Photo: wenn
"It's about the extremes of life - birth, death, decaying, ageing, youth, it's things at the opposite end of the scale," Brett Anderson, pondering the themes of Suede's effervescently ambitious new album, Night Thoughts.
Sitting with his back to an old sash window, with all black attire, he adds, "It's very much about parenthood, as it's the first record I've made since becoming a parent and I explore how that makes you re-judge life, and really judge your own life."
Fortunately, having a kid hasn't made Anderson an overly sentimental cornball. The songs remain brilliantly Suede: "I didn't want to sing about my family and for it to be this chocolate boxy thing, like 'oh look at me with my kid giving ice creams and going to the zoo'. Of course those elements are there, and it's not to say my life is this bleak tortured experience," - which is reassuring. "But I don't want to sing about the lighter things. It doesn't work with this band. I don't think we make good jolly music."
One of the album's most heartbreaking songs, 'I Don't Know How To Reach You', is a case in point, and looks at his relationship with his father growing up - and at one point he reveals to me that the aching lyrics are the "voice of a father to his son."
"I think birth and death of family members makes you look at your family. Having a child makes you assess yourself as a child," he admits. "Also, my mother died a long time ago but when my father died 10 years ago, it made me assess where I come from simply because you spend so much time sorting through people's stuff."
His reflections on his father's life continue on 'No Tomorrow' and relate to the psychological difficulties his father was facing. "'No Tomorrow' is about my father who went through terrible bouts of depression in his life. I obviously saw his struggle with it, and yeah it cast a huge shadow over us I suppose."
Whilst Anderson has been comfortably talking in detail about inspirations in the album - there's another part of him that appears unwilling to want to say too much.
"I think it's important that although these are my inspiration points in the songs, they're not the only way to interpret the songs," he explains. "Even though it's specific to me you can kind of project your own life. I think the best songs do that. For instance ' I Don't Know How To Reach You Could' could just as easily be about a romantic relationship as it could be the voice of a father to his son."
His passion for other people's interpretation of his work is evidenced by the release of Roger Sargent's film, which accompanies the album. But sadly, a lot of the themes on the record became all too real for Sargent in the making of it.
Anderson explains: "Roger's mother tragically died and just before he started writing it and it made him really want to express himself. I told him what the inspiration points were, what the themes of the album were and he said he was feeling really raw about his mother so could really empathise with a lot of familial there [...] So I let him interpret it in his own way. At points it's kind of close, at points it's far away but it sort of hovers in parallel, coming closer and further apart, and I quite like that."
Beyond the close interpretation of the familial themes, Sargent also fits with Suede's psyche thanks to the general aesthetic of the video. Boring looking houses, budget shops, bleak weather, arm chairs - all these prosaic things about Britain can be observed in the film.
"I always wanted to document the real world that I saw around me." recalls Anderson. "That was such a real distinction for me between Suede and the Britpop bands that followed us: Suede documented Britain and the other bands celebrated it."
He goes on: "Suede was almost a criticism of the dog shit streets we're walking on, and the blue plastic bags that were flying around and getting caught in the fucking trees. It was a scruffy depressing world that I wanted to document. Not this fantasy working class patronising bull shit world that the Britpop bands that came after us began singing about."
In doing so, the band have built a lasting legacy that's seen the Britpop pioneers produce some of the most influential and brilliant guitar music of all time. But it hasn't always been rosy, "The last Suede album, before we split , A New Morning, was fucking horrible! I wish it didn't exist but it did" he says.
However, Suede are in the midst of remarkable comeback. Since Bloodsports was released in 2013, expectations and respect from fans has grown exponentially and the and are in good stead to continue their renaissance
"I feel as though I have a real control over what we're doing and I feel as though I know where we should be going. I think that our fans have faith in us. I think we're going to start writing again this year. I want to together with Richard and Neil and disappear off to some sort of place in the middle of nowhere."
"Somewhere sunny?" I ask. "No I would just in the sun and drink gin n' tonic. I only get work done because I live in London and the weather's poor - so somewhere rainy."
Night Thoughts by Suede is out now - read our review here.
Suede's 2016 tour dates are as follows, and tickets are on sale now. Get tickets and more information here.
Suede will play:
FEBRUARY:
Monday 8 - Glasgow -Royal Concert Hall
Tuesdayt 9 - Manchester- Albert Hall
Wenesday 10 - Dublin - Olympia Theatre
Friday 12 - London - The Forum
Sunday 14 - Leeds - 02 Academy
