It’s the right time to do a solo album..I can’t play music I don’t believe in
WHEN it comes to his career, Johnny Marr has always let music dictate what he
does next.
The guitarist has played with The Pretenders, The The, Electronic, Modest
Mouse and The Cribs since leaving The Smiths in 1987.
But he’s never planned anything and has always looked ahead.
Marr says: “If you spend too much time analysing your path, you scare yourself
half to death. You’d never have the bottle to do anything.
“I’ve never sat down and thought, ‘What do I need to do next, I’ve not done a
solo record so I’d better do that’.
“This record just happened and the most important thing is that my fans like
it — that’s my job done.”
Sipping tea in a west London hotel bar, Marr is talking to SFTW about his
first solo album, The Messenger.
Unlike other musicians who leave famous bands to pursue a career of their own,
Marr never felt that urge and has followed a more interesting path instead.
He says it was only when he wrote these songs that he felt they had to be sung
by him.
Marr says: “I’m a sociable person and you meet people and click with them —
and things happen.
“I stayed in bands because I loved the people I was with. They were my friends
and I didn’t have any plans.
“To be honest with you, I’ve not been someone who’s been stood at the side of
the stage wishing that I was in the middle.
“I’ve never done that. I was happy with what I’ve been doing until now.
“I was in Modest Mouse and that did very well and I loved it.
“Then I was in The Cribs and I did a film score (for Leonardo
DiCaprio film Inception in 2010) and then I started getting ideas for
these songs at the end of the last Cribs tour.
“Then when they stopped touring, I realised these ideas were all quite
personal, so it just felt right to do a solo album.”
The Messenger arrives 26 years after Morrissey and Marr, the most famous
songwriting duo since Lennon and McCartney, split.
Dressed in a sharp suit with jet-black hair, the 49-year-old keen runner and
teetotal vegan looks a picture of health.
He says: “I can’t play music I don’t believe in.
“And I really got excited by these new songs. I know what I like to sing, so
writing for myself is easier.
“I like vocal melodies and banging, fast songs.
“Most of the album is up-tempo — simply because I like singing those kinds of
songs — and I’m really excited about this.”
It is an energised record with those unmistakable Marr guitar jangles.
The Messenger’s theme is about living in towns, cities and suburbs and those
environments shaping the person you are.
Marr says in his Mancunian drawl: “It’s about how the ideas you have leaving
school are pretty much the ideas that stick with you.
“The notions that I had about music, work, teachers, politicians have not
changed.
“It’s about life and being wide awake and having energy in the life around
you.
“It’s definitely NOT about my feelings. Why do people think that pop music has
to be people singing about their feelings? It’s not interesting.
“My influences — like Ray Davies, Siouxsie And The Banshees and Magazine —
didn’t sing about feelings, surrounded by candles and little children.
“I blame The X Factor for all that nonsense. It’s karaoke culture and while I
think karaoke is great, it shouldn’t end up in the charts.
“Karaoke is for entertaining your mates. It’s certainly not pop music.”
One song, the synth-pop New Town Velocity, was inspired by a memory he had
from his teens.
Marr says: “I was at the bus stop with Angie, my girlfriend, who’s now my
wife.
“I was deciding whether to go into school that day or not.
“I was a terrible truant but I decided to never go back again.
“I walked around town feeling like the world was in my hands and that I had
the potential to be who I wanted to be.”
Another song on the record, I Want The Heartbeat, tells of a man who wins the
lottery and swaps his wife for an ECG machine.
Marr says: “I know, it’s mad isn’t it? I was thinking about how technology
rules our lives. ‘Have you got the new iPhone 5? Which laptop must I get?’
“And I was thinking, ‘What’s the ultimate technology you’d buy if you did win
millions?’
“So I thought of a guy who gets rid of his wife for sexual kicks with the
heart-rate machine.”
What did your wife say?
“She kept very quiet about that one,” he says.
