SUEDE MUSIC (Brett Anderson)

1) LOVE IS DEAD
2) CLOWNS
3) WE CAN BE ANYONE
4) MOTHER NIGHT
5) ELEGANT

Album: BRETT ANDERSON (2007) Drowned In Sound Recordings. ALL SONGS BY ANDERSON/BALL EXCEPT 4, 6, AND 10 BY ANDERSON. ALL SONGS PRODUCED BY BRETT ANDERSON/FRED BALL. CHART POSITION: 54.

1) LOVE IS DEAD
2) ONE LAZY MORNING
3) DUST AND RAIN
4) INTIMACY
5) TO THE WINTER
6) SCORPIO RISING
7) THE INFINITE KISS
8) COLOUR OF THE NIGHT
9) THE MORE WE POSSESS THE LESS WE OWN OF OURSELVES
10) EBONY
11) SONG FOR MY FATHER

Album: BRETT ANDERSON LIVE IN LONDON (2007) Concert Live/Drowned In Sound Recordings. RECORDED LIVE AT SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE. PRODUCED BY CONCERT LIVE. CHART POSITION: N/A.

Disc 1:

1) TO THE WINTER
2) LOVE IS DEAD
3) ONE LAZY MORNING
4) DUST AND RAIN
5) INTIMACY
6) BACK TO YOU
7) BY THE SEA
8) COLOUR OF THE NIGHT
9) SCORPIO RISING
10) SCORPIO RISING (Fade Out)
11) THE INFINITE KISS
12) SONG FOR MY FATHER

Disc 2:

1 EBONY (Acoustic)
2) THE BIG TIME (Acoustic)
3) SO YOUNG (Acoustic)
4) THE WILD ONES (Acoustic)
5) CAN'T GET ENOUGH
6) TRASH
7) BEAUTIFUL ONES

Single/EP: BACK TO YOU (2007) Drowned In Sound Recordings. ALL SONGS BY ANDERSON/BALL EXCEPT 2 BY ANDERSON. ALL SONGS PRODUCED BY BRETT ANDERSON/FRED BALL. CHART POSITION: N/A.

1) BACK TO YOU
2) EBONY (Acoustic)
3) THE INFINITE KISS (Acoustic)
4) LOVE IS DEAD (Acoustic)
5) SONG FOR MY FATHER (Acoustic)

Album: BRETT ANDERSON LIVE AT UNION CHAPEL (2007) Concert Live/Drowned In Sound Recordings. ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE RECORDED LIVE IN LONDON. PRODUCED BY CONCERT LIVE. CHART POSITION: N/A.

Disc 1:

1) LOVE IS DEAD
2) SONG FOR MY FATHER
3) CLOWNS
4) EBONY
5) EVERYTHING WILL FLOW
6) SATURDAY NIGHT
7) BACK TO YOU
8) DOWN
9) HIGH RISING
10) THE ASPHALT WORLD

Disc 2:

1 THE LIVING DEAD
2) EUROPE IS OUR PLAYGROUND/THE BIG TIME
3) INDIAN STRINGS
4) COLOUR OF THE NIGHT
5) TO THE WINTER
6) BY THE SEA
7) THE 2 OF US
8) THE WILD ONES
9) SO YOUNG
10) TRASH

Album: BRETT ANDERSON LIVE AT QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL (2007) Concert Live/Drowned In Sound Recordings. ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE WITH STRING ENSEMBLE RECORDED LIVE IN LONDON. PRODUCED BY CONCERT LIVE. CHART POSITION: N/A.

Disc 1:

1) TO THE WINTER
2) LOVE IS DEAD
3) SONG FOR MY FATHER
4) ONE LAZY MORNING/SHE'S IN FASHION
5) SATURDAY NIGHT
6) BACK TO YOU
7) BY THE SEA
8) THE POWER
9) THE ASPHALT WORLD

Disc 2:

1 MY INSATIABLE ONE/CLOWNS/IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
2) EUROPE IS OUR PLAYGROUND
3) INDIAN STRINGS
4) EVERYTHING WILL FLOW
5) HE'S GONE
6) THE 2 OF US
7) THE NEXT LIFE
8) STILL LIFE
9) SO YOUNG
10) THE WILD ONES
11) TRASH

Album: WILDERNESS (2008) BA Songs. ALL SONGS BY ANDERSON EXCEPT 3, AND 7 BY ANDERSON/BALL. ALL SONGS PRODUCED BY BRETT ANDERSON/FRED BALL.

