Blur vs. the Volcano

Rip It Up, Issue 235, 1 March 1997, Page 18

Blur vs. the Volcano

An Interview, mth Daman Albarn

In the March\/an\ty Fair there's a 'Swinging London' feature, with Liam Gallagher pictured with Patsy Kensit, while Blur's Damon Albarn is photographed drinking with actor Phil Daniels (from Quadrophenia and the 'Parklife' video), and Blur's Alex James is photographed with the lads at the Groucho Club in Soho.

In the March Vanity Fa/rthere’s a ‘Swinging London’ feature, with Liam Gallagher pictured with Patsy Kensit, while Blur’s Damon Albarn is photographed drinking with actor Phil Daniels (from Quadrophenia and the ‘Parklife’ video), and Blur’s Alex James is photographed with the lads at the Groucho Club in Soho.

Blur singer Damon Albarn and girlfriend Justine Frischmann of Elastica are rarely seen together in the sensationalist English tabloid newspapers, or in fashionable shoots for titles like Vanity Fair. They keep to themselves, when they can find time together. “We’ve been lucky this year,” says Albarn, “but I’m off next week for eight months.”

Prior to recording their new self-titled album, the band reached a low point. The 28-year-old singer had suffered from a “prolonged subtle depression”. Graham Coxon had to stop drinking. Albarn and Coxon re-estab-lished communication by writing to each other.

Did you just need a break or was a split likely? “I think it turned out we were just in need of a break, but when you’re in the eye of the storm, you really can’t believe you’re ever going to talk to each other again. So, in that sense I was convinced everything was over, but it turned out to be a lot more cosmetic than I felt at the time.”

Was it the pressure of work or fame? “I think everyone felt their grip on reality, and their ability to say, ‘I come from here and these are the things I have,’ were very clouded, because we’d spent so much time working. It happens to absolutely anybody who’s overworked. It’s not an exceptional thing. Just, sometimes it’s the end of something and sometimes it’s the beginning of something totally different.” Was there pressure from the UK tabloids? “I think that was something we were particularly sensitive to, and it didn’t take us long to realise it was best to stay out of the tabloids. So, I think that’s something we’ve got a grip on really.”

Can you choose to stay out? “Yes, to a certain extent. As long as you’re not in everybody’s face you can partially manage to stay fairly private, but if you go to renowned tabloid hang-outs — flashy clubs in London — or if you go to openings, or you do sort of stupid things, then you’re going to get in the tabloids. But if you can avoid those things, there’s no reason why they’re gonna bother about you.”

Is Iceland your way of getting away from it all?

“In one way it is. But I also feel incredibly at home there, I have a house there now. It feels like there’s an ancestral residual thing that’s very strong, because my mother’s from Scandinavia and I feel very at home there. I just went there on a whim and fell in love with the place. It has this amazing quality to it, it’s very, very untouched, very much like virgin soil.”

Are there good recording facilities? “Yeah, they’ve got one proper studio in the whole island. Yes, it’s a very cosmopolitan place.

Have you found the lack of success in the USA frustrating? “It was initially, not because of the fact we didn’t do well, but the fact we kept going over there, trying really hard, and getting absolutely nowhere. Everywhere else in the world, repeated visits have paved the way for success, but in America it just wasn’t the case. In that sense it was frustrating. At first I really didn’t like the place, I didn’t want to and I didn’t really make any effort to socialise with Americans, and I h

lad a fundamental problem with the language, didn’t really understand what on earth was loing on.

“But the last few years I’ve warmed to the place, and I’ve got a lot more friends. Now I just enjoy going over there, regardless of the success that might or might not happen. We’re just resigned to be underground.” Did your travel give you any perspective on just how English Blur seem to the rest of the world? “Yeah, I don’t think that was a factor in us making an album like this, which is not really that English in a lot of respects. But, yeah, I look back at a few of our TV performances in America, and it’s not surprising nobody played a blind a bit of notice to us.” You were totally aware of your exploiting being English? “Four years ago when we put out Modern Life is Rubbish, it was a very odd record to put out at the time; it was very contrary and I think we thrived on that, and the whole thing became a bit of a monster really. By the time

we’d done The Great Escape, we’d proved our point and it really wasn’t any fun any more.”

