{"id":7401,"date":"2018-01-05T12:46:24","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T12:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=7401"},"modified":"2018-04-16T16:44:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T15:44:21","slug":"nick-churchills-interviews-alex-james-blur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/nick-churchills-interviews-alex-james-blur\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Churchill\u2019s Interviews Alex James (Blur)"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Nick Churchill Interviews<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

NC: It\u2019s late autumn in the year 2000 and the Britpop party was over long ago, leaving its most creative mixers with almighty post-Millennial hangovers. One of its most dedicated bons vivants, Alex James is sitting at his glass-topped kitchen table in the basement of his home in Seven Dials, off Covent Garden. Over there is the double bass he used on the previous year’s hit single Tender, as copious tea and too many cigarettes (his Camel, mine Silk Cut) fuel a lively, chatty conversation of many things, of cabbages and kings.<\/p>\n

Blur have spent most of the year on a break as reports emerge that dark forces have been threatening to swamp the band. However, a new single \u2013 the musically adventurous groove of Music Is My Radar \u2013 is on the cards and Blur: The Best Of compilation is due on October, affording hungry critics (if not the band itself which saw the release as little more than another piece of ‘product’) the chance to review Blur’s sonic progress and considerable achievements since their 1990 debut, She’s So High.<\/p>\n

\"Alex4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They didn’t tour in support of the compilation and it would be another year before they reconvened in London to start work on the album that would become Think Tank. Not long after, guitarist Graham Coxon was asked to leave and the remaining three members continued recording in Morocco and finally in Devon.<\/p>\n

By the time the album came out in 2002 the musical landscape was barely recognisable from that of the mid-1990s that had been Blur’s hitmaking peak. Parklife, Country House, There’s No Other Way, The Universal, even Song 2 had fused punk, 60s psychedelia, music hall and pure pop to provide Britpop with a cor-blimey soundtrack and the band lived lives to match.<\/p>\n

The songs on Think Tank though captured a more mature band of musicians, in control, deep in thought and anxious to explore a vast musical palette that would inform singer Damon Albarn’s subsequent music with Gorillaz and The Good The Bad & The Queen. It was a record made by three men (and a cast of collaborators) who had completed a long and riveting journey over the previous 12 years and needed to go their own ways – Albarn deeper into music, drummer Dave Rowntree into politics and the law; and Alex into starting a family (he married Claire Neate in 2003), farrning and cheesemaking.<\/p>\n

Blur’s reunion in 2009 was one of the most welcome of recent years and saw Graham happily back in the fold. For now, their future remains unwritten.<\/p>\n

The full extent (and maybe some more) of Alex\u2019s partying was revealed in his rock \u2018n\u2019 rollicking 2007 autobiography, A Bit Of A Blur, as was his most public apology to his long-standing then-girlfriend Justine with whom he\u2019d been in a relationship since they were teenagers together in Bournemouth, but on that autumn day in West Central 2, Alex was presenting the acceptable face of being young, gifted and good looking in the wake of London\u2019s longest and grooviest party since the swinging sixties.<\/p>\n

Especially as his mum is going to be reading this in the Echo!<\/p>\n

\"Alex1_0000_Layer<\/a><\/h3>\n

NC: How\u2019s things?<\/h3>\n

Oh, mum\u2019s really excited, I feel like a 21st century Max Bygraves!<\/p>\n

Blur\u2019s history is really that of the 1990s. We\u2019ve all seen the headlines, heard a few of the rumours, partied to the hits and sweated at the gigs. We\u2019ve been having a ball, but it looks like you\u2019ve been having a bigger one.<\/h3>\n

I guess popular culture is inevitably analysed in terms of decades and fortunately we formed in 1990. But there\u2019s been two babies arrive in the band as well so I think we all kind of thought we\u2019d have a bit of a break this year, an underline if you like. Graham and Damon both have little girls. Things have changed. I\u2019ve had 10 years as a pop star, it\u2019s my normal life.<\/p>\n

So, you\u2019re pretty used to it all then?<\/h3>\n

Yes. Yes. You get used to everything. Camus said that after three weeks in prison you stop thinking about everything else. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s right. Even in the ridiculous days of when we were on the news all the time life still takes on a routine. When you\u2019re on tour it can it is brilliant, but your time is organised so effectively that the only choice you end up with is what you want to eat. It can be like that, but you learn how to organise yourself. It\u2019s really bad manners to moan. I\u2019m not moaning. Pop stars who moan, it\u2019s just very bad manners to do that.<\/p>\n

