.

Don’t be in a hurry and don’t be desperate about your music. If it takes a year to save up the budget you need to record your album, save and focus on getting your music ready. Be patient and actually have a solid release plan. I see some bands who release music quickly and often without any marketing plan and it’s sad to see these releases come and go with very little coverage or sales.

Don’t expect to make any profit from your music. Breaking even financially is a great goal to shoot for instead.

It’s important for DIY bands to set realistic benchmarks of success and remain humble about them. The myth of an album “blowing up” to huge financial gain is just that. A myth. It is extremely rare. Instead, think about different kinds of specific goals - how many Bandcamp followers, how many pre-order sales, etc. Make those goals achievable.

Our goal for EEP was to simply have 30 fans who would buy our music and to know our fans by name and cultivate real friendships. I’m happy to say we surpassed that number by a bit.

Use your social platforms to engage, inform, and have fun. Ask for help if you need it from people who you feel have figured it out. We use our social platform to geek out about Shoegaze bands we love, share our stories, and share the behind the scenes of our making music. We love to showcase our peers, and ask our followers about what they like so that we get to know them better.

And always, support those sho support you whenever you can.

❓What are your plans from a musical point of view next? Have you any pipe-dreams for post-lockdown?

🅰️For The RVP, I want to challenge myself musically by interpreting non-Shoegaze songs I’ve written through a Dream Pop and Shoegaze lens. Because I have so many different kinds of songs, it will either be really good or incredibly bad!! I’m willing to take that risk.

For EEP, the pipe dream is to tour the US and the UK when things stabilize and travel is possible. For now, our short-term dream is just to be able to record and rehearse together.

Next, just for fun...

❓Who is your favourite Beatle and why? For example, I like Ringo Star the best, because of his laid back man-of-the-people attitude, his sense of humour and ability not to take himself seriously, namely voicing Thomas the Tank Engine. Musically, in terms of personality, or both, which member of the Fab Four do you sway to the most?

🅰️I think lyrically John Lennon is definitely my favorite. There is a spirit of rebellion, humor, and absurdity in how he played with words and song structure, especially towards the end.

As a person, I identify with George Harrison the most. His curiosity and reverence for Indian music, philosophy, and using music to process the larger questions of life was a refreshing contrast to his bandmates’ style.

❓ I know, like me, you’re a Star Trek fan, so I couldn’t resist this one; Spock or Data and why?

🅰️I identify so much with Data for his quest to understand the different aspects and fullness of being human. I think that has driven a lot of my past and present interactions and relationships. He’s probably the most noble of characters in The Next Generation in his unflinching willingness to sacrifice himself for the needs of the many⭐️

🎼Below are links to Rosie’s latest single, ‘Low’ in her incarnation as The Rosie Varela Project, plus links to two Theresa’s Sound World reviews of music by Rosie’s band, EEP from last year ⭐️

🎧Listen to the single ‘Low’ by The Rosie Varela project: https://thervp.bandcamp.com/track/low

📚🎧: Read my 2020 review of the single ‘Hogar’ by EEP, including listening platform links to the track: https://www.facebook.com/116279076583978/posts/180288703516348/?d=n

📚🎧Read my 2020 review of the album, ‘Death of a Very Good Machine’ by EEP including listening platform links to the album: https://www.facebook.com/116279076583978/posts/198924518319433/?d=n

#MusicBlogger #MusicBlogs

#MusicWriter #MusicBlog #TSW #MusicReviews #TheresasSoundWorld #MusicReviewer #Shoegaze #Dreampop #Indie #AlternativeMusic #Writer #EEP #AlternativeMusicBlog #UK #IndieBlogger #TheRosieVarelaProject #UnderGroundMusic

#alternative music #tsw #underground music #theresa’s sound world #music blogger #uk #music writer #music blog #shoegaze #Dreampop #indie #eep #the Rosie varela project #music interview

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kawaiichurchburner · 5 years ago

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All asks

GENERAL

1: What’s your name? Why did your parents name you that? Jente and idk my mom liked it

2: Meaning behind your URL? highschool joke cause my friends liked anime

3: When is your birthday? 27th of january

4: What’s your sign? Do you know your moon and rising sign too? Aquarius, Virgo and Gemini

5: How many languages do you speak? 2 descent and others a few words

6: Do you like plants? What’s your favourite plant? I do and all plants are great plants

7: Play any Instruments? Sadly no, still wanne learn how to play guitar

8: Do you like learning about history? Do you have a favourite era? I love learning about it especialy mythology and folklore, favorite era is renaissance, medieval and ancient roman and greek times

9: Do you have a favourite place? Love walking around i the forest

10: Favourite Pokémon? Scizor, Glalie, rowlet and mimikyu

11: Are you a picky eater? kind of?

12: Do you like hiking? i love going on walks, not alot of hills here though

13: How do you feel about your hometown? I like it here cause of my friends but if i can move out i will

14: Are you more of a city or a country person? country

15: Any unusual hobbies? Not that im aware of that they are unusual, i do tend to collect alot of things

16: Do you like rain? i do even had to walk through it a few days ago and was soaked but i honestly didnt mind

17: Do you have any allergies? mosquito bites

18: Early bird or night owl? night owl

19: What was your first ever job? cleaner in the local cinema

20: Dream job? Librarian of museum curator

21: Tell us a random fact about yourself? I have a jar full of rpg dice on my desk

22: Favourite snack? crisps

23: Favourite soda? cola

24: Ever met someone famous? I met solstafir after their concert but thats it

25: Do you like to sing? Yes although im not very good at it

26: Do you like to dance? No

27: Do you prefer to have your phone on light or dark mode? dark mode

28: Favourite Disney movie? does avengers endgame count as disney?

