..i thought i'd show my face and write something before the album deluge begins and we're all caught up in a frenzied orgy of assessment and re-appraisal. i walked the dogs in the park today and listened to Slow Attack after deliberately giving it a bit of space. it's not precisely the record i intended to make( but when is it ever? , the meandering script is part of the creative process) and quite unusual i think... probably not as focussed as Wilderness but also freer , with less boundaries. it was made with a genuine spirit of experimentation... i'm still learning how to do this you see, and hopefully getting better at being this different version of myself.
if you think this doesn't sound like the usual, tedious 'this is the greatest piece of music that has ever been created' PR bullshit then that's cos it isn't ( the bullshit i mean, not the music, that's up to you to decide). as i slowly dismantle my ego i am finding it less important to present a facade, i'll leave that to the bleating herd still tethered to the trough.the bottom line is that i feel it contains real moments of magic. there are a couple of songs on there that i would proudly sing next to anything from my career , and that, i think, is about as much as you can ask.

the album was conceived and created in the bleak London winter. it's actually the time i feel the most creative as i often feel inspired to drown myself in my music as a simple escape from the pain of the city's icy embrace...the cycle i have slipped into seems to be a winter/summer loop of creation then pause and regurgitation....well, it suits me for the time being even if it does mean that i seem overly obsessed with seasonal change.
i tried to use words in a different way. not as the motor of the song but as fragments and hints of meaning. i suppose you could say they are less narrative. i was listening in awe to things like Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock and was inspired to be less obvious, to 'deepen the mystery' as Francis Bacon would have it.
Leo was incredibly inspiring to work with. he's got a fascinating musical brain, always wanting to take the song somewhere else, sometimes to places it didn't seem to want to go to at first, but like a cat settling into a new home would learn to love the space. my single favorite moment on the album is actually an instrumental section which comes at the end of a song called Scarecrows and Lilacs. we had written the song and then Leo decided it needed to go somewhere else so he came up with a simply beautiful meandering coda section which still gives me goose-bumps. his choice of instrumentation was also inspired, edging me into accepting woodwind instead of the more conventional string sections and layering the songs with an Alladin's Cave of bizarre instruments. we even had a glass-keyed marimba specially made to create the sound that you will hear on another of my favorites, Ashes of Us .

so i suppose we are near the time when the inevitable, boring leaks will appear. if you come across my album before october , please have respect for me as an artist and keep it to yourself. i know the it's tempting to tell everyone that you 'heard it weeks ago' or something but i would really prefer it if there was just a little bit of magic and sanctity left in actually waiting. remember that. not to mention the body blow that is dealt to artists like myself who are trying to keep afloat by making music that isn't championed by Radio 1 and the music press.

the next time you will hear me is on friday when i will be singing an imprecise but passionate version of Frozen Roads as the first of this You Tube series. these fragile little films are just meant as 'the smell of a taste' as it were of the meal to come. i really enjoyed makng them and hope they will be listened to in the right spirit.



thanks



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2009 11:39AM by 88skido.

Thank you brett, good to hear from you!

2 long months to October, one has nothing to do but wait :).

Thank you for having the time to come here and post.
I am looking forward to listening to new music and the show!

xxAkiko

the more i hear about the anderson/abrahams collaboration, especially its modus operandi in the creation process, well... i just cannot help but recalling how bowie/eno worked during 'low' (especially).



Madness! This love was a part of me, like my own flesh; it had taken the place of my blood and marrow; it possessed me entirely; it was I!

Well I guess I'll be the first, even though I swore not to post here again, but obviously, this is a different case :)

I just wanted to say that every album you've ever done since 1992-3 whatever...is unique and different from the rest.

This is what I like about you. We have a lot of bands today who create the exact same stuff they created 10 years ago or 20 years ago, and for some weird reason they're still around.
You don't get excited by them anymore, you know exactly what you're going to get when you buy their CD.
(also see: Manic Street Preachers- with all due respect).

But with you- I never know what am I holding in my hand until I come back home and play it on my stereo and I love it.

You keep me curious and interested.

So whatever it will be- it can't be too bad, cause it's Brett Anderson we're talking about, but even if it wasn't my cup of tea, I know I'll always come back for more, cause you can never know what 'da Brett' will do next :)

I'm behind you, Mr. A :)
T x.

p.s. I've noticed that you started watching Larry David, notice The Doll episode on season 2- one of my fave episodes :D
+
You are welcome indeed to come here again, we're a very peaceful country lately, almost like Switzerland but without the cheese.