But the life is alien to most people \u2013 it seems incredibly glamorous \u2013 so can it ever be just a job?<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t know if it is just a job actually. Being a musician is easy. All you\u2019ve got to do is think about music 24 hours a day. It\u2019s never really felt like a job.<\/p>\n

You did well at school, Bournemouth School, and went to Goldsmiths to do French, you weren\u2019t destined for music. Or were you?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s funny that it is something that if I told my careers officer I wanted to do this he\u2019d\u2019ve told me to get a fucking life, but the point is that music is actually Britain\u2019s fifth biggest export industry. It is a viable thing to aspire to. It\u2019s kind of taken as a given that you know what you want to do and it\u2019s actually one of the hardest things you have to do is decide what you want to do.<\/p>\n

If you know what you want to do you\u2019re really lucky. I worked in Safeway for a year \u2013 horrible!<\/h3>\n

Probably in a town like Bournemouth there aren\u2019t the possibilities that there are somewhere like London. Blur are very much a London phenomenon. It\u2019s the old story: people come to London and meet each other. That\u2019s the hardest thing to do is to meet the people.<\/p>\n

You were a regular face in the crowd on the Bournemouth music scene of the mid- to late-1980s. Things were pretty good for a while back then weren\u2019t they?<\/h3>\n

There was a brilliantly vibrant music scene in Bournemouth when I was growing up. It wouldn\u2019t have happened if there wasn\u2019t. I still keep in touch with some of the Readers Wives and some of the Farkle Family. The bass player from the Farkle Family is an A&R man at Echo Records, Darren Woodford. He\u2019s done really well, he\u2019s got Moloko and they\u2019re really good. A lot of people are teachers, which is worthy.<\/p>\n

Did you have ideas to be a professional?<\/h3>\n

No, I always told everyone I was going to be a rock star. Wanting to do something is kind of 80% of it, it really is.<\/p>\n

What about when Blur got together? In the early days you were called Seymour and you\u2019d been in bands in Bournemouth, did it feel like a long term band?<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever sort of envisaged the end. Especially when you\u2019re young like that you think everything\u2019s going to last forever. We formed as friends really and that\u2019s the best way really for these things to happen I think. It has to be on that basis. It would be unbearable to be anything else, it just can\u2019t work. You can\u2019t be in a band with people you hate. It\u2019s horrible when people do fall out \u2013 usually about power struggles.<\/p>\n

There have been all sorts of reports about tensions in band as you moved on from The Great Escape into the darker waters of the Blur album.<\/h3>\n

Yeah, but during There\u2019s No Other Way me and Graham we having fights with each other in people\u2019s cars and in radio stations. There\u2019d be punch-ups and we got all that out of the way quite early on. I think all you want to do when you\u2019re 21 is getting fucking pissed and show off and you\u2019re given unlimited capacity to do that with big amplifiers and loads of booze!<\/p>\n

Which you may have embraced more readily than the others?<\/h3>\n

Well, the whole of the music business is carried out in pubs and bars. From the moment you sign the deal the booze starts flowing.<\/p>\n

Silly question, but was it fun?<\/h3>\n

It was Operation Fun, I think it has to be. I think people can tell when you\u2019re bored.<\/p>\n

As a fan it\u2019s always interesting to watch a band grow up. You follow the songs and hear a bit about how the people involved are growing as people. Other things become important. There are marked changes between the Blur of The Great Escape and the Blur on the Blur album and again into 13 which seem incredibly personal.<\/h3>\n

The words were the last thing to get written on that record. I think what we were trying to do with that record was convey some attempt at emotion. If you can do that then people… I think you\u2019ve just got to keep yourself interested and once you learn how the industry works you can operate a lot more effectively and efficiently. You got to keep thinking of new reasons to get up in the morning. The only thing you\u2019ve got to go on in making music is your state of mind and it\u2019s a natural thing to do to change.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inevitable really. All great bands do it. You have to be bold but you can get into trouble, especially kids \u2013  they can tell if you mean it. That was something that ended up becoming a bit of an albatross really when it escalated with Oasis when sales became the ultimate test of whether something was good or not. The bands that I liked when I was growing up \u2013 The Smiths, New Order \u2013 I suppose Blue Monday sold a lot but The Smiths never sold many records, but they\u2019ve gone on to become the most influential band of the 80s probably, especially amongst American bands. I don\u2019t think they ever even toured America, did they? They\u2019ve gone on to become, you know, you couldn\u2019t have REM without The Smiths.<\/p>\n

