The New Cue #500 June 16: Elbow's Guy Garvey
"At the very best, it’s ‘I bequeath you enjoyment’"
Hello,
It’s Monday morning but here to make you feel like it’s not Monday morning is British indie-rock’s most reassuring presence, Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, a hugely loveable, wise gem of a man. He also has a lovely singing voice, a very good bonus in his line of work, but he puts his soulful croon to one side on his band’s excellent new EP Audio Vertigo Echo, instead resurrecting the darker singing patterns of Elbow’s early songs, where they sounded like a sort of tranquiliser Pink Floyd-Massive Attack hybrid.
I spoke to Guy on the phone last week (hello, Niall here) and before we got stuck into our Life & Times questions, he told me about the EP’s standout track, Dis-Graceland 463-465 Bury New Road, a song recounting a bohemian hub where the band’s late friend and Manchester musician Bryan Glancy lived. The track’s melodic hook was written by Doves’ Jimi Goodwin.
“A couple of tunes on the EP started a long time ago and I couldn’t get words for them,” Guy explained. “It was musically too far out compared to where we were at the time. Jimi and me have sung on each other’s records for 20 years, and I co-wrote some of his solo album with him, he’s like my brother. I said to the lads, ‘Shall I see if Jimi’s got anything for this?’ and he didn’t have any words, but he sung that vocal melody down. We’ve had it sat there for about seven years.”
“Dis-Graceland was where Bryan Glancy, the seldom seen kid, lived. He never had central heating. Part of me thought, I’m still writing about Bryan and it’s 20 years next year since he died. Part of me wants to draw a line under it. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but every time I think I’ve written my last song about Bryan, I write another one…”
Why not have a listen to the EP whilst taking in Guy’s very enjoyable Life & Times interview? Here it is:
Beginning later this week, Elbow are playing a number of big outdoor shows in the UK this summer. You can head here for dates and ticket details.
This edition is free for all to read, as is the case every Monday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be an absolute hero and become a paying subscriber to The New Cue. It costs £5 a month and will earn you legendary status in my eyes and Ted’s.
Enjoy the edition,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Guy Garvey
What was the first record you loved?
Captain Beaky and his band, a kid’s record. “The bravest animals in the land are Captain Beaky and his band.”
What was the last record you loved?
I heard Tyler Ballgame on Lauren Laverne show yesterday afternoon. I’ve heard his name kicking around because it’s a good name and I fucking loved the song, it’s called Help Me Out. It sounds like Roy Orbison but it’s fresh.
What’s your earliest memory?
I think I remember my brother being born. I was two. I remember the leatherette at the backseat of our Vauxhall Viva and I remember my mum gave me a box of Matchmakers when she was still laid up in the hospital bed post-birth.
What’s your daily domestic routine?
At the moment because I’m in Manchester, working with the boys, it’s breakfast, rehearse with the lads, go to the pub. But when I’m at home, it’s up with the lad, drive him to school, into the studio and work on Elbow material or one of several other projects I’m doing and then get together for tea. Then me and the missus watch telly, or if she’s not around, I listen to Le Carre novels as audiobooks while smoking tabs and drinking wine in the back garden.
Who or what is the love of your life?
Rachael Atlanta Stirling is the love of my life. It’s our ninth anniversary today. She’s wonderful. She keeps me on my toes. She’s funny as fuck, and we have different enough life experiences to this point, her being posh and me not being, to have something to talk about hopefully for at least another nine years. She bullied me into fatherhood and I will forever thank her because our Jack’s fucking mint.
What’s your worst habit?
Opening a second bottle of wine at 1am.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
I have to say, rehearsing these old tunes. We’re putting lots more old Elbow songs in the set and we rehearsed Newborn yesterday. I felt like this about myself, ‘Ah, weren’t you a serious young man?’. It still sonically moves me as it always did, but I look at the lyrics with a fond nostalgia. So I’ll say yesterday, rehearsing our old gear and still looking at the same lovely faces across the room.
Has anyone you’ve ever met made you feel starstruck?
Polly Harvey. I’ve met her on several occasions and every time I talk bollocks. We had a long-haul plane where we were sat too close for her to ignore me, and she went to sleep listening to Laughing Stock, I saw it on her iPod. In the morning, she woke up to me watching Barry Lyndon, and she said, ‘That’s my favourite film ever.’ And I said, ‘You went sleep listening to my favourite record ever’. And then we had a bit of a freer chat. But before then, just gibberish.
What’s your pet peeve?
People saying ‘enjoy’ when you’ve been served something by them. I always want to say, ‘I fucking might...’. It’s some kind of weird power grab. At the very best, it’s ‘I bequeath you enjoyment’ and at the very worst, it’s almost like ‘Under His Eye’ in The Handmaid’s Tale, pseudo mystical, patronising. Fuck off with your ‘enjoy’.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I’m writing a musical.
What are you scared of?
I’m a bad passenger in a car, particularly if I’m hungover. I’m waiting to die all the time I’m in a car. For some reason, tour buses, I’m fine.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
My stock answer has always been the Woodstock Festival, but I don’t think that’s true anymore. I’d probably go back to Chelsea Hotel-era in the 60s, go and check out young Dylan and young Joni, have a look at all those guys that kind of influenced my life choices. I’d like to see that firsthand.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
To enjoy it a bit more. I was a very serious young man, and I absolutely love my life. As my mum, who is approaching 90, is so fond of saying if you ask her she’s OK, ‘I’ve never been happier in my life’. I’ve lost a few mates, lost a couple of family members, but at this moment in time, everybody’s well and everybody’s happy and I’d tell 18-year-old me that it’s going to be alright, try and enjoy the ride a bit more.
What one book would you recommend our readers read?
Everything We Do Is Music by Elizabeth Alker. It’s just coming out. She spent two years writing it. She’s the cleverest person I know, and she’s encyclopedically knowledgeable about all music and she’s just got an amazing gift on the page. I didn’t know music could fascinate me this much afresh after all these years. It’s great.
What was the home you grew up in like?
Five women, six including my mum, five sisters, two up, two down, so crowded, one Hi-Fi, everyone tip-toeing around because my dad was a night shift worker, and then when he gone to work, very loud prog rock. The rest, as they say...
How do you spark creativity?
Just start. If you think about it too much, you’ll talk yourself out of it, so sit down, scribble something on a pad, or start a voice note and start making noises with your mouth. There’s no other way to do it. If you sit procrastinating, wasting your own time, it puts you off. Songs can take a year to write, and then some of the best songs are written in under a minute.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Mano McLaughlin, who is an undervalued songwriter in Manchester, said, ‘The song is all’. It doesn’t matter what you’re known for, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done before. Your only duty is to the piece of work that you’re creating. And your first and foremost duty should be to the song.
What talent would you most like to have?
I’d love to be a trumpet player.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Well, it’s obviously going to be our Jack in it so aside from the boyo, winning the Mercury in 2008. I still pinch myself.