Jarvis Cocker Really Doesn't Like Chickens, and Nine Other Takeaways from his Pulp Documentary Q&A

Jarvis Cocker is about 20 feet tall, gyrating his hips and shooting confetti out of his crotch in slow motion. This isn't a dream. It's the LA premiere of the documentary about his beloved band, Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets, at the grandiose historic United Artists Theatre–now owned by the Ace Hotel–in downtown Los Angeles. If you're a fan of Jarvis and Pulp, it's all that you could ask for from a film centered around their last show in their hometown Sheffield, England. In the movie, Jarvis and his bandmates open up about their aversion to fame–"it's like a nut allergy"–getting older, and their roots, a segment that touches on whether or not Jarvis actually belongs to the "Common People" class. I won't spoil that answer for you. As much as the movie is about the band, it's also a tribute to all of their fans in Sheffield and those that traveled abroad to see their last show.

But after the film premiere, Jarvis revealed even more in a Q&A alongside the director Florian Habicht, lead by the Los Angeles organization Cinespia. He talked about necrophiliac chickens, whether or not he'd write an erotic novel, and the possibility of another Pulp reunion. Here are some of the gems from his responses.

1. Don’t bring Jarvis anywhere near chickens.
"Chickens? Yeah, I don’t really like chickens. I’ve never been around them that much. I remember a friend telling me about working with them on a chicken farm. This is a really disgusting story actually. He was working on this chicken farm and there was a dead chicken and one chicken was making love to it while another one was pecking its eyes out. And that kind of put me off chickens."

2. Jarvis agreed to the documentary out of curiosity to see what his fans were like.
"Half the curiosity was to show what Sheffield was like ‘cause that’s where it all started and I’ve always thought, when I’m onstage singing. I wonder what these people are going to do after, what are they going to do tomorrow, why are they’re here in the first place. I thought this could be a way of finding out. So that was the appeal. If you’ve seen the film, it’s got some quite interesting characters. For instance the girl from Georgia, she made that trip all the way to Sheffield to see us. So finally my dream came true of getting some insight into the audience."

3. Red velvet cake also played a part in Jarvis’ decision to do the documentary.
"Florian Habicht wanted to do a Pulp film and I said, ‘You’re too late, we’re gonna play this final show in Sheffield in two months time, which isn’t enough time to get it together to make it a film.’ He insisted a bit, and gave me cake. Red velvet cake. And I thought it would be nice to simply have a souvenir of all this touring."

4. He was starstruck when he actually met his fans that appear in the film.
"I never met the people until the premiere of the film in Sheffield. So that was a kind of a weird thing. I was like starstruck when I met Josephine. I haven’t lived in Sheffield in a long time. When I saw the rough cut of the film, I was pleasantly surprised by the people that Florian had found. Although I’ve been slightly disparaging to the city so far in this Q&A session, now I’m gonna get sentimental and say it has got a special place in my heart."

5. One of the reasons Jarvis left Sheffield is because of how closed-off the people there are.
"There’s a spirit to the place, it’s different than the other places in the UK. Sheffield has its own feeling and I find that charming. It made me quite impressed that Florian went to that place and got people to be open about themselves and say quite heartfelt things. That was one of reasons I left, cause you could never get anyone to say anything. People were quite closed off. For me that’s one of the joys of the film, showing that attitude in Sheffield is still alive."

4. Jarvis was afraid of free jazz when he was a kid.
"There’s a record shop featured in the film [Rare & Racy Records] that’s been there forever. I remember being there when I was a kid. It’s an interesting place because that’s the first place I experienced free jazz. Cause the guy who owns the shop listens to free jazz all day every day. As a kid that fascinated me, because you were going into this scary noise and the guy just sat there, having a smoke. It’s still open. He’s still there. I have to take my hat off to that."

5. Pulp formed out of friendship, not necessarily musical talent.
"The thing about Pulp is nobody that’s ever been in the band was chosen for their music ability. I know that sounds a bit silly but the decision to do Pulp started when I was in school and it was really just a way of not having to do a sport and having a thing that was your own. It was a fantasy type of band. So for instance the first bass player we had, he wasn’t a good at sports, so he thought songs as a race. And it’s true, so we’d try to play a song, and he would be like, ‘Do do do– done it!’ He wouldn’t play all of the notes and he’d stop and say he was done so he didn’t last very long. It’s never been a muso band, it was always a group of people who enjoyed hanging out together and it was a way of trying to find some way to make ourselves sound powerful. That would take a long time. I mean we rehearsed for about a year before we started shows and that’s why I say it’s amazing we managed to sound okay."

6. Jarvis never realized his teeth were beige until he saw the film; would rather not watch himself on the screen.
"While we were doing shows, I had always resisted watching anything that was being filmed because it’s always different in reality to what’s in your head, and I want to stay in the dream as long as possible. Having seen this film, you see the reality. My example is always my teeth. Until I went to a dentist, I had very beige teeth. I didn’t realize this until I watched the film. So maybe I should’ve looked at videos before. But I do think that self consciousness is the antithesis of creativity. Our message is to stick with the dream rather than reality."

7. Even though Jarvis is one of the best writers about sex on the planet, he probably won’t be penning the next 50 Shades of Grey.
"Can I write a new version of 50 Shades of Grey? That’s a very interesting question. I think the thing is I’ve always wanted to address the question of sex in songs– I think it’s fundamental to music. It’s a difficult thing to write about because it’s a thing that instantly makes people giggle or go red when you talk about it. For every creature, it’s their driving force. And we all worry about whether we’re doing it right, or the wrong way, not enough or too much. It’s an endlessly fascinating thing to try to come to grips with. I still haven’t come to grips with it. But, no, I’ve written poetry books. I can write something two pages long, and that’s too long for myself. I am into narrative and story, but I’m also quite lazy."

8. Jarvis and the English naturalist Sir David Attenborough once had a heart-to-heart about how life is just about eating and fucking.
"Have you heard of a guy named Sir David Attenborough? He’s done a lot of shows [on BBC] and I met him not long ago on the radio and I was talking to him about music and songs and where it comes from. He says it’s all has to do with sex; it’s all sexual display. And I said, ‘Every single bit?’ In some ways, you’d like to think music goes beyond the physical realm and takes you to a higher place where it’s not all just about sex and food. But he reckoned not, it’s all just eating and fucking."

9. The footage of their last show in Sheffield could be released as a separate project.
"I’ve heard the audio and came to the fact that we actually played okay. So I don’t know, there’s a lot of footage to look out. That’s kind of like a separate film at this point, isn’t it? It’s like… The Last Waltz in my head."

10. This might not be the end of Pulp.
"Like any good Hollywood film, you always have to leave the door open. The reason for us getting back together and doing these shows wasn’t any anniversary reason, like [adopts low voice], ‘20 years since the album dropped.’ I’m proud of that. It was just an inner kind of need, and so it would have to be the same kind of circumstances again. If we did something else, we would have to do some “jams.” I’m not quite sure how you do that but I’m willing to learn. But the real answer is that I don’t know. We do get asked this question a lot. Somebody said, ‘Is it a question mark?’ I say it’s a comma. So we’ll see how long this particular pause lasts."

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets opens in select markets on November 19 but NYC will be treated to a screening tonight at Lincoln Center and tomorrow, August 7 at Rooftop Films, Brooklyn where Jarvis Cocker will also host a Pulp karaoke contest.

Marissa really, really hopes Pulp comes back again. She's on Twitter - @marissagmuller.

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