#simon drowner

[jesuisgourde]

songs i want to crawl inside: -a small plot of land by david bowie -sound and vision by david bowie -loretta young silks by sneaker pimps -salome by peter doherty -atmosphere by joy division -christian dior by morrissey -nite flights by scott walker -dumb waiters by psychedelic furs -animal arithmetic by jonsi -atlas by battles -shum by go_a -basic needs by minuit machine

songs i want to eat: -star guitar by chemical brothers -mary celeste by keaton henson -the days by patrick wolf -please don’t touch by polly scattergood -the boxer by simon and garfunkel -the drowners by suede -are you experienced? by jimi hendrix -shake me by mint royale -mais ou sont passees la gazelles by lizzy mercier descloux -sockets by slaves -how you like me now? by the heavy

songs i want to use like a weighted blanket or a back scratcher -a box for black paul by nick cave -breaking glass by david bowie -don’t look back into the sun by the libertines -cinnamon roads by tangerine dream -faster by manic street preachers -saturn by tarentella -high contrast by shotgun mouthwash -born slippy by underworld -psoriatic by scott walker

#an incomplete list

[all-rock-and-roll-is-homosexual]

Like it's two in the morning but I can't stop thinking about them. I am lying awake thinking about Neil's bored face, Mat stalking close to the edge of the stage with his bass, Simon's pounding drums, Richard's shimmering TOYBAY guitars and then the buzzsaw grind of the Drowners, and then of course, Brett's prowling the stage like a big cat that's been set loose from its cage.

At one point Brett fell to the floor in front of Richard's amp and began aggressively grinding the stage. There was nothing heterosexual about it.

[brettyimages]

Forgot to do an Electric Ballroom night 1 journal entry so whole story:

Did half a shift at work on Tuesday then travelled down to London because of the strikes on Wednesday. Got to the station and someone had been hit by a train so we sat there for 2 hours before they gave up and put us on another train which we had to get off again before London. Finally got into the city 8.5 hours after leaving home and instead of going to the hotel I headed to Kennedy's aka the Metal Mickey pub to meet up with the Insatiable Ones. Stayed there for a little while, said hi to old friends and new, listened to some Suede, took the long trip out to my Heathrow/Hounslow hotel and finally got into my room at midnight.

Wednesday morning and I woke up well-rested and ready for Suede. Headed back on that long tube journey up to Camden Town and arrived some time between 12:30 and 13:00 to be greeted by the Suede fans who had already arrived - position 46 in the queue. Had lunch, sat in the light rain, got the bus out to my hotel as there was a downpour which I was very lucky not to be caught in. More queuing and finally 7pm. I rushed to Richard's side which was quieter and got a 2nd row spot. The band played Autofiction from start to finish, highlight as always for me was Drive Myself Home but I also enjoyed Brett dropping his mic off the stage during TOWICLY and him tripping over a cable and almost falling over too. Caught Richard's eye a few times during the set I think, which was cute. They had a little break then came back out to play hits - biggest surprise being Heroine but they also did The Drowners, Flashboy, Snowblind and not Animal Nitrate. I got to touch Brett 3 times in total I think, during TOYBAY and a couple in the 2nd set. crowd was a bit shitty which meant I didn't enjoy it as much as usual. Afterwards we saw the band leave, Brett almost walked straight into traffic so I'm glad he has people who stand either side of him and stop him from stepping in front of cars.

Today for the second show I got up earlier, in time to get presale tickets for Leeds next year, then headed to the venue for around 10:30 and was 50th in the queue, the earliest I've turned up and the worst position I've had! It was a lovely day though so nice to sit in the sunshine and chat to people, had some lunch and a little trip to the stage door to see the band arrive. This time I went to Neil's side, since I wasn't going to be so close to the front I wanted to be able to see Brett walking into the crowd. I got 3rd row though which was perfect, right in front of the Brett steps. Again they did Autofiction in full, with Brett in the crowd for WAIWY so I got plenty of opportunity to put my hands on his back and his arms as he walked around. Other highlight was at the end of Personality Disorder or TOWICLY, I forget which, he sank to his knees in front of me, holding the mic out at his crotch like it was his dick, and held it there for a while so we all definitely saw what he was up to. 2nd set opened with This Hollywood Life which stunned me, then Pigs and Outsiders. During Starts and Ends Brett forgot we were still on the second verse and was ready for the outro choruses but realised the band were going into the solo, got up and watched Richard, turned to Simon with his tongue hanging out as Brett is so keen to do right now, and Simon just stuck his tongue out back at him, very cute. We got Can't Get Enough and Brett offering a "very old song we used to play in the Underworld in 1991": To The Birds!! He dedicated it to his flatmate Alan who was at the gig. Life Is Golden meant he came back for a walk through the crowd again and as he hugged the girl in front of me, he sang to me over her shoulder and as he left again I stroked his hair. He did a final visit to the barrier for the Beautiful Ones encore and sang a line to me one more time as he thrust the mic out over the crowd for them to sing the chorus for him. One of my favourite ever Suede shows, I think! Afterwards we saw everyone leaving, they were in a rush to get going although they left one at a time and by the end there were only a dozen of us left to see Richard, who was last to go, so we got a photo with him which turned out really cute.

Sad to have to wait 5 months now until the next Suede shows but these two have been super fun ❤️

#autofiction era #journal

[howhollywood]

Desperate Journalist

Desperate journalist (Jo Bevan, Simon Drowner, Rob Hardy, Caroline Helbert) interviewed by Music News Editor Marco Gandolfi after their show at Cedar Street Courtyard, in SXSW, British Music Embassy, ​​Austin, Texas. If you want to keep up to date with what’s happening at SXSW, plenty of excellent sessions and performances are waiting for you as part of the SXSW Online VOD offering. Just visit…

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#*NSYNC #100 #albums #Alternative #artists #ash #audio #Back Street Boys #Beatles #Blink-182 #books #BRAKE #Britney Spears #buy tickets #CD #CDs #child prodigy #Christina Aguilera #classic #competitions #concerts #dance #David Bowie #Desperate Journalist - Music #E-cards #e-mail #Eminem #fear #fifty #Foo Fighters

[rocknews13]

SUEDE  anuncian tercer anticipo "THAT BOY ON THE STAGE", quince días antes de la salida de su nuevo álbum 'AUTOFICTION'

Suede lanza “That Boy On The Stage”, tercer single extraída de su próximo álbum de estudio, ‘Autofiction’, que saldrá el 16 de Septiembre a través de BMG.

“That Boy On The Stage” tiene todos los elementos para convertirse en una canción himno de Suede. La canción ve a Brett Anderson teniendo una visión externa de la personalidad que adopta en sus conciertos de Suede. "Habla de personalidad", dice Brett. "Sobre las personas en las que nos transformamos cuando subimos a un escenario".

“That Boy On The Stage” es el tercer adelanto  del nuevo disco ‘Autofiction’ de Suede antes escuchamos “She Still Leads Me On” y “15 Again”. Estos temas ya copan las listas de musicales de las radios y las playlist en todos los países. Según The Times estamos ante "un álbum nuevo soberbio", "Suede acaba de hacer su mejor álbum desde hace décadas" comenta Uncut, "…muy conmovedor, una fuerza Punk que preserva un núcleo profundamente vulnerable…" escribe la revista MOJO y "esencial e actual" se puede leer en la revista AnOther.

SUEDE – ‘AUTOFICTION’

Cuando Suede comenzó a trabajar en las canciones que se convertirían en ‘Autofiction’, decidieron volver a lo básico. En un movimiento que recordó sus primeros días como banda, Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Simon Gilbert, Richard Oakes y Neil Codling se encerraron en unos locales abandonados en Kings Cross, abrieron la puerta, llevaron sus instrumentos, montaron todo su equipo y comenzaron a tocar juntos.

‘Autofiction’ se grabó como si fuera en directo (todos tocando juntos) en los Konk Studios en el norte de Londres con el afamado productor Ed Buller, colaborador de Suede durante sus inicios. Ed trabajó por primera vez con la banda produciendo su primer single ”The Drowners”, que cumple 30 años de su edición, este mes. Si hace 30 años ”The Drowners” fue un himno generacional que habla de una juventud perturbada, borrosa e inusual, entonces la fuerza de ‘Autofiction’ con las preocupaciones de un punto diferente en la vida, suena aún más vital.