29: What song have you listened to most recently? Darker Thoughts by Paradise Lost

30: Favourite song? Black Autumn, White Spring - Uada, Kiss my ashes goodbye - Woods of ypres

31: A song that makes you nostalgic? some songs i listened to in highschool but not as much now anymore

32: If you could be an animal, which would you pick? goat

33: Do you have any siblings? nope

34: Do you drink alcohol? What’s your fave drink? yes, beer

35: Do you live alone? If not, who do you live with? Nope with my parents

36: Ever left your country? several times

37: Were you an early, late or average bloomer? Average i think?

38: Favourite subject in school? History

39: Are you good at math? not realy

40: How did your teachers describe you as a child? quiet

41: Did any of your teachers hate you? Why? one did but i still dont know why

42: Were you popular in high school? hahaha great joke

43: Do you think it’s easy to make new friends? nope

44: Did you play any sports as a kid? i did

45: Do you like reading? Love it

46: Favourite book(s)? mort by terry pratchett, everything from tolkien, some stories by lovecraft, history of the devil by paul Carus

47: Favourite film(s)? The thing, mandy, reanimator, lotr, witchfinder general

48: Are you a gamer? what console? yes, switch and ps4

49: Tell us about your best friend. He is a weeb

50: Craziest thing you’ve ever done? idk

51: Tell us about a time where you felt badass. never happend

52: Can you swim? yes

53: Do you know how to ride a bike? yes

54: Do you have a driver’s license? yes

55: Do you know how to drive a stick shift? yes

56: Do you want kids? no

57: Do you know what you want to name your kids? dont want them

58: Favourite eye colour? idk brown

59: Do you like the sound of your voice? hate it

60: Favourite part of your body? hate it

61: Do you wear make up? no

62: Do you have any favourite clothes? my bandshirts

63: Do you have a favourite pair of undies? no

64: What do you wear to bed? nothing

65: How would you describe your sense of style? basic metalhead i guess?

66: Do you have any piercings? How many and where? no

67: Want any piercings? no

68: Do you have any tattoos? How many? no

69: Do you want any tattoos? yes, i even have the flash but not an apointment yet

70: Have you ever had/considered having plastic surgery? What kind of surgery and why? no

LOVE AND SEX

71: Who was your first kiss? highschool gf

72: Who was your first love? highschool gf

73: Favourite cuddling position? idk like spooning?

74: Do you like play wrestling? sure?

75: What’s your sexuality? How long have you known? straight

76: Ever had a crush on a teacher? no

77: How did you meet your current/most recent partner? on here lol

78: Opinion on tummy kisses? they are okay

79: Where do you like to be kissed? idk

80: Do you like kissing with tongue? sure

81: Do you like hickeys? sure

82: What’s your love language? Dutch

83: What’s your type? you are my type

84: Do you want to get married one day? sure

85: How do you feel about long distance relationships? we are doing great now arent we? even though we see eachother every week but its a distance though

0 notes

clydesanders-rp-blog · 7 years ago

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Full name: Clyde Micheal Sanders

Pronunciation: CLY-DE

Nickname(s) or alias: Clyde

Preferred name: Clyde

Current age: twenty

Astrological sign: Leo

Element:Fire

Title: MR

Label: The misfit

Gender: Male

Preferred pronouns: He/him

Sexual preference: bisexual

Romantic preference: Grayromantic

Resides in: Princeton, NJ

Current occupation: student

Language(s) spoken: english

Native language: english

Current marital status:

( &&. background )

Reason behind name: his mother named him after clyde barrow

Birth order: first born

Ethnicity: CAUCASIAN

Nationality: American

Species: human

Religion: catholic

Political views: none

Financial status: rich

IQ: 127

Hometown: Santa monica, CA

( &&. physical appearance )

Looks like (or face claim, if applicable): cole sprouse

Height: 6′0

Weight: 170

Shoe size: 12

Figure/build: slim

Hair colour, Dyed?: raven

Hair length: short

Eye colour: green

Glasses? Colour? / Contacts? Are they coloured?:

Shape of face: round

Facial hair:

Do they shave/wax? Where?:

Skin tone: white

Tattoos: none

Piercings: none

Birthmarks/scars/distinguishing marks: birthmarks

Dominant hand: right

If painted, what color are their nails/toenails?:

Usual style of clothing: casual

Frequently worn jewelry: gold rolex

Describe their voice, what accent?: none

What is their speaking style (fast, monotone, loquacious)?: loquacious

Describe their scent: soap and cigarettes

Describe their posture: normal

( &&. legal information )

Birth Name: (if changed)

Other names they go by:

Any speeding tickets?: yes

Have they ever been arrested?: yes

Do they have a criminal record?: no

Have they committed any violent crimes?: no

Property crimes?: no

Traffic crimes?: yes

Other crimes?: no

( &&. medical information )

Blood type: o positive

Date/time of birth: 8/4/97 , 9am

Place of birth: santa monica, CA

Vaginal birth or cesauren section?: vaginal

Sex: Male

Diet: regular

Smoker? / Drinker? / Drug User?, Which?: all

Addictions: cannabis, xanax and alcohol

Allergies: none

Do they get occasional checkups?: yes

Ever broken a bone?: yes

Hospital visits, what for?: overdoses

Any physical ailments/illnesses/disabilities: none

Any medication regularly taken: none

( &&. career information )

