Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Good evening, everyone, It's midnight on a Thursday night. Once again,
Speaker 2: welcome to the interview podcast by Loud and Quiet Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: This is number forty nine of our podcast, so thank
Speaker 2: you for downloading it. Maybe it's your first time, maybe
Speaker 2: you haven't listened to the previous forty eight. I've got
Speaker 2: a feeling due to tonight's guest that might be the case.
Speaker 2: We might be picking up some new listeners. Hopefully you
Speaker 2: won't be a one off listener. If that is you,
Speaker 2: please do check out our previous episodes. I feel like
Speaker 2: we've had some really good guests on recently, but throughout
Speaker 2: from the beginning, really we've been very lucky with the
Speaker 2: people that have wanted to come on our podcast. So yeah,
Speaker 2: if this is your first time here, please do check
Speaker 2: it out. You can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher or
Speaker 2: any of the Android apps, and you can also listen
Speaker 2: to all of these on Loud and Quiet dot com
Speaker 2: as well. Loud and Quiet is our magazine that we
Speaker 2: make a music magazine that is completely independent and we
Speaker 2: attempt at least to cover new interesting artists from cover
Speaker 2: to cover. We also feature some more established artists, which
Speaker 2: include tonight's guest. Now I'm not going to just pretend
Speaker 2: that this is just some other guests. This is just
Speaker 2: another one for me, at least it really isn't. Johnny
Speaker 2: Marr is a man who I he's I mean, there's
Speaker 2: no other way to say. He's a very big hero
Speaker 2: of mine. And there aren't many people that I've wanted
Speaker 2: to meet more than Johnny Marr. And We've come close
Speaker 2: a few times on a few different things that Loud
Speaker 2: and Quiet in the magazine and a few different interview
Speaker 2: ideas we've had and it's just not happened. So to
Speaker 2: meet him to do the podcast was a real treat
Speaker 2: for me. And I hope that I don't embarrass myself
Speaker 2: in the conversation you're about to hear. I don't think
Speaker 2: I do. I think I managed to keep a lid
Speaker 2: on my excitement. Johnny made that very easy for me.
Speaker 2: He was as nice as I'd heard a lot of people.
Speaker 2: He's got a bit of a reputation for being a
Speaker 2: bloody good guy actually, and he really was not a
Speaker 2: preening rock star, which you know, he could very easily
Speaker 2: be just a very down to earth guy from Manchester
Speaker 2: who just also happens to have been in one of
Speaker 2: the most important indie bands all time, So I hope
Speaker 2: you enjoy it as much as I did doing it.
Speaker 2: We've also today released aur new issue of the magazine.
Speaker 2: The Dune issue of Loud and Quiet is in stores now,
Speaker 2: and Johnny's in the magazine as well, so if you
Speaker 2: are particularly a Johnny mar fan, please do pick up
Speaker 2: a copy of the magazine. The cover feature is with
Speaker 2: the Internet, but Johnny's in there talking about being a
Speaker 2: sixteen year old and what he remembers about being sixteen.
Speaker 2: You can pick up a copy of that from any
Speaker 2: of our stockists across the whole of the UK. A
Speaker 2: list of those are on loudon quiet dot com. You
Speaker 2: can also order a copy. If you're listening outside of
Speaker 2: the UK, or you can't get to your nearest store
Speaker 2: to pick up a copy, please do order a copy
Speaker 2: on our page there, and you can also subscribe to
Speaker 2: the magazine as well without further ado. Then it's a
Speaker 2: complete honor of mine to say that guest number forty
Speaker 2: nine on Midnight Chat by Loud and Quiet is Johnny Marr.
Speaker 2: I think it was the start of last year, we
Speaker 2: had Ryan Adams on this podcast who he's a big
Speaker 2: fan of yours, and at that time I was listening
Speaker 2: to Set the Boy Free. I was listened to the
Speaker 2: audio book version of it, and I thought, and because
Speaker 2: I knew he was a big fan, I thought, that's good.
Speaker 2: I've got that in my back pocket if this conversations
Speaker 2: going bad, because he can be a bit of a
Speaker 2: tricky customer sometimes, so I'd heard and I used it
Speaker 2: up quite quickly the whole I'm listening to Johnny Mar's autobiography.
Speaker 3: But it didn't go as well as I hoped.
Speaker 2: I thought we were going to then bond over this book,
Speaker 2: you know, but he actually just seemed to be quite
Speaker 2: annoyed at the fact that I was listening to it
Speaker 2: rather than reading it.
Speaker 4: Wow, well, I don't care, he was like, I'm not
Speaker 4: annoyed by it. Yeah, he was gone on him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it didn't count.
Speaker 4: I kind of offended his sensibilities and purity of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sweet, Yeah, it was quite nice in a way.
Speaker 2: He was sticking up for you and thinking, this guy's
Speaker 2: written this book, so like, how dare you just take
Speaker 2: this easy option?
Speaker 3: But I loved the book. I thought it was great.
Speaker 3: I flew through it.
Speaker 2: Was it as cathartic as people say or presume writing autobiography.
Speaker 4: Is, you know, I was once it had been done,
Speaker 4: I was sort of expecting some kind of catharsis and
Speaker 4: as almost as a payback, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: You expect it because you hear about this great cathartic
Speaker 4: stuff that happens, and it didn't. Really the process was.
Speaker 4: It took me nine months to do it, which given
Speaker 4: that it's a proper book and my friends who've written
Speaker 4: similar books, I've taken two and a half years, and
Speaker 4: that's you know, that's not shirking it, or two years
Speaker 4: or whatever to do a similar kind of book. I
Speaker 4: was aware when I got to seven months in that
Speaker 4: I was really crunching it and getting really stuck in.
Speaker 4: You know, I was doing five six hours a day,
Speaker 4: and sometimes inspiration had strike and I'd worked really late
Speaker 4: at night, so I was pretty I was pretty burnt
Speaker 4: out by the time I finished it, to be honest,
Speaker 4: you know, nine months to write your life story and
Speaker 4: try and do it properly is quite a sort of
Speaker 4: compressed time. But I'd still be doing it now if
Speaker 4: I hadn't done it that way. So it was mind crunching,
Speaker 4: and it was a little like I'd imagine it was
Speaker 4: a little like working on a dissertation every day for
Speaker 4: nine months, pretty much every day, right, So it was
Speaker 4: that intensive. Things came up during the writing of it
Speaker 4: that without I don't want to make it sound more
Speaker 4: dramatic than it was, but some things actually, you know,
Speaker 4: made me feel immense joy and were very very easy
Speaker 4: in the telling of it. My days with Modest Mouse,
Speaker 4: or you know, hanging out with my mates in the
Speaker 4: record shops, stealing record covers. My mate Malku was this
Speaker 4: amazing shoplifter. Those kind of things I'd forgotten about, and
Speaker 4: as they came up, you know, I felt, oh, it's
Speaker 4: a really really warm feeling. But then there were other
Speaker 4: things that actually just pissed me off and made me
Speaker 4: kind of I carried around for a few days that
Speaker 4: kind of made me angry. I didn't realize my school.