Y donde Suede quiere estar es, en cierto modo, el mismo lugar en el que estaban cuando comenzaron hace 30 años: un grupo de personas que viven de la cruda sensación de crear música juntos, en una habitación.

Sobre ‘Autoficción’, Brett Anderson, su vocalista, lo describe así:

"’Autofiction’ es nuestro disco Punk!. Sin silbidos, ni campanitas. Solo nosotros cinco en una habitación con todos los fallos y errores; la banda expuesta en todo su desorden primario".

Suede 2022: Foto de Dean Chalkley

SUEDE – ‘AUTOFICTION’

Tracklisting:

1.        She Still Leads Me On

2.        Personality Disorder

3.        15 Again

4.        The Only Way I Can Love You

5.        That Boy on the Stage

6.        Drive Myself Home

7.        Black Ice

8.        Shadow Self

9.        It’s Always the Quiet Ones

10.     What am I Without You?

11.     Turn off Your Brain and Yell

PreOrder aquí: https://suede.lnk.to/autofictionPR

A LA VENTA EL 16 DE SEPTIEMBRE 2022

[diggingahole]

The Drowners (11 May 1992) turns 29 today! Happy The Drowners day Suededom!

#suede #brett anderson #mat osman #simon gilbert #bernard butler #the drowners #the drowners anniversary #the drowners 29

[psychodollyuniverse]

"The Drowners" is the debut single by Suede, released on 11 May 1992 on Nude Records - it was later included on the band's debut album, Suede (1993). It charted at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart.

Though not a hit at first, it amassed airplay over time and has become one of the band's definitive singles. Two different videos were produced for the song, one on rotation in the UK and the other created for the American market. The cover art features a seventies photo of German model Veruschka body-painted with a man's suit.

In a retrospective review of the song, Troy Carpenter of AllMusic wrote: "'The Drowners' itself is a raucous anthem, lassoed by Bernard Butler's punctuated guitar riff. Singer Brett Anderson's ambiguous lyrics ("We kiss in his room/to a popular tune") and high-pitched croon recall Bowie's most theatrical moments, but in a different musical setting." It garnered much acclaim from NME and Melody Maker, who both voted the song single of the year.

In 2014, NME ranked the song at number 104 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."The Drowners" was placed at number 40 in a 2016 poll of "The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s" by music site PopMatters.

Celebrating the 28th Anniversary of its release

#suede #the drowners #11 may 1992 #brett anderson #bernard butler #matt osman #simon gilbert #veruschka #holger trülzsch

[pantomimehorseuniverse]

#the london suede #simon gilbert #london suede #suede #90s britpop #90s fashion #brett anderson #matt osman #the drowners

[50thirdand3rd]

Suede - Classic Music Review - Suede (Britpop Series)

Suede – Classic Music Review – Suede (Britpop Series)

Although this may seem incredible to the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, I never heard Suede until 1998. Shit, I don’t think I knew they even existed.

Unlike Oasis, whose entry into the United States was facilitated by promotion strong enough to overcome the bizarre behavior of the Gallagher brothers, Suede’s first two American tours went pffft due to a combination of internal conflicts and an…

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#Animal Nitrite #Bernard Butler #Brett Anderson #britpop #Mat Osman #Metal Mickey #Pantomime Horse #Simon Gilbert #So Young #Suede #Suede (album) #The Drowners

[kalluun-patangaroa]

Suede: 'Everyone wants us to be tragic, cold and romantic'

The fans say they're too happy, but Suede have moved on. That's no bad thing, says Simon Price

The Independent on Sunday, 29 September 2002 

This is a little known ANM era interview with Brett and Mat that appeared in The Independent on Brett’s 35th birthday. Since the interviewer was Simon Price, expect quality content here.

'I'm in a straitjacket that I've made for myself," he says. "I get bored of having to be this alternative poet, this sort of dark, Byronesque figure sitting in the shadows being slightly troubled..." A decade ago, that dark, Byronesque figure captivated a generation – or at least, a subset of one – with the gleeful perverseness of Suede's eponymous 1993 debut and the gothic melodrama of its 1994 successor, Dog Man Star. The pallid, black-clad lad with the cheekbones and the lustrous fringe became a figurehead for an entire youth tribe.

Ten years on, Brett Anderson gazes out of his Notting Hill window and ponders the expectations which still beset him. It's been building for a while. By 1996, the time of Suede's third album, the pop-friendly, anthem-packed Coming Up, the dark Byronesque figure was dead, replaced by a new, smiling, dancing, invigorated Brett. At that time, dissent was crushed under a wave of Britpop optimism, but their fourth, 1999's Head Music, was roundly panned by fans, mainly for being too damn happy.

Even Anderson's physical appearance is subject to critical scrutiny: there was recently an outcry among the faithful when he was seen sporting a suntan and a blond hairdo (it's now a more Pre-Raphaelite russet). A permanent tension seems to exist between the Brett Anderson that thousands of Suedeheads want him to be, and the Brett Anderson that he wants to be.

"I'm not really sure what person I want to be," he says. "It's probably the whole thing of me not being a sickly boy any more. It's been over-emphasised, because it's only a matter of tiny degree, and I don't have any intention of becoming some brainless prat who spends all his time skiing either. I do feel restricted sometimes. I feel as though a lot of the hardcore fans... are obsessed with Suede returning to Dog Man Star, to be tragic, cold, dark, poetic and romantic. And yes, Suede will always be all those things, but the last thing I want is to return to those times, personally or professionally... Around Dog Man Star, we were dark, fucked-up loonies. We were fucking insane."

Tomorrow, Suede's fifth album, New Morning, will be released. It won't do much to please the misery fetishists: the original working title was Instant Sunshine. This, explains bassist Mat Osman, Suede's other founder member and the band's designated Funny One, had a lot to do with the circumstances in which it was made. Recording began in a countryside retreat during the summer of 2000. "It was very blissful, mellow, laid back, and that comes through in the music. I think Suede have always been associated with being cold, paranoid and urban, but this has a more pastoral feel. We played a lot of football, did a lot of cycling. It was quite bizarre."

Suede? Cycling? Football? Shattered myths all over the place!This rural idyll was abandoned, however, when it became clear that the songs they'd written, which were "very songwriterly, very structured", were incompatible with Beck producer Tony Hoffer, who they had hired to expand on the dance elements they had dabbled with on Head Music. According to some reports, the entire album was scrapped, at a cost of £1m, and started from scratch.

"It's pretty much true," confirms Osman. "Except the amount of money. It didn't cost a million pounds, that's a complete lie."

"I don't think we're at our best," Anderson continues, "when we're thinking too much. Our best records are quite instinctive. I'd like to make a record that is solidly more experimental. I have no intention of Suede turning into some worthy, dull band. But this time we were trying to weld a sound to the songs, and it didn't work." With disarming humour and humility, the band will be making the aborted songs available to download by anyone who buys the album. "There's always a danger when fans hear about alternate versions, they'll think, 'Oh, Suede with the guy who did Beck, it must be amazing.' Hopefully they won't then go, 'This is a load of crap, isn't it?' because obviously it's a load of crap. That's why we didn't release it."

Suede returned to the city, moved into a studio in Hammersmith, and started again with a more traditional rock producer, Stephen Street (perhaps best known for his work with Suede's erstwhile arch-rivals Blur). "We did the album in eight weeks," says Osman, "which by Suede standards, is a blink of an eye."

When Suede bring out a new album, Brett invariably confesses that its predecessor was made in a drug haze, but this time around they're totally clean, honest guv. "Yeah," he smiles, "I know. It sounds like bullshit but it's actually true this time... There were a lot of drugs around during the making of Head Music. And indeed all of the albums. But not this one, and that is the truth." If anything, New Morning sounds as though it was made under the influence of love. The single, "Positivity", and the standout track, "Obsessions", are both hymns to an unnamed female, the latter song listing random attributes in a "Lady Is A Tramp" style: "It's the way you don't read Camus, or Bret Easton Ellis/ Yeah, the TCP you use, it stings when we kiss..."