Past occupation(s): modeling

Why are they no longer working as it?: disagreements with the boss

Do they enjoy their current occupation?: yes

Why do they do it?: for fun

How did they end up in their current occupation?: personal manger

How long have they been in their current occupation?: 3 years

( &&. personality )

Direct quote from them: ‘ life is too short so do what you want to do’

Positive traits: warmhearted, affectionate, helpful

Negative traits: moody, ill tempered, impulsive

Likes: working out, music, reading, sleeping

Dislikes: crowded places

Strengths: photography, science

Weaknesses: Math, flirting

Insecurities: his nose

Fears/phobias: being stuck in tight spaces

Habits: playing with hair , biting nails, shaking leg

Quirks: always chewing gum

Hobbies: photography

Guilty pleasure: xanax

Desires: to travel the world

Wishes: to go back in time

Regrets: not forgiving his mother for leaving

Secrets: he was involved in a drunken hit and run

Turn ons: neck kisses

Turn offs: spitting

Kinks/fetishes: being tied up

Superstitions: opening an umbrella inside

Lucky number: 7

Pet peeves: People Who Don't Cover Their Cough/sneeze, animal cruelty

Their motto: you only live once

( &&. favourites )

Food: pasta

Drink: mountain dew

Fast food restaurant: olive garden

Flavour: vanilla

Word: dope

Colour: red

Clothing: gucci

Accessory: gold rolex

Candle scent: apple cinnamon

Store: apple

Instrument: guitar

Game: call of duty black opps

Occupation: student

Animal: dog

Holiday: halloween

Weather: cold

Season: fall

Book: hunger games

Artist: eminem

Band/group: linkin park

Song: what’s my age again by blink 182

Movie/film: Constantine

TV show: south park

Sport: lacrosse

Sports team: the giants

Quote: ‘live fast die young’

School subject: english

Possession: ring

Name: clyde

Number: 7

Emoji: purple devil

Mythological creature: Zeus

( &&. skills )

Talents: photography

Special powers/abilities: none

Ability to drive a car? Operate any other vehicles?: yes

Can they ride a bike?:yes

Do they play any sports?: yes

Anything they’re bad at?: singing

Do they have any combat training? Why?: N/A

( &&. firsts )

Childhood memory: hearing mom and dad arguing

Crush: the girl from next door

Email address: [email protected]

Job: photographer

Phone: iphone 7

Computer: mac

Kiss: the girl next door

Love: N/A

Sexual experience: in her bedroom

( &&. childhood )

Best childhood memory?: opening presents on christmas

Worst childhood memory?: getting an ass whooping from dad

What were they like as a child?: energetic

Any crushes growing up?: brother’s best friend

Did they know/like their parents?:yes

Worst influence on them as a kid?: brother

Did they have a lot of friends?: no

Were they heavily punished?: yes

Anything they wish they could cut out?: ass beatings from dad

Were they more feminine or masculine?: masculine

Were they an early or late bloomer for puberty?: late

Do they still know any of their childhood friends?: yes

Did they have any chores? What?: dishes and garbage

Describe their childhood home: mansion

( &&. this or that )

Expensive or inexpensive tastes?: expensive

Hygienic or Unhygienic?: hygienic

Open-minded or close-minded?: open

Introvert or extrovert?: introvert

Optimistic or pessimistic?: pessimistic

Daredevil or cautious?: daredevil

Logical or emotional?: emotional

Generous or stingy?: generous

Polite or rude?: polite

Book smart or street smart?: both

Dominant or submissive?: dominant

Popular or loner?: loner

Leader or follower?: leader

Day or night person?: night

Cat or dog person?: dog

Closet door open or closed while sleeping?: closed

( &&. family relationships )

Father: Michael Bryan Sanders

Describe their relationship: rocky

Mother: Hayley Lockwood

Describe their relationship: estranged

Brothers: Bryan elton sanders

Describe their relationship: love/hate

( &&. other relationships )

Best friend: N/A

Childhood friend: peter vega

Enemy: brice evans

Past romances: N/A

Pets: dogs

Heroes: superman

( &&. social media )

Do they have a Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Vine? Snapchat? Tinder/Grindr? Tumblr? YouTube?

If so; Name on Facebook: Clyde sanders

Twitter handle: @clydesanders

Instagram user: @clydesanders

Vine user: none

Snapchat user: @snap-clyde

Name on Tinder/Grindr: none

Tumblr URL:

YouTube channel:Clydesandersvlogs

( &&. musical tastes )

Theme song: Heathens top

Can relate to: crawling linkin park

Makes them happy: always blink 182

Makes them sad: i miss you blink 182

Makes them dance: wake me up before you go

Loves the most: heavy linkin park

Describes them: numb linkin park

Never gets tired of: leave out all the rest linkin park

Would like to be played at their wedding: i was made for loving you ED sheeran

Would like to play at their funeral: 27 MGK

( &&. miscellaneous )

Do they have a fake I.D.?: yes

Are they a virgin?: no

Describe their signature: cursive and neat

How long would they survive in a zombie apocalypse?: until the end

Do they travel?: yes

One place they would like to live: bora bora

One place they would like to visit: Egypt

Celebrity crush: megan fox

What can you find in their pockets/wallet/purse: general

Place(s) your character can always be found: beach

When does your character like to wake up?: late

What’s your character’s morning routine?: normal

What does your character eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner?: poptarts, anything that’s good