Did Blur set out to make something that would last?<\/h3>\n

When you start out you\u2019re just absolutely convinced of your own genius. Even when I was in bands in Bournemouth I thought they were the best band in the world \u2013 and, who knows, they may have been, but\u2026 All novices want to destroy the machinery and then become part of the machinery. I am an old fart! The last part of growing up.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long ago you were writing columns like Alex James Is Unwell for Select magazine, and something similar in The Idler.<\/h3>\n

I can\u2019t remember writing that. I think we all walk very close to that line, don\u2019t we? \u201cAnd so far from satisfaction,\u201d Joni Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Can life in Blur be a bit of bubble? Is it difficult to take yourself out of it? You still visit your parents in Bournemouth quite often, is that your great escape?<\/h3>\n

Definitely, being in touch with some kind of some kind of normalness. The great thing about being in a band is that there\u2019s four of you to keep each other sane, in no matter what kind of petty way. It is a playground, the music business \u2013 it\u2019s all \u2018He doesn\u2019t like him\u2019, \u2018They\u2019re a gang\u2019, that kind of thing.<\/p>\n

Any regrets?<\/h3>\n

Je ne regrette rien. Depending on how you\u2019re feeling today you either regret everything or you don\u2019t regret anything.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s no middle ground?<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re happy then there\u2019s an infinite number of ways of getting to that point.<\/p>\n

Do you feel lucky, punk?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, you think it\u2019s fucking lucky I bumped into these guys, but then you think it\u2019s a fucking good job my parents met. So, yes, I feel fucking lucky.<\/p>\n

I try and analyse it and I think all you can say is that you\u2019ve got to take your chances. None of us had any idea what a life in the music business had to offer really, we just had some vague aspirations of being paid for being drunk and gorgeous! We all took a risk really. To find something you like doing you have to. You do meet, you can have everything, but something\u2019s got to happen as well, something extra\u2019s got to happen; I think what that extra thing is that people have got to like it!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of mystique attached to the music business but the longer you go on doing it, intellectual property is just as substantial a commodity as bricks and cement. I\u2019m all for debunking the mystique of music really. We\u2019ve spent a long time playing together and we\u2019ve got good at it.<\/p>\n

How long can it go on, can Blur be this generation\u2019s Stones?<\/h3>\n

I like the way Marianne Faithful [with whom Alex wrote some songs] has aged more than the Stones. I think she has always kind of reflected how old she is in her music. They\u2019re a nice bunch the Stones, god bless \u2018em, but I think REM have done it very elegantly, thank fuck for REM. They didn\u2019t really go globally massive until about their seventh album.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re 31 now, do you worry about dignifying your age?<\/h3>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter how old you are. It\u2019s not something you really contemplate. It\u2019s not something I contemplate very often. As long as you\u2019re willing to adapt to the way you feel you can\u2019t go wrong. The future is top secret isn\u2019t it? We\u2019ve all become in demand as songwriters and producers. There\u2019s plenty of ways it can go. I wouldn\u2019t trust a record producer under 30.<\/p>\n

\"Alex1_0001_Layer<\/a><\/h3>\n

Country House \u2013 can you explain that?<\/h3>\n

What were we doing there? It just all got a bit… It was our baroque period. I think! What the hell we were doing taking that round America, it was complete blind optimism. It is a beautiful little cul de sac in the history of pop culture, but it\u2019s a fucking odd record.<\/p>\n

An oddity?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s veering towards a kind of musical, The Great Escape was a musical really, it wasn\u2019t an album. It was a stage musical with a chorus line.<\/p>\n

Strange tour too with Damien Hirst\u2019s stage set design incorporating those giant burgers and pill. Was that done to get up the noses of Oasis \u2013 even a little bit?<\/h3>\n

When we making that record we weren\u2019t thinking about them at all. That just came to light afterwards really and then we kind of made our bed and it wasn\u2019t something that was ever going to\u2026 It\u2019s an odd record, very sort of doom-laden. It\u2019s the bleakest record we\u2019ve ever made. Country House is up, but it\u2019s about this guy who\u2019s a knackered, twisted, failure of a man who has run away from everything.<\/p>\n