1) A DIFFERENT PLACE
2) THE EMPRESS
3) CLOWNS (New Version)
4) CHINESE WHISPERS
5) BLESSED
6) FUNERAL MANTRA
7) BACK TO YOU (New Version - Duet with Emmanuelle Seigner)
8) KNIFE EDGE
9) P. MARIUS
10) SYMMETRY (Itunes Exclusive Download Only)

Video and DVD:

Promo Video: LOVE IS DEAD (2007) Drowned In Sound Recordings. WRITTEN BY ANDERSON/BALL. PRODUCED BY BRETT ANDERSON/FRED BALL.
DIRECTED BY Russell Thomas

Watch 'Love Is Dead' promo video at You Tube - Love Is Dead

So far there have been no official releases of Brett Anderson as a solo artist on video cassette or DVD. However you can view footage of Brett Anderson's promo videos and live performances at the You Tube website -

You Tube - Brett Anderson

Reviews:

Albums

(2007) - Brett Anderson

"Lead off single, the fabulous 'Love Is Dead' is an anthem to the very malaise of modern life, held up – as all the album is – by vast and tender string arrangements. The fragile melody stubbornly walks on, as if somehow battling a snowstorm of hope crushed under the boots of a generally uncaring world. Piano notes exist in a brittle moment where it seems that love could be real, and yet it is also dead. The contradiction of hope. 'One Lazy Morning' sounds just like the title: built on a rolling, hypnotic motif, it ebbs and flows under lyrics about nothing and something. 'Dust And Rain' is the nearest thing to his previous work, resembling a brutal, hard edged, abrasive interpretation of something from the final Suede album – as does, to a latter extent 'Intimacy' which is almost a plea for the same. 'To The Winter', like much of the rest of the album, is built of torch songs the like of which even Leonard Cohen has never seen. An early contender for album of the year." - Review by Mark Reed for thefinalword.co.uk.

"We get acoustic guitars, lush string arrangements and the previously cagey Anderson pouring his heart out. Tackling personal loss ('Song For My Father'), the evils of consumerism ('Scorpio Rising') or simply his own loneliness, it's both brave and moving, peaking with break-up ballad 'To The Winter'. "So I went and sat in Crystal Palace/by the plastic dinosaurs," he sighs, as desolate as Withnail in Regents Park." - Review by Paul Moody for Uncut magazine.

"He's made a surprisingly stately record. The beautiful 'To The Winter' is the song of his career, 'Colour Of The Night' is chamber music of the darkest hue and, were there a Brit for best opening line, 'The More We Possess The Less We Own Of Ourselves' "baby thought she really needed that sofa" would be a heavily backed favourite." - Review by John Aizlewood for The Evening Standard.

"'Brett Anderson' radiates maturity and self-confidence. Maybe demons have been exorcised or maybe he's grown wiser with age. Without bandmates or Bernard Butler the glam and avant-garde have gone, eclipsed by string arrangements and ceremonious harmonies. The first single and album opener 'Love Is Dead' gives a melancholic and honest introduction for what's to come. 'Dust And Rain' is guitar-driven with a clever-clever hook "I am the dust/you are the rain/I am the needle/you are the vain." It brings an edge that is sometimes missed in the rest of the album. It'll be a killer performed live. But it's the emotional stuff that really hits home here. Songs like 'The Infinite Kiss' reach inside and haunt the listener. And if you want depth there's the waltzy 'The More We Possess The Less We Own Of Ourselves', a poignant piece of social commentary. This is above all, impressive songcraft and will silence any nay sayers who doubt Anderson's solo abilities. So personal troubles may have been replaced with reflection but this signals an evolution in Brett Anderson, deliberate or natural. For most, such an epic sounding album will bring sighs of relief." - Review by Niko Michault for bbc.co.uk.

