- I would never do it just for the money, but would not have a problem with it if it was for the right reasons. Like if a member of Suede sent me a great piece of music, and I was inspired to write to it and felt we could make a great record. I'd do it if it didn't come across as sad, but that's a big if - I don't think bands can reform without it looking sad.
- The part about being in a band that had become tiring and repetitive for me was having your life mapped out for you, and this childish need to belong to something which tells you what to do all the time. I wanted to develop beyond being an emotionally immature person who just gets up and writes songs. This solo record has made me shoulder virtually all the responsibility. (On recording a solo album)
- They were the first band I loved. They're the most important band ever. They turned music on its head and reinvented what it was to be a performer. (On Sex Pistols)
- Because live music pays better than making records people are being rewarded for not being creative. Time spent in the studio creating new music is sacred to me. If you're rewarded for that less, that's not a good thing.
- When there's something really cheesy in the mainstream like The X Factor it inspires something in the counter culture to oppose it. The interesting flipside is with people like Bat For Lashes - people making exciting left-field music. It's a reaction to the dross in the mainstream.
- Bands reforming then doing new albums - it's very hard to do it well. I'm not sure anyone's done it. People want to hear the songs from the band's heyday. We've got a duty to the fans not to ruin the legacy.
- I see bands we've influenced in terms of spirit. I was talking to Jamie from The Klaxons yesterday and he said he was a huge fan when Suede first started and we inspired him. I've heard the same from Kele from Bloc Party. It's lovely to have passed on that inspiration. That's what we got the Q Award for. I was inspired by the Sex Pistols and The Smiths when I was a kid. It's nice to be part of that chain. Pop music is a beautiful, powerful force and it needs to be kept in good hands.
- I have no interest in writing about the Britpop years. I can't think of anything more tedious. It's so obvious. How many more idiots do you want talking about it?
- I hate it when you see famous people complaining about their lot because it's in the nature of what they wanted in the first place. You can't accept the adoration, then complain about the intrusion. It's part of the pact you've entered. There is a sinister side which I've had experience of but you have to accept it if you excite people.
- They didn't want us there but, as we were hip, they had to acknowledge us. It was a very spiteful, vitriolic performance, an expression of our hatred for the music industry. (On appearing at the Brit Awards in 1994)
- It amused me to read we'd been styled. We developed junk shop chic 'cause we were on the dole.
- I really enjoyed meeting Bowie (David Bowie) and we've kept in contact. We made him hip again. At the time, no one liked his new music. Our record went to No 1, then his knocked us off. (On appearing with David Bowie on the front of the NME in 1993)
- [Richard Oakes. Is it glandular?] [laughing helplessly] I can't answer that one. I can't answer that one.
- [If you were stuck on a desert island with the rest of the band, who would you eat first?] Ha ha... I think Richard's got the most meat. I don't think I'd eat Mat. Mat would be very stringy and he's also got very bad levels of personal hygiene. Mat's got the worst-looking feet you'll ever see in your life. So Mat would be last. Mat's safe.
- [Do you think any PR is good PR?] No, not at all. I think lots of PR is really bad PR. In the early days of suede, it was that whole thing of not being experienced enough and we did a lot of things that we should never have done. Lots of awful interviews and lots of things we were pushed into. But we'd basically walked off the dole and it was really exciting, so we did it. We were having a good time.
- [What are scarier: Spiders or snakes?] Probably snakes. I have no fear of spiders whatsoever. But snakes can be pretty grim. It's quite scary to go swimming in the sea and see a sea snake. The idea of treading on one...
- [At Hayward's Heath Sixth Form College you used to swan around pretending to be David Bowie. Popular, were you?] What are your readers like? I've never swanned around pretending to be anyone. I just used to wear a yellow suit. I think I looked more like Cliff Richard than David Bowie, actually. But yes, I was popular.
- [Do all the members of Suede get paid the same?] No. We're pretty democratic about things, but it comes down to writing. However a song is written - if anyone has contributed to any part of it - then they get an amount. We take each song as separate case, we don't just split it equal ways. If tomorrow Richard wrote all the words and everything else, then he'd get more money than the rest of us.
- [Espresso machine, cafetiere or jar of Mellow Birds?] Espresso machine without a doubt. I'm an absolute coffee addict, the stronger the better. I love shots of espresso.
- [Did you and Damon Albarn really leave love bites on Justine Frischmann as a weird from of communication?] No.
- [You don't like smile in photos. Is it for dental reason?] No, I've got a good set of gnashers. My teeth aren't too bad. I just don't particularly like myself when I smile. I look a bit ... a bit sad.
