17 May 2009 (released)
22 July 2009
MARK MORRISS is the lead singer of 90s Britpop band The Bluetones, who are better known for their biggest hit, Slight Return. Having recently teamed up with former housemates and chart rivals Dodgy, to play London's Scala as part of the homeless charity Crisis's Hidden Gigs, Music News caught up with Morriss just after their set.
MN: So what have you guys been up to?
MM: We've been demo-ing a load of new songs for another new album because we took last year off largely because I was pursuing my solo ambition, it was never full stop for the band, a lot of things were happening behind the scenes, babies were being born so it seemed like a good time to take the opportunity to make my own record, so it seems we've been away for a long time.
MN: Have you toured with any of your solo material?
MM: I started touring with my debut album last April up til about September. I had this little band, The Mummies, coming along with me. It was an opportunity more than anything else. An independent label approached me and said they'd heard I'd been doing some solo stuff and asked me if I'd be interested in doing an album. It was nice to be asked so I thought, yeah, I'd love to do it. I didn't actively seek it out, it just came to me.
MN: How does the songwriting work with the Bluetones - is it mainly you?
MM: Oh not, not at all, it is a four-way thing. All of us write music, we record stuff at home, swap CDs and learn everyone else's songs. Then we get into a room and start to bash them out.
MN: How is it you've managed to go the distance?
MM: Well, we're still best friends really, that's the secret and aside from our families and what not, it's the most important thing in our lives that we want to do together. We've never fallen out, we never fight. We have creative arguments but it always stays in the room and is always forgotten immediately.
MN: How did you first get together?
MM: We met just after leaving school in Hounslow, west London. Adam was in another band and Scott and I were too and we met Ed at a Dodgy club, one of their nights in Carnaby Street, Soho.
MN: You've been dubbed as the "Britpop survivors" - is that a tag you're ok with?
MM: I guess so but we were never comfortable with the Britpop label in the first place. We're just guitar music with a broader British tradition, going back to the 60s and 70s. Regarding our influences, I guess you've got the obvious ones, for example, when I was a boy I was obsessed with the Beatles and later bands such as Squeeze, that sort of thing, melodic music.
MN: Almost 15 years on, Slight Return is now considered a classic - what's the secret to its longevity?
MM: Its simplicity I think, it's a very simple song, simple lines intertwining (chuckles at his Spinal Tap reference). It's difficult to say from the inside looking out. When we wrote it an recorded it, it never struck us as big as it was or be a song that would capture people's imaginations as it did. And actually, we didn't want it to be the single released from the album,we weren't convinced it would be a hit. But we went along with what the record company said. And they were absolutely right.