(2008) - Wilderness

"The ex-Suede singer's second solo album is released on his own label - the perfect place for this intensely personal account of a failed relationship. Featuring weeping strings, spectral piano and vocals, it is stripped down to the essence of balladry: haunting melodies and heartbroken lyrics. 'The Empress' is the raw lament of a lost love. Single 'A Different Place' with the weeping cello of Amy Langley sounds like sadness itself. 'Wilderness' is the sound of an artist getting his head together after being chewed up and spat out. It will either leave you cold... or touch your soul." - Review by The Sun newspaper.

"It's a far cry from the shimmying, bum-slapping verve of mid-Nineties Suede but there's something cheeringly familiar about Anderson's second solo album. The mood is sombre, the arrangements sparse - Anderson's voice is set to a simple backing of piano and cello - yet his taste for melodrama is undiminished. 'Wilderness' traces the course of a London relationship with observations such as: "We kneel before the open grave and light the candles with our pain" ('Funeral Mantra'). Though it's occasionally overwrought, he still makes tortured romance seem seductive." - Review by Ally Carnwath for The Guardian.

"In which Anderson imposes rigid White Stripes-style rules on himself - the only instruments are piano and cello. That it works so well is down to Anderson dropping his usual lyrical conceits to be an unabashed romantic. Anyone who remembers the splendour of Suede ballads like 'Europe Is Our Playground' is advised to investigate, as Anderson has never sung better. Starkly beautiful. 8/10." - Review by John Earls for Planet Sound.

"If the French had a singer like Brett Anderson, they'd have erected a statue to him by now. England, it seems, still doesn't know what it's got. As the dust of the Suede years clears, the effortless elegance of Anderson's voice becomes a thing of ever-greater wonder. On 'Wilderness', his second solo album, he's channelling the mood of Suede's 'Dog Man Star', specifically its dramatic ballads. With Amy Langley's cello complementing his own piano, this intimate 10-song set sees Anderson doing what he does best: that is, inflating the quotidian details of private break-ups into grand, sweeping, world-scale romances." - Review by Simon Price For The Independent On Sunday.

"Often overshadowed by the musicianship of Bernard Butler, Anderson's accomplishments on piano and acoustic guitar throughout 'Wilderness' are welcome, if surprising. Partnered with the excellent cello of Amy Langley, they make for a world-weary and at times mournful backing that gives 'Wilderness' an identity distinct from any of his past work. Yet this might have come to nought without the transformation in Brett Anderson's voice. Gone is the Bowie-esque nasal whine that (wrongly) put so many off Suede, to be replaced by smoother tones that, with the comfortable musical whole, create an air of thoughtful sadness, even humility and regret. On 'Back To You' Anderson is joined by Emmanuelle Seigner for an excellent, noirish duet, a faded star drunken and bedraggled on a chaise-longue long after the lights have come on. The high point of 'Wilderness', and the track that most suggests that to write off Brett Anderson is a mistake, is 'Blessed'. With simple rolling piano and sumptuous, velveteen chorus it is, dare we say it, up there with his finest songs. Lyrical staples abound ("London's wilderness", and so on), but lines like "when you smile/then I am blessed" are delivered with a sincerity that suggests Anderson no longer needs to rely on terelene glamour and languid fornication to get his romanticism across. If Anderson can continue in this vein, we could be looking at the rehabilitation of an artist whose uniqueness has all-too-often been forgotten. 'Wilderness' is a subtle, well-executed album that should go a long way in bringing Brett Anderson back from the desert." - Review by Luke Turner for thequietus.com.

