[Sourced at: soundandvisionmag.com]

BackTalk: Dominic Monaghan
One of the original Lost boys talks about why TV on DVD is better than TV on an iPod, his commentary philosophy, and what song Charlie would sing after being rescued.

by Mike Mettler
October 2006

Anything you can tell me about what happens in Season 3?
I just know that there are a few new characters and that we'll be delving into the story of The Others a lot more. And, um, some people are going to be dying, which is, um, interesting. And that's as much as I know.

So nobody is safe?
Nobody is safe. That's correct.

Fair enough. Let's talk about how you approached Season 2, then. Your character, Charlie [Pace], essentially took on the role of Iago.
You know, I've been keen on the character of Iago in Othello for a long time — this idea of a guy who stands slightly on the outskirts and talks to who you assume to be the main players. In many plays, Iago is the character who watches from a distance. That was the idea, but I don't know that it was fully executed as much as I would have liked. Obviously, everybody wants to work as much as possible, but with a cast of 14 people, it's not that easy to work as much as you'd like. But I'm hanging in there. It's still a good show, an ambitious show, and something great to be involved with, so I'm happy.

Have you watched Lost on DVD?
Oh sure, sure. That's the way I watch it most of the time, because I don't like watching it with the adverts in there. DVD is a much better experience, because you can watch it all the way through and not have the distractions of being asked to buy a Mercedes, a handbag, or a cheeseburger. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast in television — the [advertisers] are paying our wages, so you have to toe the line to a certain extent.

Have you watched the show on your iPod?
I have. I don't think it holds up to watching the show on a bigscreen TV with a surround sound system, though. Lost is very cinematic. Watching on a plane or a train, okay; an iPod's fantastic for that. And I actually watch a lot of movies on my PSP. But I don't think it does the show justice to watch it on an iPod.

How many iPods do you have?
I have a few: a mini and a 60-gig. I love my iPods.

How many songs do you have on your 60?
I've got my entire iTunes library on there, about 3,500 songs. Though I've bought so much that I've had to delete quite a few, too. I deleted about 2,000 songs over the summer.

What do you have on your iPod right now?
I listen to a lot of different stuff — DJ Shadow, Ash, Chet Baker, Oasis, Embrace, Supergrass, Stone Roses, and obviously the Beatles never leave my side. Iron & Wine has been pretty big for me lately. I'm always listening to new music.

Cool. Back to the DVD. What do you think about commentaries? You did a great one with executive producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk for "The Moth" [Episode 7] on the Season 1 box set.
I like doing commentaries. It's an opportunity to talk about the filming process. Also, I like having fun. I like to break the myth of actors always being very earnest people. I just like to enjoy myself. The best way for me to do a commentary is in a semi-improvisational scenario. Besides, if you're trapped in a room for 45 minutes with Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof, there's gonna be some comedy going on. They're very irreverent, and you don't meet that many irreverent Americans out there. They are out there, but it's not easy to find them.

I asked Damon and Carlton about commentaries, and they said what they liked about them is that actors give them insight on how they feel about their characters, about what they're shooting, and how they react to their environment — which all helps them a lot since they're often in L.A. while you're shooting in Hawaii.
Any information that's shared is something the writers can use. And, obviously, things come out in those commentaries where people say, "Ah, I was disappointed in this," or "I wish this had gone better," or "I wish I had done this scene instead of that scene." So I'm sure that's beneficial.

[http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/features/1830/30-minutes-with-carlton-cuse-damon-lindelof-of-lost.html]

I don't necessarily tend to do business that way. If I have a problem with something, I'll tell someone, and I don't do that in a commentary. Once we get to the commentary point, I've put all those demons to bed, and I'm just doing what I consider to be pure commentary — just commenting on the show.

The Season 2 boxed set has a lot of extras. Does the behind-the-scenes filming ever get in the way of your work? If I'm supposed to be crying all day or I'm in a bad place in relation to some of the other characters on the show, I tend to go into myself anyway. I don't tend to be too easy to talk to at those times. The DVD guys know those probably aren't the best times to come over and ask me for jokes and stuff. But other times, like the days I'm onstage with the band [Drive Shaft] and it's kind of a peak for my character, I'm more than happy to talk about that. They film it all anyway, so they get a lot of information.

Speaking of music, in the Season 2 episode "The 23rd Psalm" [Episode 10], when you're fishing with Jin [Daniel Dae-Kim], you start singing the Kinks' "He's Evil," which was a great moment. Did you make that song choice, or did the writers?
Actually, that came from Damon. He knew that I love the Kinks. They're a classic English band, and you could argue they're one of the first semi-punk style bands, doing early-rock-era music you wouldn't usually associate with punk.

You could even argue that the riff for "You Really Got Me" was the first punk riff.
Sure, yeah, in that they're very irreverent in their way and style of playing, and they kind of showed the audience a different way of playing things, even though from the outside they looked like relatively clean-cut boys. The Kinks choice was also made because the brothers [Ray and Dave Davies] were fighting and not getting along too well.