How does your character spend their free days?: clubbing

What’s your character’s bedtime routine?: normal

What does your character wear to bed?: boxers

If your character can’t fall asleep, what are they thinking about?: life

What has been their greatest achievement?: making 8 mill on youtube

What is their idea of perfect happiness?: finishing school and getting married

What or who is the greatest love of their life?: girlfriend

On what occasions do they lie?: none

Most marked characteristic: eyes and hair

What is one thing they’d most like to change about themselves?: nothing

How would they like to die?: sleeping

Do they snore?: no

Do they chew their pens/pencils?: yes

Can they whistle?: yes

Do they believe in the supernatural?: no

Have they ever cheated on anyone?: no

Have they ever been cheated on?: yes

Has anyone ever broken their heart?: yes

Have they ever broken anyone’s heart?:no

Are they squeamish?: depends

Have they ever killed anyone? Why? How?: no

Have they ever seen anyone die? What happened?: yes, a friend got shot during a shoot out

Are they a lightweight?: no

#gogreek:task

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cvmiilas-blog · 7 years ago

Photo

(( && GOGREEKSHQ TASK; MILA’S FACT SHEET ;; ))

@gogreekpoints

( &&. general information )

Full name: CAMILA ELISE TAYLOR

Pronunciation: CAM-EE-LA UH-LEASE TAY-LUR

Nickname(s) or alias: CAM, CAMI, MILA

Preferred name: MILA

Current age: TWENTY-ONE

Astrological sign: SAGITTARIUS

Element: FIRE

Title: MISS

Label: THE EPICURE

Gender: CISFEMALE

Preferred pronouns: SHE/HER

Sexual preference: PANSEXUAL, PREFERENCE TO GIRLS

Romantic preference: PANROMANTIC, NO PREFERENCE

Resides in: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Current occupation: COLLEGE STUDENT

Language(s) spoken: ENGLISH ( FLUENT ), FRENCH ( BASICS )

Native language: ENGLISH

Current marital status: SINGLE

( &&. background )

Reason behind name: HER PARENTS JUST LIKED IT ? THEY HAD NO RL REASON

Birth order: FIRST, OLDEST CHILD OF THREE

Ethnicity: CAUCASIAN

Nationality: AMERICAN

Species: HUMAN

A/B/O: AB+

Religion: NOT RELIGIOUS

Financial status: WEALTHY

IQ: 135

Hometown: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA

( &&. physical appearance )

Looks like (or face claim, if applicable): BARBARA PALVIN

Height: 5′8″

Weight: 115 LBS

Shoe size: 6.5

Figure/build: ATHLETIC

Hair colour, Dyed?: BRUNETTE, NATURAL

Hair length: LONG, ONE INCH BELOW BRA LINE

Eye colour: BLUE

Glasses? Colour? / Contacts? Are they coloured?: NONE / NONE

Shape of face: HEART

Facial hair: NONE

Do they shave/wax? Where?: YES, LEGS/UNDERARMS

Skin tone: TAN

Tattoos: ARROW WITH HEART ( SIMILAR TO THE THIRD ARROW ON THIS PHOTO ) ON HER INNER LEFT WRIST

Piercings: EARS, RIGHT CARTILAGE

Dominant hand: RIGHT

If painted, what color are their nails/toenails?: CORAL

Usual style of clothing: CASUAL

Frequently worn jewelry: CHARM BRACELET

( &&. legal information )

Any speeding tickets?: TWO, BOTH RECEIVED SHORTLY AFTER SHE GOT HER LICENSE

Have they ever been arrested?: NO

Do they have a criminal record?: NO

Have they committed any violent crimes?: NO

Property crimes?: NO

Traffic crimes?: SPEEDING, TEXTING WHILE DRIVING

Other crimes?: NO

( &&. medical information )

Blood type: AB+

Date/time of birth: DECEMBER 3, 1995 10:52 AM

Place of birth: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA

Vaginal birth or cesauren section?: VAGINAL

Sex: CISFEMALE

Diet: NONE

Smoker? / Drinker? / Drug User?, Which?: SOCIALLY / SOCIALLY / NO

Allergies: BEES

Ever broken a bone?: YES, RIGHT WRIST

Hospital visits, what for?: 4 YEARS OLD, TONSILLECTOMY; 16 YEARS OLD, APPENDICITIS

Any physical ailments/illnesses/disabilities: NONE

Any medication regularly taken: NONE

( &&. career information )

Past occupation(s): STUDENT

Current occupation: STUDENT

Do they enjoy their current occupation?: YES

Why do they do it?: TO GET A DEGREE & BECOME A FORENSIC SCIENTIST

( &&. personality )

Direct quote from them: “MY PARENTS ARE COMING FOR PARENTS WEEKEND AND MY ROOM IS A WRECK.” ( CAMERA PANS TO ROOM THAT’S SPOTLESS ) “I NEED TO CLEAN ALL NIGHT, SORRY. RAINCHECK?”

Positive traits: FRIENDLY, WELCOMING, GENUINE, & INTELLIGENT

Negative traits: INSECURE, PEOPLE-PLEASING, PERFECTIONIST, & FICKLE

Likes: BAKING, STUDYING

Dislikes: RUDE PEOPLE, DISAPPOINTING OTHERS

Strengths: LISTENING, ADVICE

Weaknesses: STANDING UP TO OTHERS

Fears/phobias: BEES, ANY INSECT TBH, HEIGHTS

Lucky number: 26

whispers sry i took so much off of here my b

( &&. favourites )

Food: MAC & CHEESE, MARBLE CAKE

Drink: RASPBERRY LEMONADE

Fast food restaurant: CHICK-FIL-A

Flavour: BLUE RASPBERRY

Word: FOOD

Colour: ORANGE

Clothing: GRAY SWEATER, SKINNY JEANS, BLACK BOOTIES

Accessory: CHARM BRACELET

Candle scent: VANILLA LAVENDER

Store: FOREVER 21

Instrument: PIANO

Game: CRASH BANDICOOT / SORRY!

