The issue from spring 1999 also featured this photo. Most of the interview with Brett was transcribed here (in Swedish) by Ida Gustavsson. A mildly revised Google translation under the cut.
The music is the main thing
"This time, only the music counts."
The words are Brett Anderson's. At all previous occasions when Suede released a new record, something else - inside or outside the band - has been an annoying interference.
With the current album "Head Music", there is no such risk, Brett says.
The band has found itself through their music and Brett himself is happier than for a long time, constantly striving forwards, or hunting after something else, something new.
"It’s perhaps the most exciting thing about music - the idea that there are a lot of amazing songs out there that you haven't found yet."
The restaurant at the Berns Hotel in Stockholm is almost empty. A couple of waitresses sneakily sleep around while waiting for the first guests of the day. It’s only half past ten in the morning and Brett Anderson, who sits at a small table in one of the corners, seems to be the only one awake.
In most cases, pop stars are asleep at this time of day, but Brett is in a brilliant mood. He often jokes, has difficulty sitting still and lights a cigarette after a cigarette. In fact, he can almost be called bubbly.
As usual, he is admirably thin as a wire, and his short, slightly spiky hairstyle is cool as anything. But it’s the mood, rather than the appearance, that takes me back by surprise. He already looks better than I ever knew.
- I have become a happier person in recent years, he says. I have grown up and learned to appreciate life instead of being at war with it all the time like I did before. But that doesn't mean I lost anything. It means that I have grown old, sorry, that I have grown up. I don't feel old at all - rather, I'm more excited about life than ever before.
Suede are back. And one of the reasons why Brett feels more harmonious than before is that the last album, the amazing "Coming Up" from 1996, became so successful. Now he can concentrate on important things instead of having to chat about the hype, drugs and drop-out members in the quarters. The music, the thing Suede has always been about, is finally at the center. And no one can longer doubt Brett Anderson's talent.
- We are much more relaxed now. It’s nice to sit here and feel that we are no longer fighting with the rest of the world, if you understand what I mean, because if you do that, you are doing music for the wrong reason. People always think that you achieve things by competing with others, but that’s a very Western way of looking at things. In fact, there are other ways to achieve success.
Suede's new album is called "Head Music" and starts with the cracking single "Electricity". And immediately, three years of waiting seem like a trifle. Brett's magnificent, passionate voice drives the song forward with a violent force, while life-threatening guitars collide with swinging rhythms - the result is nothing short of brilliant.
Then twelve tracks remain. "She's In Fashion" is a cool, romantic pop song that will be a big hit later this year, while "Everything Will Flow" can be described as a brilliant string ballad of the sort only Suede can record. Acoustic "Crack In The Union Jack", which closes the record, should also be mentioned. And the rest of the songs are basically as good.
Suede: prima donna Brett about Head Music (OOR, May 1999)
By Raymond Rotteveel
Magazine: OOR no. 9, p. 34-37, 1st May 1999 (cover)
Scanned by @kalluun-patangaroa (full article here)
Translated from Dutch by Miriam, SuedeNation Scrapbook (source)
A short report on the London Astoria fanclub gig (27 March 1999) and the preceding press conference, followed by an earlier original interview with Brett about Head Music, its creation, influences and lyrical approach.
Head Music is not a reaction against Coming Up. We made this record without thinking about our past.
On paper, it looks like fun, but in real life, press conferences can be pretty disappointing. In real life, the five members of Suede are sat on a small podium in the London club Astoria, blinking their eyes because of the bright spotlights and they can see nothing of the about a hundred journalists that have flown in from all over the world.
If the band is then confronted with – to say it mildly – backward questions like 'What do you think about Bernard Butler', it isn't very motivating and a corny atmosphere sets in.
Singer Brett Anderson, sat in the middle, at first answers the questions cooly and businesslike. 'No, I haven't heard BB's album yet, but the split was the best that could ever happen to me. We are both happy, so...'. And: 'No we did not choose Electricity as the single, a group of idiots did that.'