"There's always a real person at the heart of my songs," says Anderson, "but you do start making things up about them. It always turns into a fantasy thing. Most of my songs are inspired by women. That's the way I am." Does the specific person usually recognise that it's them? "It's one of those vicious things where loads of people assume it's about them," Osman interjects. "Including people I've never met," Brett shudders.

Elsewhere, on tracks like "Beautiful Loser", "Street Life" and "Lonely Girls", Brett returns to a favourite theme: depicting the lives of an imagined community of bohemian outsiders, the same characters which populated "Trash" and even "The Drowners".

"I don't try and consciously create a blueprint for people's lives. But I was a lot more conscious back then of speaking to an alternative community of people which I was sure populated the world. I always think of the Suede community as being this international society of suburbanites and loners..." "This kind of mongrel nation," continues Osman, "which only exists at the gigs and on the net, who live in these forgotten half-arsed pathetic towns." If that mongrel nation will always haunt Brett with the Ghost of Anderson Past, a living reminder of the old days has recently popped up again. Bernard Butler, the former guitarist who departed acrimoniously in 1994, has been making surprising overtures to the effect that he'd like to work with Anderson again in the future. What do Suede make of that? "It's been... very, very strange and very unlikely," says Osman. "He seems to have done the same thing with David (McAlmont) too, where they fell out and made up, so he's obviously had a change of heart about something. The one thing I didn't like was when he seemed to write off everything we'd done, which was a shame, because we did make some great records. I think it's cool that he actually seems... kind of proud of it now, whereas I don't think he did before. But what he's actually doing... I'm not quite sure." Meanwhile, Anderson taps his teeth with his knuckle, and says absolutely nothing.

'New Morning' is released tomorrow on Epic records

(x)

#suede #press #the independent #2002 #anm

[drakerry]

i was tagged by the legendary @bettysaysfuck and @mermaidstyles to expose my embarrassing music taste to the world! let’s do it

playlist shuffle rules: hit shuffle on your media player and write down the first 20 (i’m making it 10) songs, no skipping!

baby i’m-a want you - bread

i know places - taylor swift

tondoho mba - eko roosevelt

guinnevere - crosby, stills, nash & young

nowhere man - the beatles

wasteland, baby! - hozier

conversations with myself - drowners

avf - stromae (avanti do you like stromae? i know you study french! let’s talk about it!)

the box - roddy ricch

time - pink floyd

god i’m such an old man. harry would love me tho

10 (or 22) songs i’ve been listening to lately:

mood - 24kgoldn, iann dior (thanks cassie)

kiss me thru the phone - soulja boy, sammie

literally the entirety of views by drake

9 most influential albums (mine are NOT in order):

yhlqmdlg - bad bunny

1989 - taylor swift

harry styles - harry styles

fine line - harry styles

graceland - paul simon

lemonade - beyonce

emotionalism - the avett brothers

the attractions of youth - barns courtney

racine carrée - stromae

tag 10 people!

@harryskeithharingshirt (please flex on us all), @wishforwishes, @illbeallright, @beardrry, @carl-and-pearl, @lotussokka, @snlpilotsketch, @dreamt2big, @julilentille, and @aliegg :)

#thanks guys!!! #❤️❤️❤️

[popofventi]

April Song 10: "Fault" by Desperate Journalist

April 2021 | Song #10

Artist: Desperate Journalist

Song: “Fault”

Origin: London, United Kingdom

Members: Jo Bevan, Simon Drowner, Rob Hardy, Caz Hellbent

Another song that’s infectious with fury and aggression. ‘Fault' is the first single taken from London’s Desperate Journalist new LP 'Maximum Sorrow!', out on 2nd July 2021 on Fierce Panda Records Pre-order now. https://linktr.ee/desperatejournalist

Become a Patron!

#Find New Music #Music Recommendations #Desperate Journalist #Alternative Indie #Post-Punk #Indie Rock

[tiesandtea]

The London Suede Come To America (1995)

"Some days I wake up and I feel absolutely bullet proof," says Suede mainman Brett Anderson. "When I wrote 'So Young' I wanted a song that was like that... pure raging excitement."

By Michael Goldberg, Addicted To Noise (ATN), San Francisco. Archived here.

ATN was founded by Goldberg, who previously worked as an associate editor and senior writer for Rolling Stone, in 1994. It was one of the first online music magazine that offered audio samples and video interview clips with its editorial content. The first issue came out in December 1994. (x, x)

In the midst of a February/March club tour of America, ATN caught up with Anderson in Detroit for a frank chat about naked men in dog collars, the New British Invasion, the Sex Pistols, and his drug(s) of choice.

Suede leader Brett Anderson is a wisp of a man, who claims not to court controversy despite provocative album cover art and such lyrics as "I want the style of a woman, the kiss of a man." Yet he's caused plenty of controvery. Consider his comment to Details that he's "a bisexual man who's never had a homosexual experience." Sexual ambiguity sells, as has been clear since Elvis appeared on the scene some 40-plus years ago.

Suede bring Bowie's Ziggy Stardust sound (and androgyny) into the '90s. These Brits know how to make hits. "So Young," "The Drowners," "Metal Mickey," and "Animal Nitrate" were brash, infectious pop confections that begged to blast from car radios. They flew up the charts in Britain upon release.

Dog Man Star, the group's second album, is a song suite, an hour of metallic bang-a-gong rockers and ethereal ballads. Anderson can sing as trashy as the late Marc Bolan, but he can also hold his own crooning with the likes of George Michael or, going back some decades, Bing Crosby. And he's not afraid to go against convention­­in fact, he seems to relish it­­ freely admitting that he liked Kriss Kross records and just can't understand the popularity of grunge rockers Pearl Jam and neo-punks Green Day and the Offspring.

Anderson and bassist Mat Osman grew up in Haywards Heath, a bland suburb located 40 miles south of London ("Quite a horrible little place," Anderson told one reporter). His father took odd jobs; in recent years he's driven a taxi. His mother died of cancer in 1989. His father was a fan of Liszt, going so far as to name Anderson's sister Blandine, after the composer's daughter. He first heard both the Beatles and the Sex Pistols playing on his sister's phonograph.

Anderson felt like an outsider from as early as he can remember. And he always wanted to be a rock star. In fact, he says he assumed everyone wanted to be rock stars, and was flabbergasted the first time he met someone who didn't.

Away from the raucous punk and post punk scene of the late '70s and early '80s (he was 7 years old in 1977, the year of the Sex Pistols), Anderson romanticised being in a band, and dreamed. Ask him his influences and he doesn't hesitate: the Beatles, the Stones, Bowie, the Sex Pistols, the Smiths, "and punk bands like Crass."

In 1985, at age 15, Anderson strummed an acoustic guitar and sang on the street for spare change. He says he played in "hundreds" of bands [clearly an overstatement] but eventually landed in London with Osman. They placed an ad in the New Musical Express which brought them guitarist/songwriter Bernard Butler, and some time later replaced their drum machine with Simon Gilbert.

By April of 1992, before they'd even had a record released, Melody Maker put them on the cover, declaring, "The Best New Band In Britain." Funny thing is, they lived up to the hype.

And they've managed to survive their 15 minutes of fame. Anderson expects the group to record another album following spring and summer tours of Asia and Europe, then return to tour America in the winter. The album won't be released until next year.

In the midst of a February/March club tour of America, ATN caught up with Anderson in Detroit for a frank chat about naked men in dog collars, the New British Invasion, the Sex Pistols, and his drug(s) of choice.

Addicted To Noise: I found it interesting that "So Young," off your first album, was about that feeling of invincibilty experienced when one is "so young," a sentiment more recently expressed in the Oasis' hit "Live Forever."

Brett Anderson: "So Young" came from our first flush of success and the desire of everyone around you to kind of settle you down. The desire of people to almost build a rock star career, and to actually take all the joy out of it, the pure joy you get out of being in a band that people love. It was one of those songs that I wrote with an audience in mind. There's certain songs that you have to hear sung back at you. One of the things that I loved about "The Drowners" [their first UK hit], it was written as a quite personal thing but the way the song works best is when you've got 2000 people singing, "You're taking me over." I did have in my head the vision of 5000 people singing back to me with "So Young." I love that. It was supposed to be quite anthemic, it was supposed to be quite stupid. I didn't want to be turned into some kind of intelligent, literate pop star, you know what I mean?