Animal: DOG

Holiday: CHRISTMAS

Weather: SNOW

Season: WINTER

Artist: BLACKBEAR

Band/group: CHAINSMOKERS

Movie/film: BRING IT ON

TV show: GOSSIP GIRL

Sport: FOOTBALL

Sports team: GIANTS

School subject: SCIENCE

Teacher: MRS. FORTNER, GRADE 2

Possession: A FRAMED PHOTO OF HER FAMILY THAT SITS ON HER BEDSIDE

Name: JESSAMINE

Number: 26

Emoji: THE HEARTS SWIRLING AROUND EACH OTHER EMOJI IM 2 LAZY TO COPY YIKES

Mythological creature: GRIFFIN

Landmark: BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Person: HER TWIN BROTHER

( &&. skills )

Talents: SINGING

Ability to drive a car? Operate any other vehicles?: YES / NO

Can they ride a bike?: YES

Do they play any sports?: NO, USED TO CHEERLEAD IN HIGH SCHOOL

Anything they’re bad at?: SAYING NO

Do they have any combat training? Why?: NO

( &&. firsts )

Childhood memory: RIDING A BIKE WHILE HER GRANDMOTHER ARROVE HOME

Crush: JESSE MCCARTNEY

Job: N/A

Phone: NOKIA BRICK

Computer: HP

Kiss: ADAM, GRADE 3

Love: RILEY, GRADE 10

Sexual experience: ELIAS, GRADE 11

( &&. childhood )

Best childhood memory?: CHRISTMAS MORNING, AGE 7; NO PARTICULAR REASON IT JUST STICKS OUT TO HER YIKES

Worst childhood memory?: MIDDLE SCHOOL, GRADE 6; FELL DURING LUNCH AND ENDED UP WITH STAINS ALL OVER HER OUTFIT

What were they like as a child?: VERY GENTLE & SOFT-SPOKEN

Any crushes growing up?: ADAM, OBVIOUSLY

Did they know/like their parents?: MILA LOVES HER PARENTS

Worst influence on them as a kid?: THE NEIGHBOR, CASSIE

Did they have a lot of friends?: YES

Were they heavily punished?: NO NEED, MILA RARELY DID ANYTHING THAT REQUIRED PUNISHING

Were they more feminine or masculine?: FEMININE

Were they an early or late bloomer for puberty?: MILDLY EARLY, BUT BASICALLY HIT THE SAME TIME HER FRIENDS DID

Do they still know any of their childhood friends?: YES

Did they have any chores? What?: NO

Describe their childhood home: PENTHOUSE

( &&. this or that )

Expensive or inexpensive tastes?: CAN GO EITHER WAY, SHE’S QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

Hygienic or Unhygienic?: VERY HYGIENIC

Open-minded or close-minded?: OPEN-MINDED

Introvert or extrovert?: EXTROVERT

Optimistic or pessimistic?: OPTIMISTIC

Daredevil or cautious?: CAUTIOUS

Logical or emotional?: EMOTIONAL

Generous or stingy?: GENEROUS

Polite or rude?: POLITE

Book smart or street smart?: BOOK SMART

Dominant or submissive?: SUBMISSIVE

Popular or loner?: POPULAR

Leader or follower?: FOLLOWER

Day or night person?: MID-DAY THROUGH EVENING ?

Cat or dog person?: DOG

Closet door open or closed while sleeping?: CLOSED

( &&. family relationships )

Father: VINCENT JAMES TAYLOR

Describe their relationship: POSITIVE, MOSTLY; HE LIKES TO CONTROL EVERYTHING SHE DOES

Mother: ELISE CHARLOTTE TAYLOR NÉE WHITMORE

Describe their relationship: POSITIVE; SHE’S THE “GOOD COP” IN THE GOOD COP/BAD COP SCENARIO. LIKES TO GIVE MILA BACK-HANDED COMPLIMENTS

Brothers: ONE BROTHER, JT, TWIN.

Describe their relationship: THEY ARE VERY CLOSE, HE IS ALSO A STUDENT AT PRINCETON.

Sisters: ONE SISTER, ALESSIA, FIVE YEARS YOUNGER.

Describe their relationship: THEY WERE CLOSER AS KIDS BUT PROGRESSIVELY GREW APART THE OLDER THEY GOT.

Other important relatives: AUNT ELODIE, THE PERSON MILA GOES TO WHEN THINGS SEEM ALL TOPSY-TURVY AND SHE CAN’T TALK TO HER PARENTS/SIBLINGS

Significant other: N/A

Children: N/A

( &&. other relationships )

Best friend: TBA YALL

Childhood friend: CALLIE

Enemy: EMMA

Past romances: LIAM, ELIAS, TEDDY, VALERIE, EMMA, RILEY, EVAN

Pets: NONE

( &&. social media )

Do they have a Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Vine? Snapchat? Tinder/Grindr? Tumblr? YouTube?: YES / YES / YES / USED TO / YES / NO / NO / NO

If so; Name on Facebook: CAMILA TAYLOR

Twitter handle: OHTAYMILA

Instagram user: OHTAYMILA

Vine user: N/A ANYMORE

Snapchat user: OHTAYMILA

Name on Tinder/Grindr: N/A

Tumblr URL: N/A

YouTube channel: N/A

( &&. musical tastes )

