Three albums ago, Malcolm Middleton left the 90s indie band Arab Strap to pursue his solo career, where he embraced his darker side and penned chirpy, up-beat tunes such as “We’re All Going to Die”, “Fuck It, I Love You” and “Loneliness Shines”.
To celebrate the release of his new album ‘Sleight of Heart’, and possibly to delve into his state of mind, we welcomed the self-styled miserablist onto the W&H Reclining Chaise Lounge of Pop-Psychology. Here’s what he had to say.
W&H: HOW HAS LIFE BEEN TREATING YOU RECENTLY?
“Fine? Thank you? Erm, it’s good. I’ve just finished the UK tour and I’m scuttling off tomorrow for some European dates.”
W&H: HOW DO YOU FEEL THE UK TOUR WENT?
“I think it was a success. It wasn’t a massive sell-out tour, but the people who came seemed to be quite educated. There’s a difference when you play to a room full of people who know the songs and want to hear what you’re doing, as opposed to people who are just there cause they’ve heard about it and they don’t quite know what to expect. So it’s been good, really intimate and friendly.”
W&H: YOUR MYSPACE BLOG STATES THAT YOU’RE TAKING TIME OUT TO “FIND YOURSELF”. ARE YOU GEARING UP FOR A JIM MORRISON DESERT EXPERIENCE?
"[Laughs] Er, I don’t think I’d ever really want to find myself. I’m quite enjoying the confusion that’s going on in my life right now, the soul-searching, the dilemma.
Seriously though, I managed to get some dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, so I’m going over for four weeks. I’ve not had a holiday in about six years, so it’ll be good to get some time away from thinking about recording or doing gigs."
W&H: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR NEW ALBUM?
"Yeah, I’m really pleased. It’s a bit confusing, it took four days to record and it’s just a lot to do, thinking about what to do with it as a follow-up to A Brighter Beat. The reactions been amazing though, in fact some people have been saying that it’s better than A Brighter Beat, they really like it.
It’s good, but it also makes me think why did I bother going into the studio for five months to mix Brighter Beat when I can just do something like this and get a good result as well."
W&H: WHAT INSPIRED YOU WHEN YOU WERE WRITING ‘SLEIGHT OF HEART’?
"I’m not entirely sure. The songs I wrote last summer which inspired me to do an album were ‘Blue Plastic Bags’ and ‘Love Comes in Waves’.
‘Blue Plastic Bags’ is about the whole alcohol culture, it seems to seep through every part. I don’t even drink a lot, I don’t get drunk much, but I do tend to have a couple of beers – like one or two beers a night – and I want to get out of the habit. Most of my friends and people my age were saying the same thing, where they don’t go out that much, they just stay in and have a beer. I thought it was quite sad. So the song kind of notices that, but it doesn’t really do anything about it.
With ‘Love Comes in Waves’, I’m not sure what it’s about. It kind of meanders. It’s got a nice energy about it, a good feeling. But it’s a bit dark."
W&H: SPEAKING OF DARK, WHAT ABOUT YOUR CHRISTMAS SINGLE?
"What Christmas single?"
W&H: IT WAS BRILLIANT!
What Christmas single?
W&H: ??? CONFUSED ???
"Nah, I know what you mean."
W&H: HOW DID IT COME ABOUT? IT WAS A STROKE OF GENIUS
"It was a stroke of fluke. I’d always imagined ‘We’re All Going To Die’ as being the first single off A Brighter Beat, but I got talked out of it three times because everyone else was saying ‘Nah, people will hate it, it’s not that good a song’. So it came to December and I said ‘Look, I’m doing it on the last tour for this record and I want it to be a single, let’s go for it.’
The next thing you know, Colin Murray and the Radio One folk are jumping behind it, and William Hill came along. I think they played the odds a little bit by reducing them so much. They knew there was no chance we’d get Christmas number one, they were just trying to get money out of it.
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So I found myself at the head of this avalanche thinking ‘what’s going on?’, but I think it worked out okay in the end. Number 31 was respectable, and I managed to keep my integrity. I mean, if I had got to number one God knows what I’d be doing now. I was shitting myself, thinking ‘What if I become a one-hit-wonder’, but it’s not really about that. It’s all about poking your nose in the mainstream and then going back down. But when you go back down the mainstream thinks ‘Oh, that’s a one-hit-wonder’. We’ll see what happens this year when I re-release it again."
W&H: ARE YOU GOING TO RE-RELEASE IT?
"Ha, I don’t know! I kind of thought about it in a ‘Slade’ type way. But no, probably not."
W&H: IS MUSIC YOUR THERAPY?
"Erm, yes and no. If you call it therapy it implies it’s going to cure me at some point and make me better [laughs]. But it’s definitely good for me because I start itching and scratching if I don’t write songs. Maybe I’ll write a song one day that will cure everything and I won’t have to write another one. But it’s just a form of moaning and groaning, isn’t it?"
W&H: WHY DO YOUR SONGS APPEAL TO SO MANY PEOPLE?
"I’m not sure. I’m not doing anything new, but I’m aware that when I write something I’ll only use it in a song if I think of how to describe it in an interesting way. And I’m aware straight away if I’m lying or saying something that’s crap, so a lot of other people are too.
And the fact that I’m saying in all the things that I write that I’m feeling a certain way, or expressing a certain thing, it’s comforting that people can relate to that. And from my point of view it’s saying to me that if somebody likes my songs, it’s me not feeling so alone either. It’s kind of like a nice big group hug."
W&H: THAT’S BEAUTIFUL, MAN
"That was quite wanky. Sorry."
W&H: DO YOU MISS BEING IN ARAB STRAP?
"I miss the mentality of being in a band, and being in a gang, and the division of labour that goes with that as well. I miss working with Aidan, but I don’t miss being back in Arab Strap yet. I’m sure I will one day, and I’d still like to do something with Aidan – I keep threatening for us to do something under a different name, but it’s still a bit too soon for us both, and I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now. But I’d like to start another band at some point."
W&H: IF YOU WERE TO FORM A SUPER-GROUP WHO WOULD BE IN IT?
"Do I have to be in it?"
W&H: NOT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE
"Okay, well I would have Robin Proper-Sheppard from Sophia on guitar; I would have the Bats for Lashes woman on vocals, and maybe Jeff from Toploader; and the keyboard player from Europe."
W&H: THAT SOUNDS ECLECTIC...
"It’s quite a weird band. I just pulled names from a hat. Hmmm. What would we call them? You can think of something."
W&H: ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD…
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