- [You studied architecture at university. Tell us about a really great building.] There's a church in Ronchamp, France which was built by Le Corbusier. It's almost like this fairy-tale thing. It's got a huge, oversized roof which looks like it's much too heavy for the building, and these tiny little coloured windows. It looks like something out of Hansel and Gretel. It's really charming design, and I'm sure architecture students who knew more about it than me could go into detail about why it's much more than just a charming design. But Ronchamp is the pinnacle of architecture so far.
- [Quite a few years ago, Q printed a photograph of you sitting on your bed surrounded by lots of LPs. I noticed one of them was Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle. Are you partial to a bit of Bruce?] I love Bruce Springsteen. He's made some great records. I used to love Born In The USA when I was 15 or 16. There's a couple of really good tracks on that, Darlington County and I'm On Fire. And I like some of the ones like The River, Hungry Heart.... That album, The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle, is one of those perfect albums you can just listen to as an album. So yeah, I think he's excellent.
- [Did you look at the photos of Kevin Rowland and think, That's a bad idea?] I don't know, it's a difficult one, isn't it? He's trying to express himself and that's commendable, but it looks a bit creepy. If someone's going to dress how they want that's totally fine, but I'm not sure if it's having the effect he wants.
- [Is it true that Mat [Osman] has had his tongue pierced like Mel G?] [loudest laugh of the day] No, he's had his knob pierced, though.
- [How much would you pay for the negatives of that first Suede picture with you in the stripey top and Justine wearing tracksuit bottoms?] Ha Ha! Why, have they got it? Is that [question] from a photographer? I don't think the photo is that bad. There are some worse ones. There's a cover of the Melody Maker where I was with the girl from Silverfish, and I'd pay quite a bit for those negatives.
- [You're eating in tonight. What are you cooking?] My favourite thing to cook is blackened tuna. It's something I discovered in the Caribbean. It's one of the nicest dishes in the world. Put paprika on the side of tuna and stick it in a grill.
- [Do you always dress like you're in Suede?] Emmm... no, I don't really. I wear lots of parkas and stuff like that. When I'm just living my life, I don't ponce around in Suede-y clothes particularly. I like to sit around and eat curry and drink beer with my hood up.
- [Bernard Butler once said that if Brett is ever asked his opinion about a band he really dislikes, he makes a point of saying, They're alright. What do you think of Bernard Butler's solo career?] It's alright.
- [Is it true that when you were doing Dog Man Star, Bernard Butler moved to another studio and sent his parts on tapes that included whispered taunts?] Yes, it is true. Oh.... taunts? There was some whispering on it. I'm not sure if they were taunts.
- [What is your favourite Blur album and why?] I don't know any of them.
- [Was it daunting taking the stage at V99 after the Stereophonics, bearing in mind they are now more successful than you?] Not particularly, I didn't have a problem with the Stereophonics. I like lots of their songs and I've spoken to the blokes a couple of times, so it wasn't like a big antagonistic thing. I knew they were a popular band and I thought what they were doing was good. But honestly, I don't think anyone can compare to suede on a good day. I was quite confident about it and I think it was a pretty good gig
- [Have you ever been seriously stalked?] Well, sort of. I had some problems a few years ago when I was living up in Ladbroke Grove. Someone got my hold of my address, and for some reason they decided to daub my address everywhere - up and down the street, all round the tube stations in London. "Brett Anderson lives at this address. Go and bother him." I'm not really sure who it was, but I've got a few ideas. Things do get out of hand sometimes.
- [Have you ever been in an orgy?] [sniffs] Might have been.
- [You always wear a really cool black and silver ring. Who gave it to you?] [holds up knuckle] That one? I bought it. It's silver and green. Actually, I bought it from a shop called Agnes B. It's a very standard, run of the mill, high-street ring. I'm not sure if you can still get them, but you're welcome to try.
- [What was the first rude word you learned?] Wanker.
- [Have you ever taken revenge on someone, and if so, what did you do?] No, I've never taken revenge on anyone. I've never been that way inclined. I think by taking actual, bitter, aggressive revenge on someone, it's like taking revenge on yourself. The only revenge you can take on people is to transcend wanting to take revenge on them, I suppose, and succeed in your own right. So no, my mind doesn't really work that way.
- [on Suede's song "She's Not Dead"] [My aunt] had this lover and he was black and Hayward's Heath is a small town and in the early '80s I guess it was very taboo. And basically they committed joint suicide together. They drove a car into a garage and just turned the exhaust on and killed themselves.
- [on Suede's song "Animal Nitrate"] I had this schoolboy-ish fantasy to sneak an overtly sexual song with the framework of pop. I was amazed it got daytime radio play, considering the title is a play on amyl nitrate.
- People think about gay sex and never really think about it romantically. They see sadness, romance and loss as purely a heterosexual thing. There's a definite domestic violence feel to 'Animal Nitrate.' But behind that there's a real sadness.
- [on Suede's drummer Simon Gilbert, their only gay band member] The straightest-appearing member of the band.
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