Was there pressure to create more of the same?

“No, we’re very lucky. We’ve stayed with the same record company and they’ve seen how we’ve changed over the years. We sometimes do things that on the face of them appear to be suicidal, but turn out to be smart moves. They’re prepared to go with us, which is great.”

With a song like ‘Beetlebum’, there’s almost a musicologist’s interest in the Beatles... “I’ve never written a song that could ever be dissected as being derivative of another song, I’ve always been quite lucky in that sense. I know what you mean — I just thought it was the most uncool thing in the world to do, to put out a single that sounded like the Beatles. So, we did it [chuckles].” With ‘Beetlebum’ were you trying to be more Beatles than Oasis? “I think we’ve always been more Beatles than Oasis. I’ve never for one minute thought they’re more like the Beatles than us, because the thing that made the Beatles such a fantastic band is that they explored things, they could play and had a great sense of humour, they were literate etc., etc., etc. I’ve never seen Oasis as anything like the Beatles, other than the sense that they’re from the North of England and they have similar haircuts. That’s it, I don’t see any other comparison.” What’s the reaction in England so far? “Really good, actually. People have had to take a leap of faith to swallow the fact we’ve come back with something so different, in many respects, so contrary to what we were doing 18 months ago. It’s nice to be allowed to change.” Will the planned remixes add to the music? “It was really just out of curiosity. We chose some quite strange people —- like the guy from Tortoise and Thurston Moore — who are never going to produce anything that conventional. It’s just a way of giving your music a different perspective, it certainly wasn’t meant to work on the dancefloor.” Are you doing an album of remixes? “Only if we get enough together. You only give them to people you really like. Sometimes the people you really like aren’t available. It’s a long-term project.” With dance being so massive in Britain, with a different dance fad every week, is there a school of thought that says rock is dead? “They said rock is dead before Nirvana, so it just comes and goes, like a rash.” Rock just exists beside dance culture. “It’s all part of the culture. The human spirit cannot exist on drum and bass alone.” Are Oasis a monster Blur helped to create with Britpop awareness? “I don’t know. Yeah. When the whole thing kicked off two or three years ago, we were so on our own we started a movement — ‘Let’s promote everyone and really make it into a huge thing.’ Yeah, we went out of our way to say good things about Oasis and they weren’t having any of it, and fair enough. It’s not something I’d repeat.”

Is Britpop over as far as you’re concerned? “It had to be really. If you start feeling uncomfortable with something it’s best to remove it from your life.”

Is your recent movie role in Face (alongside Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle) a sideline, or is acting something that captivates you? “I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, but I think it’s such a dubious thing for a musician to be doing that I’ll have to wait and see what it looks like. I think the film is going to be good, but I reserve judgement on myself. If I find it at all embarrassing, I won’t ever do it again. So, if for some reason I click, I’d like to do it again.” You have acted before. “I went to drama school for two terms. Film, you’ve either got it or you haven’t. You can learn tricks and get a method together, but the camera either works with your face and your body or it doesn’t.”

Being a former drama student, do you like making videos? “I enjoy it, I spend more time on them because I quite enjoy being in front of the camera. I don’t get really impatient. I enjoy the whole idea of film, but I think I’m in a bit of a minority. The problem is, making videos always comes at a time when you’re doing a million other things — like hundreds of interviews and photo shoots — you’re never just focused on making the video. If you’re in a band you’re either doing absolutely nothing, just hanging out, or you’re working as hard as any person can work hard.” Did Justine enjoy the 1996 Big Day Out tour? “They really enjoyed it, they had a brilliant time.” Are you keen to make it down to New Zealand? “We’ll be there in June. I’m looking forward to coming to New Zealand more than Australia. I like volcanic places.”

MURRAY CAMMICK