Anderson wants to stress that he feels happy: 'Yes, even I have all the emotions a man can have, and being happy is one of them', and that for him, the evolution of Suede is best expressed in his favourite song Savoir Faire. 'It came to be through a new way of songwriting, but it also has the dark edge of Suede in it'.
If about 10 minutes later Ludwig from Austria (magazine unknown) asks when the single will be released – the Astoria is wallpapered with posters saying 'Electricity, new single out on April 12' – the party is over.
'Speak to your local Sony', Brett snaps back and announces the last question. The planned time for our questions is thus reduced to 15 minutes.
A few hours later the Astoria is filled with about 1500 people for a special fanclub-only gig.
The concert has, even before it's started, all the ingredients to become special. It is the first one in London since a long time and it’s especially for the real fans and therefore an appropriate test case for the new material. From opener 'Can't Get Enough', a raw straight-forward rocker, Brett is in his element: gesticulating, clapping his hands and dangerously waving his microphone about, he moves across the stage like a male diva, all the while arousing the audience with sensual hip-wiggling moves. "I feel now walking like a woman and talking like a stone age man", he wallows in his well-known cracking voice. Those who see him like this understand why he was once called 'the man who brought style back to British music by slapping his arse'. Other things that catch attention are that the now short-haired guitarist Richard Oakes is given a lot more space live than on the album and that is for the good of the sound.
The melodramatic 'Down', the ballad 'He's Gone' and the Eastern-tinted 'Indian Strings' are the highlights of the new songs tonight, while of the older material the sublime B-side 'Europe Is Our Playground', the hit 'Trash' and the encores 'Beautiful Ones' and 'Saturday Night' are way ahead (of) the rest. From the first two albums, no songs are played.
Two weeks earlier in a hotel in Notting Hill, the area where most Suede members live.
The band has just finished mixing HM and tiredness is written across Brett's face. 'Pff, yeah, we have been mixing till late last night and it has been pretty intense. It's been hard labour, but then it always is. I have never made a record that was not difficult, but that's part of it. It is not meant to be relaxing to make a record, in my opinion. It always has to be a difficult process. It's always hard work and there's always a moment where you think 'Fuck, this is going completely wrong'. I have experienced that with every record. You have to doubt the things you are doing or create. Unless you are a total idiot, you have to doubt to be able to create'.
Head Music. A record that isn't half as easily digestible as preceding million-seller CU, but that isn't as heavy as for example DMS. A record that, also through attracting producer Steve Osborne (of the remix team Perfecto Records and known for Happy Mondays and U2), was announced in the British press to be a dance album.
Unjustly, Brett says: 'There are a lot of dance elements in it, drumloops, electronics, samples, that sort of thing. A lot of songs have been written from a certain groove or rhythm. In that, Steve had an important part. But the fact that we sound like this now, has also to do with the fact that we wanted to change our sound. To do so, we chose Steve and it worked out very well. But it's not a dance record, no. No, I've never really understood those notices in the press. I mean, I wish it was that easy, that you could say ‘Come on, let's do a dance record'. But that's not the case. It's kinda stupid to say something like that. If you say that upfront, it will never sound like a fucking dance record. It's a Suede record with elements from dance music. Suede will of course remain a rock & roll band and will not change into some sort of dance act because we happened to work with a producer who produced that sort of record in the past. It’s true that there are more songs now that you can really move to, that are in a way very danceable.'
HM sounds very different from the light-footed CU. How did that come about?
I have been listening to a lot of different music over the last years, to music that has not been written from the starting point of traditional songwriting. Things like Tricky, Asian Dub Foundation, Audioweb and Prince.
Furthermore, there has been a sort of musical revolution within me. I used to write songs from a melody, usual the singing melody, while now I see music more as a whole. I have learned to experiment with different instruments, I have learned to play new instruments and have even become a reasonable guitarist.
