The The - BLUE BURNING SOUL !!!
Helen Fitzgerald - 1981.
Matt Johnson has been in various bands since he was eleven and is the founder member of TheThe. His musical output is considerable, but with the recent release of a thoroughly magical solo album he has proved to be a contributor to the small pool of contemporary music which reaches far beyond the puerile levels which are all too prevalent at the present time.
A Hypnotic collection of musical ideas and expression coupled with lyrics so truthfully naive they make you wince. This record touches parts others cannot reach. Its difficult to explain the effect produced - did you ever read a paragraph in a book and gasp with recognition at its exact description of how you feel or have felt... and wish to hell you’d written it? Forget Smirnoff ... Burning Blue Soul will leave you breathless.
Matt is quietly articulate with a contempt for the ritualistic herd syndrome of London night life, who admits that he’s a depressive and takes off for days to write and work in the Suffolk countryside where he feels more at home.
MJ: With The The I began to hate doing gigs - we got banned from everywhere - the Rock Garden, 101 Club, The Clarendon. I hated performing and used to get drunk and smash things up - people would throw glasses, that’s just the way things were then. Now we’ve all changed a lot but I still hate the whole club scene - I used to go out a lot, try and believe I was enjoying myself but now I don’t feel as though I’m missing anything by staying in. It’s like Soft Cell’s Bedsitland - a lot of sad people live their lives anticipating their night life ... pretending to each other that they’re enjoying themselves.
MJ: I’d been in a lot of bands when I was younger. Rock, heavy metal, punk - you name it! I decided to advertise to try to form the kind of band I wanted. We were originally a four piece, me, Keith Laws, Tom Johnston on bass and Pete Ashworth, a photographer friend, on drums. We played our first gigs with Scritti Politti and Prag Vec. The The was the ultimate name we thought, when other bands had elaborate and meaningful names, but like I said at one point it just went over the top. Through Tom, who was also our manager, we got to know Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis who were then in Wire. They produced a single for us and 4AD picked it up and released it. We’ve broken up about five times, but Keith and I still work together sometimes and we did a track for Stevo on the Some Bizarre album last year.
MJ: Well, I was working for a while in a recording studio, I was able to mess around with sounds and effects when the studio was free. The Gadgets were just a studio experiment - we all wanted to experiment with the type of sound we could produce. They’ve had two albums released - the last one, they just went into the studio and recorded it live. It’s been pigeonholed as a very technical studio band. On that one instruments were just passed around and the whole thing was put down as it was. The Gadgets are really just a side-line thing for me - I hate to be inactive and I enjoy working. In a certain sense it’s unfortunate that I had to choose music as a medium of expression as there are so many vacuous people involved in the industry - people who just project an image of their vacant selves to others, dressing up is the only way they can express themselves. A lot of the bands really amuse me too - as conforminst in their non-conformity.
“But when you hide in your bed and you look in your head you find you’ve gone deeper than you should - could be your shallowness is your strength.”
‘DELIRIOUS’
HF: Burning Blue Soul seems to have been an exorcism of these feelings - a renunciation of things past. All of your lyrics are very definite and descriptive projections of your own feelings and sometimes confused emotions... very personal to yourself yet they touch a lot of people very deeply.
MJ: Yeah? I played it for friends first to see their reaction, someone else said it was like a purge, a release. A rejection of the music would have upset me -because there is so much of myself on this record - it would have been like when someone tells a bad joke and no-one laughs. I was pleased that different people picked up on particular rhythms or lyrics in various places, that there had been no favourite track - I’d hoped to escape that pitfall.
HF: Would you describe your music as psychedelic?
MJ: No, its release unfortunately coincided with the psychedelic revival - but that’s dying a death now. The album was not meant to be part of that at all.
HF: But you cant deny the whole acid trip drifting feeling the record evokes - even the title and sleeve contribute to this idea.
MJ: Well, perhaps in retrospect it may have been the wrong projection for the music - there probably is a 60’s feel because all my favourite music is from that period. I lived over a pub when I was growing up - music filtering up through the floorboards - Tamla Motown, Donovan, stuff like that. I suppose I must have been subconsciously impregnated with it - I think my voice - the way I sing - probably reflects those influences, all I’ve ever wanted to do really is play me guitar.
