Supergrass "Road to Rouen" (Capitol)
By Tim Den
Tuesday. Oct 25, 1:00 AM
An interview with guitarist/vocalist Gaz Coombes.

Road to Rouen has been made out by everyone to be a “departure” for you: less big hooks, more “mature” mellowness. Would you care to elaborate on its nature?

It happened quite naturally, actually: it felt kind of pointless for us to keep making the same upbeat pop that we had been making. And that’s the great thing about being in this band: we can accept how we are feeling at the time and move forward with it, because I don’t think we’ve ever made the exact same record twice. Of course there are Supergrass (traits) on all of them – the hooks and everything – but Road to Rouen is still quite melodic. It’s still got our essence and touch.

I think people associate us with big singles… with this record, we wanted to make a complete album. I think it feels like a complete whole. It’s easy to get excited when you’re writing an upbeat number, because it has such a natural energy to it – plus the label can grab onto it easily – but with this record I wanted it to be like some of my favorite albums – Physical Graffiti, for example – and be its own entity.

I think – I hope – that the diehard Supergrass fans can still sense that we are the same band.

How has the reaction been in the UK?

It has been good for the most part, but then again I don’t read much of our reviews unless I’m going through the papers and happen to see something: then I’ll have a bit of a read. I think people understand what we are trying to do… we’ve always had that touch of darkness – melancholy – in our records with weird songs and whatnot, this time we just let it flow more. We went with it because it felt like a wider spectrum to work in… in the past, sometimes people focus on the singles and the rest of the album kind of gets ignored. But for us, right now it’s more interesting to not write songs like “Pumpin’ On Your Stereo.”

I’m asking because Idlewild recently made a “departure” record, and it got split opinion even amongst their fans. In their own words, it seems like – in today’s music business – you either have to be a hot new band or a GIGANTIC older band. There’s no in between. And there’s no allowing an older band to tamper with their sound unless you’re Radiohead, because “oh, that’s just what Radiohead does.”

Right right! (chuckles) I do feel that the industry is different than when we first started. I think, today, you need to be focused and have goals to be the biggest band in the world, whereas we started and were simply lucky enough to have the kind of songs that people wanted to hear at the time. I suppose we were focused and driven too, but we didn’t have to knock people out of the way to do it.

I love Oasis: their first record is one of my favorites. But they’ve turned out to be just another British pop band, you know what I mean? They had the chance to make people say “Jesus, is that Oasis, man?”, but they never quite fucked with people’s heads a bit.

That’s what I mean: so many bands are playing it safe, while the daring ones get squashed for trying something different.

A good example would be Coldplay: they have more pressure on them than anyone else! When they come out with a new single, it has to be top five – it has to be – or else they’re on “the big decline.” When you’re that big, you are demanded to be consistent. We’re lucky in that we’re at this intermediate stage where we don’t have such pressures. We can still do well, making records that we like.

In Road to Rouen’s bio, you are quoted as saying certain personal matters influenced the record’s feel. Would you care to elaborate?

Well, you know, when you create something, it’s supposed to reflect the life you are living, right? A lot has happened to us since the last studio album… I can’t speak for the others specifically, but we’ve all sort of had personal difficulties in our lives. That sort of thing seeps into the music, and we let it because it felt natural. My daughter was born a few years ago, and as cliché as it sounds, it was the best day of my life. And then me mum died last year, which sent emotions the other way…

Even though the music is a bit laid back, we didn’t want the lyrics to dwell on the negatives. We didn’t want the album to sound and feel like it’s full of these specific problems. I think you can hear that there are undercurrents, but they’re not overly obvious.

As you head into your second decade of being a band, how does it feel to be in Supergrass?

It feels good. It does get easier with age, you know. And I don’t think we’ve found a set “Supergrass sound” yet, which excites us. We’re already talking about the next record: what we want it to sound like, how our live shows right now will influence it, etc.
www.supergrass.com
www.capitolrecords.com

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Tim Den

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