It’s the faster bands that made me want to play guitar, bands like The Jam.
With my daughter, who at the time was one, my domestic life needed to take more precedent and really with my own self I needed to develop quite a bit more. So that put Blur down the list of priorities quite a lot by the time I came to thinking about it.
Like, Mission Of Burma to me always sounded almost like they were part of the British Arty New Wave. I kind of like that. I like not being able to tell the difference.
It’s mostly Mars Bars and peanuts and cheese and you go to the fridge and there’s Red Bull and Beer. It’s not like people are holding me down and pouring beer in my face.
There were some extremely good teachers there that were great artists really in their own right. It was actually very hard to concentrate on getting down to going any work being an art student especially when it’s a flighty thing at best.
It’s the clothes that influence the music I’m going to play.
I think of someone like Mariah Carey as a singer.
You know Manchester is always a bit of a hard place for people coming from London, just with all the history. Manchester has this immensely huge and healthy history musically.
When Blur first started and we were playing Manchester the Hacienda was the place to go. That was where a lot of exciting stuff was happening and London was pretty dead.
There’s a focus that hasn’t been there for ages and ages and some American bands are sounding quite English like they did in the late 70s and early 80s.
It’s a bit loose and the people in my group have got other groups. They don’t have to have a total allegiance to me. I think that’s really a bit weird and showing some weird insecurity.
I’m still amazed by the process of recording.
Manchester has it’s own pride and London has it’s sort of pride and sometimes we can be a bit mean to each other, but I think if we dig the music we can get on really well.
I love the magic of the studio.
I don’t think of myself as a singer really.
I’m a bit of lunatic with shoes and jackets and jeans. It’s just how I am.
It is ridiculous that I have so many shoes I don’t wear. I worry that they’re sitting there, being sad.
Playing and singing at the same time is pretty cool, but sometimes it’s difficult to know when you can just really let go a bit because you’ve got to get back to bloody microphone and sing some stuff.
A singer for me is more like someone who is standing alone with a microphone like Scott Walker, rather than someone who is bashing a plank and is spitting all over a microphone.
My hobby is my job. It’s a jobby!
I have too many romantic fantasies and they make me sad.