Gigs

(2007) - Live at Bush Hall, London

"The band looked suspiciously like Suede as they took up their position in semi-darkness to the strains of an especially dolorous backing track. There was a guitarist with long hair and a cherry red Gibson (Jim Dare) and a bass player who looked eerily like Mat Osman from Suede, who turned out actually to be Mat Osman. With a line-up that was completed by Fred Ball on keyboards and drummer Sebastian Sternberg, it was hardly a radical departure from any of Anderson's previous groups. The difference was more to do with the mood and tone of the songs, as set by the opening number 'To The Winter', a slow, sad ballad, decorated by a prominent 'string' arrangement, provided by Ball on his keyboard. Now 39, and looking more like a film star than a rock star, Anderson was in fine voice and spirits. The slower tempo and more intense atmosphere of songs such as 'Intimacy' and 'Back To You' lent themselves to a more personal performing style. They returned for an 'encore' which included a joyous string of Suede numbers. Anderson sang a lovely version of 'The Wild Ones', accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar, and then the band swept through 'Everything Will Flow', 'Filmstar' and a glorious, windswept finale of 'Trash'. 4/5." - Review by David Sinclair for The Times.

"Single 'Love Is Dead', out next week, is the most familiar of the solo material. Mournful yet stirring, it bemoans the absence of love in his life and in addition, the laments of 'plastic people' seem all the more relevant in a sleb-ridden society. Onstage Anderson's electric sex; contorting, writhing; age has not taken away anything. Is he going to start arse-slapping? Almost. New track 'Song For My Father' is one of tonight's most scintillating numbers, in which a now sweat-drenched Anderson drops to his knees. The voice of the fresh material remains untainted and absolutely unique. Seeing the live play will make subsequent listens to 'Brett Anderson' even more vital. First up in the encore is an acoustic 'Wild Ones'. Stunning. Near-tear-welling in fact. No time for blubbing though as stand-out track from 1999's 'Head Music', 'Everything Will Flow' gets Anderson thrusting out the mic for the masses to yell the refrain. This is now quite frankly, amazing; people are saying, "It's much better than Suede's last gigs." Anderson is in his element, chucking as much mid-90s hysteria at us as he can. "Here's some more old shit!" he yells before a stellar version of 'Filmstar'. 4/5." - Review by Michelle Connolly for gigwise.com.

"'Filmstar' and 'Trash' are inevitably chaos in such a small venue, but it's a mid-set 'By The Sea' whose panoramic balladry most fits with the solo album previews. Don't come expecting the gutter glam stompers - but if it's the moving 'Pantomime Horse' anthems you're after, his debut is all you'll need. 'Dust And Rain' is the most upbeat song, a magnificent return to 'We Are The Pigs' antagonistic rock. Backed by an adept band featuring Mat Osman on bass and a guitarist whose nodding 'n' flailing hair are inevitably Bernard Butler-ish, he's still a Proper Rock Star poser. Yet there's a new dignity on the yearning 'Song For My Father' and gothic, almost Antony-esque 'Infinite Kiss'. Somehow, he became a grand elder statesman. 8/10." - Review by Planet Sound.

"'Midway through the standout track, 'Love Is Dead', he's describing streets where "plastic people wear imaginary smiles" when suddenly his voice breaks off, cracks, and he really lets go, repeating "plas-tic... pee-pu-ull!". By the time he falls to his knees and wails in 'Song For My Father', he's in the zone. As Fred Ball pounds a piano on 'Dust And Rain', Anderson starts bouncing on his toes, and yelling off mic "Come on! Come on! Come on!." He's got appetite in his eyes, he's got a taste for this, and from now on he's alternately prowling like a panther, or doing his trademarked snake-hipped 'interpretative' dancing. It's when Ball tinkles an instantly familiar intro that I'm truly astounded. It's Suede's 'By The Sea'. It takes balls to put his new material up alongside some of the greatest British songs of the late 20th century for direct comparison, and Brett's got 'em. You can tell by the way he walks. The encore is filled with further Suede classics. An acoustic rendition of 'The Wild Ones' is simply overwhelming. I'm not sure whether it's blood, sweat or, ahem, tears, but there's something in my eye. He leaves us with a jubilant 'Trash', Suede's immortal outsider anthem. As it ends, he grins an absurdist grin to Osman, to us, but mostly to himself: he's carried this whole 'rock star' thing off. Again." - Review by Simon Price for The Independent.