Not just your record company boss Dave Balfe then?<\/h3>\n

He was chuffed to bits actually. Noel Gallagher lives in a big house in the country now, doesn\u2019t he? It\u2019s kind of ironic.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve recently acquired a euphonium, why?<\/h3>\n

The truth about that was my dad wanted a euphonium and I got them to give me a free one if I had my photo taken with it, so it seemed a fair trade. I have a blow on it when it comes out at Christmas. Sugar Town by Nancy Sinatra, that\u2019s the best bit of euphonium playing and it just gets better.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s your musical? [* It had been reported Alex was working on a musical with songwriter Jez Ashurst, with whom he later co-wrote ex-Coronation Street actor Richard Fleeshman’s second single, hit Hold Me Close]<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve seen Jez a few times, but it\u2019s a three year project that will most likely break a man! That\u2019s something to do for when I go bald I suppose. It\u2019s a genre that needs reinventing I\u2019m sure, but it\u2019s a lot of work though. It\u2019s like drug habits or something \u2013 everybody\u2019s got one. How\u2019s your musical? Talking about your lumbago!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Blur?<\/h3>\n

I will definitely make another record. We\u2019ve got expensive lifestyles to support. Probably around Christmas-time I think. It\u2019s been good. We\u2019ve all gone off and done our own thing so we can bring that back to the band. It does feel like coming home. I\u2019m all for everybody doing that.<\/p>\n

Is it daunting to step off the rollercoaster and take a break?<\/h3>\n

It was only a six-month break. There\u2019s so many things you want to do and you haven\u2019t got time because you\u2019re always on fucking tour.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t always get as much time to make music as you\u2019d like?<\/h3>\n

That\u2019s very true. It only takes three months to make a record and 18 months to market it and the cost of the thing. It costs. You can get\u2026<\/p>\n[breaks to arrange lunch with a friend] (in faux American accent:) Let\u2019s have lunch: that\u2019s life in the music business!<\/p>\n

So, you can get a top producer for two grand, you can get a studio for two days for around a grand a day, that\u2019ll get you the best studio. You can make a number one record for four grand. But you can\u2019t get it to number one unless you spend another two hundred grand on a video, marketing, touring, doing TV shows always costs the record company money.<\/h3>\n

The product itself doesn\u2019t take much time and energy \u2013 four grand when you think about you sell half a million of them. It\u2019s the great thing about pop music. Something that films suffer from is that it takes two years to make a film and there\u2019s so much money at stake but by the time the thing comes to the light of day it has been focus grouped to hell, I mean, they change the ending if focus groups don\u2019t like it, so there\u2019s very little freedom.<\/p>\n

But four grand? Fuck that, get on with it. It\u2019s all about just having one great idea; and, you know, I\u2019ve done it and that\u2019s a bloody great thing.<\/p>\n

The 90s was a decade that was defined by its music in a way that the 80s wasn\u2019t I think. Three minutes can change your whole being. JK Rowling said that in the Harry Potter books, that music is the strongest magic of all \u2013 maybe I\u2019m a fucking magician!<\/p>\n

There have been questions about your fidelity to Justine\u2026?<\/h3>\n

We split up for a year or so, but we\u2019re back together. Known her since school. It\u2019s still the person I will spend my life with \u2013 that\u2019ll look good! It\u2019s been said before but fame is an aphrodisiac, I\u2019ve not really been made famous in the way that Damon has. If you want to dedicate your life to shagging you can, you don\u2019t have to be in a band to do that\u2026 Hello darling! (Right on cue, Justine comes in upstairs.)<\/p>\n

So, would you say you are more sensible now?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, balanced. You have to have something to come home to otherwise you just drift around the world, don\u2019t you, if you don\u2019t have that sense of home?<\/p>\n

What are you excited by?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m perpetually thrilled by everything and awed as well. I think it\u2019s important never to lose your sense of awe. I\u2019d hate to be jaded.<\/p>\n

You have some fairly stellar circles of friends, but do you still have the eyes of a fan?<\/h3>\n

Yes, but I\u2019m sure they do as well or they\u2019re not fucking human.<\/p>\n

But some of them get so huge they must lose touch forever, how about the Stones?<\/h3>\n

