I had a chance to chat with Art Brut’s Eddie Argos about Axl Rose, Top of the Pops, working with Frank Black, and his unfortunate non-engagement to Helen Love. Art Brut’s fourth LP Brilliant! Tragic! is their second album to be produced by Francis Black of the Pixies. It will be released May 24th on Cooking Vinyl / The End Records. The first single “Lost Weekend” was premiered a few days ago.
“With the last album we’d just remembered we were a punk band again so it was all four to the floor rock out. This time there are a few songs to let you catch your breath so when we do rock the fuck out again it hits home harder.”
TVD: Given that you have the talented illustrator Jamie McKelvie create the cover art for your new album, and given your love of comics and rock & roll, have you read his fine work in Phonogram? If so, what did you think of it?
Eddie: I loved it, yeah, it’s funny because I read Phonogram, the first one a few years ago. I liked getting that comic because it reminded me of home. I was friends with Luke Haines, who’s in the comic, and Lipstick on Your Collar. There are lots of things mentioned in it I know a lot about so it’s got a nice thing to have, when I’m away from home. I think I even reviewed it, no I wrote a blurb on the back of it, the second one. So, yeah, I love Phonogram.
Phonogram demonstrated an enormous love and admiration for Luke Haines, the dark lord of British pop. You have worked with him in the Black Arts and The English Traveling Wilburys. Do you have any plans to work with him again?
Yeah, I’d love to. We always joke about doing a whole English Traveling Wilburys album. I live in Berlin now, and I’m only back in London for the week, so yeah, I’d love to work on something again. It would be so much fun because, he’s just a good guy, you know? I love his solo albums, it’s kinda cool that we ended up becoming friends.
What draws you to his music?
Well, quite obviously I’m a man that likes lyrics quite a lot. He writes some of my favorite lyrics. And it’s weird, you know, a lot of people have gotten into Luke Haines because of The Auteurs, but I got it backwards, I got into his first solo album and thought, “this is amazing, what else has this man done?”
Why do you cherish Top of the Pops so much?
What I liked about Top of the Pops is sort of what a mixed bag it was, you know? You’d have a boy band playing next to Nirvana. It was exciting to see who was selling the most singles that week or who was the biggest new entry. It ended up being quite a mix of things. That’s the other thing, there’s nothing on T.V. that shows a broad range of music for a half hour. I loved it, I was exposed to so many things. I never really loved footie or anything, either. I didn’t have a sports thing I could follow, like a league. Pop music was that for me, “Pulp, they’re going to climb to the top of the charts.” Top of the Pops was like a sport for me.
On your blog, you reference Helen Love and Teen Anthems. Both bands make references in various songs to Top of the Pops. Coincidence or is there some psychic connection there?
Helen Love was one of the first bands I really got into. I like collecting things, she put out lots of colored vinyl, lots of sparkly vinyl. She only played like 2 or 3 times, and I was lucky enough to go to one of those shows, actually, on Valentine’s day in London, in like 1999, I think. I was in the front, and I proposed to her; I was drunk and was like “I love you” and said “Will you marry me?” and she politely said, “No.” She didn’t say like “Fuck off ” or anything. She was like “I’m really sorry, you know, you’re a bit younger than me.”
A lot of things I like end up getting into her music, you know? So she sort of had an influence on me, seeped into my mind. I’m quite enthusiastic when I like something, and some of that might spill into my lyrics. So, that might be why I like Top of the Pops, because I have been inspired by the bands on it.
Speaking of pop, Art Brut (like Haines) has no fear of matching snarling licks with prime pop hooks. Too many rock bands (and rock fans) act tough and treat pop as the enemy. Is pop the enemy, or is it the answer?
Pop music—I don’t think it’s the enemy. Jasper loves pop music, and I love it to an extent. I love to be an enemy of some fake posturing bands. Rock music can be much worse than pop music, sometimes.
Your side project with Dyan Valdés, Everybody Was in the French Resistance, now collects 12 response songs to familiar hits from the recent and not-so-recent past. You’ve appropriated elements of past pop songs and comment on current themes in pop culture. Was this album conceived as a postmodern art project, specifically a musical nod to pop-surrealism?
