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MARCH BLOG
On a blustery, slate grey Friday in March, Manic Street Preachers are working flat out in a dingy rehearsal room in Cardiff. The mood in the city is pensive as flailing Welsh rugby team are playing England in the 6 Nations the following day. This is pretty much to be the only thing bothering the band - a 40 song set list and two untested musicians doesn't seem to be a cause for concern. A new album, a single that is about to go to radio, an impending tour that sold out in three hours... all in a days work.
PS they needn't have worried in the rugby, Wales hammered them. Happy times.
Robin Turner, Socialism Magazine
"Send Away The Tigers" was a phrase used by the late great Tony Hancock. What's the significance to the Manics in 2007?
NW - I was always a massive fan. Richey used to love him too. This was obviously very pre-Pete Doherty. I like the tragedy of his life more than his comedy. That's the real dichotomy of it, the way he ended up washed up and washed out in Australia. There's a line "there's no hope in the colonies" which is basically Hancock going there to try to save his career, then ending up killing himself. His big decision was to sack his writers, that's what would haunt him forever, just like Blair's bad decision was Iraq and that will haunt him forever. That's the parallel in that particular song, lyrically.
What music was inspirational during the recording?
JDB - to me it was two old Jeff Beck albums. The first time I went to Japan (1991) I came back with "Beckola" & "Truth", I've loved them ever since. Early Skids stuff is in there too. I just realised that Jeff Beck and Stuart Adamson were, and I know this sounds quite trite, they were guitarists who were always very expressive, almost like a backing vocal the way they played. I wouldn't say it's going back to my guitar roots, but I definitely looked back to early Jeff Beck records, when he was playing with Rod Stewart and Stuart Adamson with The Skids, I just thought 'fuck it', those were the kind of records I always used to practise to. They were the kind of people who were never ashamed to play a solo.
NW - "Give 'Em Enough Rope" just the way The Clash finally became a proper rock band. Alice Cooper. Smashing Pumpkins. "Quadrophinia" was a big lyrical influence, the way Pete Townshend reconnected with his audience, he was convinced he had completely bamboozled Who fans to the point that people didn't understand what the band were about, which is, I think, what "Lifeblood" did with our fans. We don't slag "Lifeblood" off because we achieved what we wanted and the songs were great, but what we achieved was an amoeba... a barely living organism that functions within it's own little bubble. Aerosmith "Pandora's Box". Mott The Hoople I think James was listening to...
JDB - Their album "Mott", it's really slightly pompous, which I kind of like really. Going back to a lot of guitarists from the 70s and 80s, their playing really was pretty bombastic, they weren't afraid to shred it up a little bit, I just looked back at the early Manics stuff and that always seemed what we were naturally best at. Our natural state was being aggressive and sometimes overblown. When we started playing these songs, that's kind of how it felt, it felt full frontal. A lot of those records reminded me of our past in a funny way.
SM - drumming wise, I was just thinking about what I'd have done when we were first in the band, just keeping it really simple. I never try to get too inspirational about these things. I just tried to be me when I was 21 again.
JDB - I think you went back to your Topper roots a tiny bit as well. Really controlled aggression. Whereas "Lifeblood" was more mechanical, I think you went back to the Topper Headon style of controlled aggression.
SM - Yeah, pre-"Generation Terrorists", "Motown Junk", "You Love Us", that kind of thing.
NW - Actually, I have to say Hole's "Celebrity Skin" was a massive influence. Sonically that was a good litmus test of what we were after.
With all the talk of returning to earlier sounds/roots, is this not a record that could only have been made by a band at this point in their career?
SM - It's not going back to the naïve past, it's definitely drawn from the experience of the time since. Obviously we're playing better and we know the studio a bit better.
JDB - it's just inevitable that when you find your natural state you're always trying to find something that compliments that, a hidden part of yourself. That's what "Lifeblood" was. You're discarding your 'method'... it's almost like being an actor, it's like saying I need to go to the theatre to try something else, then you just come to some realisation that you're a film actor and maybe that's enough.
SM - I think in a funny way, back then we were trying to achieve then what we've achieved now.