There does come a point when you think: \u2018Actually it\u2019s not going to stop, I\u2019ll be living in La La Land forever\u2019 and once you\u2019ve worked that out then you can carry on.<\/p>\n

Are you there?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, maybe.<\/p>\n

Could you envisage doing something other than music \u2013 writing or acting perhaps?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019d like to write, writing\u2019s good [he does a monthly column for Q magazine]. More than act I think. It\u2019s that old thing of falling into the trap of thinking you can do everything just because you\u2019re good at doing one thing and a lot of offers do come your way. I like to work in food, become a food scientist and research the properties of seaweed.<\/p>\n

Can you cook?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, Yorkshire pudding. Like all men I can cook one thing. My grandad was a cook \u2013 at the [five star] Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

How often do you get back to Bournemouth?<\/h3>\n

Four or five times a year. My sister doesn\u2019t live in Bournemouth any more, she lives in Farnham, at college. It\u2019s just really evocative and as you get older you start to really cherish childhood. I can\u2019t imagine a better place to grow up than by the sea. People are less tainted.<\/p>\n

You were a regular at the Hot House [club, now Sound Circus] a few years ago.<\/h3>\n

That was great. Bacchus was good, that\u2019s a shame that\u2019s gone. There\u2019s a lot of nightclubs in Bournemouth. It definitely did me good growing up in a kind of pleasure haven, but I guess this is a tourist resort where I live now.<\/p>\n

Are your wild days behind you?<\/h3>\n

I hope so. It\u2019s not so elegant to be wild in your 30s is it? When you\u2019re younger it\u2019s like being put in a speedboat and you say: \u2018How fast can this go?\u2019 I think everyone has a fairly wild time in their 20s \u2013 your 20s are for getting drunk and as long as you know when to leave that behind you\u2019ll be all right.<\/p>\n

Do you, or did you, have a problem with drink?<\/h3>\n

That\u2019s a thing you\u2019ll have to ask the others! I think if the work\u2019s getting done. Getting drunk is fun, but you have to stop drinking sometime. As long as there\u2019s someone drunker than you then you\u2019ll be all right. Some good advice \u2013 as long as you take one day off a week to phone your mum.<\/p>\n

How did your parents react to those reports?<\/h3>\n

Well they\u2019d go: \u2018Are you drinking too much?\u2019 Then they\u2019d come up here and get absolutely hammered in the daytime! I don\u2019t think it was a problem, but there\u2019s booze everywhere you go.<\/p>\n

Anything stronger?<\/h3>\n

Not really, I think booze is the best rock \u2018n\u2019 roll drug, especially when you\u2019re travelling as it just levels everything out and increases your sense of possibilities.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said there\u2019ll be another Blur record, but what about the long term?<\/h3>\n

For sure. You have to take it one record at a time. I think the reason we\u2019re not touring anymore is I think it\u2019s the records you are remembered by, ultimately.<\/p>\n

So, will you tour?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, you know. That is something we will do but we\u2019ll be more relaxed about it. Because of the global nature of the industry when you\u2019ve had hit records you\u2019ve got to be everywhere at once so it does get a bit mental. I reckon we\u2019ll just get a bit more relaxed about it and get on with it.<\/p>\n

What do you do for kicks?<\/h3>\n

I fly aeroplanes. I\u2019ve been into Hurn a few times and got really shouted at last time for taxi-ing the wrong way. I fly little ones, I\u2019ve got a real old banger of a plane. There\u2019s a discipline to flying planes which I like. Getting a pilot\u2019s license, there\u2019s a lot of Zen about it \u2013 you learn a lot about yourself and being responsible. It\u2019s a good way of touring as well and you can smoke in your own plane!<\/p>\n

The drummer was flying and we had to go to Manchester or something and we said can\u2019t we take your plane and he said yeh, and we got in and it was 40 minutes to Manchester, fucking hell! This is great!<\/p>\n

I had a go. I\u2019ve got a real old banger for an aeroplane, nothing flash.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say I wake up in the morning and go \u2018Where am I going to get my kicks today?\u2019 not like when I was 25. I read a lot.<\/p>\n

Do you get bored?<\/h3>\n

Probably, I must do.<\/p>\n

Are you dangerous when bored?<\/h3>\n

I think I have a lot of my best ideas when I\u2019m bored; or at least idle. Let\u2019s set The Lord’s Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, that was a good idea.<\/p>\n