Theme song: CLOSER FT. HALSEY BY CHAINSMOKERS

Makes them happy: IDFC BY BLACKBEAR

Makes them sad: CONCRETE ANGEL BY MARTINA MCBRIDE

Makes them dance: LOCATION BY KHALID

Loves the most: SORRY NOT SORRY BY DEMI LOVATO

Describes them: ...TBA

Never gets tired of: NOBODY’S LISTENING BY LINKIN PARK

Would like to be played at their wedding: MARRY YOUR DAUGHTER BY BRIAN MCKNIGHT

Would like to play at their funeral: UNKNOWN

( &&. miscellaneous )

Do they have a fake I.D.?: NOT NECESSARY

Are they a virgin?: NO

Describe their signature: A MIX OF LOOPY AND CONDENSED

How long would they survive in a zombie apocalypse?: 2.5 SECONDS

Do they travel?: YES

One place they would like to live: NEW YORK, DON’T HAVE A DESIRE TO LIVE AWAY FROM FAMILY

One place they would like to visit: LOS ANGELES

Celebrity crush: THEO JAMES, DEMI LOVATO, OLIVIA HOLT

What can you find in their pockets/wallet/purse: MONEY, CREDIT/DEBIT CARDS, CHAPSTICK, NAIL FILE, COMB, PEN

Place(s) your character can always be found: KITCHEN

When does your character like to wake up?: 7-8 AM

What’s your character’s morning routine?: WAKE UP, SHOWER, EAT, CLASS/STUDY

What does your character eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner?: VARIES

How does your character spend their free days?: STUDYING, BAKING

What’s your character’s bedtime routine?: CLEAN OFF MAKEUP, WASH FACE, MOISTURIZER, LIGHT STUDYING

What does your character wear to bed?: TANK TOP AND SHORTS

If your character can’t fall asleep, what are they thinking about?: SCHOOL

What has been their greatest achievement?: VALEDICTORIAN

What is their idea of perfect happiness?: BEING AROUND PEOPLE SHE LOVES

What or who is the greatest love of their life?: N/A

On what occasions do they lie?: WHEN IT’S TO SPARE SOMEONE ELSE’S FEELINGS

Most marked characteristic: BLUE EYES, CARING NATURE

What is one thing they’d most like to change about themselves?: HOW MUCH SHE CARES ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF HER

How would they like to die?: IN HER SLEEP

Do they snore? NO

Do they chew their pens/pencils?: ONLY WHEN SHE’S REALLY STRESSED

Can they curl their tongue?: YES

Can they whistle?: POORLY, BUT YES

Do they believe in the supernatural?: YES

Have they ever cheated on anyone?: NO

Have they ever been cheated on?: NO

Has anyone ever broken their heart?: NO

Have they ever broken anyone’s heart?: NO

Are they squeamish?: MILDLY

Have they ever killed anyone? Why? How?: NO

Have they ever seen anyone die? What happened?: NO

Are they a lightweight?: SHE CAN GET TO ABOUT 4 DRINKS BEFORE BECOMING DRUNK AND 5 BEFORE IT’S COMPLETELY OBVIOUS, AT 6 SHE’S USUALLY BLACKED OUT

#(( && about ;; ))#gogreekpoints #gogreek:task

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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago

Text

Glenn Close: You lose power if you get angry

From vengeful mistress to Agatha Christie matriarch: the actor talks about Harvey Weinstein, mental illness and growing up in a cult

Glenn Close and I sit at the corner of a large boardroom table in an intimidatingly minimalist office on the 14th floor of a Los Angeles talent agency. Its the kind of environment in which Patty Hewes, the ruthless lawyer Close played in Damages for five seasons, would feel at home and Im almost waiting for her to stand up, slam both hands on the table and shout, Ill rip your face off or any of the other terrifying put-downs that defined her double Emmy award-winning performance.

But Close is in high spirits and radiates such warmth I barely notice the chill from the tower blocks air-con. After we fiddle with the settings on our swivel chairs, which are so high they make anyone under six foot kick their legs like a child on a swing, the 70-year-old, six-time Oscar nominee and star of stage, television and film starts telling me about her dreams. I have had a lot recently, full of this wonderful love for a younger man. The dreams just keep coming and I wake up thinking, that was wonderful! It wasnt necessarily us doing the sexual act, just the feeling of love.

With her white hair cut to a sharp crop, and wearing a relaxed navy blazer, chinos and black scarf on account of the arctic corporate temperature, she looks stylish and fit. I have never felt better in my life, and I am, like, 70, she says. Im really a late bloomer.

She says she feels a disconnect between how she sees herself and how people may view me when I walk down the street, like: Theres an old lady. You know, there is now this cult of the model. Everyone on the red carpet is made into a model. That is very hard to not play into I have a bit of podge I am trying to get rid of, but its hard. I just think, Oh fuck, Ive been doing this my whole life! But the irony is, you just get better and better with age. You dont feel less alive or less sexy.

In Agatha Christies Crooked House. Photograph: Nick Wall

We are here to talk about Crooked House, the Agatha Christie adaptation debuting on Channel 5, before its theatrical release, in which Close plays Lady Edith, a matriarch of a very dysfunctional family. Close says, Christies grandson came to the set and he validated the fact that it was her favourite book, and the one that had never been adapted. He said when she handed it to the publisher, she was told she had to change the ending, because it was too upsetting and controversial. She refused. Its still pretty controversial.

