The mighty Gomez return, Bassist Paul Blackburn checks in…
Boys welcome to the DMC world… Southport lads – ever been to a Southport Weekender?
“Hello. I can’t say any of us have to been to the Southport Weekender but we’re all fully aware of it’s reputation. We’ve had many long weekenders of our own in Southport though.”
Your first album ‘Bring It On’ winning you the Mercurury Music Prize in 1998 – taking on Robbie Williams, The Verve and Massive Attack amongst others – sitting there on the night, were you expecting to scoop one of the most prestigious awards there and then?
“I don’t think any of us knew what to think at the time. It was all pretty overwhelming. It’s an interesting award though as I don’t really know how the different genres of music can be put against each other in a contest but hey, I’m not complaining.”
Talk us through your new album ‘A New Tide’… out on April 6th on Eat Sleep Records… you have collaborated with some brilliant artists on the release. Who really impressed you and what tunes stand out for you the most?
“We worked on the new record from October 2007 through to about October 2008. It was a lot of fun, hard work, stressful, lot of laughs, ups and downs, you know. A lot goes into making a record when you want to give something you feel deserves to be heard. The album moves around a number of genres, as we usually do, but holds a common thread to keep a continuity. I think it’s cool to kind of take this journey through a record so you’re kept interested but you don’t feel like somethings come from a complete tangent and doesn’t fit at all. Anyway, feel free to…. wherever you think! Everyone we worked with on the record did a great job for us. They’re all people we’ve met and become friends with along the way. People who are great to know on a personal level, who are also very talented and open minded musicians always coming from an unexpected direction. We’ve started to develop bee lines we head down on each record now as we’ve grown a lot of respect for their talents.
How difficult was it producing such a great album with you scattered across the US/UK?
“It wasn’t too bad working around the technicalities of living in different continents. We all have Logic and have an iDisk so away you go. One person writes a song in the US or UK, it goes up on the iDisk everyone else downloads it and does whatever they feel to it and we keep bouncing this around until we have something to take into the studio and refine. Just like cooking!”
Philips Electronics choosing you to cover The Beatles ‘Getting Better’ for a $100 million TV range ad campaign – you are renowned for your music – how do you feel about being associated with corporate brands with your work – Dirty Vegas with Mitsubishi didn’t do badly…
“I personally don’t feel too bad about songs being used for advertising. I don’t know how everyone else personally feels within the band, there may well be differing views on the matter. Of course we don’t want to work with anything that’s unethical or we have issues with.”
Albums galore – what do you think has been your best work?
“I think our best work is yet to come and it will be called ‘The Best Of Gomez’. No, only joking! I think I can honestly stand behind this album and say it’s some of the best work we’ve ever done. I think we’ve managed to accomplish albums that really work as a whole with the last two records. ‘How We Operate’ and ‘A New Tide’ both show quite a development in my opinion. I think this has come from the assistance of the producers and also a growing knowledge from making each album that has come before.”
What artists do you rate in the charts at the moment?
“To be honest I have no idea who’s in the charts at the moment, sorry!”
What did producer Tchad Blake, who had worked with the likes as Tom Waits, Crowded House and Pearl Jam – what different/more interesting/enlightening/progressive ideas did he bring to your fourth album ‘Split The Difference’ back in 2004 – took 18 months to complete, quite a while…
“Tchad again as with the other producers we have had the chance to work with brought his own experience. He has a great knowledge of space in the music and also the sounds he achieves are really unique to him I think. We all certainly improved as musicians due to his sharing of knowledge and experience on that record.”
You have rocked countries all over the world…I saw you at some mad festival in the States years ago, what have been your best ever gigs over the years….?
“The best festival experience I can remember was Glastonbury when we headlined the second stage in ’98. Everything about it made for a great atmosphere, the size of the crowd was a little intimidating but it was an experience of a lifetime. Another that was particularly special was at a festival on Cockatoo Island in Sydney. We were having a bit of a difficult ride at the time as regards other aspects of the business and the crowd at the festival was unbelievable. I think if we had any doubts as to how things were going they completely washed that away that day.”