Ever fancied doing the rock star thing and living abroad?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve always liked France. I was doing a French degree when I was at college. I don\u2019t have loads of homes. People who have lots of homes and don\u2019t live in them are silly \u2013 you can only live in one place at a time. Something about France though, everybody\u2019s got another country don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

Maybe after the second best of album?<\/h3>\n

Goodness knows, but it\u2019s kind of nice just to be in one place for a reasonable length of time. I always imagined myself living in the country when I was little, but I\u2019m a total city mouse. New York, Barcelona, Paris, London \u2026 cocktails! It\u2019s very damp in the country, have you noticed?<\/p>\n

Purbeck, that is one of my favourite places in the world. Kimmeridge is somewhere that I\u2019m drawn back to again and again and again. It\u2019s just so utterly timeless and kind of austere. The Purbecks are a lovely secret that we shouldn\u2019t tell too many people about. I\u2019m drawn there as much as anywhere really.<\/p>\n

Can you foresee fatherhood?<\/h3>\n

Yes, I do actually. Two of the band have just become fathers so I don\u2019t want to look like I was just joining in there! I think people are having babies later in life and I would like to have kids one day. Maybe we should get a dog first and see if it dies!<\/p>\n

How are you with gadgets?<\/h3>\n

I rejected and refused to acknowledge technology for years, but now I\u2019m just completely up for gadgets these days \u2013 anything that requires a battery I\u2019ll have one! The internet\u2019s not quite as good as watching telly yet; I think it will be soon. We\u2019re kind of Stone Age cybermen, aren\u2019t we? It\u2019s very exciting.<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s our computer faculty really. I\u2019ve become very fond of Japan actually in the way that everything is designed to last you two years and is then thrown away. It\u2019s a different way of doing things to us but it\u2019s equally valid if the technology is going to be better in two years.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re an old country, resistant to change.<\/h3>\n

Yes, and we\u2019re obsessed with our past in a very smug way with Americans!<\/p>\n

Do you think the internet will bring everyone closer to everything?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s just one more media, it\u2019s great. It\u2019s just going to make it easier for everybody to have access to stuff.<\/p>\n

How you do deal with getting recognised in the street?<\/h3>\n

I usually put a hat on. When you\u2018re hatching your little schemes you don\u2019t want to be noticed, but it takes a lot of energy. But then everybody\u2019s famous these days. How many people are in the national papers regularly every year. Probably something like one in a thousand people is in the papers every week, it\u2019s not that unusual.<\/p>\n

More people are famous for being famous though, what do you make of Big Brother?<\/h3>\n

That was a brilliant job, I loved that show.<\/p>\n

Have you earned your fame?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m not really famous though, I\u2019m in a famous band. It\u2019s very convenient really, I only get recognised by people who like the band.<\/p>\n

So you get the pluses and not the minuses?<\/h3>\n

Hopefully, yes! I know famous people and I\u2019m not like them.<\/p>\n

How do you judge if it\u2019s all worth it?<\/h3>\n

I still feel like I want to get out of bed in the morning to do it. I don\u2019t think you ever get to the point where you feel like you\u2019ve achieved anything. As soon as you do achieve anything, you\u2019re on to the next thing to the point where you just go: \u2018rRght, finished\u2019. Memory is not what the heart desires, you\u2019ve got to keep it coming.<\/p>\n

Is that a pressure?<\/h3>\n

Some people react badly to pressure and some people don\u2019t. You would say this is a high-pressure business.<\/p>\n

How do you contribute to writing Blur songs?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s pretty much like you see it, the drummer plays the drums, the bass player plays the bass, Damon sings and Graham plays the guitar.<\/p>\n

Damon will turn up with something usually as he writes most of the stuff on acoustic guitar, so it\u2019s like a vocal melody probably with no words or maybe one line and then we just bash it around. The new single, [Music Is My Radar] he just brought in a little squeezebox thing he\u2019d bought for 99p or it came out of cracker or something and it was that and a rhythm.<\/p>\n

You just become a production team, on the new record the drums are brilliant. Everybody\u2019s really pulling their weight on it.<\/h3>\n