ATN: Why not?

Anderson: I don't think there's any place for intelligence in music. I can't see the point. Music's instinctive and it's natural and it's dumb. It's real dumb.

ATN: What were you trying to communicate in that song?

Anderson: There's just a feeling of absolute invincibility that you get sometimes, especially if you've been in bands a long time and it's taking you a while to actually convince people. Some days I wake up and I feel absolutely bullet proof. I wanted a song that was like that. That was actually almost pure raging excitement.

ATN: The cover of your latest album, Dog Man Star, depicts a young man lying naked on a bed. Who is that?

Anderson: The picture is from a book of photographs I've had for a long time. It's actually the husband of the photographer who took it and it was taken the day after they split up. It's a beautiful picture. It's something I've had for a long time and we've never made a record that really fit it, and then we did. It was one of those things where I took it into the band and everyone went "Ah, that's the one."

ATN: Both album covers are controversial in their own way.

Anderson: They're not meant to be in the slightest. You should see the original of the Suede album. The picture we used is actually cropped. The original full picture, the woman on the right is naked in a wheelchair and the other one is kneeling to kiss her. It's a beautiful picture. And we got the right to use it. But one of the things we did was to phone up the two models in the picture to check if they were all right with it because it's an image that's going to be seen all over the world and one of them didn't want it used. Which is fair enough. It's a twenty year old picture, or whatever. But I just liked the mood of it so we cropped it. But it wasn't intended to be controversial. I mean one of the things people always say is it's so androgynous. Which is really weird, cause in the original you can tell it's two women. But anyone who is shocked by two women kissing in 1995 is a fucking half-wit.

"If we wanted to be controversial we'd have called the album I fucked dogs," says Anderson. "It's fucking easy to be controversial and difficult to be good."

ATN: Yeah, but that's what's so interesting particularly about America. I've lived in San Francisco all my life and in San Francisco, as you know, is a very sexually liberated city. But you go to Kansas, or some of these places you go through when you tour, and it's like the Stone Age.

Anderson: I know. America is definitely like three or four different countries. No, there was no intention to be controversial. I'm not really interested in being controversial. If we wanted to be controversial we'd have called the album I fucked dogs. It's fucking easy to be controversial and difficult to be good.

ATN: In putting two women kissing on the cover of that album, what did you want to say?

Anderson: Nothing. It's a beautiful image. I don't give a fuck about things like that, what people will think. One of the funny things about that is you had all these people phoning me up going, "Yeah, we think we're offended by your album cover but we're not sure. Cause we don't know what it is." Oh, well it's a man kissing a woman. "Oh." Only kidding, it's two women. "Oh, we're offended then." No, no I was joking. It's actually a man and a woman. "Oh we're not offended then." It's the same fucking picture. It's not for me to think about. I'm not going to think about it.

ATN: But you got that kind of reaction to the first one and then you put out Dog Man Star. You're saying you weren't courting controversy with that cover?

Anderson: Not in the slightest. It's because we come from Britain where no one gives a shit. Really. And to think that a semi-naked man is in any way controversial is one of the great horrors of this century. You should have seen the original fucking cover for Dog Man Star, man.

ATN: What was that like?

Anderson: It's from One Hundred and Twenty Days In Sodom . You know that film? Passolini?

ATN: I haven't seen that.

Anderson: It's fantastic. It was the naked man in a dog collar snarling at the camera. That was a fucking brilliant picture but we couldn't get the rights to that. So perhaps we should have gone with that and then I could be discussing controversy with you. I don't think it's a big deal. There are people who are professionally outraged nowadays . That's their job. But no one's actually outraged. They just think they ought to be.

ATN: It's a position they take.

Anderson: Right. It's my job to be outraged by a naked man. And it's the woman over there whose job it is to be outraged by a naked woman.

ATN: Do you think there's a New British Invasion really going on right now? Can it be compared to what happened with the original "British Invasion" in the '60s? And do you think that that's what's going to happen?

Anderson: No I don't think so. It's all very well for a bunch of people in the media to get excited about it, but a British invasion is when British bands start selling a lot of records in the States, and at the moment British bands aren't selling any records.

ATN: It seems to me that some of the bands haven't been getting the kind of shot that they should get over here.

Anderson: We've certainly felt like that. It's always been quite strange for us 'cause the records have kind of leapt out everywhere else, all over Europe and Japan. The records just sell more and more each time. But we've found that American radio is pretty hard going. And radio and MTV are pretty much what make you over here.

ATN: You're over here, you're touring. Are you feeling like there's any kind of change yet in the reception?

Anderson: Absolutely. It's probably different for us because we've got pretty much a hardcore cult following over here. So we've never had a problem in the US. It's always been very comfortable for us. We've always had a very good time here. Whether or not that translates into anything kind of mainstream, we'll have to see. There's definitely a different musical climate in England and a different musical climate in America. I don't think the bands have ever been less connected. And I think that's a real shame. I think all the great music in the world has been universal music. I'm not really interested in flying the flag for Britain. I don't give a shit, really. I'd like to make records that turn the world on. That everyone wanted. I think the whole thing is a bit of a red herring.

ATN: What are you saying?

Anderson: The whole idea of British Invasions and American renaissances. It does away with the concept of people just making good records.

ATN: There are some really great English bands right now. Suede, Oasis, Bush, Elastica...

Anderson: I think definitely the British music scene has fucking woken up a little bit and realized that you can't just sit around and make cool records for your mates. But I think there's a long ways to go. And things are still pretty divided between Britain and the US. There's no way you could hear a record and say, "I'm not sure which country that comes from." That's quite a shame, I think.

ATN: One problem is that people in America aren't really getting exposed to the new British rock & roll.

Anderson: That's the frustrating thing. I don't mind being hated. There's loads of places we go where people have heard us and they despise us. Yeah, it's really frustrating to know that people just haven't heard of you. And the real divisions in American radio. For a while I spent 24 hours a day listening to alternative radio. I think it's horrifying [the way bands are pigeonholed]. I think it's completely un-American. And I think it's a real problem for a lot of British bands, 'cause a lot of British bands fall between the genres. I mean I don't think of us as an alternative band and we'd sound pretty exotic on alternative radio. But then if you try to get us on Top 40 radio, they say we're too alternative. The problem is if you don't immediately fit into something quite comfortable. American radio has become more and more compartmentalized, which is a shame because it's a totally un-American attitude. One of the things that Americans have always been respected for is the breadth of what they're into. America has been the place where people like Black Sabbath and they like Portishead. I think it's quite sad that it's actually being carved up, kind of like demographic radio.

ATN: Dog Man Star seems more introspective, with a lot more ballads and slower material than the first album.

Anderson: A lot of changes between this album and the first one are just to do with having the time and the money to make the record that we always wanted to make. The first record is filled up with live tracks and things we've been playing for a couple of years. And when you're starting out you write big storming rockers that actually grab people's attention. You're desperate to be heard. Whereas this one we knew people were actually going to listen to it. It's a bit more subtle. We wanted to do something that you could really just lose yourself in, that you could dive into. And we wanted to actually make an album rather than a collection of singles. We sat and wrote it as an album. You know, we wrote the songs in one batch and all of the songs are like little cousins of each other. And it's supposed to be a whole album that you can actually live in and from the minute it turns on you just get swept away by it. There are a lot of changes of mood in it and a lot of changes of pace. Like one long song with an introduction, verses and choruses and even an outro.

Anderson: But I don't think it's more introspective. I think it's less introspective.

ATN: Really?

Anderson: Yeah, I think it takes on the world a bit more. I think the record takes the world on, whereas the first one was probably what was happening in our heads. This one lives in the real world.

ATN: Give me an example of that.

Anderson: Something like "We Are the Pigs" or "The Asphalt World." They're not about just what's going on in my head. They're about the people around me and the world about me and the city around me and the country around me.

ATN: Did you go somewhere to write the album?

Anderson: I did. I was living in a place called Highgate. It's a very strange place. It's a beautiful little bit of London. It's like the 14th century or something. It's got like a village green and people have rabbit hutches in their gardens and it's between two of the fucking roughest bits of London. I basically just shut myself in a bare white room for about three months and I didn't do anything but just sit and write. It's quite an inspiring place because it's very quiet and very calm but you're seconds away from real degradation and squalor. I find it quite inspiring. I need a bit of calm to write. I don't need calm in any other part of my life. But to write, I like to just sit back and let it wash over me.