(2008) - Live at Mermaid Theatre, London

"There are disappointed murmurs when Anderson announces his last song. "I've played 26 songs already!" he retorts. An acoustic/piano/cello gig to launch new album 'Wilderness', he plays it all in the first half - and it's full of his most heartfelt ballads, in which his voice is at its soaring best. And in the second half, it's 14 of Suede's best ballads to show what he's living up to. Don't write him off yet. 8/10." - Review by Planet Sound.

"Brett Anderson took to the stage at London's Mermaid Theatre last night for a showcase of new material from his forthcoming second solo album 'Wilderness', a USB stick copy of which was given to fans along with their ticket for the evening. The former Suede frontman, accompanied by cellist Amy Langley and joined on guest vocals for several tracks by film director Roman Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner, played piano and acoustic guitar during the two-hours-and-a-shrapnel-of-change set. As well as the new material, Anderson played a host of Suede songs, including stunning renditions of 'The Wild Ones', 'The Living Dead', 'The Asphalt World' and 'The 2 Of Us', ending with rapturously received versions of 'Trash' and 'So Young'. Despite the partisan crowd, the evening had an air of quiet, assured triumph for Anderson. His voice is in finer fettle than ever before, ringing clear and true across the room, and suiting both the new solo material and breathing new life into tracks from the Suede back catalogue – 'By The Sea', in particular, saw many an eye glint with briny moistness. More importantly, the subtle grace of the new material (especially 'Blessed' and 'P. Marius') and the bold perseverance of a man cruelly and unfairly written off by so many, ought see Anderson finally achieving the recognition he deserves as an overlooked (and still gleaming) gem amidst the 90's mire." - Review by thequietus.com.

Lyrics:

A Different Place: "We sat under London skies on a perfect June day, I touched her hand and whispered her name"

Back To You: "You roll those eyes and trap my hand in your thighs, it's slavery but in disguise"

Chinese Whispers: "We'll talk in chinese whispers while the snow begins to fall, painting Easter with the cold"

Clowns: "Mouths that once exchanged, kisses in the rain, are full of hate now"

Colour Of The Night "It's the bullet in her mind. It's the plan between her knees. It's the colour of the night. It's the number of the beast"

Dust And Rain: "Your love's like an overdose, with your hands wrapped around my throat. Using sex like an antidote to the pain"

Ebony: "I'll take you where the pigeons fly and i'll tell you pretty lies. Where nothing really makes much sense. All you need is confidence"

Elegant: "With crazy stories of hatred and hurt, peoples feelings were crushed in the dirt"

Funeral Mantra: "We light the oil and touch the beads the naked feel of rosary, the fog of morning on the land, the smell of incense on our hands"

Love Is Dead: "Nothing ever goes right, nothing really flows in my life. No one really cares if there's horrors inside my head"

One Lazy Morning: "Vapour trails in the clear blue sky"

P. Marius: "As I sit and watch the summertime in the shadow of the cranes, by the branches of the cedar tree and the beating of the day"

Scorpio Rising: "There's anger in their skin. It's just a style for them. They move with murder in their veins"

Song For My Father: "Now my body is sand and the wind blows through me. Like the soil on your hands I am compost and leaves"

The Empress: "She is strange and solemn, she is like cherry blossom, she is the Empress"

The Infinite Kiss: "It's our playground of excess. It is poetry made flesh. It's our symphony of bliss"

To The Winter: "If you're gone i'll carry on but deep inside i'll give my heart to the winter. If you leave i'll take this blade and carve your name into my ugliness"

We Can Be Anyone: "Evening arrives with its scandals and lies and its breeding grounds"

Collaborations:

Over the years Brett Anderson has featured on a variety of other artists songs. Here is a list of those he has has collaborated with and the songs he has appeared on.

Artist: JANE BIRKIN. Song: LES YEUX FERMES (1995).
Artist: STRANGELOVE. Song: LIVING WITH THE HUMAN MACHINES (1996).
Artist: STRANGELOVE. Song: SHE'S EVERYWHERE (1996).
Artist: VARIOUS ARTISTS. Song: PERFECT DAY (1997).
Artist: STINA NORDENSTAM. Song: TRAINSURFING (2001).
Artist: STINA NORDENSTAM. Song: KEEN YELLOW PLANET (2001).
Artist: PLEASURE. Song: BACK TO YOU (2007).
Artist: EMMANUELLE SEIGNER. Song: LES MOTS SIMPLES (2008).

