Following 11 albums The Charlatans have decided that satisfying themselves is of utmost importance; they revel in the intimacy of smaller gigs and contemplate the addition of an hour to the day, dedicated solely to their airplay. Fused caught up with Tony Rogers who discusses the cross Atlantic writing of their new Album SIMPATICO.
After listening to your new album, there are a few tracks on there that appear to be reggae inspired. Was this a conscious decision to try something new?
Na, not really at all, I don’t think it was really a decision. What you are listening to will obviously be an influence, reggae is a bit of a naughty word really, isn’t it? We were obviously influenced by The Clash and were listening to one of the Trojan box sets. That is a fantastic box set, full of information from that era, the old Ska days, so that is what we were listening to. I love reggae, but if you said that our records sounded reggae to a reggae artist, they would laugh at us, and be like ‘that’s not reggae’.
With Tim Burgess living in LA for the past few years, how do you get around to writing new material? It must be hard with a band member living on the other side of the world?
Well thank god we are not a band to rely on just one person to write stuff. Tim writes and Mark goes over and helps Tim, they write bits and pieces together. I’ve got a studio at home where Martin and John come and write. So really we are like two camps. Basically me, John and Martin will write, or I will write stuff on my own, and they will write on their own. It’s pretty simple. Tim will come over sometimes and write with us over here if he wants a change and do the vocals and have a listen to what we are up to. But there is no set way that we write.
Do you feel that your music has been influenced by the link with America?
I think it has probably influenced Tim but I don’t see that it has influenced me. I don’t go over there that much apart from when we are touring. I think it will have influenced Tim with his lyrics and the lyrical content. I think some of the lyrics are about being isolated, this period of isolation that he is probably going through. I would imagine that has influenced him in a big way. He doesn’t have any band members around him. He can only really communicate with us by email or phone.
As a band you have evolved and passed through many music scenes, how do you think you fit in with what is going on in music today?
I don’t think we’ve ever felt that we’ve ever fitted in to any scene really. We have just ridden what has been going on, even Brit pop, people dragged us in to it. We weren’t really a part of it, we were just a British rock band. When the band started we did come to the Manchester scene but we weren’t even a Manchester band. Three or four of the boys in the band were from the Midlands, from the Black Country. It’s just one of those things that people, or the media, grab and put you in amongst it.
As a band do you still feel that playing live is an important factor of your continued success?
Totally…it is the one platform that we are completely comfortable with. It’s something that we are in control of more that anything else. We are not in control of putting bums on seats but we are in control of how we perform and the show that we give. When you release a record a big factor is how well the record company can perform for you and how much money they can put in to marketing it for you. So playing live for us, that is solely our platform, and nobody can take that away from us.
Apart from Tim’s solo album have any other members of the band worked on solo projects?
No not at the moment. There will be something on the cards definitely in the future. There are things happening, but the Charlatans come first, always has done and always will. There comes a point, I‘ll be really honest with you now, even as a band, there is such a volume of music at the moment, for us to sit down and say OK lets write another one next year would be pretty damn impossible. We’d love to write a record every year but it’s not going to happen. This is what I do, I love it so I’d love to do some other things. Tim has probably got another solo record to do but because of the music scene in the UK at the moment it’s hard to get a look in every year. It now seems to take two years to write an album.
I spent this morning on the forum and got some questions from some of your fans, this is what they want to know:
Have you ever considered doing a B-side or fan chosen set list?
Well we’ve heard this question before. It’s something now we’re all together and you’ve given the question that we could talk about. We haven’t thought about it as yet. We do what we want to do. That kind of sounds a bit selfish but then if it was put forward we would probably do it.
What was your highest priority when recording the new album: Satisfying the media? Satisfying yourselves? Satisfying established fans? Exciting new fans?
First and foremost I think it has to be satisfying ourselves. If we’re not satisfied with a record how the hell can we expect anybody else to be happy with it? It has to be what we want to do because if we started writing songs and albums to order I think the quality will go down. It wouldn’t be ours and people would not believe. So yeah us and then the fans. We always wonder what the fans are going to think about it before we release a new record but not the media, ever. It is more important that the fans like our new stuff. The media can sit on the fence sometimes and not be too sure, well that is my experience. So yeah us, then the fans.
Do you feel that more fashionable bands of the moment, like the Arctic Monkeys, getting hourly airplay might affect the continued success of more established bands like yourselves?
Do I think it is going to affect us? Well we are what we are! I like the current state of the industry at the moment. It seems healthy for Britain and healthy for the world to be honest with you. Obviously god… or whoever made the day with 24 hours and only enough airtime to play a certain amount of records. So if someone is clogging up the airwaves by not playing Charlatans records then obviously it will hinder us. It’s got to hasn’t it? They could put a new hour in the day and give that to us… that would help. Other bands getting airplay isn’t going to do us any favours but at the same time you can’t knock what’s going on at the moment. It’s healthy…I’m enjoying it.
Does playing smaller gigs intimidate you as a band?
No I love the smaller gigs… those are the best. The small gigs we play don’t intimidate us, but some people can nearly touch you. There was someone a few years ago who actually did touch me on the shoulder. It was weird having someone touch me and requesting a song. I love the small gigs, it’s great. It’s how we all imagined it to be when you’re in a band. I didn’t imagine the big massive shows I just imagined these sweaty gigs… these rock and roll shows. When we do get chance to enjoy then we do really enjoy them. Some of the big shows go over your head you see. You’re relying on big sound systems. Sometimes you can feel a little bit removed from what’s going on. I like to feel the reaction of the smaller shows because you actually get to see the reaction as well as hear it.
Words: Adrianne Crewe
Image: Teis Albers