There are, by the way, a lot of other songs on HM, songs with a heavy punk-like guitar. Can't Get Enough can be regarded as a punk song, but then (in) Suede style. People often regard punk and dance as two totally different styles, but that's not the case. The best punk has a groove, and the best dance sounds agressive. We have tried to use the best of both styles.
I think Neil Codling, your keyboard player, has had a big part in creating the new Suede sound.
That's right. Neil has incredibly developed himself technically over the last year. He is a real sound wizard, yes. It's also because Neil is now more part of the band. At the time of CU, he hadn't been around for that long. Neil was to HM a sort of pre-producer. He's had a big influence. For instance, he convinced me that we had to go into the studio (in) a different way this time. That we had to be able to write on the spot from 2 chords or a rhythm, that everything didn't have to be set beforehand. You should see his flat. It's stacked with recording equipment, effects and computers. You can't see a thing and he's working in there all day.
Could you compare HM to the previous records already?
I must say, I haven't heard the record as a whole yet. Only the individual songs and they sound really good. At this moment, I still see HM as a collection of songs. As an album, I cannot value it yet. If I listen to the songs, I must say, I feel the record sounds more diverse and universal than the three previous ones. The band is more balanced and you can hear that on HM.
How do you regard previous Suede albums now?
I really like some songs on CU. I can still listen to them. From DMS, Wild Ones is pretty much the only song I can still listen to. The album as a whole I find too dark. Of course, my taste has changed over the years. DMS has a certain emotion that I really enjoy, but at the same time, the album is too heavy and too personal for me. The album has a brilliant spirit, but there's also something immature in it. That doesn't matter (though), I think it's good to look back on things and to conclude it wasn't all perfect.
DMS made me feel claustrophobic.
Claustrophobic, that's the perfect word to describe DMS. The stress and the weird atmosphere in the studio during recordings, the heavy drug use and the near-constant tensions in the band, between me and Bernard especially – DMS reflects that all. Yes, I was pretty fucked up at the time.
And CU was a reaction against that?
Yeah, that's the big difference with HM. With CU, we more or less made (it) as a reaction to the melancholy of DMS. It was, in a way, a relief, I think. HM is not a reaction against CU. We made this record without thinking about our past. That also has to do with us being more balanced as a band than ever before.
And you personally? There are even stories going around that Brett has sworn off drugs?
Eh, well, it's not as extreme as before. But I still find coke or xtc enlightening from time to time. It's not that I have to take something at all costs now, but when I have taken a pill I do think: "There's nothing wrong with this". Xtc has always been one of my favourite drugs and I'm not going to say now that I'll never take it again. But it has been a while since the last one, yes.
You once said, your lyrics would become less personal and more observing.
I think I succeeded in that. The only rule that I applied for myself was that I shouldn't sound emotional all the time. I even wanted to sound distant and cold. They aren't condescending observations, I keep singing about my life and my friends in a way. But my lyrics are now less emotional and through that more honest, I feel. There is something dual in that: you are prone to think that when a lyric is more emotional, it’s more honest. But that is not always the case. I could sit here and cry dramatically and that would come across as very emotional to you, but it wouldn't necessarily be sincere. I have tried to be less complicated this time. As a person, I feel less complicated and less dramatic now. This is an evolution I have undergone as a human being. I like to see myself as an evolving person, on an emotional level as well. I don't want to be the same dramatic person all my life. That would make things very boring, don't you think?
‘Crack in the Union Jack’ sounds like a political song, a kind of negative view of Britain that is going through difficult times even under Labour.
If you use words like Union Jack in a lyric, it’s almost immediately regarded as a political song, eh? But it’s about feelings of human disillusion and about people who hide behind the wrong kind of nationalism. It is a negative song, but not against Labour. It's far too easy to say that Labour is making a mess of it just like the conservatives. Labour also makes mistakes, but I feel it's still better for our country that they are in power.
That's not how I feel all the time though, it was more the reflection of a mood. See it as a negative snapshot of Great Britain.
Suede interview in Stereo magazine (Sweden), June 1996
Source: Suede Scrapbook. Sent in and translated by Anders.