ATN: Talk a bit about the lyrics on this album, and the songs.

Anderson: I think a lot of it is very blank. A lot blanker than the first one. For the first one, I used to sit down and actually slave over them and change words and did like 50 drafts. But a song like "The Asphalt World" is really simply written and it's written about kind of what I did during the day. I wanted to write something that was quite simple, that was just about me and the people around me. Things like that and "The 2 of Us" are almost like reflections on the day before. Whereas something like "Daddy's Speeding," that pretty much came to me in a dream. I had a dream that I was sent back in time to save James Dean from the car crash. We ended up getting loaded together and I didn't bother. I could have saved him.

"Still Life" came from living in that kind of place, being surrounded by housewives and incredibly bored people. It's one of the strange things that people think our lifestyle is always quite frenetic but it's actually pretty much like a housewife's a lot of the time. You know, 23 hours a day it's pure boredom. And I was trying to write a song that was about me and about them. I pottered down to the shops in the middle of the day and would see these incredibly bored people actually become almost completely disconnected from life.

Kind of like fading alcoholic housewives. And "We Are The Pigs" is probably about the division between those people and fucking two minutes down the road, people living in Archways and the way there's no connection between the two.

ATN: I want to get your opinion on some of the other English bands. What do you think of Oasis?

Anderson: I think they're all right. Yeah. I don't know their music very well but I think they're quite exciting, which is good for a English band. I think they sound pretty natural.

ATN: You've heard "Live Forever"?

Anderson: Yeah, I think it's all right. A lot of the bands that people always ask me about I'm not particularly interested in.

ATN: What do you listen to?

Anderson: I like Beatles and the Stones. I like a lot of modern stuff, dance music, soul, rap. I like people who can actually sing. That turns me on. I like Prince. I like a lot of rappers because they've got kind of a hypnotic quality to them. There's too many people who are kind of singing essay writers. I'm quite turned on by people who have the power in their voice, whether I agree with what they say or not. Perhaps Jim Morrison or Nick Cave, who have a bit of authority, who have a bit of power to them. It doesn't matter what they say, it's the way they say it that's quite important to me.

ATN: Any particular rappers.

Anderson: Oh, Snoop Doggy Dogg.

ATN: Yeah, he's great.

Anderson: The thing is I don't agree with anything he says but you have to listen to him. I like Kris Kross as well. And people like Coolio. And who does that "Regulate"?

ATN: Warren G.

Anderson: I like a really smooth sound, I like people who can really sing, you know? That's almost disappeared. A lot of modern singing, a lot of rock singing and soul singing, it's all technique, all showing off. It's wailing and howling and hitting the high notes. I like people who can whisper in your ear instead of shouting at you.

ATN: Initially there was a lot of talk about Suede in terms of sort of reviving the glam thing and the Bowie thing? What did you think about that?

Anderson: I never, never understood it. I have no idea what was going on. I've always hated glam rock. I thought it was appalling. I'm not really interested in fake music and it was very fake music. I was a bit horrified by it all.

ATN: Did the Bowie references make sense?

Anderson: Oh yeah. I'm a massive fan. It frustrates me when people go over the top about it, but I think he's great.

ATN: What music influenced you when you were young?

Anderson: I suppose the punk stuff. If we're talking about what turned me on to music, what made me pick up a guitar. It was kind of like Crass and people like that. I like Sex Pistols and stuff, but I come a bit late to it.

"Anyone who is shocked by two women kissing in 1995 is a fucking half-wit," says Anderson.

ATN: And who else?

Anderson: A lot of tough punk. Real annoying your parents music, mixed with that, stuff my sister listened to: Beatles and Stones and Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd. And then after that, I suppose when I was old enough to buy records, it was the music of the day: The Jam and the Specials and Japan and people like that, just stuff you heard on the radio, basically. My musical education is not a list of cool, cult artists I spent years trudging around record shops to find. It's stuff you hear on the radio when you're having a tea on a Sunday night. That's where my love of music comes from, big pop music.

ATN: When things first broke for Suede, how old were you?

Anderson: About 23.

ATN: How did you handle it?

Anderson: It was easy, it wasn't that much of a problem. It really isn't. You can imagine what it's like being incredibly famous. [laughs] You can! It's like any other life, but you get recognized more often. You just have to wash your hair a bit more often, you can't buy as much pornography.

ATN: Look at the Kurt Cobain situation.

Anderson: That's a very different thing. He was a lot more famous than I was, and to his credit, one of the things that really saddens me about that is he spent a lot of time saying he was deeply unhappy with success. And everyone thought it was an image. That's one of the things that's sad about fakes in music. They actually ruin it for anyone who is telling the truth. Because if it wasn't for the fact that here's generations of people who have thought it's cool to be tortured, perhaps people would have taken him a bit more seriously when he said he hated himself and that he hated what he was doing. I look at like Sinead O'Connor now. I read something she said and I feel horrified for her, really sorry for her, because she's saying that she can't handle it and she's having a terrible time. And everyone thinks it's a joke, everyone thinks it's her image. And that really saddens me and that's why I've always tried to be blatantly honest in interviews.

ATN: Why did you call this album Dog Man Star?

Anderson: Its just three of my favorite words, really. It's just something that a lot of the songs are about. Almost like the three stages of man, the three things you can be. I feel very dog-like at the moment.

ATN: Sort of like the animal state to whatever state we are in at the moment to a spiritually enlightened state?

Anderson: Perhaps not a spiritually enlightened state, but I've always been attracted to people who actually think of themselves as stars, people who actually treat life like a film or a book. I don't mean in the sense of people who are actually in the public eye. There's a lot of people who have sold 60 million records who you see 50 times a day who don't have the faintest star quality to them, and then there's a lot of people working gas stations, they just have that aura around them? They just make things happen out of everyday life.

ATN: In the first song on the album, you make reference to Winterland, you make reference to introducing the band, which I took you to be talking about the Band, you know, Robbie Robertson's The Band.

Anderson: [Laughs] No.

ATN: That's where they played when they played their first performance.

Anderson: I was thinking the Sex Pistols' final gig.

ATN: But that's pretty wild. I was at that show at Winterland, actually.

Anderson: You're kidding.

ATN: It was probably the greatest show that I ever saw.

Anderson: I was watching it just recently. I've got bits of it on video. It's something I've seen about a million times. That bit at the end. [Starts to deliver lyrics in a monotonal Johnny Rotten voice] "This is no fun/ No fun/ At all."

ATN: People were throwing money and all kinds of stuff onto the stage. Rotten was just picking the stuff up. And the audience was just the most bizarre audience. It was a mixture of people that were totally into the band and people who had come to see the freak show.

Anderson: Yeah totally. I've always been fascinated by them and by that gig and just the way they managed to compress everything into a year. Or in the case of that show, anything you could ever ask for a gig in three-quarters of an hour. I just love the idea of a final moment. Of a band just being in the present.

ATN: The thing was, though, when you were there, the music sounded so great and so powerful. Some people tended to say, oh, the Sex Pistols couldn't play that good...

Anderson: Oh they fucking rule! We were listening to the album last night on the bus. If you listen to it now, it just sounds like the greatest rock album in the world.

ATN: Never Mind the Bollocks . . .

Anderson: Yeah. It's so completely almost like year zero it's ridiculous. It's like listening to Chuck Berry.

ATN: Exactly.

Anderson: Or the Rolling Stones. It's just a fucking absolutely great melodic rock album. All the things that people say about them are absolutely untrue. There's only one criteria for musicianship, as far as I'm concerned, and that's whether you can get across what you're saying with your instrument and with your voice. I'm not interested in any kind of technique or anything like that. To me, a great musician is someone that you understand what they feel when they pick up a guitar and there's people who can do that with three chords and there's people who can play entire symphonies and have never moved a human soul.

ATN: All these guitar players who can play scales up the wazzoo, but so what?