I think we just all enjoyed hammering it out together. We thought we were making a b-side. We\u2019d recorded what we thought was going to be the single so there was no pressure at all and we were just able to go in there and totally let our hair down. You can make music, or you can make records like that these days because it all goes onto a computer and you just edit the best bits together. That\u2019s how this record was made, half an hour jam.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re so familiar with each others\u2019 sense of musicality or whatever and you can communicate after playing together for such a long time. Damon is the driving force, but there\u2019s only room for one of those in a band really.<\/p>\n

Is Blur a democratic band?<\/h3>\n

No I don\u2019t think so. Anyone who tells you a band is democratic is lying. I think we\u2019re all totally flying. There is a dynamic there, there has to be, but there\u2019s always a point where he\u2019ll just say fuck off!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s relevant that we\u2019re a band. There\u2019s something about the four of us playing together that works, there\u2019s a chemistry there that\u2019s genuine and as long as that exists we\u2019ll continue to make good music. Who knows how long it will last for? We\u2019ll know when it\u2019s not there.<\/p>\n

Any chance of a solo album or project?<\/h3>\n

The thing about music is that it\u2019s a very collaborative process. Even if you wrote and produced or whatever on your own you\u2019d still have to have a record company or a video made or whatever. Normally you are collaborating with a band or you are collaborating with a producer. Learning how to collaborate is a big skill to master. It\u2019s not one person.<\/p>\n

Does music excite you in the same way in always did?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, if not more because I kind of know more about how it all works. We\u2019ve always got lots of other collaborations on the go, about half of which work. Just odds and sods appearing in a record shop near you soon!<\/p>\n

You mean like Fat Les?<\/h3>\n

I think we might do the French football song. I\u2019d quite like to enter Fat Les in Eurovision, I think that\u2019s the future of that band. It\u2019s a good cast. Fat Les will probably end up being a musical, you got a good cast for a musical there. God knows what\u2019s going to happen there.<\/p>\n

Fat Les does Country House?<\/h3>\n

No, Jerusalem \u2013 a 200-year-old poem and an orchestra! Yes, it\u2019s a bit Country House in spirit. I think the Country House video \u2013 Graham hates it \u2013 but it\u2019s very colourful. But you know if you\u2019re going to get an artist to make your video you know you\u2019re going to get good colours.<\/p>\n

Would your parents give interviews?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m very nervous about my parents being exposed. I\u2019m sure my mum would like to do it, but let me talk to them. I feel like I trust you but it\u2019s very easy for them to look foolish.<\/p>\n

They are obviously very proud of you.<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m proud of them. I try and kind of keep them away from it all \u2013 it\u2019s not a real situation. It\u2019s fucking ruthless out there.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d only ever had one big hit, what would be your legacy?<\/h3>\n

Well, Song 2 earns the most, so that would be it. It\u2019s on its third car now, I shit you not! The Americans want to release it again, it\u2019s still being a hit in America. It\u2019s crazy, four years later. It\u2019s just ridiculous. If you get a couple of records away in America you\u2019ve made it. It kind of has a knock-on effect in all these weird places like Madagascar.<\/p>\n

The industry and our perception of success are very western-centric.<\/h3>\n

A third of the world doesn\u2019t have electricity so how do they play their guitars?<\/p>\n

If it ended tomorrow, would you owe anything? Are you comfortable?<\/h3>\n

You\u2019re never quite comfortable enough, you can always get a bit more comfortable. There\u2019s a guy called John Kennedy who runs one of the big labels, used to be lawyer \u2013 a lot of people who run big labels are lawyers, particularly in America. He said the only way to make a lot of money out of the music business is to write your own songs, record your own songs, be able to play live to a lot of people and sell a fuck lot of records for a long time.<\/p>\n

\"Alex1_0002_Layer<\/a><\/h3>\n

You mean like Chris de Burgh?<\/h3>\n

Lady In Red. It\u2019s my mum and dad\u2019s favourite. I think it\u2019s a beautiful song, I wish I\u2019d written it, but I\u2019d change the rhyme dance and romance.<\/p>\n

He meets his market?<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t know if you can do that, but you have to believe in it. I\u2019m sure Jackie Collins thinks her books are brilliant, but I think you\u2019ve got to believe what you\u2019re doing is brilliant otherwise it just doesn\u2019t wash. I\u2019ve tried doing music that way, but it doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think The Great Escape was any more contrived than Blur was really, The arrangements were a lot more elaborate, but the core of the thing was there were more devices involved, singing about a third person or whatever, but you can only sing about yourself really and there\u2019s only about five things you can say: I love you, I hate you, I\u2019m bored, I\u2019m angry and vindaloo!<\/p>\n