Suede would like nothing more than sell a few million records, the singer Brett Anderson says. Well, can they? Jens Stenberg went to London to check out the recording of the band's third album.
How do Richard and Brett write together?
Mat: Brett has a melody which he sings to Richard, a chorus or whatever. And then Richard writes a whole song around what he heard. He's one of the most musical people I've ever met. It's almost disgusting.
The studio Suede has occupied to record their third and as of yet nameless third album, is located in a modest white concrete two-storey house on Kilburn High Road in North-Western London. In the lobby, someone's sitting in front of a TV watching Premier League football. Suede's tall bass player Mat Osman welcomes me. He looks worn and tired, which has an explanation... Suede has been recording since November, changed studios several times and additionally recruited a keyboard player, drummer Simon Gilbert's 21-year-old cousin Neil Codling. Work is slow.
- Brett's a bit busy, Mat says. He's doing backing vocals with Ed (Buller, Suede's producer), but he'll be here soon. Let's go upstairs in the meantime.
Upstairs we go. The lounge is filled with everything a pop band could possibly need to endure a recording... Mat sits down in a sofa. A cab driver asked me to ask Suede about their relation to Slade...
- They've never meant anything to any of us. But we have actually played to some Slade fans once. In the beginning of our career, we were booked by a place that thought we were Slade, not Suede!
Mat says Suede's a totally new band now, compared to the band that recorded "Dog Man Star"...
- Richard (Oakes, guitarist) has written 75% of the music and our new member Neil has contributed with some new ideas.
Mat discribes the new boy as "a strange bastard".
- He's living with me right now. And he never says a word. If you ask him how he's doing, he'll pick up a guitar and play a few chords as an answer.
How did he get into the band?
- Pure coincidence, actually. Neil used to hang out at our rehearsal room and one day we asked him if he could play the piano. He could. And he was a good singer too. So we added him.
How do Richard and Brett write together?
- Brett has a melody which he sings to Richard, a chorus or whatever. And then Richard writes a whole song around what he heard. He's one of the most musical people I've ever met. It's almost disgusting.
How does the new album sound?
- It's still Suede, without a doubt. But it's simpler, poppier, not as epic...
Brett comes up the stairs, wearing a shirt, jeans and boots. All black. He takes to the sofa, and lights a cigarette. He looks as worn and tired as ever. His face is almost transparent...
- I've let go of some of the control in the band, he says. I'm no dictator anymore. It's exciting to see what the others come up with and I trust them.
Mat said the new material is a bit poppier...
- Yeah, that's right. We took the epic stuff as far as we could on "DMS" and it would've been stupid to repeat that.
Do you still write about the same things?
- You mean sex and drugs?
Yeah.
- Well, I guess I'm pretty obsessed with those subjects. And I can't see any reason or need to change that either. I like my interests. The new lyrics are less emotional. Easier to grasp, not as personal.
Before the last album you locked yourself in an empty flat in Highgate to write the lyrics... What did you do this time around?
- I moved back to Notting Hill and led a normal life. These days I wake up at 07:30 and go to bed at 21:30. If I have a day off, I spend it with my friends or go to a museum with my dad.
Do you have any professional goals left to achive?
- You could never sell too many records. I don't think we'll ever be the biggest band in the world, but one of the big ones. I'm totally convinced of that.
Last words from Mat:
- I want Suede to be bigger than all the other British bands that only write football songs. I hope we'll get the task to write the new British national anthem. That would be something...
Piko to Appear in “Record of Lodoss War” Stage Play
From Natalie:
A theatrical production of Record of Lodoss War will be performed at the Kinokuniya Southern Theater in Tokyo from January 6th through the 14th of next year.
The play is adapted from Ryo Mizuno’s fantasy novel of the same name, which has also been adapted into an anime series as well as a video game. The production will integrate projection mapping, action, stage combat and the like into the plot of the first book of the series, The Grey Witch.