Anderson: The real problem is, you've got someone like Sex Pistols, they come along and people mistake it. People think that the way they played was what was important, people actually think that if they can replicate the sound as raw or amateurish as that, that they'll somehow be as great as them. And it has nothing to do with that, it has nothing to do with the level of musicianship. It has to do with the fact that they actually send an electric shock through you. And there's people who do that with incredibly complicated music and there's people who do that with incredibly simple music.

ATN: How old were you when you were exposed to "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy . . . ?"

Anderson: That's the strange thing. I was just really too young. It was '76 when that happened, which is 20 years ago now. I was about 9 or 10, so I wasn't a punk. I couldn't get to any punk gigs or anything. So we just got these ripples in the suburbs, this incredibly frustrating feeling 'cause you knew you were getting everything like second or third hand and you knew you were missing out. Luckily they were one of the few bands where the records were so fucking powerful that it didn't make any difference, you could actually plug into it. Half of my life I've kind of lived the pop dream, wanting to be in a band, and it comes from that, it comes from being cut off from it and just having these little bits of vinyl which were my only connection to it. It's not like nowadays where any kind of fucking two-bit thing makes it, you see it everywhere. It was in the news. I can remember for a few weeks where that was the news. You know what I mean, the Sex Pistols.

ATN: Was it the Sex Pistols or what was it that actually made you make the decision, OK, I want to do this?

Anderson: It's one of those things that's always seemed completely natural to me. It's almost the other way around. I can remember the first time I met someone who didn't want to be in a band. And I can remember thinking it was the most bizarre thing. I thought they were making it up. I just assumed that everyone wanted to be in a band and a lot of people settled for something else.

I guess that punk was really important just because the first time you pick up a guitar, you're not going to be able to play "Brown Sugar," but you are going to be able to play stuff like "Bodies" and "Submission." I used to be in a punk band called The Pigs. We played these kind of like bastardized Sex Pistols and Fall songs about the countryside. I mean they actually connected you to music.

One of the big problems of coming from the kind of place I come from is there's no history, there's no music, you can't imagine yourself as a pop star. You couldn't say, "I want to be in a band." There weren't any bands. There wasn't a local scene or anything. The nearest big town is Brighton and that's never produced anything. One of the things about the Smiths I loved when I was growing up was just the kind of obvious ordinariness of them and the fact that they were making beautiful, important music and they were just obviously kind of like the square kid in the back of the class.

ATN: Haywards Heath is where you grew up, right?

Anderson: Yes.

ATN: But that's 40 miles from London. That doesn't seem that far to me, but it sounds like it felt like it was a million miles away from anything cool.

Anderson: Oh yeah, completely. It's near enough, I used to go up to London when I was 15, 16, but kind of as a complete tourist. I used to wander around the streets with my mouth open. I didn't get to do anything. I just went to wander around and soak it all in. I think that's quite important to be cut off from it, because you keep your romantic view of it intact.

ATN: You romanticize it.

Anderson: People actually from London, they're a bunch of fucking, cynical old farts, they really are. They've all seen it all before, they've all been backstage. They've already seen the downside of it and we never really had that. We still kind of actually believed in the band. And I think a lot of big city people just don't. They don't believe in the power of music.

ATN: About how old were you when you had The Pigs?

Anderson: The Pigs. I guess I must have been about 15.

ATN: Was that your first band?

Anderson: I've had hundreds. Bedroom bands. I was in a band called Suave and the Elegant. They did kind of Beatles covers. None of us could play. Just farting around. And then, when I met Mat [Osman], it was the same thing, we couldn't play. We had a drum machine in the bedroom and we'd do these dreadful fucking songs.

ATN: How come you parted ways with guitarist/songwriter Bernard Butler?

Anderson: He just didn't really enjoy being in the band anymore. There was just no point having anyone in the band who doesn't think it's the greatest thing on earth, you know what I mean?

ATN: So basically he got bored with it or frustrated with it?

Anderson: I think he wanted to do everything himself. He's very musical and he just wanted to sit and play guitar and write songs. And if you want to be in a big band, you actually have to work at it. You have to be singer and musician and businessman and politician and interviewee and all these things at the same time.

ATN: Do you worry at all that not having his musical input is going to affect things like coming up with material?

Anderson: Not in the slightest. We're working a lot faster that we ever have done.

ATN: And you like the material as much?

Anderson: Yeah, certainly. I'm really excited about it. The thing is, I'm writing stuff on my own and I'm writing stuff with [new guitarist] Richard Oakes and I'm writing stuff with the band. Richard is vomiting stuff out.

ATN: What makes you mad?

Anderson: I guess absolute waste. Just the realms of crappy fucking records. Piles of dogshit. You could get rid of 95% of the records that were ever released and no one would be any the worse off. I'd like to see MTV close down for an hour and go, I'm sorry there's nothing good to put on. Or a music magazine saying, we're not coming next week because nothing happened.

ATN: It seems like there's always been this classic tension between the creative side­­someone trying to make great rock & roll­­and the record company's side, where it's a business trying to make money. And it's like they don't care whether it's the Sex Pistols or whether it's Journey.

Anderson: At the same time, it's very easy to just be purely musical and just sit at home all day and make beautiful records that no one hears. I can't get away from the fact that if we make a record now, because of record companies, 90% of the world's population can get a hold of it in a week and that's a fucking fantastic thing. That's technology being used in an incredible way. You can't knock it. If you're going to make a record to communicate to people, then you should make sure people fucking hear it. I think that's really important. I don't want to just sit home and say, we just write music for ourselves and if anyone else likes it, it's a bonus.

ATN: One of the reasons that there's so many crappy records is because the record companies don't know. They're trying to find something...

Anderson: They're doing a job. I'm very aware of that. Every single person you meet in the entire fucking rock-and-roll industry is doing their job and they're looking out for number one. It is a fucking industry and you've just to be completely aware of that. That's why you have to be quite a tight unit as a band because it's the four of you against the rest of the world. However much there's people around us who have our best interests at heart, at the end of the day we're the band and we know what's best. We have pretty much absolute control over Suede. We have more control than pretty much any band out there today.

ATN: Do you make the business decisions?

Anderson: Yeah. Everything follows from the records. Basically, when it comes to selling, we leave the record company to it. That's what they're there for. They're the salesmen. But we're one of the few bands where no one hears our record until we've finished it. And then we come out with a finished record, finished artwork. And we hand it over, we say these are going to be the singles, and we let them to the bits that I have no fucking interest in. Like marketing it.

ATN: When you handed a record over to them, have they ever come back to you and said, "Oh, we think you should do this or we think you should get that song remixed?"

Anderson: [laughs] They wouldn't fucking dare. I mean we listen to them. Every now and then the American record company will say, "I think this would make a great single in America." And we have listened to them in the past. But pretty much anything we actually care about, we do ourselves. No, no one's ever suggested that to us. No one's ever suggested remixing or anything like that. I think they know that it would be a terrible, terrible mistake.

ATN: You've toured America now, this is the third time?

Anderson: Yeah.

ATN: What do you think about this place, given that you've been here enough times that you have some sense of it?

Anderson: I love the place. I do love the place. There's a real openness to it that you don't get in lot in other countries.

ATN: What are some of the specific things that you like?

Anderson: I've had some of the best nights of my life kind of lost in strange American cities. Just being swept along. People are completely receptive to, I don't know, letting loose. Getting loaded and getting loose. Just because there's a kind of dumbness to the place. There is! Which I really like. Let's just see what happens, that kind of thing. England can be a very claustrophobic place, especially if you're vaguely well-known and I don't get that in America at all. I find the opportunities for getting yourself in trouble are vast here.

ATN: Can you be more specific?

Anderson: Not without perjuring myself at a later date. [laughs] I like the people here. I like the fact that people will actually try anything. And I like the way it's very fast moving. It really suits a band on tour. In Britain and Europe it takes kind of six months to get to know people so there's no point in meeting people. Whereas in America you meet people and they're like, "Hi, I'm Cindy, I was abused as a child and I'm a Gemini." And you're off, you know what I mean?

ATN: What's your goal for Suede?

Anderson: Just to make a string of absolutely great records. That was my goal for Suede when I was 12 years old. Doesn't change. One of the only things that doesn't change. To make just an absolute realm of fantastic records that people love.

ATN: Do you have aspirations of having the biggest band in the world?

Anderson: No. I want to be the best band in the world.

ATN: How did you come up with the name?

