Singer/bassist Mark Sandman of Morphine logged on live from Cambridge, MA for an on-line conference on SonicNet. Morphine was working on their new album, scheduled for a March release. For more info on the band check the files.

(SONIC HOST) What's Morphine up to these days?

(MORPHINE) Morphine is home for awhile getting new album together.

(SONIC HOST) How's the new album?

(MORPHINE) Better than Good.

(SONIC HOST) How's it different?

(MORPHINE) Billy Conway is now drumming on every song...better now.

(SONIC HOST) Was that his idea?

(MORPHINE) No, he had no choice.

(CYBERBABE) Who exactly is in Morphine?

(MORPHINE) We are exactly: me, Mark Sandman, Dana, Colley and Billy Conway.

(CYBERBABE) Are you all here tonight?

(MORPHINE) No, just me. Hello.

(CYBERBABE) Where are the others?

(MORPHINE) Dana and Billy are playing at a neighborhood bar with friends tonight...

(MORPHINE) I'll join them later maybe.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) What bar?

(MORPHINE) Charlie's Tap. Aka Green Street Grill, Cambridge.

(SONIC HOST) How do you balance Morphine with your other projects?

(MORPHINE) Basicly I can't do anything but Morphine when I'm on the road.

(MORPHINE) When I'm home I can do anything.

(SONIC HOST) I've read about your interest in film and tv. Any developments on those ends?

(MORPHINE) Speaking to a guy who's making a film about Authur Rimbaud needs to have French and Ethiopian elements. It's a good script.

(SONIC HOST) You'd be doing the music?

(MORPHINE) Yes. And sounds.

(SONIC HOST) What kind of sounds?

(MORPHINE) Well, Rimbaud played the piano but no one ever heard him play. This was after he renounced poetry...

(MORPHINE) got interested in math and physics and the sounds he played. He was a visionary, a mystic. Maybe he meets up with the sounds of his piano when he arrives to seek his fortune in Addis Ababa...

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) What attracts you about Rimbaud's poetry?

(MORPHINE) Honestly, it's his life story more than his poetry that is compelling to me. I don't know his work that well.

(CYBERBABE) What were the big stories in his life??

(MORPHINE) The life of Rimbaud summarized by Mark Sandman live in Cyberspace!!!.

(SONIC HOST) Let's hear it Sandman, you're on the spot.

(MORPHINE) He was a country boy who craved the bigtime poetry scene in Paris when he was 16...

(MORPHINE) Scandalized every one, got it by a jealous Verlaine...

(MORPHINE) Verlaine went to jail...

(MORPHINE) He was finied by age 19, and never heard from again...

(MORPHINE) but Addis Ababa is out of the way.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) I have swallowed a monstrous dose of poison.

(SONIC HOST) Don't do it harry.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Not to call 911 in Philly.

(CYBERBABE) Oh I wonder if Rimbaud was poisoned at one point in his life??

(SONIC HOST) Mark, what other authors influence your work?

(MORPHINE) Read a lot of Naguib Mahfouz last year. The egyptian Balzac. Read a lot of James Ellroy but I've given up on serial killers.

(SONIC HOST) That's good of you...

(SONIC HOST) Mark, do you ever get pissed at all the mention of two string bass and no guitar?

(MORPHINE) No. It's a natural question, I guess. As long they get beyond it and listen.

(SONIC HOST) Listen to what exactly?

(MORPHINE) Listen beyond not hearing a guitar in a kind of rock.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Any plans to add another string?

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Saw you guys in Central park this summer. How do you think it went?

(MORPHINE) Central Park was really, really good.

(ANI ANKORI) When are you guys coming to New York?

(MORPHINE) I don't know. March???.

(SONIC HOST) Deb?

(DEBORAH KLEIN) The band will be touring starting at the end of March. When the new record comes out.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) You kicked some Tom Waitesque ass.

(SONIC HOST) How has Waits been an inspiration?

(MORPHINE) I like his raw and sloppy heartfelt energy.

(SONIC HOST) Favorite Waits album?

(MORPHINE) Frank's Wild Years and the Song "All Stripped Down" from Bone Machine.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Where'd the band name come from?

(MORPHINE) No one ever asked that before...

(SONIC HOST) A head with wings?

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) And said hey... Morphine!

(MORPHINE) HG: Right.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Niiiice.

(SONIC HOST) Leanord Cohen seems to have been in your dreams when you wrote In Spite of Me.