Speaker 4: I'm not someone whose bangs on about how torturous my
Speaker 4: school was, and I actually thought in my school days,
Speaker 4: secondary school as a teenager would be really a bit
Speaker 4: of a breeze to write about. But when I started
Speaker 4: uncovering what that experience was like, you know, this kind
Speaker 4: of anger came out in me, that this sort of
Speaker 4: resentment that had really withheld or just forgotten about. Of course,
Speaker 4: you know, writing about the Smith's, the ending of the
Speaker 4: Smith's brought up some real sadness, you know, looking at it,
Speaker 4: not just because it's so important to people, and I
Speaker 4: realized that that was going to be the kind of
Speaker 4: thing that most people were interested in, but you know,
Speaker 4: looking at it from an adult, a much more mature
Speaker 4: person's advantage point that you know, that made me sad. Really,
Speaker 4: I didn't want to pour too much syrupy kind of
Speaker 4: emotion on it in the writing of it. I wanted
Speaker 4: to keep the book a consistent tone and not too
Speaker 4: much of a drag. But yeah, that you know, so
Speaker 4: that was a drag, but it was sad. But that's
Speaker 4: what happened during the writing of the book. And I
Speaker 4: think it's not like there's Catharsis going on. But I
Speaker 4: think I'm now in the process of post book, having
Speaker 4: literally written the chapters of my life and released it.
Speaker 4: I think I'm going through that now really, and we're
Speaker 4: you know right now that my new album, third solo
Speaker 4: album called The Comedy is coming out and I'm starting
Speaker 4: to realize that the autobiographical songs, they're not confessional by
Speaker 4: any means, because it's I find that a little much,
Speaker 4: But I think they're kind of a result of having
Speaker 4: written the book. I think, yeah, I'm sort of in
Speaker 4: the process of this record coming out now, I'm seeing
Speaker 4: that the new album was was it like a blank page? Really,
Speaker 4: I went into it with no preconceptions and no not
Speaker 4: really a certain definite agenda. And that's been really, really
Speaker 4: good for me. I think it's been really good for
Speaker 4: the record. I think it's made it's what's made this record,
Speaker 4: amongst other things, but it's made this record a step
Speaker 4: up from the other records. I think. I'm happy with
Speaker 4: the others book. What gives it its extra dimension is
Speaker 4: this that there's a new emotional quality in it, which
Speaker 4: I think I wouldn't have done and not written in
Speaker 4: the book. That's a quicker version.
Speaker 2: Because you kind of essentially packaged up, boxed up like
Speaker 2: your life from birth until you know, two years ago
Speaker 2: kind of thing and drawn some kind of line in
Speaker 2: the sand.
Speaker 3: But do you are you generally? Are you a nostalgic
Speaker 3: person anyway? Have you always been nostalgia.
Speaker 4: Not in the slightest. I am pathologically the opposite. I
Speaker 4: run a mile from any kind of nostalgia.
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised to hear that. I feel like.
Speaker 2: Not all musicians, but I think most musicians can't. An
Speaker 2: artist can't really afford to be nostalgic. I mean, it
Speaker 2: depends what type of musician you are, I guess, but
Speaker 2: if you're always wanting to create something new, do you
Speaker 2: know what?
Speaker 4: It's funny you should mention that, because I was thinking
Speaker 4: that pretty much the same thing only last week in
Speaker 4: that as about how I'm not a nostalgic person and
Speaker 4: how I was imagining how say visual artists like painters,
Speaker 4: particularly David Hotney, seems to come up quite a lot
Speaker 4: in my interviews, but I seem to cite him quite
Speaker 4: a lot. But I really admire the fact that he's
Speaker 4: in his eighties and he's still going forward, and he's
Speaker 4: still more importantly, still doing really good work. And I've
Speaker 4: got a couple of friends who are artists, once a
Speaker 4: sculpture and an other ones an artist, and I can't
Speaker 4: really imagine them finding much worth in looking back, other
Speaker 4: than to tell some tales out a dinner party or
Speaker 4: around in you know, in a bar or something like
Speaker 4: telling the odd Tale, but it actually informing your work,
Speaker 4: any nostalgia, and actually just even informing your kind of life.
Speaker 4: I don't see any point in it, I actually other
Speaker 4: than the retelling of a nice tale.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I suppose the problem is being Johnny Marr and
Speaker 2: having done all the things you've done, and I'm aware
Speaker 2: of the fact that I'm doing it right now. People
Speaker 2: kind of want to ask you about things that have happened,
Speaker 2: not not just like thinks, you know, like good You've
Speaker 2: got good tales. That's one of the great things about
Speaker 2: the book is there's so many good, kind of incidental
Speaker 2: little side notes and little stories and things.
Speaker 4: I understand, you know what. I understand that really because
Speaker 4: I'm a fan as well, so you know, as I'm
Speaker 4: a fan of you know, if I would love to
Speaker 4: hear lou Read telling some stories I didn't know about,
Speaker 4: not just a Velvet Underground, but maybe what happened money
Speaker 4: was doing Transformer or Burlin. I think maybe that might
Speaker 4: be the slight difference, so in that I don't want
Speaker 4: to hear just about the Velvet Underground. I quite like
Speaker 4: to hear about his journey as a person. But no,
Speaker 4: I think I'm alright with that. You know, as I've
Speaker 4: got older, I remember, you know occasionally when you'd read
Speaker 4: some old motown star putting out a record in the
Speaker 4: nineties or whatever, and they'd get really touchy with the
Speaker 4: journalists because they just want to talk about now and
Speaker 4: you think, I don't think, Oh, I don't really, I
Speaker 4: don't really want to turn into that. But I think
Speaker 4: the important part, and this is where it becomes quite subjective,
Speaker 4: is is, yeah, you've got to make music and be
Speaker 4: doing something that is, if not as interesting, at least
Speaker 4: interesting to talk about. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, sure.