NW - always go back to Richey, when he used to wear a guitar strap that had "I Am A Cliché" written on it in big letters. It was half ironic but it was half saying "we're just a fuck off rock band". There's nothing to be ashamed of. If the songs hadn't have been so natural then it wouldn't have worked but within three or four demos we knew exactly where we were going. Also, James has had a hard time. For five years we've told him not to do any solos. This time round we were saying, "Wank your arse off."
JDB - there's a great Samuel Jackson quote I think of. He started his career as an actor, then he became a massive addict, took lots and lots of drugs until the start of the 90s. They asked him "how did you get your career back on track" and he said "Simple. Greed." He'd gone back to the original inspiration of why he wanted to become an actor, he'd wanted to be recognised, it was his ego. The only way he could get his life back on track was to reactivate that greed in himself. It's the same kind of thing with the way I played guitar on this record; I'd spent a long time subjugating the need to fire off a solo. When we started doing the demos for this record, Nick and Sean would be saying, "put a solo there" and it felt great again. It is egotistical, it feels great and that satisfies my needs if I'm being honest.
NW - James was starting to become known more as a singer. I'm not saying he's a bad singer but I'd rather hear his guitar than his voice sometimes. It's not his fault - all the reviews of "Lifeblood" were talking about how James was singing like an angel, the words scan so simply... if you listen back to "...Tolerate" it's just a million words with a lot of emotion and passion.
What did your respective solo albums teach you?
NW - that it's just much more fun being in a band. Making a racket together. To me, vanity projects are great fun, but they're not really the main business of life.
SM - it taught me not to do one.
JDB - the thing it taught me was that it was much easier playing that music on stage and being the centre of attention. I thought it was going to be more difficult. When I stepped back on stage to do the XFM Winter Wonderland gig (Manchester Apollo, Dec 06) I just realised that playing in the Manics is just about three people going at it with such a full force, it's like a physical fight.
NW - it's a serious thing, there is actually a concept behind Manic Street Preachers, which is why we are different, why there's not many bands like us. Maybe Blur, maybe Radiohead. Manic Street Preachers is still a concept. When you get onstage you have a duty to fulfil that social contract between you and the fans.
The Manics seem to work best when backed into a corner and fighting their way out, reacting against prevailing trends - as this record is up there with your very best, what is it a reaction to?
NW - it's a reaction against ourselves, primarily, in terms of reconnection. Sometimes you've just got to do what you do best. We came to the conclusion that there was one really good thing that we could do as a band...
SM - we reacted against ourselves, against politics, music... all those things really.
NW - I think it had to come from within really... that said, I do think there is a culture of decadence in this country at the moment. There are loads of good young bands in this country, but the most social commentary you're getting these days is how bad the bouncers are in Sheffield. That's the nadir of it really. Actually the nadir was when Arena had Theo Walcott's girlfriend on the cover and you just think, "What the fuck has happened to this country?" Fair play to Damon - The Good, The Bad & The Queen, I think the lyrics on there put a lot of young bands to shame.
Did it feel like, for want of a better term, you were elder statesmen and you had a duty to deliver this record?
NW - there is something inside... even something as awful as Neil Young's "Living With War", he still felt like "I'm the only fucker who is going to actually do this." It's not the greatest record he's ever made but at least he had the balls to try to articulate what he was feeling. There's a 'brilliant' new band every week at the moment, but there's no one who really seems to be stepping up to the plate. The Gossip are brilliant, mind, they stand for something. Even if they're not quite there yet with the records. That's what I love about bands, that's what we did, we showed ambition. The Klaxons is a good example. First time I heard them I thought "I love everything about this but they don't sound very good." But they've realized their potential, I think they're the one band who stand way above everyone else, they've got so many ideas, the lyrics about Greek mythology, the videos are just fucking fantastic. There is something brilliant about them. They stand out to me as a band who've just gone on their own. Bands who are fully realised when they come along tend not to work. Look at The Strokes, much as I still love them, it's been 'downhill skier' ever since the first album. Our peers, especially the great '90s bands Radiohead and Blur, none of us sold any records early on. None of us made a 'masterpiece' until our third albums. Blur nearly got dropped, Radiohead nearly got dropped and we nearly got dropped. There must be something in that.
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