Where did you get your first bass?<\/h3>\n

Southbourne Exchange & Mart for 50 quid, sold it when I was at school. It\u2019s a real shame some of those shops have gone.<\/p>\n

Was Graham he first person I met having got out of the car at college?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, stupid isn\u2019t it? Scary. But when you look back at the whole of your life you think your parents might not have met.<\/p>\n

You changed the name from Seymour to Blur, did that sound like a big band\u2019s name? Did you still have that confidence?<\/h3>\n

Oh, totally. You\u2019ve got to have. It doesn\u2019t happen unless you\u2019ve got that confidence.<\/p>\n

So you sit in the pub, talking about being famous? Did Seymour do the same?<\/h3>\n

Yes, so did [Bournemouth band] The Rising. If you talk about it seriously enough it will become real. As well as actually talking about it you\u2019ve got to become pro-active and take what is the next step. The old drive thing.<\/p>\n

You can sit around being a genius all day, but you’ve got to stick yourself in people\u2019s faces. That\u2019s what cuts the mustard. It\u2019s amazing, the quality of the music that is made In this country is amazing. You can go to Camden on any night of the week and see three great bands, fully formed. They need to get money spent on them. It takes a million quid for a major label to launch a band. It\u2019s a lot of money.<\/p>\n

Do you fancy finding a prot\u00e9g\u00e9?<\/h3>\n

I ran a label for a while, but if you have a failure with that kind of investment, any kind of failure will sink the whole thing and that\u2019s what happened to us. We tried to compete with major labels at Christmas time with a record that was never going to get on the radio. It was all good but proteges are all very well but you can\u2019t really control creativity at all. That is just kind of learned, it just happens.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got more freedom in Blur though.<\/h3>\n

You have to earn that. Certainly, early on, it was very regimented and the purse strings were being held by other people. You\u2019ve got to go into the studio and do this…<\/p>\n

When people are doing that you either learn how to stand on your own two feet or you get knocked over. It\u2019s very easy to see the transition in the life of the band between the first album which does have some great moments but it was A&R-ed in a very particular way to fit a market that existed at that point in time, which we benefited from no doubt.<\/p>\n

Modern Life Is Rubbish, the second album was just completely against the grain of everything that was happening, but that is the only way to proceed. I think you have to make your own world and live in it. If we hadn\u2019t have had people saying exactly what we should do we probably never would have worked out what we wanted to do, so it cuts both ways.<\/p>\n

Modern Life Is Rubbish seemed to herald a change that nobody was expecting \u2013 is it your best album?<\/h3>\n

It didn\u2019t have the singles on that Parklife did, but three of the songs on that record were done on the same day. They were great times actually, believe it. When you first thought you\u2019d found a direction and you\u2019ve had a vision and you were totally convinced of it and you don\u2019t care who else believes you or what anyone thinks.<\/p>\n

It was the first Britpop record. The American label wanted us to re-record it with Butch Vig who made Nevermind and we said no! Why? Because at that time there was just nothing else happening in this country. There was Suede I suppose, but they were never going to be our pals were they?<\/p>\n

Probably not, but it had kind of foretold the Blur v Oasis thing.<\/h3>\n

It had. It\u2019s a fucking playground, I told you.<\/p>\n

Who hates you at the moment?<\/h3>\n

I think we\u2019ve all grown up a bit and grown out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Nick Churchill Interviews<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

NC: It\u2019s late autumn in the year 2000 and the Britpop party was over long ago, leaving its most creative mixers with almighty post-Millennial hangovers. One of its most dedicated bons vivants, Alex James is sitting at his glass-topped kitchen table in the basement of his home in Seven Dials, off Covent Garden. Over there is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":7419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,6,128,88,73],"tags":[1153,1154,1003,121,906,1155],"series":[958],"class_list":["post-7401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eyeplugs","category-features","category-hot-plugs","category-indie","category-interviews","tag-alex-james","tag-blur","tag-britpop","tag-eyeplug","tag-nick-churchill","tag-parklife","series-nick-churchill-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7401"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8660,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions\/8660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=7401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}