Interview: The Stranglers

It didn’t come as much of a surprise to see that The Stranglers are once again playing in Bristol. It also didn’t come as a surprise to see the show sell out. The band are now revered as one of the most exciting, credible and influential bands to have emerged from the British new wave scene. We caught up with bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel to discuss the upcoming dates.

The concept behind this tour makes a lot of sense, how did the idea come about?

We like to play live really, we’re one of the greatest bands in the world for live. It’s our life-blood and we have to play. Although this year we’re preparing a new record so we’re not going to play so many dates. Every March for the last few years The Stranglers have played a UK tour. It’s become part of our annual calendar really. When you’ve done seventeen studio albums you’ve got an awful lot of material to choose from. It’s always frustrating that you can play for a few hours and only scratch the surface of what you’d like to play for people. So this yearly tour lets us mix things up.

I guess there’s the chance to try some new tracks as well?

Yes it gives us the chance to try different stuff and experiment. We can also try out one or two new pieces on an unsuspecting public. It’s almost better to play something live before you record it to see how it works. Although by the time I get back to my hotel room it will be all over YouTube as a brand new song, it won’t have that much resemblance to the finished thing so it’s not that simple. The March tour has become so embedded that people come from all over the world to see it. We’ve got Japanese, American’s and people from all over Europe. It’s become a regular fixture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfIgA-PYyQ

It coincides with the re-release of your first seven albums, are you excited to see those back on the shelves?

Firstly it has nothing to do with The Stranglers except we recorded those tracks. Although I’m definitely into recycling so if the record company feels that this is their way of exploiting those records then fine. It’s a bit cynical from their point of view but from my point of view it’s just recycling. In these days of disposable stuff everything it’s good to see the physical thing again. Some of those albums are forty years old which is weird. We’re re-releasing everything on vinyl, people have realised that vinyl is better than CD sonically.

Going back to the live show, you’ve always switched up the setlist from night to night, do you still like to have that element of surprise?

Well yes that’s part of the fun of it and it keeps us interested as well. There’s nothing worse than seeing a band that’s just going through the motions. The Stranglers are not a cabaret band. We have the luxury of an embarrassment of choice. With seventeen studio albums it’s good to be able to surprise audiences. We find ourselves re-learning tracks from the early days. Some of them are in the muscle memory but occasionally you have to sit down and relearn the parts.

How have the crowds have changed over the years, from the pub circuit through to the Academy circuit?

Yes the pub circuit was the only thing available to a band like us. Then of course the ambition was to move up to the college circuit. We get a lot of young people out to our shows. There’s a lot of people who’ve grown up with us and there’s a whole new audience in the last fifteen years. I think it’s coincided with a lot of music becoming entertainment and variety. A lot of the cooler youngsters have reacted against that. YouTube has given a greater access to the past so they can discover older bands like us. All of our past misdemeanours like being arrested, punch-ups, run-ins with the police is now seen as a badge of honour because a lot of people are clinical and sterile.

There was a famous fight that took place between The Stranglers, The Clash, The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, what happened there?

It was just a punch up between myself and the bass player from The Clash, Paul Simonon. Unfortunately it polarised everyone because it was in front of everyone. The Stranglers were asked to represent London in the American bicentenary in 1976. So we were chosen over all of the other bands at the time. There was a punch up between me and Paul even though we’d been friendly beforehand. So everyone was on the side of The Ramones, The Clash, The Pistols, The Pretenders and the press. The Stranglers were alone on the other side and thereafter it remained polarised. There was a lot of tension. It pissed everyone off that we were outselling all of those bands put together. They didn’t like that.

Lastly, could you let us know how your new material coming together?

In the usual way, it’s a bit of a struggle. Some things come easier than others. There’s not shortage of subject material. When you’ve been around for so long you don’t want to repeat yourself. So you don’t want to plagiarise yourself and also you want to retain an edge musically and melodically. You want to be interesting which can be a challenge. I think we always have been politically driven. I don’t want to ram it down people’s throats but I’m not partisan to any party. I think just observing what’s going on in the world is the duty of every artist.

The Stranglers play Bristol’s O2 Academy on March 15. Tickets are now sold out.