Interview:

In February 2007 Brett Anderson gave a revealing interview to The Tripwire website, talking about his past work with both Suede and The Tears as well as his new solo career. Here are the highlights of that interview:

The Tripwire: 'Head Music' was a very polarizing album for your fanbase, despite being fairly well received critically. These days, that album seems to be less regarded critically. Why do you think there has been this sense of revisionism?

Brett: I'm not really sure, all I can have is my opinion about it. I think it is quite an undervalued record actually and I think it was a strange record for us to release, because it was released in an odd moment in my life personally. I wasn't the most focused person in the world. There were a lot of drugs around confusing the issue, but looking back on it, it had some really great moments. It's almost one of those albums that could have done with a bit of more controlled editing. I think maybe if it had lost a few tracks it might have been a much stronger record and maybe the fact that it sort of meandered in places, people almost interpreted that as a weakness. In fact when we were making that record it was quite deliberate. We were trying to make a record that was sort of warts and all. We were conscious that there were moments that were stronger and weaker than others and I quite liked that. It's almost a sort of an artistic stream of consciousness. You get the joyful excellent moments and you get the shit as well and I think I quite like that in a way. It was sort of a snapshot. That's how it was intended. The three previous albums were very self conscious, very much me looking in the mirror of what I am, and there was almost a sort of vanity taking over in the music and wanting to present an absolute perfect kind of image to the world as much as I could. I liked the fact that with 'Head Music' it was less precious. Of course you're playing all of these mental games as an artist, and of course the only way that people see it is "Oh there's a chink in the armour, let's beat them up about it; use that as a stick to beat them with." But it was meant with the purest of artistic intentions, that record.

The Tripwire: The first single is 'Love Is Dead', continuing the trend of the first song on the LP also being the first single, that goes back to 'Coming Up' I believe. What specifically inspired that song? It has a very lonely, world weary kind of tone.

Brett: It's not about the death of a relationship as most people would think from the title. It's more of a sense that sometimes you get the feeling that there is no love in the world. It is quite a bleak take on life and loneliness in the 21st century. I quite like that there is no ray of sunshine in the song or light at the end of the tunnel. I find that quite liberating and freeing that the song isn't trying to say "everything is all right." It's quite the opposite, saying life is an endless road of pain. It's almost like the Buddhist principle, once you accept that life is struggle then you're free to a certain extent. That's what the songs subtext, life is a piece of shit and then you accept that and get on with it.

The Tripwire: There is a duality to it in that music has sort of an uplifting feel to it.

Brett: Yeah there is. That's sort of the power of music isn't it? If you put the same lyrics to a different piece of music with a different melody it could have a completely different feel. That's why song writing isn't poetry. It's a different sort of discipline because the music obviously gives it another dimension. If the lyrics were put on a minimal electro, or aggressive, dark piece of music it would have a level of bleakness that maybe it doesn't have with quite romantic sounding strings.

The Tripwire: I was paying a lot of attention to the vocals on this record. It's something your fan base seems to talk about a lot. They seem to change quite a bit from record to record. Is that a result of different production?

Brett: No, I think my voice genuinely does change. There is only a certain amount you can do with production. If you're voice is fucked you can't repair that with a lot of expensive software. How one sings is quite naked in a funny sort of way, no matter how many effects you put on it there is only so much you can do with it. I've been singing better I think. I've been taking care of my voice and been very aware of what it can and can't do as an instrument. I've been singing a lot at the moment. It's the equivalent of expecting to do a marathon without having done any training, and you're body will refuse to do it. It's sort of the same with singing. Before I went into the studio I was doing a lot of singing at home everyday picking up the guitar and making it a discipline sort of thing and keeping my voice limbered up I suppose. I did a series on YouTube recently and I learned a lot from that about how I sound and how I come across. It was interesting for me because it was such a raw interpretation of the songs. It was me in a room with a crappy mic and a little reverb. I very much got the sense of my strengths and limits as a performer. It's all about keeping yourself learning and always accepting that you can learn something else about yourself. Even though I've been singing professionally for nearly 20 years now, I would never think that I know everything about it and I think anyone who does assume that is stupid. There is always somewhere to go with what you do and the second that you think that there isn't anything you can learn is the day you should give up, really. I think creating art and music is all about learning and trying things out and risking yourself sometimes. Putting your reputation on the line. Otherwise you disappear under the duvet and don't do anything. It's about polarizing peoples opinions about you and taking risks sometimes.