The day of our interview coincides with news of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke
threatening to “sue the living s*** out of David Cameron” if he used one of
the band’s songs in a future election campaign.
On Twitter In 2010, Marr “forbid” the Prime Minister to like The Smiths after
he named-dropped them and picked This Charming Man as a favourite on Radio
4’s Desert Island Discs.
Marr says: “Poor Thom, I know what that’s like.
“I did say it in a light-hearted way but I was annoyed. I thought, ‘You picked
the wrong band’.
“Anyone who knows anything about me and the band and my background isn’t going
to buy into that.
“If politicians are going to get involved in rock music, they should make sure
they know what they’re talking about.
“I feel sorry for the Conservatives — there you go. They’re so out of touch.
“In this country, we don’t vote for the person or what they can do in our
constituency, we vote for the party.
“I think we should bring in X Factor for politicians. And I would totally be
on the panel. I’d be Simon Cowell.
“I’d have Billy Bragg with me and Gary Barlow. Just so we can argue.”
There’s certainly no stopping Johnny Marr once he starts on a subject he
believes in.
He says: “The worst thing for me is the European issue.
“It would be a terrible mistake to shut ourselves off from the rest of Europe.
Americans see us as being part of Europe, which is such a great thing.
“If we could only understand the way we’re viewed, British people would be
really proud.
“But we’re encouraged to focus on our differences and act like little
islanders — I think we are really cutting ourselves off.”
European Me, a standout on The Messenger, is Marr’s take on “the romanticism
of being European”.
He says: “I wanted to write a song that was really uplifting and like a
celebration of being European.
“We should celebrate that and how great we British are.
“One of the greatest things about this country is that we help people out. You
only have to look at the telethons and Comic Relief to see that British
people are incredibly caring. They put their hands in their pockets when it
matters.”
Marr says he hates preaching to other people about his beliefs but thinks his
music clearly speaks about his own experiences.
He says: “I’m not the only one saying, ‘Enough is enough’ about the way this
country is run.
“We’ve been lazy about it but the kids are starting to speak out.
“They’re sick of the bulls*** and hypocrisy in society, adverts telling them
to be thinner or programmes telling them to be richer or famous.
“The (2010) student demos against education cuts and rise in
tuition fees were amazing, particularly the occupation at Kent University.
“They were clever and did a peaceful protest.
“It’s too easy to knock over a bollard and become agitators.”
Upstarts, the new single from the album, was inspired by the student protests
and riots in Manchester.
Marr says: “I was in New York watching Cross Street in Manchester on fire on
the news.
“Then I came home and heard this young girl on night-time radio.
“She was talking faster than you and me put together and used the word
‘upstart’.
“I thought it was really funny and brilliant. She was defending what had
happened in town — so I crossed the two issues together into that song.
“I didn’t want it to be some heavy polemic, so I wrote it as an upbeat, catchy
tune like a kids’ singalong. It’s a protest song for five to 15-year-olds!”
The last time SFTW met Marr was in 2011, when box set The Smiths Complete had
been released, with the band’s eight albums reworked by Marr.
He said that he had nothing but fondness for The Smiths — and the music he
created with Morrissey, who he was then in email contact with.
Today he says of his former friend: “Our relationship is no different from the
last time I spoke to you, really. He’s doing his thing and I’m doing mine.
“The two of us are in the same boat, that’s the thing.
“He gets asked about me and I get asked about him.
“So we’ve still got something in common. Being reminded of an old relationship
is a bit of a pain for both of us, really.
“But nothing’s really changed — you’ll be the first to know.
“I’m always looking forward and never back. I’ve got this new album that I’m
really excited about.
“I’ve got a tour coming up and lots to celebrate.
“This album was written to play live and my band are ready.
“Will there be old songs too? Yes, as the fans like that and my band know
some of my old Smiths songs. I think they even play them when I’m not
around!”
The Messenger is out on Monday