Supergrass have a new album coming out on August 15. It's called 'Road To Rouen' (ha-to-the-ha!) and we think it's ace.
To give you a taster, here's the video for their new single, 'St Petersburg' Lo / Hi
But our interest doesn't end there, oh no. We've prolonged our Supergrass love-in - perhaps indefinitely - by hunkering down with Mickey 'Grass and getting him to dish the dirt on the new album as well as all the other ones they did in ye olden days and stuff.
This is what he told us...
This was a very long time ago! 'I Should Coco' was brilliant just because we were being allowed to go into a studio and use equipment! We realised we could actually do this for a living, which was a strange feeling. We'd been on the dole for two years, and now we had to work constantly and have no time off.
As soon as we got a hit single it kind of threw us. We had all this media attention and couldn't see an end to it. You think this is what it'll be like from now on - you'll never be able to walk down the street again! But that wears off as soon as you stop selling so many records.
Due to the success of 'Alright', people had this image of us as being quite cute and fluffy, so 'In It For The Money' was our knee-jerk reaction to all that. The first album wasn't quite true to who we were as a band; it had some of the rough edges taken off. This was our attempt to redress that.
We had major ups and downs with it. It was a real effort to make as we didn't have anyone in the studio to hold our hand; it was all down to us and I had quite a few sleepless nights, but I'm really proud of it now. I remember we used to have these huge bonfires outside the studio and tell ghost stories and toast marshmallows... Happy times!
This was a really loose time. 'Supergrass' is a bit of a lost record, in a way. I know Danny is the least happy with that record. There's a grandeur we aimed for that we didn't quite achieve. 'Moving' and 'Mary' are strong tracks, but I think we bit off more than we could chew. I can see that now, though it takes me at least three years to be able to hear a record that we've made objectively...
'Life On Other Planets' is a really different record to 'Supergrass'. We spent a lot more time trying to come up with original songs. We wrote about two albums' worth of material before we got to the stuff that actually appears on the album. We went off to the South of France for six months with acoustic guitars, trying to reinvent the sound. I remember having a lot more space and being more relaxed making that record than with the previous two. It's quite a departure really!
We almost split up! No, we actually went off and reinvented ourselves again for the two new tracks that were on our greatest hits album, 'Supergrass Is 10' - 'Bullet' and 'Kiss Of Life'. When you're faced with the cream of your back catalogue, it's quite a tall order to come up with two tracks that can match them. We were under a lot of pressure, but I really like the songs. They were sort of a sideways swipe at what we'd done before, especially 'Kiss Of Life': that song used sequencers, which we'd never done.
We didn't split up because there was no reason to stop. Spending three weeks in a rehearsal studio without too much worry made us realise that we're actually still enjoying making music together. The trick is that even though people around you change and situations change, the reason we set up the band in the first place hasn't changed - we still turn each other on, musically. We've got a huge amount of amnesia when it comes to music too. We don't really dwell on what we've recorded in the past. Also, we don't talk to each other very much so that probably helps too! We get on really well musically and we're sensible enough to realise that's what we do for a living. It's kept us together.
It's been a different experience, recording 'Road To Rouen'. It's hard to be objective about it because we only finished it two months ago. We're pretty knackered, to be honest. The first track's called 'Tales Of Endurance' for a particular reason. It's a huge endurance to make a record, you need a lot of staying power. We haven't used a producer, so there's no one else to carry the can and you have a lot more on your mind. Also, there's been a lot of stuff going on in our personal lives. Gaz's mother died two years ago, and that had quite an effect on it. We've had a lot of ups and downs and that's reflected in the lyrics and the style of the music. Having made ten years of music and putting out a retrospective makes you want to expand the boundaries and try and be remembered for something a bit more complex. We've tried to reflect that in the record.
It does become harder as time goes on. With your first record you can do anything you want, but by the time you reach your second road you can't do anything that you did on the first one, otherwise you'd just be repeating yourself. So you get diminishing returns in terms of what you can actually explore, but we still really enjoy just setting up in a room and playing. As long as we can hang it together on a personal level I think there'll always be different places to explore!
Due to the success of 'Alright', people had this image of us as being quite cute and fluffy, so 'In It For The Money' was our knee-jerk reaction to all that. The first album wasn't quite true to who we were as a band; it had some of the rough edges taken off. This was our attempt to redress that.
This was a really loose time. 'Supergrass' is a bit of a lost record, in a way. I know Danny is the least happy with that record. There's a grandeur we aimed for that we didn't quite achieve. 'Moving' and 'Mary' are strong tracks, but I think we bit off more than we could chew. I can see that now, though it takes me at least three years to be able to hear a record that we've made objectively...
'Life On Other Planets' is a really different record to 'Supergrass'. We spent a lot more time trying to come up with original songs. We wrote about two albums' worth of material before we got to the stuff that actually appears on the album. We went off to the South of France for six months with acoustic guitars, trying to reinvent the sound. I remember having a lot more space and being more relaxed making that record than with the previous two. It's quite a departure really!
We almost split up! No, we actually went off and reinvented ourselves again for the two new tracks that were on our greatest hits album, 'Supergrass Is 10' - 'Bullet' and 'Kiss Of Life'. When you're faced with the cream of your back catalogue, it's quite a tall order to come up with two tracks that can match them. We were under a lot of pressure, but I really like the songs. They were sort of a sideways swipe at what we'd done before, especially 'Kiss Of Life': that song used sequencers, which we'd never done.
It's been a different experience, recording 'Road To Rouen'. It's hard to be objective about it because we only finished it two months ago. We're pretty knackered, to be honest. The first track's called 'Tales Of Endurance' for a particular reason. It's a huge endurance to make a record, you need a lot of staying power. We haven't used a producer, so there's no one else to carry the can and you have a lot more on your mind. Also, there's been a lot of stuff going on in our personal lives. Gaz's mother died two years ago, and that had quite an effect on it. We've had a lot of ups and downs and that's reflected in the lyrics and the style of the music. Having made ten years of music and putting out a retrospective makes you want to expand the boundaries and try and be remembered for something a bit more complex. We've tried to reflect that in the record.