Anderson: It's just a beautiful, sensual word. It sounds really nice and looks really good. It's a sensual thing rather than intellectual. I've probably gone on many times about how Suede is the animal skin around a human body. But that all came later, when I was getting fucking [laughs] pretentious in interviews. It was just a sensuous, sensual word.

ATN: How did you feel about having to be the London Suede?

Anderson: It stank. I think it's shit.

ATN: What do you think of some of the American bands that have made it in recent years ranging from Pearl Jam to more recently, the Offspring and Green Day?

Anderson: I don't get it. I wish I did. I wish I could at least have understood it but didn't like it. But I just don't get it at all. I'm completely amused by it.

ATN: Are there any American bands that you do like?

Anderson: I like that Sheryl Crow record a lot. I like Perry Farrell, I think he's pretty cool. I like R.E.M.

ATN: You do?

Anderson: Yeah, I do like R.E.M. a lot.

ATN: What do you think of Monster?

Anderson: I think they got away with fucking murder.

ATN: Oh really?

Anderson: I understand it, though. I really understand it. It would be really easy to make another record like the last one and it's quite brave to make a record that you know is going to sell less. I don't think it's a particularly great album at all. I'd love to have been in the business long enough where people actually give you the benefit of the doubt whereas we're in the situation where people always assume the worst. We're always fighting for people to like our records. Whereas I think there are a few fucking statesmen in the world, like Paul fucking Weller in Britain, just because he's been around so long, if he makes a quarter of the way decent record, it's kind of like the second coming. Back to R.E.M., I just like the way they can be that big and that simple. I can't think of another band who've got that big and have actually used it to get simpler and more direct instead of turning into something enormous.

ATN: Speaking of the second coming, do you have anything to say about the Stone Roses' return after so many years of fucking 'round or whatever they were doing?

Anderson: Musically, it's great. They're probably some of the best musicians in Britain and they can actually fucking play. But one of the reasons I really liked the first album is I thought they actually had some songs. And I don't think they have on this one. But that's my personal taste. I like songs. And I don't think this is a very songy album.

ATN: How do drugs affect what you do?

Anderson: Apart from making me get up late for interviews, not very much. It's just something I do. It's not kind of a building brick in Suede, it's something I do personally.

ATN: Do you find it creatively stimulating?

Anderson: Very, very rarely. Not normally. When I wrote this album, I wasn't even drinking. I just locked myself in a white room for 14 hours a day. Pepped myself up with ginseng. Very occasionally I feel inspired by drugs, but not very often. And when we play live, it's funny, when we play live, none of us even have a beer before we go on. We played before 70,000 last year at a festival and we were the only people straight there.

ATN: So is it more a way of getting outside of yourself?

Anderson: I do it for exactly the same reasons that everyone else does. It's a good laugh. It makes me feel in different ways but that's no different from the reasons why millions of people who take drugs. I'd like to say it's some kind of creative elixir but to be honest, most drugs are incredibly uncreative. Cocaine is the least creative drug I can think of. Dope is fucking pointless. It's not a musical thing at all.

ATN: What's your drug of choice?

Anderson: What's the drug of choice? [laughs] I'll take anything, man. I don't really like slow drugs. I don't like drugs that slow you down. I don't like downers. I don't like anything that makes you fucking buzz off to a dream world. I like things that heighten....

ATN: In other words you don't like heroin.

Anderson: No, not particularly. I'm not really interested in dream drugs. I like things that light up your life, pep you up. Ginseng is my drug of choice. And Guinness. [laughs] Any drug that begins with "g," basically.

ATN: At certain points, do you sit back and say, this is amazing that I've been able to achieve what we have achieved?

Anderson: Regularly. Regularly I look in the mirror and say, I'm the luckiest man alive. Yeah, it hasn't lost its wonder for me at all. You can get worn away sometimes, but there's always the moment when you listen back to a track or the moment you play a great gig where you feel like Superman, actually feel like 500 feet tall.

ATN: In terms of the state of rock & roll right now, what's going on from your point of view?

Anderson: I think it's quite inspiring. I think it's quite inspiring in Britain and I think Americans seem quite inspired about the whole thing. I think Britain's producing some halfway decent records for once and I think people are actually astounded that Britain has risen and is beginning to get off its fucking ass. I think the American scene has totally been shook up by cheap bands and the fact that record companies are running around like headless chickens because money doesn't equal success anymore. I think that's great.

What I don't like at the moment is the kind of cult, alternative elements of it, the way everyone is playing to these tiny little demographic audiences and there's no kind of connection across any kind of cultures or even across a fucking big lake like the Atlantic.

ATN: When Elvis Presley died, Lester Banks wrote about Elvis and he said that Elvis was the last rock star that connected everybody.

Anderson: The really big problem is every band in the entire world is living in the shadows of the Beatles and there ain't going to be no more Beatles unfortunately because everyone knows too much and everyone has more access. So people can have music that completely fits them, and you end up with these bizarre musical sub-cultures that are just aimed at one percent of the population. And you never can have another Beatles and I find that incredibly sad. Because that is the blueprint, I think, for every band, for every decent band, to try and make records that turn the whole world on, records that anyone can connect with.

ATN: You really believe in the positive effect that a great rock-and-roll record can have on people.

Anderson: Certainly. Even if it's the most stupid record and it does nothing more for you than brighten up your day for four minutes when it comes on the car radio, it's still more powerful than the other art forms.

ATN: At its best, what do you think it can do?

Anderson: At its absolute best, I think it can totally empower people and totally make people feel like they're wearing a suit of armor and strengthen people and make people feel above the shit of the world. Even at its worst, it can be fucking great. I think a dumb-assed pop song, the dumbest of the dumb-assed pop song is probably more important than any fucking painting done since the war or any sculpture or anything like that.

ATN: Why do you feel that way?

Anderson: It affects people in a way that those things don't. It affects people in a totally natural, physical, emotional way. Not in an intellectual way. It's democratic. It's the only fucking democratic art form left. You can get it anywhere. One of the great things about music is it does belong to everyone and that great songs just come to live in the air. That's why I like the radio so much. That was my first introduction to music. Every now and then I turn it on and think, what a fantastic thing it is. Just that you can have these things all the time. You don't have to go to a fucking gallery, you don't have to pay anything. There just isn't any equivalent for any other art form and it's fucking cheap, music. It must be said. You can get yourself an original Suede for what, about $15?

ATN: Now, it seems like, in terms of a CD, it lasts for quite a long time.

Anderson: Oh, that's a typical fucking American attitude. They always want to know how long it lasts. It is. It's the only place I've ever been in the world where they come first and ask you at a gig, how long are you going to play? Who gives you a shit, you know what I mean?

ATN: I know what you mean. Like a shitty band could play for 3 hours, who cares and like 10 minutes of greatness....

Anderson: I saw The Jesus and Mary Chain when they played for 20 minutes and they were fucking incredible!

ATN: The first time they came to America they played at a little club called the I-Beam in San Francisco and it was amazing.

Anderson: I can just imagine in America someone going, "That was incredible, why don't you play longer?" People always want a fucking encore.

#brett anderson #suede #this is long AF but genuinely interesting! #the london suede #atn #addicted to noise

[cardest]

Boston, Salem & MA playlist

Ever been to Boston and Salem in Massachusetts? I hope to someday soon. Salem, Bruins, Cape Cod, Edgar Allen Poe, the history! Many great bands hail from Boston and Massachusetts, like Dinosuar Jr, Aerosmith and Guerilla Toss...ugh! So many bands. Converge, Isis, Cave-In, Pixies, Magic Circle....Not to mention the songs about Salem, MA and the witch trials, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson and even Lizzy Bordon (in RI section).  The history of this region is fascinating. The Pilgrims and the Boston Tea Party etc. Many songs about this period of time. Hope you enjoy this playlist. Also I threw in a little Rhode Island and New Hampshire too.

Remember people, live life deliciously!