The Tripwire: You seem to stay away from the more operatic things that you've done vocally, as on the first two or three Suede albums. Is that on purpose?

Brett: Lots of people will assume that I just can't reach those notes anymore. There are even a couple of things that I'm going to do live where I have changed the melody slightly, but that actually isn't the case at all. I can easily reach those notes. My voice is in better shape than it's ever been. I just don't want to anymore. Some of those falsetto parts that I used to write in the early 90's, I wouldn't write them like that again. They're quite naive in a funny sort of way. It's someone who isn't 100% in control of his song writing and is trying to get drama into it by putting a bit of falsetto in it. When you're more confident of your musicianship and ability to write you just don't write like that, and I look back on those things thinking they could have been written better. It doesn't have anything to do with my voice or being able to do that. It's quite the opposite actually.

The Tripwire: Is it ever a struggle at all between pleasing your fanbase and singing the way you prefer to? The response to the YouTube series was largely that your vocals were maybe a bit closer to the older style.

Brett: Well I understand what people mean, I think what people are referring to is in that last Suede album ('A New Morning'). I sang in a really gravely, sort of slightly fucked way. That was me experimenting with my voice and trying a new way of singing, and looking back I probably overdid it on that album. People are probably pleased that I've added that crooner sort of element back to my voice. On the first two Suede albums I think I'm guilty of over singing a bit. So if anyone is telling me that I should be singing exactly as I was on 'Suede' and 'Dog Man Star', I'm not going to listen to them because I don't think that they really know what they're talking about. I still think my voice is actually getting better. It's not just about the voice, it's about the writing as well. 'Dog Man Star' was such an extreme record that the people who like it are always going to find that anything else I do is going to be in its shadow and that is limiting sometimes. I find that with every record I release that there is a comparison to that record and that can be tough.

The Tripwire: Is that frustrating for you that your lyrics are picked apart and analyzed as much as they are? A huge example of that was 'Savoir Faire' off of 'Head Music'. The lyrics to that song were brutalized in every review.

Brett: Yeah it is frustrating. That whole thing with 'Savoir Faire' was ridiculous because of course I knew "She lives in a house, she's stupid as a mouse" was a dumb lyric, but that's the point of it. It's not like I couldn't think of a more clever lyric so I just stuck it on the record. It was a deliberate, ironic lyric. After years of being a 'writerly' sort of a writer and self consciously coming up with veiled, poetic sort of lyrics, I was almost subverting my own creation and saying, "No, I'm going to write something dumb," and people were generally too stupid or didn't care enough to interpret it how it was meant. I learned and I won't make that mistake again because I've given people far too much credit for knowing the depth of what they do. It was a self referential, dumbing down of my own work, and yeah it is frustrating for me. I've read little things about this album and people will zero in on words I've used and beat with me a stick because I've used them before, even though they're missing the point of the broad concept of the song. Something like 'One Lazy Morning', I read recently an online review and it was brutally picking the song apart for being repetitive and using my lexicon. I'm thinking, if you listen to what the song is about, conceptually the song is completely new ground for me. They've chosen not to analyze that but to merely analyze a tiny part of it. I seem to very much polarize peoples opinion, there is very little middle ground with how people receive me.

The Tripwire: I think that there are certain bands where there is this intangible thing that specific people pick up on and really enjoy and others don't quite hear. These bands create a world that you can choose to enter or not. I think that's very polarizing. A band like The Smiths for example, for as many people that love them there are 10 or 20 more that absolutely loathe their existence.

