Happy Birthday Supergrass!

Wed 18th Aug, 2004 in Features

Supergrass got their first start in the Britpop hey-day of the mid 90’s, releasing breakthrough single Caught By The Fuzz to rapturous acclaim in 1994. Second single Alright also captured the youth-mayhem inspired ideals of Britpop, and made debut album I Should Coco a hit. Subsequent releases In It For The Money and the self titled Supergrass cemented the groups position as a fixture on the world music scene, even as britpop faded away. Life On Other Planets, released in 2002, saw the group permanently add Robert Coombes, older brother of lead singer Gaz Coombes, to their lineup, although he had been playing live with them since their inception.

With 2004 heralding their tenth anniversary, a Best Of album was inevitable, and with the suitably titled Supergrass Is 10 under their belts, the boys have set out to tour Australia once again.

I spoke with Robert Coombes, coincidentally as they were on their way to Heathrow Airport, ready to play a festival in Spain.

FL: Hi Robert, hows it going?

R: Good thanks.

FL: What have you guys been up to lately?

R: Actually we’ve just had a bit of time off lately, just been relaxing. We’re just about to start, start the whole thing up again. Right now, we’re in the car on the way to Heathrow airport, about to do a festival in Spain, and kick things on from there. Actually, I love playing in summer, especially touring, because you can pretend you’re on holidays, even though you’re not.

FL: You’re touring in Australia in winter…

R: Yeah, we are, but then it’s not really winter, it doesn’t get that cold does it?

FL: No, not really.

R: Yeah, so I don’t think it’s going to worry us too much.

FL: For your greatest hits album Supergrass Is 10, you recorded a new song, as most bands do. Whats the background behind Kiss Of Life, is it an all new song, or an old favourite?

R: No, it’s completely new. We knew we needed new material for the album, so we were in the studio, trying some things. The song actually started out completely different from the  final version. It actually started out like a more conventional Supergrass song, then we were in the studio, and we started working on the rhythm track, and it sort of grew from there. But, the best thing about the new song, is my kids love it, they love hearing it and dancing to it all the time.

FL: So, do your kids like much Supergrass music?

R: Yeah they do, they love it, they play it all the time, it’s a bit embarrassing really, because they always want to hear it, and you’re telling them ‘No’ but they always insist on playing it. Really embarrassing.

FL: You guys must have toured a fair number of places, with a number of different bands. Do you have any favourite bands you like to tour with?

R: Actually one of your bands from there in Australia are one of our favourites, a group called Rocket Science.

FL: Any places you’ld like to tour, but are yet to go to?

R: Oh yeah, heaps of places. I’d love to tour more in the Far East. We’ve been to Japan, which is fantastic, but I’d like to play some more in Thailand, Singapore, those sorts of places. Also, I’d love to go to Eastern Europe, we’ve done heaps of tours in Western Europe, but never much in Eastern.

The problem is you tend to only go to places where you can break even. It’s not easy to tour places like Hong Kong or Thailand, and expect to make much back from the tour.

The other problem is, we’ve been to some amazing places. Like Greece, we did a show in Greece, but we were only there for forty-eight hours. We didn’t get a chance to see it anything, like the Acropolis, or anything at all. So even if you go to these places, if you’re in a hurry, you might as well be playing in Oxford, because you come in, play, and leave again.

FL: You’re touring with the City Lights and Rocket Science, two excellent Australian bands, did you choose them, or were they chosen for you?

R: We chose them, we’ve worked with Rocket Science before, we met them for the first time a few years ago, when we came over for Splendour In The Grass. We played a couple of other shows, and they opened for us, so that’s when we met them. We’re really into them, both as people and musicians, they have this fantastic organ sound, and they really get into it, when they’re performing. When we came back to England, we did a tour, bits of Europe, and we invited them to come and play with us, and they agreed, so that was excellent too.

FL: After the Australian leg, you’re heading to the US, is this the first time in the US for Supergrass?

R: No, we’ve been over there a few times. We’ve never gone on one of those really long tours, stayed over there for a few months or anything. We just go over there for a couple of weeks at a time, do the big cities, New York, San Francisco, that sort of thing, and then see what happens. We’ve had some moderate success over there, we don’t get into the charts, but I guess we just kick it on to see if this record excites people.

