09 October 2011 (released)
09 October 2011
With newly released single ‘If I Had A Heart’, Andy Burrows steps back into the limelight on his own. Music News caught up with the former Razorlight drummer who shed some light on what it is like breaking out of one of the UK’s biggest bands and going solo, why it can be a struggle and teaming up with Mark Ronson.
Music News: You’ve chosen to release solo song ‘If I Had A Heart’ in between your projects with your other bands (We Are Scientist and I Am Arrows); tell us a bit about it
Andy Burrows: I wrote ‘If I Had A Heart’ at the beginning of the year. Writing songs is always weird because they come along when they choose to. You try and try and nothing happens, but I felt quite inspired when this song came along and so I wanted to release it out without waiting for the rest of the record to finish. That’s not always the way to do it, but after I parted with Mercury records I thought it would be cool to do a song, a song that does the deciding for you.
MN: Your songs are quite catchy; do you have a particular ‘process’ to writing hits?
AB: There’s no process at all. When you really want to write a song because you love music and you just want to write something, it tends to not be the way a great song comes about. The good ones catch you at the most inopportune times. Those little hooks and the ideas seem to pop up at the supermarket or something, or at some point when you have no way of writing it down or recording it, but if, by the time you get home, it’s still there, it was probably meant to be. ‘If I Had A Heart’ was one of those songs that really did that, it came out of nowhere.
MN: So that happens to you a lot, songs coming at inopportune times?
AB: They come to me in the supermarket, in the kitchen; I remember ‘Nice Try’ [I Am Arrows song that appears in the movie Friends With Benefits] came to me in a queue at the post office. I had my daughter with me in her buggy and no phone or anything to write it down or record it. I was talking to the woman behind the counter and trying to keep the tune in my head buy humming it, I was like: [starts humming the tune and trying to talk at the same time].
MN: You have been in quite a few bands, notably Razorlight who were massive, what is it like being out on your own?
AB: Coming out of Razorlight, I felt that I really wanted and needed to do something on my own. Being in a band can be difficult. You’re spending more time with four or five blokes than most people spend with their own wives or kids; sleeping on buses together, flying on planes around the world, it’s a really unnatural existence, you have to be really tight as a band in order for it to work.
I came out of Razorlight feeling worn out and exhausted, so going solo was a really elating experience and a chance to get everything off of my chest. I’m not sure I’m totally happy being solo, at the end of the day I’m a drummer, but sometimes you have songs that you just don’t want to give to other people to sing, especially if they’re from the heart.
MN: Was it scary coming out from behind the drums to be a ‘front man’?
AB: I think when you’re a kid and you’re a drummer, you’re making a fair old statement when you’re playing in your school band and you want to make the most noise sitting behind a barricade of wood and metal, there’s something quite psychological in that, so I don’t think I ever felt particularly comfortable being out at the front, but now I actually really enjoy it.
The thing that frightens me the most isn’t the singing and playing, I love that, it’s the chatting in between songs. I talk so much. I get nervous and I talk a lot, but I get worried that if I try and be moody, the people that know me will get really annoyed and think ‘why didn’t you speak?’ I’m not very good at the middle ground; short, concise sentences in between songs, instead of rambling the f*** on like I’m sat in the pub with the audience.
MN: Is it true what they say about drummers?
AB: What? That they have big hands?
MN: No. That they get all the girls
AB: I don’t know, I’m married and I have a really lovely wife so I don’t get loads of women. I do have a good friend that’s in a big, famous band that is exactly like that, however. He meets all these girls. Maybe it’s true for some married drummers too, but I wouldn’t know. It’s good fun being in a band, but I’m no international playboy, but I know someone who is and it’s good fun to watch him be like that, from the sidelines.
MN: So you weren’t bad when you were in your bands?
AB: I’ve been either in a relationship or married throughout my time in bands. I haven’t been sleeping around and I haven’t been drinking and doing drugs, but it’s a funny existence being a musician, there’s no real boss. I remember when I started; you’re actively encouraged to drink. Being in a band is a funny thing to do for a living, but it’s also easily the best.
MN: What’s are you listening to at the moment?
It’s so annoying that every time I get asked this question I forget, then when I’m at home in my kitchen I remember and think ‘make sure you say that’. All summer when I was on tour with We Are Scientists I was listening to the Midlake album from a few years ago. I f***ing love it, it’s called The Trials of Van Occupanther. It’s a beautiful album. I also love the new Guillemots album too, and Fyfe Dangerfield, I think they are amazing.
MN: Summer with We Are Scientists, now releasing a solo single, you’re so busy, what are you up to next?
AB: I’m doing a record with Tom Smith from The Editors that’s going to come out for Christmas. We’re going off to Europe for a couple of weeks to start doing some promotional stuff. Then I’m going to New York to start some early work on the We Are Scientists record. I’m also doing a bit here and there with Mark Ronson, and then I want to get back here and do a record for Christmas. There’s a lot going on, but it will be really good.
If I Had A Heart is out now!