Brett: You're right. You've hit the nail on the head. It's about creating your own little world. That was always my intention with Suede. It was sort of a little club and I'm reaping the legacy of that now. You are a member of the club or you're shut out and not let in the door. You know, it was never a place where people could wander casually in and have a drink and wander out again. You either joined the club and got the tattoo or you weren't allowed in. I guess that's very much how people see me now and it's a double edged sword. It's both good and bad and can be sort of frustrating at times.

The Tripwire: There has always been talk about the influence of drugs on the first four Suede records. Your lifestyle has changed dramatically for you since those days. I imagine this changes the way you write lyrics.

Brett: It very much does change it. I think that taking drugs had exhausted me creatively rather than inspired me. It had gone past the point of where I was feeling as though that whole world was something I could write about with any sort of freshness. It was necessary for me to get beyond that and try to see the world from a new point of view. For a more sober, clearer point of view, and there isn't a way back. It's not like I can sit here and think to myself, "These songs I'm writing are really dull, I'm going to go and write songs like I wrote on 'Dog Man Star'. Let me go and become an insane acid taker again and coke taker or whatever." There is no way back and that would be sad tourism in a way, me trying to grab something back of my past. The only way forward is to push forward and develop as a human being and hope you develop as a song writer. 'A New Morning' to me was over celebrating the fact that I was clean and seeing the world through these bright spectacles. Looking back on it, it was slightly sickly as well. When you're taking drugs it's not for several years that you actually gain any kind of real psychic balance. It's only very recently that I feel I've done that. I'm aware of my behaviour being influenced by years and years of drug taking. That's inevitable. One thing I will say is that it's very convenient for the public to see bands that are living the rock and roll myth as being exciting artists that are pushing the envelope, but I genuinely feel in 2007 so excited about what I'm doing that the thought that anyone thinking that just because I'm straight now, that my work is safer or something. Listening to the record, it's not a challenging record in the traditional sense. I'm not talking about obscure fringe issues like I was before, I'm trying to talk about something more universal. Something clearer. I genuinely feel that what I'm trying to say is worth listening to, and what I'm going to be saying on the next record is worth listening to as well. There was a period back there where I sort of felt I'd run myself down a dead end.

The Tripwire: Two years ago you put out The Tears record, 'Here Come The Tears'. Will there be another one? During the last few gigs you had been premiering new material, 'Berlin', 'Europe After The Rain'...

Brett: I honestly don't know. The next record I'm making is my second solo album. Yeah, there were others that we worked on that we didn't actually play live as well. We were full spin ahead with writing the next album and I don't know what happened. We sort of lost the thread of it a bit. We both decided that we weren't really enjoying it, it was as simple as that. It didn't have anything to do with our relationship or anything like that. It was one of those projects that we always said we'd do when we feel inspired and when we want to do it, so yeah I don't see why there couldn't be a second Tears record. We've talked about it and we did start writing it, but I don't see it as a priority for either of us right this second. But who knows. I never thought I'd work with Bernard again after he left Suede and I ended up working with him. The chance of there being another Tears record in the future is pretty good actually.

The Tripwire: What about on the live front. Where does it leave America, in terms of seeing you over here. It's been 10 years now.

Brett: If there is any chance of doing it, then I'll do it. I'm not just going to fly over to New York and play a gig though. It has to be part of a coherent marketing campaign and that involves getting a record deal which I don't have in America yet. The second I get one, the second I'll be playing there. I've always loved playing in America. There is a strange little rumour about Suede and America not getting on. The name thing (having to be called The London Suede in the US, due to copyright reasons), that was a big fuck up and I hated having the perform under that name. That's probably why we never came back there.

The Tripwire: Will you be playing all solo songs? Do you have qualms with playing older material?

Brett: I haven't decided on the set list. I don't have a problem with Suede songs. There is no big battle big battle between me and Suede in that way. I felt as though with The Tears I made that point because we didn't play Suede. We played one b-side ('The Living Dead') or something like that once and then regretted it. But generally we toured pretty much for six months without at all playing Suede songs and I felt at the time, that it was actually very hard work. But I think people respected us for it. It was a matter of trying to establish a new band identity and I think it would have been wrong to play Suede songs.

For the full interview by David Natoli visit The Tripwire website - www.thetripwire.com

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