This man’s album is not for those who function on an emotional monotone. Songs like Time (again) For The Golden Sunset, Bugle Boy and Another Boy Drowning express isolation and despair that could never be just verbally articulated. A self analysis that reaches a schizoid conclusion - a mixture of inadequacy;
“I’m trying to tell something to the world but my words are slurred and slow - have you ever been caught in a dream where legs were froze, I was left along with my thoughts and my guitar. But it felt helpless ike the desire of the moth, for the star”
‘BUGLE BOY’
And a sense of distance and detachment from the vacant meanderings of politics and the whole mortal coil;
“I think we should pretend that nothings going wrong in our world tonight -
nothing we dont understand ... and I’m doing the best that I can. Am I locked up forever in a picture of despair. I’ve put my spirit onto paper and into words. I’ve opened my eyes and I’ve realised. Who I really am.”
‘TIME AGAIN (FOR THE GOLDEN SUNSET)’
Theres a lot of anger too - East London saw its share of unrest last Summer.
“There’s people on the streets throwing rocks at themselves, coz they ain’t got no money and they’re living in hell. But there’s animals down the road adding fuel to this heat. It never did take much guts to be a sheep.”
‘Another Boy Drowning’
MJ: It really annoyed me - there were kids of eleven and twelve being egged on by extremist organisations who were capitalising on local unrest. And I hate it when bands patronise these kids - writing songs about the dreariness and frustration of life on the dole - but their own lifestyles are so far removed from these realities.
Musically, the cacophony of instruments build up a woven sub-structure of rising and ebbing rhythm that in itself evokes enough feeling to please even the most dour heart. Gilbert & Lewis contribute their unique style on The River - throbbing rhythmic chanting which hypnotises the mind and gently carries it over to the next track. The production is excellent, Matt and Ivo (a patron of the arts) being mainly responsible with some help from Bruce and Graham. I want to proclaim the merits of this album to the world - but I covet it for myself... I want to retire to my room and wallow in it alone.
MJ: The The could do something at any time (they played recently at the Venue with Colin Newman) and Im working with Simon Turner, an old friend, on some joint material. Simons an ex-actor and pop star, he used to be in Tom Brown’s schooldays! He works in an art gallery now and is producing some really good music. We both feel that gigging is a pointless ritual and were working on presenting something in an art gallery perhaps. The main project at the moment though is with Tom Johnston and Michael OShea. Michael is an amazing musician - you might have heard him busking in Covent Garden with his Zither - he’s just had an album released on Dome Records and is producing some very unique music. And of course Tom I’ve worked with many times before. The resulting album should be ready for release this summer - we’re not sure yet whos going to release it ... you never know, maybe we’ll start our own label!
A Hypnotic collection of musical ideas and expression coupled with lyrics so truthfully naive they make you wince. This record touches parts others cannot reach. Its difficult to explain the effect produced - did you ever read a paragraph in a book and gasp with recognition at its exact description of how you feel or have felt... and wish to hell you’d written it? Forget Smirnoff ... Burning Blue Soul will leave you breathless.
Matt is quietly articulate with a contempt for the ritualistic herd syndrome of London night life, who admits that he’s a depressive and takes off for days to write and work in the Suffolk countryside where he feels more at home.
MJ: With The The I began to hate doing gigs - we got banned from everywhere - the Rock Garden, 101 Club, The Clarendon. I hated performing and used to get drunk and smash things up - people would throw glasses, that’s just the way things were then. Now we’ve all changed a lot but I still hate the whole club scene - I used to go out a lot, try and believe I was enjoying myself but now I don’t feel as though I’m missing anything by staying in. It’s like Soft Cell’s Bedsitland - a lot of sad people live their lives anticipating their night life ... pretending to each other that they’re enjoying themselves.
MJ: I’d been in a lot of bands when I was younger. Rock, heavy metal, punk - you name it! I decided to advertise to try to form the kind of band I wanted. We were originally a four piece, me, Keith Laws, Tom Johnston on bass and Pete Ashworth, a photographer friend, on drums. We played our first gigs with Scritti Politti and Prag Vec. The The was the ultimate name we thought, when other bands had elaborate and meaningful names, but like I said at one point it just went over the top. Through Tom, who was also our manager, we got to know Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis who were then in Wire. They produced a single for us and 4AD picked it up and released it. We’ve broken up about five times, but Keith and I still work together sometimes and we did a track for Stevo on the Some Bizarre album last year.