Anyway, I knew the song, and it was a great thing to have played. I just hope that Ray Davies heard it at some point and went, "Oh that's nice that people still know and like my music."

Well, it made me go dig out Preservation Act 2 [the Kinks' 1974 album that contains "He's Evil"]. So there you go. We achieved it times one.

Do you get to make any song choices yourself?
Sometimes. I mean, I think it was relatively collaborative to call my brother Liam. We were talking about names, and I was like, "Well, Liam would be good, just for the whole Oasis idea." There's a line in "The Moth" where I say, "It was all about the music." And that's directly ripped from a very hard to find Oasis B-side [single, actually] called "Wibbling Rivalry," where Noel and Liam Gallagher have a huge argument, and it eventually culminates in Noel saying to Liam, "It's just about music. This whole thing with you is about the music. It's not about drugs, it's not about champagne, it's not about f---ing women, it's about music." [Released in 1995, "Wibbling Rivalry" consists of 14 raucous minutes from an April 7, 1994 interview John Harris of NME did with the Gallagher brothers in Glasgow.] And I really wanted to get that across in the show, because I think it's a huge fundamental difference between Liam and Charlie: Liam's all about the idea of rock & roll, and Charlie's more about making a piece of art. And that's a beautiful thing.

You guys covered that ground a lot in the Season 2 episode "Fire + Water" [Episode 12], where you get the piano as a kid, and you're clearly the musically inclined one and are always writing, while Liam's off doing other things.
Yeah, that's true, that's true.

So when's that Drive Shaft album coming out?
You know, we were talking for a while with ABC about having Drive Shaft tour. They'd go off to different cities and do a couple of songs. We don't have enough of a back catalog yet, but it could happen. It'd be a big thing to organize, but, I mean, I'm a frustrated rock star; I love getting up onstage and having fun. The great thing about Charlie is he's not the greatest musician; he thinks he's much better than he is. He's a naff songwriter, but he's not the greatest singer in the world, he's not the greatest piano player in the world, and he's not got the best stage presence — his brother's got way more stage presence than him. I like that there's the illusion behind Charlie that he probably thinks he's closer to the Beatles than Oasis, but he's just not that good, you know.

Speaking of the Beatles, have you heard about or checked out the show called Love that Cirque de Soleil is doing in Las Vegas?
Yeah. A few friends and I were gonna go see it this summer, but I ran out of time. I'm interested to see it. Anything associated with the Beatles always tickles my fancy, so I'm definitely going to check it out at some point. The magic of Cirque de Soleil combined with the sheer magic and genius of the Beatles would be a great thing to see. I'm kind of agnostic in my religious beliefs, but these kinds of things make me believe in more of a divine power, and the Beatles is one of them. I can't understand, I can't fathom how something so incredible continually made good music for such a long period of time. It was astounding to me that with each album, I'd say, "They did it again! They did it again! They did it again!"

And they never had a chance to screw it up. They closed the chapter and broke up at the right time.
Yes they did, just as it was getting sour. As I'm sure you know, a lot of art is born out of frustration. It was a great band and, truly, to me, much more than a band — they're the band for me and probably always will be. I can't think of anything taking over for them.

George Martin and his son [Giles] did the Beatles music for Love in surround sound. What do you think about that — Beatles music presented in a new form?
It goes to complement the Beatles. They were always so far ahead of their time, the period when they were recording. But for even now, the music of the Beatles is contemporary, so to add surround sound and all that stuff to it only goes to further complement the Beatles music.

Is Yoko Ono on your radar at all?
Sure. Like a lot of people, it's that weird love-hate thing with Yoko. Ultimately, what I try to remember is that she was Lennon's muse. He loved her, you know, so she had to have something that he admired, but we probably never got to see that because of how defensive she became with the way the public treated her. I like some things, but I'm not so much of a fan of the primal scream kind of stuff. It's a little hard to take. But she's alright. She's John's girl. You have to give her a little credit.

How about Lennon's first solo album [also known as Plastic Ono Band], with songs like "Mother," "Love," and "Isolation"�
"Love" is an incredible tune. And I really like "God" as well. It's so truthful, and it's kinda hard to listen to sometimes. He was holding on to a lot of stuff when he left the Beatles. In the Beatles, he had a slightly whimsical element to a good bit of his part of their catalog, and when he left he wanted to do things that were more real and more truthful. He's always amazing. He always speaks truthfully. He took his pain and turned it into art. That's one of the most admirable things you can say about Lennon, and artists in general — that they can take things that have crushed them for a long time and turned them into something that's beautiful.

That leads to one tough question: Can you really create great art if you're happy all of the time?
I know I create my best art when I'm a little pissed off about things.

To wrap things up: On the show, you've been shown playing guitar and writing songs while you're on the island. If you guys ever get rescued, what's the first song you'd record?
Charlie has a slightly overexaggerated opinion of himself, so he would come up with something along the lines of "I'm Back" or "Don't Worry, I've Not Disappeared." But it would have people going, "Hmm, yeah, I didn't realize he was gone in the first place. Ok, well then, welcome back."

And what would the title of the album be?
The album would be called Sunburn on the Soles of My Feet.