Speaker 4: So you've got to keep yourself not not current, but
Speaker 4: just interested in things, and but just be doing interesting work.
Speaker 4: Then I think, can I have an interesting sort of
Speaker 4: opinions and insights and then you can balance some of
Speaker 4: that old stuff. Yeah, because you don't just be something
Speaker 4: a bit cool about just trotting out the old war stories.
Speaker 4: That's the other thing about writing your book. You don't
Speaker 4: Once you've written a book, you don't have to bother
Speaker 4: your mates with these old war stories anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all in the book.
Speaker 4: You just say, look, read it, Yeah, heard it.
Speaker 2: Do you mind if I ask you one story in
Speaker 2: the book, That's what There was one sign anecdote that
Speaker 2: for some reason stuck with me, which is the story
Speaker 2: that you tell in it of giving this guitar that
Speaker 2: Pete Townsend had given to you to Noel Gallagher. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he broke it. Yeah, and then you gate so then,
Speaker 2: but he was on tour somewhere. I might have this,
Speaker 2: I might have remembered this incorrectly. But Sea's on tour.
Speaker 2: You've given him this Lesbel guitar. Yeah, Pete Townsend go
Speaker 2: to you, he breaks it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, however in a fight on stage, okay, right, it's it,
Speaker 4: and Liam with it. No, he's it in one of
Speaker 4: the audiences.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, and he tells you. He calls you and says,
Speaker 2: I've broken that guitar. And then you sent him a
Speaker 2: lespuel that you used on The Queen's Dead.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I wrote The Queen's Dead on it. And I know
Speaker 4: it's sober and a bunch of Really.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's a very nice thing for you to do,
Speaker 3: as supposed to just say, well, I know why you
Speaker 3: Why have you done that to my guitar?
Speaker 4: I guess it was quite generous. He yeah, I know,
Speaker 4: I was drinking a lot back in the However, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna disclaim it. I've not ever regretted it. I've never
Speaker 4: regretted it. And Noel, you know, we both those guitars.
Speaker 4: There is guitars. You know, as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 4: I gave him those guitars.
Speaker 3: He's still got them.
Speaker 4: He's still got them. Yeah. And when I played on
Speaker 4: an Oasis song in I don't know, two thousand and something,
Speaker 4: his guitar Teck, who was formerly my guitar Tech, handed
Speaker 4: me that guitar that I did on the Queen is
Speaker 4: Dead to do the solo on, which was a nice
Speaker 4: little symbolic kind of gesture. The thing about it is that,
Speaker 4: you know, he loves that he's got those guitars, and
Speaker 4: I was really happy to to do that for that reason,
Speaker 4: and also he really needed helping out back in the day.
Speaker 4: You know, they were really skinned and he was someone
Speaker 4: I really liked. I had no idea that Oasis, I
Speaker 4: mean who did. Yeah, no one had any idea that
Speaker 4: Oasis were going to one day play three nights at
Speaker 4: Wembley Stadium and be this enormous kind of phenomena. There
Speaker 4: could have just been some band who never got out
Speaker 4: of the board walk. I still would have gave him
Speaker 4: the guitar. I just liked him, you know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so who who's sending you guitars? Then in
Speaker 2: my mind there's like because no Gallagher I think does
Speaker 2: pretty well from other guitarist guitar I know, like Paul
Speaker 2: Weller sends him guitars.
Speaker 4: He does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But is it just Nol's kind of getting them
Speaker 2: all or do you? In my mind there's this kind
Speaker 2: of club of you know, rock guitarists who trade things
Speaker 2: because anyone has anyone sent you one that.
Speaker 4: I've gifted quite a lot of guitars over the years,
Speaker 4: and it really means something to me. You know. Bernard
Speaker 4: Butler has got the twelve string that I used on
Speaker 4: that I used on Strange Ways and in eighty seven
Speaker 4: with the Smiths, and he really treasures that guitar because
Speaker 4: it's also a really good guitar, you know, And I
Speaker 4: know that I know that he he used that, and
Speaker 4: I just wanted to do that. When I met Bernard,
Speaker 4: I really respected him and I knew that he understood
Speaker 4: what I was doing back in the in the old days.
Speaker 4: It's a bit of a tradition. Really, it's it's a
Speaker 4: kind of there's a there's a thing amongst country musicians
Speaker 4: if you give someone their guitar, it's it's like the
Speaker 4: ultimate sign of respect, you know. And you know, I've
Speaker 4: I've owned quite a lot of the years. So but
Speaker 4: it's a very good question because I did notice for
Speaker 4: many a day who was giving me a guitar?
Speaker 3: Yeah, where's yours coming from?
Speaker 4: Well? Mine? Actually, the over the recent years, I've been
Speaker 4: sort of gifted a few nice guitars, you know. So
Speaker 4: The Edge sent me a guitar about a few years ago,
Speaker 4: just out of the blue, which is really really really nice.
Speaker 4: And and recently Ed O'Brien from Radiohead sent me his guitar.
Speaker 3: And do they come with notes on saying, just like
Speaker 3: kind I.
Speaker 4: Know they always coming with always coming notes. And no
Speaker 4: Rogers gave me, okay a guitar, which is which is
Speaker 4: fair enough because I gave him one, and Christy Hin
Speaker 4: gave me a guitar recently. This is all quite recently actually.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you'll get your you're cashing in now, you're
Speaker 2: getting them back now my pension. Yeah, there must be
Speaker 2: some that you have. There must be instruments that you
Speaker 2: have that you're almost kind of spinal tap about, like, oh,
Speaker 2: you can't even touch that one, let alone have it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, there's a there's a very well known own
Speaker 4: read Gibson three five five that I used in the
Speaker 4: Smith's days, which actually wasn't right throughout the Smith's career,
Speaker 4: but there was a lot of quite well known photograph
Speaker 4: take and there's a famous one of me smoking a
Speaker 4: fag with opening the opening the guitar case, and the
Speaker 4: guitar is pretty much as big as I am. I
Speaker 4: was so tiny, and and that's got quite a good
Speaker 4: story to which I've you know, I've been asked to
Speaker 4: tell a few times about when Seymour Stein from Sire
Speaker 4: Records he bought that for me when the Smith signed
Speaker 4: Sir in nineteen eighty three, and that inspired Noel and
Speaker 4: then and it inspired Bernard Butler and stuff. So I'm
Speaker 4: very proud of I'm actually really proud of the fact
Speaker 4: it's inspired two guitar players that I really like mates.