MJ: Well, I was working for a while in a recording studio, I was able to mess around with sounds and effects when the studio was free. The Gadgets were just a studio experiment - we all wanted to experiment with the type of sound we could produce. They’ve had two albums released - the last one, they just went into the studio and recorded it live. It’s been pigeonholed as a very technical studio band. On that one instruments were just passed around and the whole thing was put down as it was. The Gadgets are really just a side-line thing for me - I hate to be inactive and I enjoy working. In a certain sense it’s unfortunate that I had to choose music as a medium of expression as there are so many vacuous people involved in the industry - people who just project an image of their vacant selves to others, dressing up is the only way they can express themselves. A lot of the bands really amuse me too - as conforminst in their non-conformity.
“But when you hide in your bed and you look in your head you find you’ve gone deeper than you should - could be your shallowness is your strength.”
‘DELIRIOUS’
HF: Burning Blue Soul seems to have been an exorcism of these feelings - a renunciation of things past. All of your lyrics are very definite and descriptive projections of your own feelings and sometimes confused emotions... very personal to yourself yet they touch a lot of people very deeply.
MJ: Yeah? I played it for friends first to see their reaction, someone else said it was like a purge, a release. A rejection of the music would have upset me -because there is so much of myself on this record - it would have been like when someone tells a bad joke and no-one laughs. I was pleased that different people picked up on particular rhythms or lyrics in various places, that there had been no favourite track - I’d hoped to escape that pitfall.
HF: Would you describe your music as psychedelic?
MJ: No, its release unfortunately coincided with the psychedelic revival - but that’s dying a death now. The album was not meant to be part of that at all.
HF: But you cant deny the whole acid trip drifting feeling the record evokes - even the title and sleeve contribute to this idea.
MJ: Well, perhaps in retrospect it may have been the wrong projection for the music - there probably is a 60’s feel because all my favourite music is from that period. I lived over a pub when I was growing up - music filtering up through the floorboards - Tamla Motown, Donovan, stuff like that. I suppose I must have been subconsciously impregnated with it - I think my voice - the way I sing - probably reflects those influences, all I’ve ever wanted to do really is play me guitar.
This man’s album is not for those who function on an emotional monotone. Songs like Time (again) For The Golden Sunset, Bugle Boy and Another Boy Drowning express isolation and despair that could never be just verbally articulated. A self analysis that reaches a schizoid conclusion - a mixture of inadequacy;
“I’m trying to tell something to the world but my words are slurred and slow - have you ever been caught in a dream where legs were froze, I was left along with my thoughts and my guitar. But it felt helpless ike the desire of the moth, for the star”
‘BUGLE BOY’
And a sense of distance and detachment from the vacant meanderings of politics and the whole mortal coil;
“I think we should pretend that nothings going wrong in our world tonight -
nothing we dont understand ... and I’m doing the best that I can. Am I locked up forever in a picture of despair. I’ve put my spirit onto paper and into words. I’ve opened my eyes and I’ve realised. Who I really am.”
‘TIME AGAIN (FOR THE GOLDEN SUNSET)’
Theres a lot of anger too - East London saw its share of unrest last Summer.
“There’s people on the streets throwing rocks at themselves, coz they ain’t got no money and they’re living in hell. But there’s animals down the road adding fuel to this heat. It never did take much guts to be a sheep.”
‘Another Boy Drowning’
MJ: It really annoyed me - there were kids of eleven and twelve being egged on by extremist organisations who were capitalising on local unrest. And I hate it when bands patronise these kids - writing songs about the dreariness and frustration of life on the dole - but their own lifestyles are so far removed from these realities.
Musically, the cacophony of instruments build up a woven sub-structure of rising and ebbing rhythm that in itself evokes enough feeling to please even the most dour heart. Gilbert & Lewis contribute their unique style on The River - throbbing rhythmic chanting which hypnotises the mind and gently carries it over to the next track. The production is excellent, Matt and Ivo (a patron of the arts) being mainly responsible with some help from Bruce and Graham. I want to proclaim the merits of this album to the world - but I covet it for myself... I want to retire to my room and wallow in it alone.
MJ: The The could do something at any time (they played recently at the Venue with Colin Newman) and Im working with Simon Turner, an old friend, on some joint material. Simons an ex-actor and pop star, he used to be in Tom Brown’s schooldays! He works in an art gallery now and is producing some really good music. We both feel that gigging is a pointless ritual and were working on presenting something in an art gallery perhaps. The main project at the moment though is with Tom Johnston and Michael OShea. Michael is an amazing musician - you might have heard him busking in Covent Garden with his Zither - he’s just had an album released on Dome Records and is producing some very unique music. And of course Tom I’ve worked with many times before. The resulting album should be ready for release this summer - we’re not sure yet whos going to release it ... you never know, maybe we’ll start our own label!
ADDMX Records International 2006 - 2010.
