MAY 26 2018 LISTENER 47
for their tour, the quartet have added Tom
Waits’ The Piano Has Been Drinking and
Marty Robbins’ El Paso, for extra laughs.
Their live show doesn’t lack variety, or, by
the look of video footage from earlier in
the tour, virtuosity and spontaneity.
“I feel I have so much power,” says
Murray. “The music is so strong and the
words are so strong. You’re just excited for
people to see it.”
Vogler says becoming Murray’s musi-
cal foil meant he had to play differently.
“I focus more on expression and timing,
and feel very happy when people react
positively. I think I play all my repertoire
better and freer now. This collaboration
has been extremely inspiring.”M
eanwhile, the man who supplied
the voice of Garfield in the cartoon
cat films has turned canine for the
animated
film Isle
of Dogs, his
eighth col-
laboration with
Anderson.
“I always say yes
to Wes. I say yes before I read
anything,” says Murray.
It’s set 20 years in the future, in the
fictional Japanese city of Megasaki, where
dog flu has ravaged the canine population
and the evil, cat-loving Mayor Kobayashi
(Kunichi Nomura) has banished all dogs
to an island used as a garbage dump. All
hope seems lost until Kobayashi’s intrepid
12-year-old ward Atari (Koyu Rankin)
embarks on a rescue mission for his
beloved pet Spots (Liev Schreiber).
The story may seem to be a clear alle-
gory for President Trump and refugees,
though Murray says the movie began
“before these politics erupted”.
“I think we have to talk about it as a sort
of coincidence or collision of those fac-
tors. Wes didn’t set out that way, but the
politics have become, I don’t want to say
lunatic, but they’re swinging, they’re really
swinging.” l
Additional reporting Helen BarlowIsle of Dogs is in cinemas now. Bill Murray,
Jan Vogler & Friends: New Worlds, Michael
Fowler Centre, Wellington, November 14.Classical collaboration: Jan Vogler and
Bill Murray will appear in Wellington in
November.