Kind of, yeah, it sort of turned into something like that. The first song we did was “Jimmy Mack” by Martha & the Vandellas – because that song has always annoyed me whenever I hear it on the radio. It’s a brilliant pop song, I love it, but she’s so mean to that poor boy, you know? He’s away, you know, and she’s like “Unless you come home, I’m gonna cheat on you.” That’s not very nice. He’s probably at war somewhere. So, yeah, I sort of felt like defending him. When you start looking at songs like that, you can’t help but unravel everything; you can’t stop, really, it’s quite addictive. So I wanted EWITFR to be sort of a low-fi rebellion against these famous pop songs. We started touring, and it sort of turned into a cabaret show.
On your blog, I found a hilarious letter to Axl Rose. Did you write this to compliment the song on Brilliant! Tragic!?
I’ve seen Axl Rose Live recently. My brother is a huge fan, so last year we went to watch Guns N’ Roses together because he had never seen them before. He was really excited about it. And then Axl goofed it, and my brother was a bit upset, and I felt a bit sorry for my brother. So that’s where the song came from. The song is really more about my brother than me.
Growing up, my brother and I shared a room, and he was angry all the time, and I sort of think my brother found his way in the world because of Guns N’ Roses. He learned how to tell people to fuck off, in a good way, you know? So the letter is on behalf of my brother.
I really think GnR are a great band, I just really think if you got into an argument with someone, you’d want Axl in your corner. He’s a good guy to have on your side. You know, you don’t want Rivers Cuomo defending you. Axl Rose is the guy who will stand up for you. It’s funny, when I was recording the song, and being with Frank Black and him going, “you know, if there’s one thing you can say about Axl, it’s that he tells people to fuck off.” It was pretty amazing having a conversation with Black Francis about, you know, Axl Rose.
In your letter, you urge Axl to ditch some of the many guitarists in GnR but to keep Tommy Stinson, as he was in The Replacements. Your last album featured a song about discovering the Replacements. What was it specifically that made you fall in love with the Replacements?
The last song is about the Replacements, [it’s] the last song on the album because I literally found out about the Replacements two weeks before and was like, “This band is amazing!” So it’s my favorite band now, it’s only been two years.
Speaking of backing things up, Fred sings backing vocals for the first time on Brilliant! Tragic! How did that come about?
Well, Black Francis was suggesting how nice—well Freddy can be quite shy—and Frank Black was saying how nice it would be if there was a female backing vocal on that song. She hmmed and hawed about it. I knew she can sing,
The plan is now to get her to do it live, she likes to be in the back, really. I think she sounds quite lovely. When I heard her on the record, it was amazing. Maybe she should be the singer, I’ll write the words. That’s what we should probably do.
Art Brut | Lost Weekend
And you sing on this album, how do you feel about it?
It feels good, to find out my voice is an instrument. The first song we did, we recorded all the music, and then Frank was like “Everybody go home, I’m talking to Eddie,” and I was like “Oh no, what’s he going to do to me?” It was a bit scary. We went in and spent hours really, getting me to sing. Once we sort of conquered that one—and he showed me that I could sing—it was a confidence boost. I’ve always been a bit scared of singing.
It’s funny, him teaching me how to sing on the record, we’d play the song through, and he’d sing it, and then we’d do it again, and I’d sing. We’d either do it as a duet, or I’d copy him. If we’d just recorded him singing it and not me, we could have had a secret bonus album, but we didn’t do that. But what a brilliant person to have teach you how to sing, you know, Black Francis from the Pixies. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.
Art Brut are playing DC on June 22 at the Black Cat, which is one of my favorite venues…
It’s one of my favorites.
Oh, that’s awesome! The staff at the Black Cat loves Art Brut. The last time you played there you ended the night by chatting with people in the Red Room while your band mates played pool with the staff. (Ed. note: Art Brut vs. Satan is on their jukebox.)
It’s fun about going on tour. It’s mostly people just hanging out, and it’s a great way to meet new friends, you know?
Yeah, but most bands sort of hide in the back.
Ah, that’s no fun, I’m sick of those guys. It’s nice to meet some new people. Maybe we could possibly meet in June?
Well, I’d certainly like that…
I couldn’t have done this interview without the kind assistance of devoted fan Gareth Moore, who was unable to conduct the interview due to his oppressive day job.