Speaker 4: But that's you know, over the years, that's become like
Speaker 4: a a pretty treasured guitar. And I know Ryan Adams
Speaker 4: likes this red Port red Less Paul rather that I
Speaker 4: used to that I started using in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 4: and he's got very good taste that because not a lot,
Speaker 4: not everyone picks up on that guitar. And it's a
Speaker 4: really really great guitar. I mean that is very very important.
Speaker 4: So like a lot of guitar players, I could would
Speaker 4: be here for hours. But yeah, there's a there's a
Speaker 4: few really important ones that I've kept.
Speaker 2: You were a great footballers as a kid and played
Speaker 2: you trialed at Man City.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, not in the forest as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, retrospectively, do you think you would have had the
Speaker 2: temperament to be a professional footballer? Would that have suited
Speaker 2: you if it had gone that way?
Speaker 4: No? No, you know I didn't even back then, to
Speaker 4: be honest with you, because when I when I played
Speaker 4: for City juniors and went for those trials and you know,
Speaker 4: people up my mum and dads and stuff. I mean
Speaker 4: I knew the jig was up because I was like
Speaker 4: so into not just playing the guitar, but you know
Speaker 4: I was. I was staying out all night, was staying
Speaker 4: up all night, you know, And you know I always
Speaker 4: joked about I was the only footballer with eyeliner on
Speaker 4: the pitch, which is true, but that was sort of
Speaker 4: symbolic of my kind of commitment to you know, I
Speaker 4: was just really getting in deep into the life of musician,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, I wanted to take drugs and
Speaker 4: and stay up all night writing songs. I mean, it
Speaker 4: was completely the opposite of what a fifteen year old
Speaker 4: boy should be focusing on if he's going to be
Speaker 4: any kind of a you know. It was just happened
Speaker 4: at the time when I was really discovering all of
Speaker 4: this stuff, so internally I knew like, oh man, I
Speaker 4: mean if you asked me a couple of years earlier,
Speaker 4: like now, academies and all of that, when they get
Speaker 4: you at eight nine, ten, might have been a little
Speaker 4: bit different. I mean, I'm such a musician. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm such a musician. It's I can't really imagine it.
Speaker 2: It's hard to I I as a kid grow I
Speaker 2: grew up in Essex and football was life, you know,
Speaker 2: as a small boy. As everyone ever in my tower,
Speaker 2: it's all about football. And I loved football. I loved
Speaker 2: playing football and I do miss it. But what happened
Speaker 2: was I think I got into music and I only
Speaker 2: had enough room to obsess as much as I obsessed
Speaker 2: over music. I had one had to choose, you know,
Speaker 2: I felt like I had to choose.
Speaker 4: Like it's a full.
Speaker 2: Time job, hasn't it been? Even being a football fan
Speaker 2: is a full time job of knowing everything.
Speaker 4: What you might be talking about there is like I mean,
Speaker 4: in my case, it was very you know defined I
Speaker 4: am going to be a musician, and I mean I
Speaker 4: always wanted to be a musician from being a little child.
Speaker 4: But I am going to write. I was learning about
Speaker 4: how to put a band together, you know, finding mussal rooms.
Speaker 4: And it wasn't just about you know, staying up and
Speaker 4: taking drugs of like, okay, leave school. I have to
Speaker 4: leave school. You know. My older mates who are in bands,
Speaker 4: they're going in virgin records and looking for a bass
Speaker 4: player and all of that. Okay, I have to be
Speaker 4: like that. So it was all aspects of that. But
Speaker 4: I think what you're talking about really is commitment to
Speaker 4: almost commitment to a vocation. Yeah, you know when you
Speaker 4: in my case it was me musician, your case being
Speaker 4: a writer of getting your magazine together, and people have
Speaker 4: got all these different stories. When you get a clear
Speaker 4: inclination and a vision or a path at a young
Speaker 4: age of what you might be a to achieve or
Speaker 4: an obsession. Say it's it's not only is it very powerful,
Speaker 4: it's actually really quite unusual. And you're very, very lucky
Speaker 4: to have that, because we all know that most people
Speaker 4: don't really know what they did want to do until
Speaker 4: the twenty two, twenty seven or whatever. You fall into
Speaker 4: your your occupation from trial and error, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of the way it should be. But I it was
Speaker 4: so hell bent on doing what I now am doing it,
Speaker 4: and you know, it took a lot of work, you know,
Speaker 4: like I didn't know I was going to quote quote
Speaker 4: make it. You know, I just knew whether I made
Speaker 4: it or not, I just knew I was going to
Speaker 4: give it a go, and I really wanted to do
Speaker 4: it in spite of you know what people read about
Speaker 4: me being so self assured, and a lot of that
Speaker 4: was Bravardo frankly, you know, but I just had such
Speaker 4: a love of what was what I wanted to do.
Speaker 4: And I see it occasionally with other when I've seen
Speaker 4: it with other young people, it's very rare. Whether you
Speaker 4: want to be in clothes or fashion, or do makeup
Speaker 4: or be an artist, or whatever. I almost think it's
Speaker 4: really bad for you if you don't honor it. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think it's psychically bad for you and spiritually bad
Speaker 4: for you. Whatever that means. You have to be better
Speaker 4: to be a starving writer or a starving artist than
Speaker 4: a working call center person emotional and mentally. You just
Speaker 4: got to do try and do what you love. So yeah,
Speaker 4: so football was a good idea, but you know, I was,
Speaker 4: I was really I was starting to kind of like
Speaker 4: get elbowed off the picture more ways.
Speaker 2: So the new album come the comment called the comment
Speaker 2: sorry is I mean, it's your first since the book.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask if the book affected a bit,
Speaker 2: but you've probably said that it has. It's got a
Speaker 2: very definite it's got a theme to it. It's not necessary.
Speaker 2: I mean, would you call it a concept record or.