SEINFELD: "Vomitting is not a deal breaker. If H*tler had vomitted on Chamberlain, Chamberlain still would have given him Czechoslovakia."

GEORGE: "Chamberlain...you could hold his head in the toilet, he'd still give you half of Europe."

Seasonal change is the circle of life Brett, death and rebirth, so they say ;) Looking forward to the album a lot, you keep us interested ! I think the only pity that you're not in Suede anymore is that you probably won't play Groningen again. It was such a luxury in 95 to just take a ten minute bus trip and there was my favourite band :)

Anyway, some people want things to always stay the same, but it never does. Life is constantly changing and developing, transforming and meandering. And I guess so is your ouput - let's see ;)

i'm still determined to hear the album in its entirety, complete and unbiased by teasers and raw versions, just like the good old days. I succumbed to about a minute or so of the two songs played in South America courtesy of some diminished quality audience recordings on youtube...maybe i'm getting fussy in my old age but the days of doggedly seeking any or all footage regardless of quality seem to be over for me.... the seeds of this were no doubt sown during the Wilderness shows where the constant flood of identical audience shot photos was tiresome; so much so that no one show could be identified were all the (same) photos to have been grouped together somewhere.

That said, upon hearing the album i'd definately revisit the clips promised, coming at it from a reverse angle.

But no matter what direction Brett takes, no matter how an album is published and distributed, whether it be by the cold dead hand of a major label or the anderson family of friends personally delivering 50 copies apiece to independent back street record stores... there will ALWAYS be the same few cunts operating their sad tired whispering campaigns behind the scenes, the boasts and hints, the bullshit and superiority, the bonus points scored by being the High Priest to a diminishing band of sychophants still slavvishly believing every line peddled about being in possession of goodies, even before the presses have started running.
what these people hope to achieve is beyond a normal persons comprehension and I pity them, i really do.


I came here today because I thought this was a session on how my wife could learn to communicate, how to answer a question without a question, which I thought, given your wall of fucking diplomas, you could easily fix, or if you couldn’t, you could give her a pill that would either fix it or make her a mute.

niceness... sounds like the collage effect in the artwork reflects the compositions as well.. definitely interested to hear the new lyrical approach and i'm a sucker for instrumental orchestrations :)

***

TriniGourmet.com
[www.TriniGourmet.com]

Thanks for taking your time to write here :) I'm very excited about the new album...and looking forward to friday! :)

Tuluum Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> niceness... sounds like the collage effect in the
> artwork reflects the compositions as well..
> definitely interested to hear the new lyrical
> approach and i'm a sucker for instrumental
> orchestrations :)
>
> ***
>
> TriniGourmet.com
>

agreed. i think it's very important for an artist to sometimes abandon all safe roads, restructure his visions, and express himself within a detournement.



Madness! This love was a part of me, like my own flesh; it had taken the place of my blood and marrow; it possessed me entirely; it was I!

This is a very impressive post, Brett. Not only does it answer the perenial question "How is music made" but your description manages to make things mysterious and crystal clear at the same time. You must be thrilled to have undertaken a mysterious journey, meandering through places and ended up with what you now have. If it has echoes of "Spirit of Eden", then it's bound to be something good. And stuff the downloads, who wants to go to a shabby place when patience will reward us with not only the youtube films but also a disk with that beautiful artwork.

cheers to you xx


see you in Manchester!
[www.zebras54.com] update 20/01/10

Someone please have mercy to upload those clips to www.youku.com or www.tudou.com as youtube is blocked by the great fire wall here in China... Please! I am begging some kind souls out there!!

Can't wait to hear the new album! You magic always dazzles me, Brett! =)

brett anderson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> my single favorite moment on the album
> is actually an instrumental section which comes at
> the end of a song called Scarecrows and Lilacs. we
> had written the song and then Leo decided it
> needed to go somewhere else so he came up with a
> simply beautiful meandering coda section which
> still gives me goose-bumps. his choice of
> instrumentation was also inspired, edging me into
> accepting woodwind instead of the more
> conventional string sections and layering the
> songs with an Alladin's Cave of bizarre
> instruments. we even had a glass-keyed marimba
> specially made to create the sound that you will
> hear on another of my favorites, Ashes of Us .

