Sing Your Life
RockNews.Com, September 19-October 2, 1998
Interview
by Dave Schulps
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We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful "[When the Smiths broke up] I lost all the friends I had at that time -- all the Smiths, and all the crew and all the people that surrounded us. It just went that way and I went that way. I went to a new label and I was solo, which I had never planned to be. It was a shock to suddenly be solo. It was the last thing I ever expected and it was sink or swim. There were so many people saying, 'Well, that's it, it's over now,' and it wasn't. The first single ['Suedehead'] charted at No. 6 in England, which was higher than the Smiths, and in the first week it sold more than average Smiths records. So, I was very pleased and surprised. But the flack was just enormous." "It was really difficult and I just thought it was so petty. I felt that [Smiths guitarist] Johnny [Marr] and others thought I would take an overdose and maybe they hoped I would, so that they could sit back for years and just watch the record sales escalate. There was that kind of aura around me at the time that people would become very, very obsessed if I was shot or something, but because I could feel all that jealousy, I was just determined to make sure that life went on."
Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference "I always believed that pop music was about basic passions, and I think so many groups don't feel that. So many people think pop music is a business and an industry, and of course it is to a point, but really I just see the passion in music. I see how music stirs people. And I don't mean my music, I mean music in general. Everybody needs music in their life even if they've got dreadful taste, even if they listen to the worst music in the universe . . . Everybody needs to be taken away from their drab lives, and most people do lead very drab lives. Music is the one pure thing. It's passionate, it's yours, you can take from it what you like and you can hear what you like. It's private and it's so powerful, so powerful."
Hang the DJ "I
went to concerts at a very early age. I was always a 'gigs' person,
not a 'clubs' person. I didn't go to clubs and I didn't dance and I
wasn't into fashion. I was always into music, live music, and as a teenager
I would see all the important gigs or concerts that came to Manchester.
That was my life. I'd go by myself and I'd just stand there and watch
and listen. I saw so many of the important groups before they even made
records. It was a great way to spend one's youth, I think."
"I
always thought I wrote poetry and I always collected thoughts and words
and wrote things down. When I was a teenager in, I think it was '76,
I met someone in Manchester called Billy Duffy, who years later went
on to be part of the Cult, and we wrote some songs together. That was
very interesting because he was a very good guitarist and they were
the first songs I wrote. I think I wrote six with him and we rehearsed
them for a while and we did two performances. We were allowed to play
somewhere and that was invigorating, but then he had an offer to join
another group who had a deal. He introduced me to Johnny Marr. It was
quite interesting because Billy Duffy's immediate career absolutely
bombed and Johnny and I went on to control Manchester, which was really
quite nice. I just hope Billy Duffy really suffered, which I don't think
he did because he seems to be having fun in the Cult."
"If The Smiths reformed I wouldn't want to play unless there was a great album up front before anything else. There would be no point simply going on stage and singing the old stuff. Because although I think a lot of people would want to hear it, I just don't think it's the right thing to do. So a Smiths reunion would have to be a very private thing between Johnny and I, and we would have to know that there are at least 15 great songs. Otherwise, there's no point."
This
interview was originally published on RockNews.Com.
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