001 Times Of Grace - Strength In Numbers 002 Boston - Peace of Mind 003 Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene 004 Pixies - trompe le monde 005 Cheers TV show - Opening 006 Aerosmith - Beyond Beautiful 007 The Byrds - Boston 008 Dave Loggins - Please Come To Boston 009 The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Boston Tea Party 010 Buffalo Tom - Crutch 011 Escuela Grind - No Worship 012 Made Out Of Babies - Grimace (The Ruiner) 013 dropkick murphys -for boston 014 Lemonheads - Hate Your Friends 015 The Cars - Drive 016 Morphine - Honey White 017 The Breeders - Cannonball 018 Isis - Ghost Key 019 Better Than Ezra - Normal Town 020 Killswitch Engage - Starting Over 021 Converge -  Sadness Comes Home 022 Grief - Come To Grief 023 Aerosmith - Draw The Line 024 Dinosaur Jr. -  Watch the Corners 025 Friend & Lover - Boston is a lovely town 026 Magic Circle -  Departed Souls 027 All Pigs Must Die - Hungry Wolf, Easy Prey 028 Shadows Fall - The Light That Blinds 029 The Bee Gees- 'Massachusetts' 030 Belly - Feed The Tree 031 Boston - Rock and Roll Band 032 The Pixies - Planet Of Sound 033 Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - Massachusetts Avenue 034 Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch - Good Vibrations 035 The Rosebuds - Back To Boston 036 Cave In - Inspire 037 Pearl Jam - Brain of J. 038 Tool - Sweat 039 Adam Ant - Bright Lights Black Leather 040 Tristania - My Lost Lenore 041 Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor 042 The Kingston Trio - MTA 043 Ylvis - Massachusetts 044 Captain Beefheart - 25th Century Quaker 045 Elder - Deadweight 046 Morne - Coming Of Winter 047 Lou Reed - I Wanna Be Black 048 Lyres - Boston 049 Rotting Christ - The Raven 050 Killswitch Engage- Rose Of Sharyn 051 Macabre - Boston Strangler Albert de Salvo 052 Dar Williams - Flinty Kind of Woman 053 STEELY DAN, The Boston Rag 054 The Beach Boys - Do You Like Worms 055 The Freeze-This is Boston not LA 056 Art Gruthie - Massachusetts 057 THE CARS _ Good Times Roll 058 Richard Band - Re-Animator OST Prologue - Main Title 059 Gang Green - Skate To Hell 060 Guerilla Toss - Come Up With Me 061 Karyn Crisis' Gospel of the Witches -Salem's Wounds 062 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse now 063 the MODERN LOVERS _Roadrunner_ 1972 064 Edgar Allen Poe - Black Cat 065 Rammstein - Stein um Stein 066 The Necromancers - Salem Girl Part I 067 Orange Goblin - Sons Of Salem 068 Danny Elfman - [Sleepy Hollow OST] Main Titles 069 King Diamond - Abigail 070 The Cult - The Witch 071 Witch - Eye 072 Cavalera Conspiracy -  The Crucible 073 Queens Of The Stone Age -  Burn The Witch 074 Salem - Witch Burning 075 Danny Elfman - [Sleepy Hollow OST] Into The Woods (The Witch) 076 Clutch - Sucker for the Witch 077 Bewitched TV show  - Theme 078 John Zorn - Witchfinder 079 Blood Ceremony -  The Witch's Dance 080 Billy Talent - The dead can't Testify 081 The Misfits -  Witch Hunt 082 Rob Zombie - Lords Of Salem 083 Acid Witch -  Witchfynder Finder 084 King Diamond - Salem 085 The Cramps Big Black Witchcraft Rock 086 Mount Salem - Lucid 087 Sleepy Hollow TV SHow - Main Theme 088 Demons & Wizards - Beneath These Waves 089 Hexvessel -  Woman of Salem 090 Cradle of Filth - Her Ghost in the Fog 091 Metal Church - Of Unsound mind 092 Lich King -  Ed-209 093 Disrupt - Religion is a Fraud 094 The Witch OST - Witch's Coven 095 Fuming Mouth - Out of the Shadows 096 Abigail Williams - Acolytes 097 Clutch -  Worm Drink 098 1476 - A Circle Of Hope & Despair 099 Sleepy Hollow (2014) Soundtrack 100 Pixies - All Over the World 101 Sonic Youth - New Hampshire 102 Meliah Rage - Absolute Power 103 Albert Goes West - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 104 Symphony X - King of Terrors 105 Alan Vega - American Dreamer 106 Van Der Graaf Generator - Pilgrims 107 ZZ Top  - I Thank You 108 Walt Disney's Johnny Tremain, _The Sons of Liberty 109 Paul Simon - American Tune (LP version) 110 SAXON - Sailing to America 111 Old Man Gloom  - Skullstorm 112 Mastodon -  I Am Ahab 113 Patti Page - Old Cape Cod 114 Ty Seagull - Archangel Thunderbird 115 Morphine - Buena 116 Manticora - On a Sea of Grass 117 Young Widows -  Old Skin 118 Hurriganes - Slippin And Slidin 119 Glacier - O World! I Remain No Longer Here. 120 Marissa Nadler - Blue Vapor 121 SEA - Penumbra 122 Vital Remains - Infidel 123 Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun 124 Ike and Tina Topless Turner - Sweet Rhode Island Red 125 Flotsam and Jetsam -  She Took an Axe 126 Lizzy Borden - Council for the Cauldron 127 Rob Noyes - Further off 128 The Real Kids - All Kindsa Girls 129 Immunerable Forms - Puritys Demand 130 Blonde Redhead  - Inside You 131 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse Now 132 Wear Your Wounds - Adrift In You 133 Howlin' Rain - Phantom In The Valley 134 J Mascis - Every Morning 135 Killswitch Engage - The Signal Fire (feat. Howard Jones) 136 Refuse Resist - _Still in Massachusetts 137 Church of Misery - Boston Strangler 138 City On A Hill TV show - Opening Theme 139 Pixies - U-Mass 140 Warhorse - Amber Vial 141 Zozobra - The Cruelest Cut 142 REVOCATION - Scattering The Flock 143 Metal Church - Of unsound mind 144 Seven Spires - Drowner Of Worlds 145 Boston Legal - TV show theme song 146 Converge -  Trespasses 147 Cave In - Anchor 148 Give up the Ghost - Love American 149 Dinosaur Jr. - Tiny 150 Boston Bruins theme song - Lets Go Bruins 151 Buffalo Tom - Staples 152 Trap Them - [Crown Feral #02] Hellionaires 153 Knights Of Bostonia - State Radio 154 Juliana Hatfield 3 - Feelin Massachusetts 155 The Red Chord  - Hymns And Crippled Anthems 156 CLUTCH - Emily Dickinson 157 New Kids On The Block - Step By Step 158 MELIAH RAGE - Decline of rule 159 Belly - Gepetto 160 AEROSMITH - Get A Grip 666 Denis Leary  - ASSHOLE  Also, check out the awesome L.A Witch Halloween Quarantine playlist at: https://floodmagazine.com/82347/l-a-witch-quarantine-helloween-playlist/?fbclid=IwAR3QRJEIMt57z-X_Zrfx5Ae7rjLkLdpOnjes6iv4yczqxAvLcG3OdfCulWw

#boston playlist #boston bands #music from boston #salem witches #lizzy borden #salem witch trials #bands from Massachussets #Old Man Gloom #dinosaur jr #Pixies #edgar allan poe #edgar allan poe music

[psychodollyuniverse]

Suede

#suede #the drowners #metalmickey #animal nitrate #so young #stay together #brett anderson #bernard butler #matt osman #simon gilbert #ed buller

[hitchfender]

i was tagged by legends @complicatedbabyhoneyfreak and @harryisabrownking to do this playlist thingy: put your music on shuffle and list the first 10 songs, then tag 10 people. no skipping.

trust the tension - drowners

in my head - ariana grande (hey the song still slaps)

foreigner’s god - hozier

only angel - harry styles (TASTE)

why don’t you write me - simon & garfunkel

kaleidoscope - coldplay

pet sounds - the beach boys

guinevere - crosby, stills, nash & young

god only knows - the beach boys

come back...be here - taylor swift

man, that was a journey. fun tho! i love the album guinevere is from and i highly recommend it. it’s very calming

tagging the last 10 people in my notes: @inthebreadvan @hazzabazz @fishhavefeet @horansqueen @mooncycling @lad-boyo @at-least-im-1 @bihalien @achlles @harrymemes

love you guys! 💖💖💖