This production, co-written by Julian Fellowes, might not be as spendy as Kenneth Branaghs $55m Murder On The Orient Express, but the ensemble cast is equally starry: joining Close are Gillian Anderson, Max Irons, Terence Stamp and Christina Hendricks. Close presides over her co-stars with gravitas and grace, in an understated performance that finds the humour in an otherwise bleak setup. But youd expect nothing less from the actor whose 40 years in the business started with star turns in Broadway productions (she won a Best Actress Tony in 1983 for Tom Stoppards The Real Thing). Her first film role, at the age of 35, was with Robin Williams in The World According To Garp, for which she received an Oscar nomination as she did for her supporting roles in The Big Chill and The Natural. Her performances in Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons and Albert Nobbs, about the life of a transgender butler in late 19th century Ireland, which she also co-wrote, racked up further Oscar nominations but still no win. This is seen by many as a travesty: Close brings a precision to her film work, honed through her years on stage. She has that rare taut quality Jack Nicholson also has it where you believe that beneath the steely control she is capable of snapping at any moment.

It was this that led Andrew Lloyd Webber to cast her in 1993 as the tragic silent movie star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. Close reprised the role 23 years later, getting her old costumes out of storage (she has kept all her costumes and recently donated the collection to a university in Indiana) for its revival in Londons West End.

As Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction: Clearly she had mental health issues. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

But it was her Oscar-nominated turn as Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction in 1987 that proved career-defining. Thirty years on, Close still counts Forrest as the character of whom she feels most fond; she has admitted to fighting tooth and nail against the films eventual denouement, which turned the character into a bunny-boiling psychopath and Close into the casting directors go-to woman on the verge for years afterwards. Now we have the vocabulary to talk about these things, clearly she had mental health issues, she says.

Close sits regally still as she speaks, emphasising her points by leaning forward and locking eyes. Shes comfortable with silences and often takes a theatrical beat or two before answering questions. Shes all poise and control, but does she ever lose her temper?

I express my feelings quietly. I am not afraid of confrontation, but I am not particularly good at it. If I get attacked, I am not good at attacking back. There is fight, flight and freeze and I tend to freeze. That is not a strength of mine. I love the fact that my daughter Annie [Starke, an actor] is more of a fighter than I am. She doesnt let people get away with shit. While she agrees that women have a harder time being angry, publicly, than men, she says, I have played a lot of characters, and actually anger makes you lose power. Patty Hewes [in Damages] she hardly ever lost her temper, but when she did, it was very specific. I have always felt you lose power if you get that angry.

The collective outpouring of anger among women in Hollywood right now is something of which Close is acutely aware. She says that sexism in the industry has shifted more slowly than it should have done throughout her career: It took Harvey Weinstein and someone calling him out [for real change to happen]. I know Harvey, and he has never done that to me, but people would say he was a pig. I never knew that it was that bad and I dont personally know anybody who has endured that. I would like to think that I would have done something about it.

We discuss whether its possible to separate the work from the personalities involved in it. News has just broken that House Of Cards will be back for another series without Kevin Spacey, after it was originally canned because of harassment claims brought against its leading man. Close wraps her scarf around her chest and fixes me with her electric eyes. Artists, to make a huge generality, walk on a very thin line. Sometimes, like my beloved friend Robin Williams, who was one step away from madness, whatever makes them a great artist also makes them very complicated human beings. Again, that doesnt mean they can prey on and abuse people.

With Harvey Weinstein in 2013. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

At the root of the problem of sexism in Hollywood right now is, Close says, biology. I think the way men have treated women, from the beginning of time, is because they have different brains to women. So I am not surprised by it at all. I say to a guy, Tell me the truth, if you see a woman walk into a room, what is the first thought that goes through your head? His answer, always, is, Would I fuck her? It doesnt mean they act on it. If you can evolve into a society where men know that they should not always act on it then there has been a positive revolution. But you cant just say that theyre not going to have the thought that is ridiculous. It also has to be the women, who are not powerful, to be OK to say no and leave the room. I think its unrealistic to say were going to change but we have to evolve.

I ask Close who she thinks is a great man today. She is silent, thinking, for what feels like a full 60 seconds in which I am so tempted to throw out some options: Barack Obama, the Pope, the friendly security guard on reception who let us in

Nelson Mandela, is her final answer, but Im not sure shes convinced. I guess for me, she says, greatness is taking your humanity and still doing the good thing. Its sad to say that there are very few men, who are leaders, who have some sort of moral code that they dont deviate from because of popular opinion.

She thinks we are undergoing a crisis of masculinity: In the public mind, yes. I was outraged when I heard that there was a war against men I was like, are you joking? What do you think has been happening against women for centuries?

Close knows all too well about the misuse of power, because her own upbringing was, as she puts it, complicated. When she was seven, her parents joined a cult. Moral Re-Armament or MRA was a modern, nondenominational movement founded by an American evangelical fundamentalist which extolled the four absolutes: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. Her father, a physician working in the Congo, sent Close with her brother and two sisters from the family home in Greenwich, Connecticut, to live at the MRA HQ in Caux, Switzerland (Closes mother, Bettine, was a socialite).

She is vague on the details but clear on the impact this experience had on her as a teenager: I was repressed, clueless and guilt-ridden. The timeline is patchy, but Close travelled with MRA in the 60s as a member of their musical groups, and spent time back in Connecticut at an elite boarding school. I had a wonderful time at Rosemary Hall, a girls school, she says. I was in a renegade singing group called the Fingernails: A Group With Polish. But she remained, as she calls it clueless. A lot of my friends knew boys youd have these horrendous dances with boys schools and they would get the guys they wanted and I would just stay with the person I was with.

