An Interview with Joesolo (4/4) by Nick Quantrill

(1/4), (2/4), (3/4), (4/4).

MacGowan's A Rainy Night In Soho and A Pair Of Brown Eyes are quite simply two of the greatest songs ever written. To have beauty and despair, love, death and romance all pouring out in equal measure without the slightest trace of sentimentality is just stunning and I tip my hat in his direction....wherever he may be. Elvis Costello too, he doesn't have Strummer or MacGowan's flair for imagery but he's a superb player on words. Probably the ultimate in packing it all in is the Tom Waits song Johnsburg, Illinois, a picture so vividly painted in so little time. Genius. True genius.

'The Man Who Dreamed Of Fairyland' sees your lyric writing noticeably expanding to consider wider, more political issues like on 'We're All Gay' and 'Ms Seventeen'. Is this a natural progression for you, or is it a more deliberate attempt to have your say on what's happening in the world?

I think it is the responsibility of a writer to reflect the times they live in. You see that in literature and art, but you're beginning to see that in rock too. Now that there are forty or fifty years of popular music you can hear history as well as read about it. From the hippy and anti-war movements of the 60's, through punk, new wave, rap, grunge, acid house to R&B you can hear the sound of youth from any given era. It's actually quite fascinating if you think about it. .

What happens to singers over a certain age? They start making albums about their latest divorce, or worse, they still write about splitting up with their girlfriend pretending they're still 19. I decided to write about who and where I was now as a 35-year-old father of two living in a backward smalltown hell. On Exile I tried to capture how you come to terms with the past whilst trying to find your own place in the present. On Fairyland I had a look at the political forces that shape who we are for better or worse. It was two ways of looking at the same thing really.

Judging by the reaction I'd say that quite a few people recognise themselves in the songs so I must be doing something right. It's very noticeable that the packaging of the Joesolo releases carries a lot of information. I particularly like the way that the housing shadows on the cover of 'An Exile In Suburbia' represent coffins. What's your thinking behind this?

Suburbia is where once valid and vibrant people are put out to seed. Where they rot in their own weaknesses, wither and die. Does that tell you enough? In actual fact I can't take the credit for the coffins. I draw up the initial ideas for the sleeves and then I pass them over to a friend of mine called Jason Goodwin who brings them to life and embelishes them with his own little flourishes. The coffins were his touch. I like them a lot. It seems that you have always taken pride in being an independent musician and in retaining control over your affairs.

Does the Internet have any impact on the way you operate? Is it opening up your music to a new audience?

Yes, yes and yes. The Internet is a great leveller. Everyone sounds rubbish through those tinny little speakers so it really doesn't matter if you make records in your shed, your toilet, your sandpit...whatever. You can make new fans everywhere and your music is working for you 24/7. The record industry really hasn't worked out how to ruin it for us yet cos the blockheads that run it didn't see this coming. I remember doing an interview for a punk fanzine in 1997 saying that the only way musicians could win was to work together outside of the mainstream, and the Internet has given us the power to do just that.

Now it's up to us to make it count while we have the upper hand. I've been recording and releasing songs now for fifteen years and do you know how many people from the music industry I've met in that time? One.

You have literally no future in music unless you get out there and do things for yourself. Our motto in Lithium Joe was Make The Best Of What You Got. If we had a grand for a record we went into a decent studio, if we only had fifty quid we'd go to the local community centre. We always made sure we made the most of whatever came our way, and I've taken that line of thinking over in to Joe Solo. I'll just run with it and see what happens.

On your website you state that the aim of Lithium Joe was to be the best independent band, but that in itself didn't necessarily make you any less ambitious than any other band. What are your ambitions and hopes for 'Joesolo'? I want to make a great record. Not just a good record, but a great one. A Revolver, a Pet Sounds, a Highway 61 Revisited or a London Calling. And I'll keep going until I have......then I want to make another.

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