Working with director and screenwriter Hideo Sonoda is Tetsuya Sugawa from the TV series, Terrace House, as the protagonist, Parn, and HKB48 member Aika Ota as the heroine, Deedlit. Other cast-members include Hiroki Sana, Sarara Tsukifune, and the artist Piko.
It has been released that the play’s opening song will be performed by the girl group A応P (AOP). Ticket pre-sales begin on October 29th.
(TN: Piko will be performing as Etoh, Parn's best friend and a priest of Falis.)
“These past four years were reflected into the contents of the live.”
Utaite Natsushiro Takaaki and Eve's first two-man live "Natsueve! ~rainy~" was held on June 18 in Shinjuku ReNY.
“I think a different-us can be seen through the entirety of the live performance.” (Eve) “Since planning the two-man, the things we wanted to focus on increased as we discussed various things and most of it came true this time.” (Natsushiro) Like they’ve said in the pre-live interview, the live brought their experience from the past four years and a new-them together.
Used in front of the stage was a single theatre curtain. Holding true to the live name of “rainy,” the sound and projected image of drizzling rain added to the raising stir of the audience. Looking down from the second floor, you can see the band on standby and looks of nervousness on the two of them.
But, at the sound of excited screams when the curtain fell, their eyes sparkled and you could see their expressions instantly change into smiles. On hindsight, what they felt in their hearts had surely surfaced onto their faces. The two stepped forward after the curtain fell, and voices akin to shrieks met live-classic vocaloid songs “Yobanashi Deceive” “Idola no Circus.” In an instant, the audience was at a high.
Following that, the audience became one as they sang “darasuteira darasutei” with Eve in “Migi ni Ma Girl.” Playing the guitar himself in “Laiver” and the audience’s cry of “one two!” clapping in rhythm to “Nai mono nedari,” Eve ended his solo part with a look of content.
When Natsushiro reappeared, he proclaimed “….. my water’s not here” and Eve responded, “I spilled it during the first song. ‘Everyone jump! Ah…’ “ with a laugh. They chatted about the incident in a way typical of them, and even that sort of MC is unique to them specifically.
“Since the two of us are here again, is it ok if we sing together???” and another duet: “Yi Er Fanclub.” After bringing the audience higher with an interlude, singing from the crowd and jumping, the baton was passed to Natsushiro.
Just when you thought the heat in the venue had even further increased with “Tokyo, we’re gonna jump!!”, as a single ray of light illuminated Natsushiro, he sang HY’s “366 Days” packed full of emotion. And then, with the MV playing in the back, he enticed the audience with a powerful singing voice in (1st Single) “Chronograph.”
“Said to be our biggest task, the ultimately hard song.” Even though they practiced in the studio, Natsushiro got his lyrics wrong during the rehearsal. After the bitter episode was revealed, they sang “Noushou Sakuretsu Girl.” As a result, Natsushiro still got his lyrics wrong but with supportive cheers, he got them right and the crowd applauded.
In a certain sense, the audience created the stage they stood on too, and they finished the main live with “Kami no Manimani” together with the crowd. Everyone in the venue became one.
The two reappeared in response to a cry for encore. Looking back on the four years since they’ve met, they had a long MC in a quiet atmosphere about things concerning the live. When watching their easy going figures happily chatting, you’d think to yourself that they’d probably keep talking if they weren’t constraint by time.
“Well then, I guess we should go on with the last song….” Eve said reluctant to end, and they reached the grand finale of their first two-man with “Sugar Song and Bitter Step.”
At the very end, the part where Eve said “these past four years were reflected into the contents of the live” really got to me and eventually linked up with what the two said about also wanting to make and sing their own original songs. In these four years, the two have performed in various lives, performed their own solo lives, and uploaded a lot of utattemita videos.
The them that they’ve shown in those lives, and the vocaloid songs and J-pop covers that held meaning to them, were directly delivered to their fans on this day. I believe this live marks the end of these four years and the start of what’s ahead. I want to cheer on the them that do not settle with the present state and continue to strive and challenge. That’s what I thought from the bottom of my heart.