As Patty Hewes in Damages. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

She was briefly married before going to university. It is a complicated story for me. I was married before college, and kind of in an arranged marriage when you look back on it, and my marriage broke up when I went to college, as it should have. I was 22. But my liberal arts school had a wonderful theatre that was my training, my acting school.

Was that where she finally learned about sex, popular culture, the ways of the world? Not really, she says. I still am learning.

Close has two sisters, Tina the eldest, and Jessie her younger sister; and two brothers, Alexander, and Tambu Misoki, who was adopted by Closes parents while living in Africa. At the age of 50, Jessie spent time in a psychiatric hospital and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a weight that had been hanging over the family, undiscussed, for years. Talking about mental illness just wasnt done, Close says. You dont have a vocabulary for it and youre also very aware of appearances. You dont want to appear a crazy family.

In 2010 Close founded Bring Change to Mind, a charity that aims to end the stigma around mental illness by talking openly about it and its effect on families. It was my nephew who was first diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. This is basically schizophrenia with an ingredient of bipolar. And when that happened, it was like, What? My sister Jessie, his mother, didnt know what was wrong. He went to the hospital for two years and that saved his life. Then Jessie was, finally, correctly diagnosed herself.

With sister Jessie in 2009. Photograph: Getty Images

Close felt a duty to her family to give them a high-profile person who is not afraid to talk about it publicly. It affects the whole family. We always knew my grandmother and mother had depression my sister does, I do to a certain extent. But I didnt know my great-uncle had schizophrenia. I knew my half-uncle died by suicide. There was a lot of alcoholism addiction, self-medication. Nobody ever talked about it. I knew my grandmother was depressed, but at first I thought she lived in a hotel, not a hospital, because she always said how good the food was.

Close says she and her siblings are of one mind politically, but admits she does have members of her family who voted for Trump. I tried to understand that. Theyre not crazy people who have been brainwashed by Fox News, but I try to understand the anger, because I think that has been building up ever since Watergate. It was watching that scandal unfold that made her realise Americans have always been naive, we just take for granted what we have, and we always thought of our leaders as good people. With Watergate, people became cynical about government.

Today, she says, Washington is a bunch of self-serving She searches for an expletive and after a second settles on men. She says, Its hard to believe that people are so out for themselves. It goes against what you would like to believe about your country. I feel eloquence is incredibly important for a leader, and we had that with Barack Obama, who made his initial impact because he gave that incredibly eloquent speech, but he lost his eloquence in his presidency. We always need someone to say, I hear you, someone who can put their words into unity and hope and we dont have that. I think the last person may have been Robert Kennedy.

And now you have Trump tweeting nonsense.

Its devastating. Social networks are now like our nervous system, and if you keep pumping that kind of crap into the nervous system, it is going to have an effect on a population.

With Kevin Kline in The Big Chill. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Close doesnt talk politics with her friends because she doesnt really have many friends. I have always forced myself into situations I am not comfortable in. I am an introvert, and I was painfully shy as a child. I think I still have a big dollop of that in my persona. I read a book called Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Cant Stop Talking and it was a real comfort to me I realised I was that person I had always been. And it was at that point I told myself to stop pushing myself into situations that I dont enjoy. I dread cocktail parties.

She tells me shes pretty reclusive and can count her closest friends on two fingers. I ask if shes still good friends with Meryl Streep.

I have never been close friends with Meryl. We have huge respect for each other, but I have only done one thing with her, The House Of The Spirits.

I apologise for assuming they were pals, being of a similar age and stature in Hollywood, and admit this negates my next question: Who would win in an arm wrestle, you or Meryl?

Close laughs. Oh, I would, because I am very strong.

***

The tightest bond Close has is with her only daughter Annie, 29. Annies father is the film producer John Starke whom Close dated for four years from 1987, but never married. Annie was never a door-slamming, difficult teenager. Close tells me: When my Annie was three, she looked at me, and said, I want you. I knew what she meant. I, at the time, was a single working parent, sometimes even when I was home, working or producing something, I was there and not there.

With daughter Annie Starke in 2010. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

She doesnt think its any easier for working mothers today and acknowledges, I had it easy because I could afford to have help think of the women who cant afford it and have to put their child in some shaky childcare centre. No, I think it is incredibly hard for women. Any person, in any profession, feels that tug [of guilt]. We discuss the intimacy of the single-parent, only-child bond. Once, I went to vacuum Annies car seat as we were moving house, and a lot of life had happened there, so I was crying. She said, Mummy, are you OK? I said, Yeah, Im OK. And she said, Here I am.

She was married to businessman James Marlas from 1984 to 1987 and then, following other relationships, including that with Starke, she married again, in 2006, to venture capitalist David Evans Shaw, divorcing him nine years later.

Would she marry again?

I dont know.

Does she think marriage is important?

I think it is a positive evolutionary component that we are better with a partner. I think to have a partner that you can go through life with, creating a history with, that you can find a comfort with, have children with there is nothing better. This is an opinion I have come to very late in life, at an ironic moment, where I dont have any of that. I dont know if I will again. But I do think its a basic human need to be connected.

Despite this, shes happy on her own right now. This is a good time in life. I do think, what would it be like to have a partner again? But it would have to be very different from what I had before. Then I have that great dream and wake up happy.

Crooked House is on Channel 5 at 9pm on 17 December.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/16/glenn-close-harvey-weinstein-mental-illness-cult-fatal-attraction

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