Speaker 4: No, I wouldn't call it a concept record, just simply
Speaker 4: because of the connotations of that phrase. Really, it conjures
Speaker 4: up kind of prog rock cuds us up a cover
Speaker 4: with wizards on it, and you know, stood on grassy Knolls,
Speaker 4: you know. But but I'm pleased to say that there
Speaker 4: are a few concepts that run through a quite a
Speaker 4: few of the songs or a concept that runs through
Speaker 4: quite a few of the songs, because I say, I'm
Speaker 4: pleased because I think I'm getting better as a writer,
Speaker 4: being able to execute songs with concepts. Really, I mean
Speaker 4: the concept being and that because I like to just
Speaker 4: instinctively sing about the outside world more than my inner
Speaker 4: feelings and thoughts, just because I think, you know, it's
Speaker 4: kind of a good thing to write songs about and
Speaker 4: the outside world. For the last couple of years, the
Speaker 4: one that I live in anyway, has been so affected
Speaker 4: by the political climate, specifically that I had to sing
Speaker 4: about an alternative kind of world because I to be
Speaker 4: you know, basic about it. I just didn't feel like
Speaker 4: those people deserve being in my head or my songs.
Speaker 4: The politicians are around at the moment, I just had
Speaker 4: enough of them. I thought, well, I have to kind
Speaker 4: of live with the consequences of you being in power.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna I'm not going to have you in
Speaker 4: habit my record. And then that got me thinking about anyway,
Speaker 4: about how I was escaping into my life as a
Speaker 4: musician and an artist. But also it'd be quite good
Speaker 4: for what I remember that it's a good thing that
Speaker 4: rock music can be an escape for the listener too.
Speaker 4: And I don't know about anyone else, but it was
Speaker 4: almost something that i'd forgotten in a way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just that.
Speaker 4: Purely that escapism into you know, it doesn't have to
Speaker 4: be very fairy kind of nonsense, but it can be
Speaker 4: songs about sex, drugs, or rock and roll or whatever.
Speaker 4: And it was almost a sort of active defiance that
Speaker 4: when Brexit happened and Trump got in, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 4: I was thinking, you know what, man, I'm just really
Speaker 4: going to try to avoid writing about these fuckers. I
Speaker 4: really am.
Speaker 2: That's actually quite a powerful way of dealing with it,
Speaker 2: I feel, because it's funny how maybe ten years ago,
Speaker 2: the kind of criticism of music at that time seemed
Speaker 2: to be, oh, no one writes political songs anymore, that's right,
Speaker 2: And today, in the last year and a half, it
Speaker 2: feels like we're kind of getting to a point where
Speaker 2: where the opinion is more like, oh God, here's another
Speaker 2: political kind of song. Not not because that's not needed
Speaker 2: or valid it, but it kind of wears you down,
Speaker 2: isn't it. And I think we are now kind of
Speaker 2: swinging back towards the idea of thinking like, oh, let's
Speaker 2: just have a bit of escapism, and as you say,
Speaker 2: not give them, not give them the time, you know.
Speaker 3: In the energy and the energy.
Speaker 4: Because it's not like we're all walking around with you know,
Speaker 4: with our heads in the sounds like ostriches. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm not that person. I wouldn't be that irresponsible. I
Speaker 4: couldn't if I tried, you know, just ignore it. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it was just an I just was like, no, man,
Speaker 4: I'll be damned if I'm going to have you occupy
Speaker 4: my artistic mind as well as my sort of day
Speaker 4: to day living experience, and same with the audience. And
Speaker 4: I also thought that I'm very, very very fortunate to
Speaker 4: get up on the stage and sing and play the
Speaker 4: guitar and have people support that and have people's ear
Speaker 4: to do that, and that should be my job. You know,
Speaker 4: in this day and age, that's not a walk in
Speaker 4: the park. You have to songs don't just you know,
Speaker 4: fall out of the sky. You know some of them do,
Speaker 4: but you know, they don't just happen. You have to
Speaker 4: apply yourself and work out writing decent songs that your
Speaker 4: audience want to hear. So you know, it's not a
Speaker 4: doddle but I thought that should really be enough for
Speaker 4: the audience. If I get up and do for people,
Speaker 4: particularly for the people who are interested in what I do.
Speaker 4: If I get up there and play good guitar that
Speaker 4: they like and come up with decent songs and do
Speaker 4: good shows, that's my protest in a way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in terms of like the lyrics, this is your
Speaker 2: third solo album. Yeah, how easy for you is it
Speaker 2: writing lyrics? I know, like, obviously playing the guitar is
Speaker 2: something that really nut comes naturally to you on that actually,
Speaker 2: do you feel that playing the guitar is a natural
Speaker 2: gift in the sense that I'm always interested to know if, like,
Speaker 2: can people learn it to the extent I think I
Speaker 2: personally think you can learn the guitar a bit or
Speaker 2: a piano or anything. Anyone can learn it. Yeah, But
Speaker 2: there is a difference between learning it and mimicking it
Speaker 2: and actually being this kind of feeling seeing a guitarist
Speaker 2: and you think, oh, that's like that gift, that's what
Speaker 2: they're That sounds a bit like Hammy and Hippie. But
Speaker 2: when you see Jimmy Hendrix playing guitar, yeah, you know that.
Speaker 2: However much anyone else tries to do that. They can't
Speaker 2: do that, that's just in him kind of thing. Do
Speaker 2: you feel the same, Do you feel that with the
Speaker 2: guitar with you, like it was just in you to
Speaker 2: be able to play the guitar that way?
Speaker 4: You know, you know, false modesty aside. I do, because
Speaker 4: I'll tell you why, Because there's been there's times in
Speaker 4: my life when I can be quite cavalier about it even,
Speaker 4: you know, and I try not to do that so much.
Speaker 4: The fact that I started off so early as a kid,
Speaker 4: and I'm not I'm not like this crazy wizzy technical player,
Speaker 4: but what I do comes very easy to me, you know,
Speaker 4: and it helps being completely obsessed about the instrument and
Speaker 4: obsessed about playing it. But it does come really naturally
Speaker 4: to me, you know, And it came naturally to me
Speaker 4: when I was starting out the basic obvious things when
Speaker 4: you're seven or eight, trying to hold down on a
Speaker 4: really crappy acoustic whold chords down, which is physically very difficult,
Speaker 4: and it hurting your fingers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and indenting your fingers and for the first time, yeah.
Speaker 4: All of that stuff that people know trying to learn
Speaker 4: the guitar, all that happened to me. But I completely.