(MORPHINE) If I had a voice like Michael Jackson, or even Michael Bolton, no one would mention Cohen or Waits or...

(UBER ROB) Michael Bolton?

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) What do you think of Lenny?

(MORPHINE) Len is good, but he didn't get where he is today on his singing.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Yup.

(SONIC HOST) Neither did Michael Bolton.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) It's all in the hair.

(DEBORAH KLEIN) No, it was his good looks.

(SONIC HOST) On All Wrong who was the woman with ravens crawling over her oulders?

(MORPHINE) Someone I met after I wrote the song.

(ANI ANKORI) Has anyone ever told you Mark that you sound like Mark Knopfler.

(MORPHINE) Another guy not known for his great voice.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) But for his headband fashion sense.

(SONIC HOST) Mark, you seem critical of your voice.

(UBER ROB) What are some of your fav. local beantown bands? UR

(MORPHINE) Uber: I like Concussion Ensemble, Dambuilders, Either/Orchestra a salad.

(UBER ROB) Ever play with them?

(UBER ROB) I mean "rock with them?"

(MORPHINE) Yes, I sing and play gtr. on an Either/Orch album.

(UBER ROB) What clubs do you all like to play at in Camb. MA?

(MORPHINE) Upstairs at Middle East.

(MORPHINE) Charlie's tap.

(SONIC HOST) How would you describe the Boston music community?

((MORPHINE) Supportive, backstabbing, competitive and friendly.

HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Who would you like to be compared to?

(MORPHINE) Nobdy, Harry, really. Who wants to be compared?

(ANI ANKORI) What unknown band do you feel should be recognized?

(MORPHINE) Good question Ani. I haven't heard them but an old music friend has a band in Seattle called President's of the United States that I'm sure are really really...

(SONIC HOST) Any other bands?

(MORPHINE) The best bands don't play clubs just make tapes...

(MORPHINE) secretly...

(MORPHINE) Those are the ones I like.

(SONIC HOST) How has it been working on a label like Ryko?

(MORPHINE) Greatest label in the world.

(SONIC HOST) This is for the record, ya know.

(MORPHINE) Seriously, better than pretty good.

(ANI ANKORI) Why are all there CD covers tinted green?

(SONIC HOST) What do you do with the stuff you don't record with Morphine?

(MORPHINE) Keep it secret for now. There's a lot because I have a studio in my house called HI-N-DRY.

(UBER ROB) Nice.

(MORPHINE) I'm getting thirstier.

(DEBORAH KLEIN) Let's all go have a drink somewhere.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) Sorry, just peeling through a Season in Hell.

(UBER ROB) I'm getting Harry and thirsty.

(SONIC HOST) You name the place.

(MORPHINE) Nice communicating here in cyperspace with you all.

(SONIC HOST) Quilty just logged on any quick questions, Quilt?

(QUILTY) I'm new to this, so I'm just going to hang.

(ANI ANKORI) Mark, do you know Seth Friedman?

(MORPHINE) Yeah.

(QUILTY) Do sharks patrol these waters?

(SONIC HOST) Deep one Quilty.

(MORPHINE) You got that right.

(SONIC HOST) How about a word on low rock, Mark?

(QUILTY) Yeah, when is there going to be a new Morphine offering?

(SONIC HOST) March march march march...

(SONIC HOST) Okay folks...

(DEBORAH KLEIN) March 21st to be exact.

(SONIC HOST) Any other questions for the thirsty guy up North?

(ANI ANKORI) Where's our drink?

(MORPHINE) So long???.

(SONIC HOST) Okay thanks for coming....

(UBER ROB) Bye

(QUILTY) Not a question - just a rave - I DJ at kcmu and the phones go nuts for morphine.

(MORPHINE) Bye thanks Quilty.

(CLAY HENRY) Is this Morphine???

(SONIC HOST) Oh now everyone talks, too shy before, huh?

(QUILTY) Just new to this whole idea.

(ANI ANKORI) So am I, but I think I got the hang of it.

(HARRY GOLDSTEIN) You do ani!

(SONIC HOST) Okay...

(MORPHINE) Thank you very much, thankyou.

(SONIC HOST) Thanks Mark, have a beer for us.

(UBER ROB) Thanks a lot yourself, take care.

(MORPHINE) You're welcome.

(SONIC HOST) Okay, bye all.