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Interview with Neil for Crackhitler
Original text in Greek can be found here. A quick google translation:
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Interview with Neil for Queen.gr
Original text in Greek can be found here. A quick google translation:
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Interview with Neil for Time Out Greece
Original text in Greek can be found here. A quick google translation:
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Interview with Neil for Channel News Asia
SINGAPORE: UK alternative rock group Suede, which had just played in Singapore earlier this month, split up in 2003 and got back together in 2010 after a wildly successful charity gig.
While the band says their music and their sound has not changed much in the seven years they have been apart, Suede keyboardist Neil Codling feels that the music industry has changed a lot and this has had some effect on all music artistes - Suede is no exception.
“Nobody buys music any more,” lamented Codling, throwing up his hands.
“About 98 percent of downloaded music is stolen; most people get their music from downloading. I think it is a massive sea change.”
“People used to tour a lot to promote an album now it’s the other way around. People bring out the record in order to promote the tour,” explained Codling.
“So, the revenue streams are upside down and your priorities as a musician are totally different.”
“It’s now about putting on a good show rather than spending a year in the studio making this thing (album) sound good,” the strapping 37-year-old added.
“It’s actually more about being able to play, and get an idea across in a room, rather than on a record or a CD.”
Fortunately, Suede never had much of a problem doing live shows, as the attendees to their dazzling Singapore concert can attest.
Although doing concert tours is where the money is now, it doesn’t mean that Suede is just going to do more concert tours and forget about putting out an album.
The band’s drummer Simon Gilbert told channelnewsasia.com that Suede is indeed working on a new album - it’s just that they have decided to take their time crafting it.
“There are always ideas floating around. It’s a question of what you do with them. How you develop it into something,” said Gilbert about Suede’s future releases.
“We’re (Suede) all musicians, and we are all obsessed with music in whatever different ways. It is a question of whether we can turn it (an idea) into something that would be a worthwhile statement for Suede.”
“We are not going to put it out just for the sake of putting a record out. It has to be great.”
“Especially not with the industry the way it is. You can spot the people who do that (release hurried, mediocre albums),” said the 46-year-old drummer.
He pointed out that people nowadays “are always being able to listen to any note of music, of any song” because of the power of the Internet, and “will not spend much time on things they may not like”, so only quality albums would enjoy success today.
(11 August, Channel News Asia)
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Interview with Neil, Richard and Simon in Singapore 2011
English alternative rock band Suede have their own slightly disturbed past.
In its heyday between the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the band enjoyed their share of commercial success, with a sound that forged its own music movement in Britain. With lead singer Brett Anderson falling victim to crack cocaine and heroin abuse in the late 1990s, following their years of success throughout Europe, internal disagreement led to the group to disband in 2003.
After seven years of silence, the band reformed last year and have been touring ever since. They were in Singapore from Tuesday to Thursday morning this week for a one-night showcase on Wednesday, and Yahoo! Singapore had the opportunity to catch up with guitarist Richard Oakes, keyboardist Neil Codling, who left the band in 2001 before it split two years later, and drummer Simon Gilbert, after their long hiatus:
You’ve been in Singapore three times before — in 1997, 1999 and 2002. What was your favourite memory of your time here?
Richard Oakes [R]: The gigs, really… because I never used to do exploring before so it was always about the gigs we’ve done here. We came in ‘97, ‘99, 2002, and it’s always kind of— you know — we come off stage feeling as though it’s been a real event.
Neil Codling [N]: I think the first time we played here it was quite a shock how really great the crowd was. It was one of those things where we went out on stage and you could kind of… You do any little gesture, like just cupping your ear to the audience, and they go crazy! You know, it’s really great to have a relationship between you as a performer and a crowd, it’s very exciting and it’s very unexpected.
R: I think we agree that the first time we went there I think we had been told to expect it to be quite calm — nobody would misbehave, and it would be quite ordered, and we were thinking “How’re we going to make this work?” and then of course, you know, the moment we were out there it sort of felt like you’re getting everything — everything you’re giving to them, you’re getting back.
N: So whenever we do Asia, we always fit in a gig in Singapore.
R: Yeah, definitely.
Certainly, many will be asking you this, and many of your fans rejoice your reunion — what brought the band back together after so many years of being apart?
N: An enormous tax bill, and we were all cryogenically frozen (laughs). We came back together for the Teenage Cancer Trust. They phoned us up and said, “Will you get back together for a gig at the Albert Hall in London to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust?” And so Brett phoned everybody up and we all said “What a good idea, let’s do that!” and then it was so good that we decided to carry on and play a few more gigs.
Simon Gilbert [S]: Well, it (Teenage Cancer Trust gig) was beyond good, wasn’t it? It was better, it was probably the best gig I ever played.
N: It was so amazing, it was the best gig I can think of.
S: Literally, we’ve ever played, and we’re better now.
N: People were really into it. It was not even a nostalgic kind of lovin’, it was like everything felt contemporary and new, and as if, if we carried on there would be a point to it. We could do something that seemed new, rather than just something that seemed to cash in on a nostalgia so we thought, “Let’s tour some more!”, so we toured Europe last year, and we were touring festivals, and then Asia in the summer, so… yeah.
What were you doing during those seven years?