Speaker 4: So it happened, but I ignored it. I was like, well,
Speaker 4: you know, this will go away in two weeks because
Speaker 4: this hurdle was tiny. The joy that I was getting
Speaker 4: from just plunking away and was so much greater than
Speaker 4: any kind of you know, discomfort. And in a way
Speaker 4: I almost hadn't there. You know, it's kind of sound ridiculous,
Speaker 4: but when I was getting the calousis on my fingers,
Speaker 4: they were like my battle scars in a way. Really
Speaker 4: I loved it. Yeah, and other people know what I'm
Speaker 4: talking about there, And I loved all those hours of
Speaker 4: putting it that I put into it. So playing the
Speaker 4: guitar was always came really easy. When you're that interested
Speaker 4: in something, it's quite easy.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: And how about the lyrics then, now that now that
Speaker 2: that's you as well? Yeah, and especially having been in
Speaker 2: a you know, a group with such a lyricist as
Speaker 2: Morris it, Yeah, I mean do you do you do
Speaker 2: you find it easy to writing lyrics anyway? And do
Speaker 2: you feel any pressure from the groups you've been in
Speaker 2: where the lyrics have been of a kind of insane.
Speaker 4: Some are easy, some are difficult, some are really difficult
Speaker 4: because you have to really get into crafting them. So
Speaker 4: it's a lot of work and the but you know,
Speaker 4: the pressure that I feel for writing lyrics is comes
Speaker 4: entirely from the apprenticeship, is the best way of putting it.
Speaker 4: That I add as a fourteen and fifteen year old
Speaker 4: around some adults and older kids who were very discerning,
Speaker 4: so that let's say, quality control if you like, went
Speaker 4: into me. Then fourteen fifteen, it didn't go into me
Speaker 4: because because I was in the Smiths, I understand what
Speaker 4: you're saying, and Morrissey particularly being very revered, it hasn't
Speaker 4: played into it doesn't affect. In other words, I'm when
Speaker 4: I write lyrics, I'm not going does this measure up
Speaker 4: to the Smiths? I'm kind of going, does this measure
Speaker 4: up to the person I was what I twigged at
Speaker 4: fourteen fifteen about decent writing. That's gone with me all
Speaker 4: the way through the Smiths, through the other Neil Tennant,
Speaker 4: Isaac Brock, modest Mouse, Everyone've worked with, whether it's Beck
Speaker 4: or Neil Finn on and on, all these different people
Speaker 4: I have worked with. That journey started at fourteen fifteen when
Speaker 4: I was like, oh right, okay, Lou Reed's really really
Speaker 4: good and Ray Davis is really good and started measuring
Speaker 4: that up, and I iced to measure Morrissey up against that, right,
Speaker 4: And I used to really love David Bowie's more surreal
Speaker 4: early seventies lyrics and the kind of androgynists and surreal
Speaker 4: ones driving Saturday and you know, are you Pretty Things
Speaker 4: and all and kooks and just all of that Onnky Dory,
Speaker 4: ziggy lad insane period and that criteria if you like,
Speaker 4: and that bar is It's something that's been set over
Speaker 4: all of my life. Really, Debbie Harry. I think he's
Speaker 4: a really great lyricist of kind of pop and new
Speaker 4: wave music. And so if I'm competing with anyone and
Speaker 4: competing with all of that.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you work with a
Speaker 2: band and you have a band.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Still, but it is different, isn't it? Being releasing records
Speaker 2: as Johnny Marr as a solo artist.
Speaker 3: How are you enjoying it? Just generally?
Speaker 4: Well, today, as we speak, it's the release of my
Speaker 4: first single, which is called high Hello. And because I
Speaker 4: was such absolutely not at eight or nine about seven
Speaker 4: inch singles, I just thought they were the greatest thing
Speaker 4: in the world. I thought they were better and football.
Speaker 4: I thought they were better, and I mean, I love clothes,
Speaker 4: I love football, and I was even really loved girls
Speaker 4: in that young age, and I loved a lot of things,
Speaker 4: but a record and what it did was really up there,
Speaker 4: really really up there, which is why fans will know.
Speaker 4: I've got this forty five tattoo on my arm right
Speaker 4: And so days like today when my single, I still
Speaker 4: think of it as a single and it will exist
Speaker 4: on seven inches. I mean, I'm not like some old
Speaker 4: retro daddy kind of vibe, but you know, but it's
Speaker 4: not a retro thing. It's more like it's the release
Speaker 4: of my lead single from the record. I can't wipe
Speaker 4: out all that forty odd years of love and this
Speaker 4: thing that's been in my life, so being you know,
Speaker 4: so putting out a Johnny Marr single, and I really
Speaker 4: like the single as well, is a you've asked me
Speaker 4: a good time because it's you know today, it feels
Speaker 4: really really good. So I'm really enjoying it. It's a
Speaker 4: very rewarding thing. Fans are hearing it for the first time.
Speaker 4: One of the upside of social media is that you
Speaker 4: get that absolute reaction. Particularly it's a good reaction. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: straight away, you know, from fans, so you know that
Speaker 4: they're hearing this record, so that that never diminishes for me.
Speaker 4: I think it's really exciting. Other aspects of it. You know,
Speaker 4: running a band is not only takes a lot of energy,
Speaker 4: it's very very costly, and it's a it's it's you know,
Speaker 4: it's I want to say it's a business because it's
Speaker 4: a lot more than a business, but it is a
Speaker 4: business and you have to get out there and you know,
Speaker 4: you have to get out and roll your sleeves up
Speaker 4: and do it. It's you know, being the boss of on
Speaker 4: the road. It's not enormous, but I have no twelve
Speaker 4: fourteen to fifteen people and that brings a sort of
Speaker 4: kind of pressure. But I'm always going to be doing
Speaker 4: it anyway, so I might as well be trying to, like,
Speaker 4: you know, employ people while go while I do it.
Speaker 2: Sure, I think I probably know the answer to this.
Speaker 2: But would you consider playing back in another band?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I might actually, Yeah, Yeah, that's been yeah, my
Speaker 4: I mean I love my my band and I love
Speaker 4: what I'm doing. But Neil Finn recently joined Fleetwood. Yeah
Speaker 4: what's that about that? Neil's my mate and I was like,
Speaker 4: I was trying to imagine that conversation, and I was like, well,
Speaker 4: first off, well done fleet with Matt. Yeah, because I
Speaker 4: know some people are a little like I'm not really
Speaker 4: seeing that, but I mean, it's a no brainer for Fleetwood, Matt,
Speaker 4: because Neil's like a great singer and a great guitar
Speaker 4: player and a great writer.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So if Lindsay Buckingham is not going to go in it,
Speaker 4: you could do a lot worse and have Neil Finn
Speaker 4: in your band.
Speaker 3: Would you have taken the Fleetwood Mac gig?
