Aside from the creation and playing of their music, funniness and Del
Amitri belong together.
David Belcher looks on the bright side of pop with Justin Currie
HIS perennial bonhomie under attack, Justin Currie finds himself once
more treading what he calls ''the promotional hamster-wheel.'' A fine
new Del Amitri album, Twisted, is nearing release by A & M. Having just
spent three weeks buttering up the mainland European press by staging
gabfests and acoustic gig-ettes, Justin must now submit to the
telephonic attentions of such organs as the West Hartlepool Bugler and
Advertiser and the Osmondthorpe Bi-Weekly Courant. The process can
become arduous.
''I'd have been thrilled if my initial Del Amitri job description had
read: 'You will talk about yourself for eight hours a day for six weeks
per annum.' It's a position of privilege, being asked your opinion;
being given the chance to address the nation.
''And I hate bands who whinge about becoming commercial travellers,
selling a product for the record company. But being asked eight times a
day how the band started, and how to spell my name, and the band's names
. . . it can be gruelling. But do you know the worst thing about it?''
No. What?
''You'll get to the interview's end and hear a little voice over the
phone saying: 'Now then, Jason -- any funny stories?' ''
I carefully hide my notepad, with its incriminating final question,
from Jason's . . . sorry, Justin's gaze. But the problematic thing is
that, aside from the creation and playing of their music, funniness and
Del Amitri belong together.
Yet because Del Amitri are an innately witty, humorous, ironic bunch
who manifestly fail to take themselves with po-faced rock-star
seriousness, their work is often accorded less serious regard than it's
due.
Justin is aware of this. ''I take a pride in my work, but it's not
work with a capital W, like Van Gogh. I take a pride in gigs, in songs .
. . I'm as pleased as punch with the creation of some temporary jewel.
And I know that when the radio stops playing us, or the label drops us,
I'll continue making records and singing to people because my knees
always knock together with excitement when I've created something new.
''But a love of pop shouldn't distract you from being aware that, as a
pop singer, you're contributing to one of the shallowest areas of
culture. But I also know that some people who like our band would want
me to be more arrogant, and to behave more like a star . . . and I like
stars who act like that. I enjoy Noel Gallagher insisting: 'Oasis are
the world's No 1 songwriters.'
''But I'm not sure I'm worth it. I wouldn't be comfortable with it.
'Stop being silly!' I'd be saying to myself.''
Not that there's anything silly about Twisted, although its title was
partly inspired by a scene in the comic rockumentary Spinal Tap. Hear
Twisted, and you will be impelled to salute Del Amitri's ongoing prowess
in the classy, radio-friendly rock-pop stakes, and hail Justin Currie
for his grasp of all the arts of melodic songwriting . . . but hang on,
Justin's looking modestly pained again.
''Writer? Songwriter? Tunesmith's better. Writing pop songs is nothing
to do with writing -- it's bolting tunes together rather crudely. In
fact, the more crudely the better. You've a verse and chorus that go
together and then what gets called a middle-eight -- ie a funny bit that
shouldn't be there, and the more abrasive and out-of-place it sounds,
the cooler it is.
''Take the Boo Radleys' new single, Wake Up . . . it simply breaks
down part-way through, and that's the joy of pop, as opposed to the
fluid, melodic coherence of Cole Porter. And the difference between
writing and writing a pop tune is because a lot of pop tunes are just
four lines . . . one of the best pop songs ever is the La's There She
Goes -- four lines!
''I'm kind of offended to be called a writer, falling down drunk in
the gutter to be able to write The Lost Weekend. Maybe if you're a
novelist, you wander around looking at other peoples' lives for morsels
of inspiration . . . but people who write pop songs? I mean, the very
idea of being homeless and Phil Collins seeing you and popping back to
his mansion to write a compassionate song about you -- it's grounds for
justifiable homicide!''
Forswearing earnest analysis of his songs -- ''like dissecting a frog
. . . it dies under the scalpel'' -- Justin will allow that Twisted's
chief lyrical persona is ''deeply disturbed and distinctly
non-autobiographical. I've tried to get away from a horrible sixth-form
poetry confessional style.
''There's another change in approach in that our last album was the
first I wrote knowing that there would be an audience . . . that people
would definitely be listening. And so I got paranoid. 'What are people
going to expect?' This record was written for us, to our expectations
and no-one else's.
''We recorded it pretty quickly. In seven different studios, including
Jools Holland's, where we experienced our only real problem. You can't
record vocals there during the day because Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer
have a rehearsal room above the studio, and they spend their time
stomping about, pacing out routines and falling over laughing.''
Del Amitri: in their own unique and funny way, Scotland's most useful
pop artisans. And I'm not joking.
* Del Amitri will launch Twisted by playing live in Glasgow's Tower
Records at midnight on Sunday.
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