S: I moved to Bangkok! We played there in ‘95, and literally within an hour I thought, “My god, this is the best place in the world and I have to live here one day.” and I promised myself that if suede ever split up, I would move here — and literally a week after we split up, in literally a week I moved there. I love Singapore but it’s not as wild and as crazy as it is in Bangkok. It’s also a little more expensive here (laughs).
N: That’s cool, isn’t it? None of us did anything as cool.
R: Well I moved to Hanwell. Not quite as exciting! (laughs) We’ve all been involved in music in whatever small way behind the scenes, I think. Neil’s done a lot of stuff, I’ve sorta been busy with another project behind the scenes. Simon’s in two bands.
S: Two bands, and I’m in one in Bangkok — we’re called Goo, and we played in Singapore actually, a couple of times. But we sort of do it for fun, really, rather than sort of a “career” thing at all, it’s just like fun. We’ve played in Vietnam, China, just around Asia really. if we get offered a gig, we’ll do it.
Since back in 1989 when you guys first started out, how do you think your priorities have changed as a band?
N: Well I think Suede’s always been a very important live band. I think personally as a musician, unless you are playing live, there’s no real point to you kind of calling yourself a musician. You have to… if that’s what you do, you have to be able to do it. And if you’re not out there playing, then you’re not really… if you’re a journalist and you’re not writing, then you can’t call yourself a journalist, right?
So I think the priority’s always been with a live band like Suede to be that live band. That’s where we’re strongest, I think. Records may always tend to be coloured by the time in which you make them — however much you try to make things timeless, they’re always trapped in the time that they were made — by technology, by the way people record things, by fashion… and you do get caught up in that. But I think the actual songs are timeless, and when you go on stage and play them, that’s when they make the most sense, I think. So it’s always been the priority, I don’t think that’s changed.
And how far have you grown since then?
N: We got slightly shorter, ‘cause our spines kind of shrink slightly. (laughs) That’s the thing about it, about music, because you’re always, always growing; as a musician you’re always learning new things — I don’t think that ever changes. If you ask us when we’re in our seventies, in a couple of years (laughs), that’s the thing — you’re constantly learning. Not a day goes by when you don’t learn a new thing or new ways of doing things.
R: And it changes as you change as a person as well, you know — making music and songwriting is about getting something out of your system, and it’s not always the same thing that you want to get out of your system. It’s something different as you get older, you know. As you change as a person, your priorities become different, the things that inspire you and the things that bug you, make you angry, become different, you know. So it changes like that.
S: But I think we’ve become better live than we ever were before, for some reason. It’s quite odd ‘cause with most bands it’s… they’d have to be playing for twenty years…
N: They tend to sound like kind of… crappy cover bands of themselves. (Richard and Simon laugh) It’s true, though! I mean, I could name people but I’m not going to.
S: But I think having that seven-year break probably gave us the energy and enthusiasm again to sort of… do it again, better.
R: And also not having the baggage in this, you know — it’s like playing songs from an album like Head Music, and now they feel totally different from how they did when we were playing them in 1999… I think because the weather situation surrounding the band then was very different to how it is now. And the situation in music, especially British music, back then when it came out is totally different to how it is now. And so all these things, all this baggage that was dragging us down at the time is just not there now. So we play them now, we appreciate the songs, and the audiences have a less critical eye going on. Based on whatever stories that were surrounding the band at the time, it’s just, who cares about that now? That dies, all that dies… the record lives on.
N: That’s the thing behind this Asian tour, it’s like you can forget what you’re going through with an album and just — it’s the greatest hits, the best songs, come see that. So that’s been good.
R: If you make it work as a set list, that’s your kind of “creed”, as it were.
So, what are your plans for the future? Can we look forward to another album from you?
S: We’re probably going to do some writing and see if it works, you know? See if this new album does work. If it’s special, it’ll work; if it’s not, it won’t. But yeah, that’s what we’re going to do.
N: We’re definitely going to write.
R: There’s always ideas floating around; it’s a question of what you do with them and how you can turn it into something. There’s always activity going on, and with all of us, we’re all musicians and we’re all obsessed with music in whatever different way. There’s always going to be a hub of activity, and it’s a question of whether we can turn it into something that will be a worthwhile statement for Suede. And that’s what we intend to do… and we’ll see how it goes.
S: We’re not going to put it out for the sake of putting another record out. It has to be great, especially with the industry the way it is. You can’t just throw a record out, you know it’s just not (right). You can spot the people who do that and it’s just… no. This whole tour’s been really great, though. It’s been really fun, we’ve been really well received everywhere…. It’s just been really good fun.
(Yahoo News Singapore, August 5 2011)
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Suede interviewed by Radio 91.3 FM (video and off air footage) Singapore 2011 (Part 1)
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Suede interviewed by Razor TV, Singapore 2011. (Part 1)
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SUEDE INTERVIEW WITH ROLLING STONE INDONESIA (TRANSLATED)
Finally. Sorry this took so long, I’ve finally had the time to do it properly.
Still, some things are translated literally so may sound a bit strange. Also, people may know some of the stuff already, but the bit about their Jakarta concert was nicely written (at least that’s how it sounds in Indonesian).
Thank you so much! This must be the first interview in which Neil talks about his health status, glad to know he’s finally better.
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Suede interviewed by Radio Guerrilla, June 3th 2011 →
Go to min 41:00. Thanks to ronoel.tumblr.com
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