Speaker 4: I wouldn't have suited my my thing. I don't know
Speaker 4: what band I joined. For years now, I've been saying
Speaker 4: I'm sort of done with being in other people's bands.
Speaker 4: I'm really done with it. But you know I was.
Speaker 4: I was tempted to rejoin the Sure great and a play,
Speaker 4: very very tempted. But you know, both Matt and I
Speaker 4: know that you know he wouldn't well, he wouldn't want
Speaker 4: to get in the way of me making my own
Speaker 4: records if that's what I love at the moment. So yeah,
Speaker 4: but that was a real temptation. I always say that
Speaker 4: modest Mouse still really tempt me to go back there.
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, do they ever?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think the doors do they ever? Was kind
Speaker 4: of a job?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, right, yeah, it's there when you need it.
Speaker 2: I remember when you joined the Cribs in two thousand
Speaker 2: and eight. Yeah, And I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 2: you if social media was around then, I'm sure, and
Speaker 2: you know, the feeling of things, I'm sure get back
Speaker 2: to people however, but for me, it felt like a
Speaker 2: lot of people kind of didn't really get why you
Speaker 2: were doing it. Yeah, and to the extent that some
Speaker 2: were kind of a bit like annoyed.
Speaker 3: I kind of understood that.
Speaker 2: I think people thought, like, this is Johnny Marr, Why
Speaker 2: why is he doing I don't think they could have
Speaker 2: grasped the fact that Johnny Marr, everything you've done, everything
Speaker 2: you've achieved, legendary guitarists, all of these things, and you're
Speaker 2: kind of going to go out on the road with
Speaker 2: the Cribs, who at that time were playing kind of
Speaker 2: you know, medium sized venues, but it was back on
Speaker 2: the kind of circuit and stuff. I suppose the thing
Speaker 2: that I think that it showed or took from it,
Speaker 2: I guess was that you're asked still someone who just
Speaker 2: wants to play music essentially. And also it kind of
Speaker 2: gave me this impression that you are kind of void
Speaker 2: of ego because a lot of people. I think the
Speaker 2: reason people were surprised was because most people wouldn't do that.
Speaker 2: They would be like, oh, I'm done all that and
Speaker 2: and kind of feel like they are above being in
Speaker 2: a band, Like you know, Nil Finn joining Fleetwood Mac.
Speaker 2: That's a no brainer there.
Speaker 3: On a par aren't they.
Speaker 2: But you're a Smith's guitarist and suddenly you're playing in
Speaker 2: the cribs. Is it like that that idea of like
Speaker 2: you being kind of egoless in that in that way?
Speaker 4: Is that?
Speaker 3: Does that ring true in a way?
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's an interesting that because one of the things
Speaker 4: about writing the book that happened as I was writing
Speaker 4: it I didn't realize going into it was that being
Speaker 4: able to explain my motivation for being in Modest Mouse
Speaker 4: and being in the cribs and how it happens was
Speaker 4: the book was a really good opportunity for people to
Speaker 4: understand my process there, because from the outside, why would
Speaker 4: you understand those sort of kind of things. But one
Speaker 4: aspect of this, right is that that people probably wouldn't
Speaker 4: get is that when So in both cases with Modest
Speaker 4: Mouse and the Cribs, so I get together to do
Speaker 4: some tracks, right, which is you know, And in the
Speaker 4: case of the Cribs, it was Ryan said to me,
Speaker 4: let's do a record like a single I think he
Speaker 4: made at forty five and like an EP right Cribs
Speaker 4: and Johnny, and I thought, well that would be I
Speaker 4: could see that that's a good thing. Within minutes, I thought, yeah,
Speaker 4: out of forty five would be kind of cool. Right. So, I,
Speaker 4: from being a kid, like to be a little bit prepared,
Speaker 4: so I never go into a kind of writing thing
Speaker 4: without anything really, you know, collaborating with someone else. That is,
Speaker 4: I always have to have a few riffs. That's been
Speaker 4: in me since been about fifteen, since I went up.
Speaker 4: We used to because I used to as a kid.
Speaker 4: I got so sick of people ask him how to
Speaker 4: go and jam with him, and I'd go in there
Speaker 4: and everyone's looking at each other like what we're going
Speaker 4: to play? Stoned like just playing an e chord for
Speaker 4: twenty minutes, and I was like, this is so boring.
Speaker 4: So I from even back in those days, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: we'll do a bit of homework and have a couple
Speaker 4: of ideas when you go in there. So I had
Speaker 4: a couple of riffs when I went over to Portland
Speaker 4: to play with Modest Mouse, and then when I started
Speaker 4: with the Cribs, We're like, okay, well we'll do this.
Speaker 4: Let's see where we go with this. We'll do this EP.
Speaker 4: And I had a couple of these rifts, right, So
Speaker 4: we started playing, we set up our gain, we started playing,
Speaker 4: and these songs came out really quickly. It's like, okay,
Speaker 4: now again from being fourteen fifteen, this apprenticeship that bad,
Speaker 4: I go, well, this isn't really that usual that they
Speaker 4: happen so quickly, and they're really rocking. Okay, I know
Speaker 4: when chemistry is good. Right, So, oh right, we'll come
Speaker 4: back and what we're going to do tomorrow, Let's see
Speaker 4: what happens. So we do some more. So we just
Speaker 4: got on a roll with me in the Cribs. So
Speaker 4: after about five days we had about six seven instrumental
Speaker 4: great pieces of music. So like wow, wow, okay, well
Speaker 4: let's just make an album's worth. Similar kind of story
Speaker 4: happened with Modest Mouse, right, And so then what happens
Speaker 4: is you go because we're all record freaks. And this
Speaker 4: is the bit that people who are outside of what
Speaker 4: I do particularly anyway, won't get. All of us were
Speaker 4: egolests at that point, because we all go this, let's
Speaker 4: make a record. We kind of in the background, the
Speaker 4: cribs now hung on. We're bringing Johnny Marain to our band,
Speaker 4: and I go, I'm being in the cribs now the
Speaker 4: outside world, but that's only a little bit of your consideration.
Speaker 4: Your altruistic, genuine musician ship just takes over and goes,
Speaker 4: this is happening. Let's just carry on. So then what
Speaker 4: happens is you're arranged to make a record, and all right,
Speaker 4: the outside world and the radio and journalist might be
Speaker 4: talking to you about it. So this is what i'ms
Speaker 4: in my mind. Anyway, I get really attached to the music.