Am really looking forward to this bit ... sounds beautiful.
Good luck with everything, man, and hope to see you in the States sometime soon promoting this.
Cheers ...



"Dear Casey, Your voice is like butter to our ears. Can you please find a way to get that audible chocolate on the air waves."

sounds interesting and i have to shadow mattis in his eno/ bowie comment as this was my first thought as well. really have no idea what this is gonna sound like which is new and exciting. i also have to say that i love that period of frenzied assessment. cant wait for ther youtube clips.



once, sat watching the door for you,
once, fell asleep on the floor for you,
waiting 'til you came home,
broken and cold to me,
once,

well brett you've come to a place where you seem to have a different relationship with your fanbase, like talking as we were in a pub or a tearoom and that makes you special.

good luck with anything

What are the dogs called?

bernard and richard:)



once, sat watching the door for you,
once, fell asleep on the floor for you,
waiting 'til you came home,
broken and cold to me,
once,

'I ate' and 'Fluffy'. ;)

I like the Brett understatements, it's not like him to be so humble.

Deconstructing ego is a real thinker.

I feel a brilliant album might be on the way.

Hi, I guess Im new here. I check the last post (as well as the others) and I agree with you TWJ. It takes one smart person to deconstruct one self and put the pieces back together. As well I think that the level of intimacy and momentum, achieved on the Wilderness album will be hardly ever repeated again, and that is a great thing. I would hate to hear Brett reppeating himself over and over every album after getting this far as an artist. Guess we will just have to wait until October.

and as O.Wilde said "wisdom comes with winters"


X

Always thought albums Brett makes are better suited to Autumn release.

Suede... Late Spring
Dog Man Star... Autumn
Coming Up... Autumn
Head Music... Summer
A New Morning... Autumn
Here Come The Tears... Early Summer
Brett Anderson... Early Summer
Wilderness... Summer, but staggered into Autumn

I just think the tours in support of the later released albums in late Autumn to Winter make them work better, the songs make more sense when it's a bit parky outside but warm in the venue.

[/rambling]

I simply love this tingling sensation of expectation! Waiting for a new release by your favourite artists is always thrilling, but after such a description of the work in the artist's own beautiful words, I'll be counting the days left to have the CD in my dirty little hands. Love and best wishes as always.

He should move to Sweden. We have winter all the time. :)

T82 is shocked by some of the posters of this forum....ALL SEASONS.



SEINFELD: "Vomitting is not a deal breaker. If H*tler had vomitted on Chamberlain, Chamberlain still would have given him Czechoslovakia."

GEORGE: "Chamberlain...you could hold his head in the toilet, he'd still give you half of Europe."

Smash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He should move to Sweden. We have winter all the
> time. :)

Yes, but you're there tho.

Well it's more important to be happy than to be successful isn't it. :)

nice to read this message. thanx. like the fact that the winter inspired u so much. thats my favourite season in a year. so curious about what it would actually sound like. can't wait for friday?! x

It won’t be hard to wait- I hate spoiling the experience by listening to the music before its actual release

Looking forward to hearing it

id say that the cover suggests a deconstruction of ego. yeah his music is definetly suited for the mood of fall



once, sat watching the door for you,
once, fell asleep on the floor for you,
waiting 'til you came home,
broken and cold to me,
once,

Joe Col Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> brett anderson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > my single favorite moment on the album
> > is actually an instrumental section which
> comes at
> > the end of a song called Scarecrows and
> Lilacs. we
> > had written the song and then Leo decided it
> > needed to go somewhere else so he came up
> with a
> > simply beautiful meandering coda section
> which
> > still gives me goose-bumps. his choice of
> > instrumentation was also inspired, edging me
> into
> > accepting woodwind instead of the more
> > conventional string sections and layering
> the
> > songs with an Alladin's Cave of bizarre
> > instruments. we even had a glass-keyed
> marimba
> > specially made to create the sound that you
> will
> > hear on another of my favorites, Ashes of Us
> .
>
> Am really looking forward to this bit ... sounds
> beautiful.
> Good luck with everything, man, and hope to see
> you in the States sometime soon promoting this.
> Cheers ...

--------------------------------------------------------
Totally agree. This sounds fascinating!!