FL: So, now that Supergrass are 10 years old and you guys are music industry veterans, how has the industry changed for you since you started?

R: The main thing in England, the main change, I think, has been emergence of pop idol bands. I mean, there’s always been manufactured bands, Bananarama, I’m not even sure if they were manufactured, but you know, that kind of band. But nowadays, it seems like there’s more and more of it, there are less bands that can play live, without the real musicians playing behind the curtain somewhere. For example, my daughter, she wants to go and see a fairly famous British pop idol band, but I’m not too keen on taking her, because I don’t want her to get into that sort of thing. I mean if the band’s not playing its own instruments, what’s the point? So yeah, things are definitely changing, and not necessarily for the better. I mean, music’s been evolving since the 1960’s, when there was this period where there were all these great bands, and its been changing since then, unfortunately, it’s getting steadily worse. There are still some little nuggets around that do all their own work, and play their instruments, like us, and hopefully it can make a difference.

Having said that, I’ve got no problem with dance music, and if they want to play on decks, that’s cool too. What I do have a problem with, is bands pretending to play their instruments. I mean, I couldn’t do it myself. We’ve been asked to mime a few times, Top Of The Pops, that sort of thing, but we hate it, and if we have to go there a day earlier or something, to play a live show, that’s what we’ll do. Basically, it all just bland, manufactured, recycled rubbish. (laughs) You can tell it’s morning here, can’t you, if it was night, I’d probably be quite happy with the state of music, but since I’m up and its early morning, I’m a bit harsher

FL: Supergrass’ early music was fairly youth oriented, for example Caught By The Fuzz, and Alright, and has evolved a bit over time, was this a deliberate effort, or just something that happened?

R: There was never a conversation, it just sort of happened. When we went in to record our second album, In It For The Money, we knew we had to get away from the shadow of Alright, because we were in danger of that being all that we were known for. So we had to try to rebel against it, and I think that was the reason the second album ended up being a bit darker. But it was never a conscious thing where we would all sit down and say, “Okay, what are we going to do with this record.” Maybe if you talk to Mickey and Gaz, they might say that was part of their plan, but it was never something we all did. It all happened subconsciously.

FL: Finally, whats in the future for Supergrass? Any plans for the next new album?

R: Absolutely, we’re waiting on new stuff at the moment. The thing about this tour, is its fantastic to do, and play all these places, but there’s not really any creativity involved. So we’ve got all this stuff, and we’re burning to get it out. We’re taking a bit of a different tack with this one, we’ve got a house in France, a little cottage that me and some others banded together and bought. It’s not a studio yet, but we’re going to go out there, and make it a studio, and record there. It’s in Normandy, not far from where all the troops landed 60 years ago, it’s a fantastic part of the world. So we’re going to go away up there, barricade ourselves away from the world, and get to it.

FL: Will you have any of the new ones ready to play when you come to Australia?

R: It’s a bit early to say, they’re not quite ready to play yet, but the Australian tour is still a month away. By the time it happens, we could have five songs ready. I mean, that’s not likely, but we’ve just had a few months apart from each other, and we’ve all done a bit of writing, on our own, so now it’s time to marry it all together. We don’t have anything yet, but I would hope in a month’s time, when we tour Australia, we’ll have at least one new one ready.

FL: Robert, thanks for talking to us.

R: Thanks a lot.

FasterLouder.com.au, Triple J and Channel [V] proudly present Supergrass on their Supergrass Is 10 Tour along with Rocket Science and The City Lights.

Tuesday 7th September, The Forum, Melbourne – sold out!
Thursday 9th September, The Arena, Brisbane – tickets selling fast!
Saturday 11th September, Coogee Bay Live, Sydney – tickets also selling fast!

FasterLouder.com.au, Secret Sounds and EMI give you and a friend, in each city, the chance to see the ‘Grass geezers Gaz, Mickey, Danny and Rob, in the flesh after the show and then re-live the experience by playing the Supergrass Is 10 CD and DVD at home! Cor’ blimey! Enter the exclusive competition here!