Speaker 4: I obsessed about it. I think all that middle ages
Speaker 4: round we need to change the key, or I think
Speaker 4: the singing needs to or we need we should the
Speaker 4: intro isn't right. That then takes over my life, and
Speaker 4: it's been that way from being a kid. I'm swimming
Speaker 4: in these songs that I have to finish. I don't
Speaker 4: care what you know, what it looks like on Jiles
Speaker 4: Holland or what. I don't care about that. So I'm like,
Speaker 4: this work has to reach fruished. So I make a record,
Speaker 4: and then by what's happened. By the time you make
Speaker 4: a record, you've been playing together for a few months,
Speaker 4: you go out to la or Portland or whatever, you
Speaker 4: go through intense pressure. It's not right we have to
Speaker 4: recut that the drummer's broken his arm. You go through
Speaker 4: this real bonding that if you were to bail, it
Speaker 4: would just be weird. Yeah, because you've sort of it's
Speaker 4: like being in the army or something, or on the rigs.
Speaker 4: You've become this it's more about it's actually the opposite
Speaker 4: of what people think. It's it's the opposite of flitting around.
Speaker 4: You become really loyal friends. Yeah, so you kind of
Speaker 4: So if I were to turn out of mod't Mouse
Speaker 4: and say, you know, this thing we've slaved over for
Speaker 4: a year and that we've really crunched down and all that, well,
Speaker 4: by I'm off.
Speaker 3: Now I've just realized I'm Johnny mar I'm.
Speaker 4: Above this or whatever, it would just be rude. And
Speaker 4: it also, you know, all the people we've mentioned I
Speaker 4: really respect you know, I really respect him and just
Speaker 4: to you know, complete the picture. In the case of
Speaker 4: the Cribs, for instance, I really respected them as a
Speaker 4: modern what I say, I call a street band, say
Speaker 4: in the before I even knew them, I regarded them
Speaker 4: as being in a lineage of Buzzcox, you know British
Speaker 4: bands X Ray Spex Smith's. I know Smeths have gone
Speaker 4: on to have a massive legacy, but good street punk
Speaker 4: rock band and I know how to do that. And
Speaker 4: I thought, all right, I want to experience being in
Speaker 4: the modern version. I want to know the reality. It
Speaker 4: would be good for me as a musician in a way.
Speaker 4: It's a little bit like a stand up getting back
Speaker 4: and getting in front of crowds and clubs and stuff.
Speaker 4: And I just thought they were they were great, and
Speaker 4: I really loved the Garmans. I loved the family and
Speaker 4: I thought they were these are the best modern British
Speaker 4: band around and I'm going to have invited me to
Speaker 4: be in it. So I'm going to join this band,
Speaker 4: and I'm going to be in it and get back
Speaker 4: in touch with what it's like being in a in
Speaker 4: a young, happening band. So that's what that's the way
Speaker 4: I think, really, yeah, I'm not very careery despite what
Speaker 4: people may think.
Speaker 2: Well, by having that attitude is how you've ended up
Speaker 2: kind of. It's the reason why we can sit here
Speaker 2: and not just talk about the Smiths and get your
Speaker 2: old war stories that are now in your book. Is
Speaker 2: the reason why your your book has more to it.
Speaker 2: Then flick to the pages of the Smiths and then
Speaker 2: and then it's going to trail off, you know, and
Speaker 2: in that in that time, you you know, you went
Speaker 2: straight from straight from the Smiths to working with talking heads,
Speaker 2: as we've mentioned, pet shop boys, Bernard some with electronic,
Speaker 2: Matt Johnson with the the The list kind of goes
Speaker 2: on and on. But there's one name. I was looking
Speaker 2: at your Wikipedia page yesterday because I'm a great journalist,
Speaker 2: and that's where we get all that facts. A Girl's
Speaker 2: Allowed song. You played on A Girl's Alloud song? Yeah,
Speaker 2: on their final album.
Speaker 4: I think I played on two, did you Yeah?
Speaker 2: The one that the one that I wrote down was
Speaker 2: called roll back the Rivers in time.
Speaker 4: Maybe I just played on that one.
Speaker 3: I don't know, from out of control?
Speaker 4: Why why not?
Speaker 3: I wasn't gonna say why.
Speaker 2: I was going to say why, but not just why
Speaker 2: I was going to say, I imagine you get offered
Speaker 2: a lot of kind of jobs for one of a
Speaker 2: better word, a lot of kind of writing gigs, and
Speaker 2: and that can be from anything from something like the Cribs,
Speaker 2: but also to like you know, pop stars and songwriting
Speaker 2: and you know, ghost writing and all that.
Speaker 3: Kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: What was it about Girls Allowed or that or that
Speaker 2: offer that you were like, yeah, I'll do that, I'll
Speaker 2: take that.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's a kind of I wish it
Speaker 4: was a better story, but uh, pet Shop I was
Speaker 4: working on a pet Shop Boys album and their producer
Speaker 4: was working simultaneously on this Girl's Allowed stuff. And I'd
Speaker 4: made the comment that a couple of their records have
Speaker 4: got really good guitar parts on which they do, and.
Speaker 2: He sounders the Underground's got that.
Speaker 4: That, and then there's another one that's got like a
Speaker 4: really great acoustic thing on it. So I think that's
Speaker 4: a fair comment. I love pop music. I won't say
Speaker 4: I'm a fan of Girls Allowed, but I made that comment,
Speaker 4: and I think he saw that as an open door really,
Speaker 4: and so we said, look tomorrow, before you start with
Speaker 4: Neil and Chris, will you play on these tracks? And
Speaker 4: do you know what, I'm just a great joiner in
Speaker 4: her had I mean I might have, I probably would
Speaker 4: have like not done that. I would have you know,
Speaker 4: I thought about legacy and all that, I probably would
Speaker 4: not have done it. There's a part of me as
Speaker 4: well which is so perverse that I quite fancied it.
Speaker 4: You know, I've got such a stick from certain parts
Speaker 4: of the music press when I left the Smiths that
Speaker 4: there's a sort of irking and you know, people think
Speaker 4: I'm a nice guy and stuff, probably, but irking some people,
Speaker 4: particularly the indie militia. I can't sometimes it's just so
Speaker 4: there's such a delicious opportunity, and it's not You're not
Speaker 4: going to get much better opportunity than to pissing the
Speaker 4: indie militia off than to play on a girl's aloud track.
Speaker 4: So I thought, all right, fuck it, I'll just do it. No,
Speaker 4: no one's going to know.
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