Graham Coxon

Tue 9th Mar, 2010 in Features

Despite his near-legendary status, this interviewer could tell from the first hello that Graham Coxon was a more peculiar creature then first assumed. He slowly creeps into the interview, picking and choosing topics to discuss in-depth and often alluding to facts rather than stating anything directly. When asked about his recent happenings, for example, he simply muses, “…just doing what I usually do, just with a lot of old mates this time.” He leaves many a silence mid-sentence, trying to find the right words to accurately describe his sentiments.

You can’t blame Coxon for sounding a little weary though; the last year has seen him reunite with Blur and record a solo album Spinning Top, on top of a ling list of collaborations and other projects he has been heading up.

Coxon admits that juggling so many projects at once doesn’t come naturally to him, “I’ve had somebody else to schedule it. So all I’ve worried about is being at home when I can and who’s picking me up to take me some place else and when. I’ve just got to remember a few things. I’m just not good at remembering where I need to be. I’m always leaving myself little notes.”

This habit of delegating tasks continues on the album itself, “I invited a lot of other musicians around this time, just to sort of make a difference rather than doing everything myself. I just really wanted to work with other people around me.”

One thing that he does clarify early on in the interview is that his taste in 60s rhythm music which is so audible on Spinning Top, is not just a result of recent trends set by the likes of Amy Winehouse, and the television series Mad Men as some have suggested but a reflection of his belief that “…there isn’t really an awful lot after the sixties worth listening to.”

“The trick, for me” he elaborates “is to do it without making it a nostalgia trip. Not making it sound or evoke nostalgia, just make it sound fresh. That’s the way I really get inspired by stuff that’s almost 50 years old yet still making it sound up-to-date and exciting. And although, on this record, there are those sounds but there’s also a lot more influences on the record. There are definitely rock songs, or rock-sounding songs, but for most of the record I try to make it stick to that concept.”

From what influences him to his influence on others, Coxon reflects on his time as the guitarist of Blur with complete knowledge of his purported place in history. His guitar playing was, to many, the game-changer in the Britpop scene. “You know, I think I was quite influential to a lot of people. I get told that I am by a lot of people from Bloc Party to even kids who are teenagers now. And I mean I’ve been around for a long time and if it’s teenagers now saying that they started playing guitar when they heard Blur records or whatever.”

He pauses to seemingly consider what he just said, eventually reproaching the topic with the old sportsman’s habit of talking everyone else down rather than talking himself up. “I think in the time where I was being the most influential, in the mid-nineties, I don’t think there were that many great guitarists to begin with. I mean there was Jonny [Greenwood] from Radiohead. But really I think all the decent guitar players were American.”

To this degree, Coxon notes how the mid-nineties in American music led to a shift in his own style. “In Britain, there was no-one doing anything interesting while the US had Sonic Youth and Pavement and a lot more smaller punk bands. They were doing really interesting stuff with guitars. And, with Blur, it started getting really contrary [to the Britpop movement] because all I was influenced by was these American guitars.”

How did he, with such success in Blur, decide to leave the band in 2002 to start up his own enterprise, one that some consider greater creatively, if lacking in the former band’s appeal?

“I just thought I was writing some songs for fun at home. And it was just stuff that I was trying out and didn’t really seem appropriate for Blur to really get into. And I brought it in for Damon [Albarn] at the studio to see if any of the songs could be Blur songs. And he said he was just quite happy for me to, yeah, not bother. Just go ahead and record it. I just thought, I could be lazy and play the guitar in a group forever, or I could try to develop in some other ways.”

All in all, it was more liberating for Coxon than ever reported, citing his exhaustion with the music of Blur. “These days, I’m learning how to play acoustic guitar properly. Back then, since I didn’t have a go at writing the songs, I never had a go at doing any of that before. I just interpreted Damon songs with my guitar, I suppose. That’s what most of the job was in Blur; it just wasn’t my songs. I just thought, one day I’m going to be stuck out there, high and dry, not really sure what to do with myself because all I ever did was interpret the songs of Blur.”

As I get the word to wrap up the interview, one last question had to be asked, as per the request of any soul who knew this interview was coming. That is: Will he or any of his affiliates be touring Australia in any way, shape or form in the future? His response, “I dunno.”