Okay, I have a couple of questions for you.
Let's begin.
First of all, many things have changed in popular music during these years.
And I was wondering, how do you recall that initial tumultuous period with Suede?
And this present time, what has changed and what remains?
Oh my God, everything's changed.
It's weird, the music industry.
The industry has changed entirely. It's a completely different thing.
But the music doesn't change.
What music does and how it affects people is completely different.
I think nowadays, with the advent of the internet and streaming and stuff...
I mean, for older bands like us, I think it's been amazing.
You know what I mean? When we first played in Chile in 2013, I think.
Something like that.
A country that we'd never been to.
And to have thousands of teenagers singing every word to every song.
There's no way that could have happened 20 years before.
That's a generation who are learning about music through streaming.
Which is brilliant for us.
Because we tour a lot and all those things.
What it's done to younger bands is the exact opposite.
It's made it almost impossible to make a living out of making music...
unless you have rich parents.
It's turned it into a kind of a rich kids game.
In Britain, when I see record company things, it's public school.
So, it would be childish for me.
Like I said, for us it's been fantastic.
We can go to China and Kuala Lumpur and Chile and Ukraine.
We can go to these places.
And people know the music and they connect with you in a real way.
But what it means for the future of music, I think, is much more concerning.
Yes, and you know, it's very good for us.
For my generation, the ones that were kids when we listened to Suede for the first time.
To watch you over the years, you know.
It took many, many decades to see you live.
And we were hoping, but we just saw the videos.
And we didn't have the chance, you know.
So, it's very good.
And I was wondering also, what happens to you when Suede disbanded in 2003?
I think there's a story of Brett Anderson telling you, this is it, no more.
How was that time to you?
I was wondering if you decided to become a writer at that time?
Or it was a previous thing, a parallel thing?
What happened?
Yeah, no, no.
I mean, that's when I decided to be a writer.
You know, it's kind of...
I'd always had quite a romantic idea of being a writer.
What I love about it is that you don't need any equipment.
You know what I mean?
All you need is a brain and a pen.
And I love that idea, that you can kind of make a life out of just making stuff up.
That seems right.
I mean, the band splitting up was the best thing that ever happened to us.
We wouldn't be here now, making the kind of records we do, if we didn't have a few years away from it.
Because when we came back, you suddenly realise what's important.
You know, you learn how fragile it is.
And you learn what a privilege it is to be able to fly around the world playing your songs.
You know what I mean?
And every time we go into a new record now, or a new gig, or a tour, or whatever,
it's with the knowledge that these things are fragile.
And this could easily be the last one.
You know what I mean?
And it just ups the stakes so much.
And I think our quality control has got really high.
Because it's just like, this matters, you know what I mean?
It's not a job, it's not an everyday thing.
You know, it's something kind of sacred.
Good.
What were the elements that brought the band together in 2010?
You said something about, you know, taking lessons out of life, I think.
You know what, in 2010, it wasn't really that.
We got offered to do a gig for the Teenage Cancer Trust,
which Roger Daltrey puts on every year at the Royal Albert Hall.
And we hadn't thought about reforming at all.
But it came up, the idea came up, and it was like, oh, this is perfect.
Because it had kind of like ended so kind of, we just kind of faded out.
There was this idea, this would be a perfect full stop.
You know, no one can accuse us of doing it for the money,
because it was all for charity, it cost us a fortune.
And we'll come in, we'll play one perfect gig of all our favourite songs,
and then we'll just go our separate ways again.
And it was literally on stage, about halfway through the gig,
it was just like, oh no, I can't stop doing this again.
You know what I mean?
I'd kind of forgotten what the feeling was like when you do a really good gig,
and when people want you to be good and people love it.
You know, it's an incredible feeling.
Literally halfway through, there's a moment where we look at each other
and you can see us going, all right, here we go again.
That's incredible, you know, because it's like an epiphany,
but also you forgot what was in the past,
what had brought you in the past as a live band.
Yeah, totally, totally. I'd just forgotten the physical pleasure of it.
You know, the noise of it and a crowd jumping up and down in front of you
and that connection, that incredible connection between you and 5,000 people.
It's such a weird experience that you don't get anywhere else.
There's a reason why so few people actually give it up.
Normally people get retired, they don't retire.
Now there are many songs from the Autofiction record that are played live by the band recently.
How was the creation of these songs?
Because there are a number of elements of Brett's personal life,
and of course the coincidence of his two memoir books.
Yeah, I mean, I think...
I mean, we rehearsed the record during lockdown
and it was kind of necessity the way it worked, I think.
We didn't have any crew or anyone working with us,
so it was just the five of us in a room.
So that's one of the reasons why I think it sounds quite raw
and there's no overdubs or anything like that.
And I think we had been through a period of reflection
and there's lots on that record
which is about young people looking forward
at what's going to happen to them and older people looking back
and looking at a new Brett when he was 15,
looking at the kind of innocence and passion
and just thinking about whether you can recapture that
and whether it still burns in you or whether it doesn't.
Is it comfortable to wear that suit?
The suit of a young one when you're over 15?
It's such a strange experience.
I mean, one of the things about being in a band
is that you're constantly confronted with your younger self.
You know what I mean?
There's pictures of you and there's videos of you
when you're young and you're pretty.
And you have to really make sure that you're not trying to recapture that.
There are certain things that are just for young people.
You know what I mean?
And the way the band was, the kind of sensation of the band
and the press coverage and just the hysteria
that's about a generation thing.
It's about being the first band for a lot of people, being the favourite band.
It's really important when you...
I'm in my 50s now, very soon in my 50s.
It's important that you keep the kind of passion
and the energy and the excitement that you get from music.
It's important that you keep that.
But I think what Brett does really well
is he doesn't sing about 20-year-old people's things.
He sings about family and he sings about relationships,
long-term relationships.
There's a song about his mother also.
Yeah, exactly, about all of these things.
And you just have to trust the fact that
if there's an emotional core to the song,
then it will mean something to everyone.
It's interesting you mention that.
She still leads me on.
It's a song about his mum.
It's deeply personal.
But I know so many people for whom it's not about his mum.
It's about their relationship or it's about their wife
or it's about their kids.
You know what I mean?
Because at the heart of it,
it's about loss and it's about yearning.
And you don't have to be 50 to have felt those things.
You know what I mean?
Of course.
Relationship, you know.
Yeah, of course.
What are your feelings about these two very different scenarios
you have in Chile this week?
You have one is Movistar Arena in Santiago,
closed venue,
and the possibility of being at REC Festival in Concepción,
which is huge, windy, biggest free festival in the region, I think.
I don't think there is something that big in South America for free.
What are your feelings about it?
I'm so stoked.
I'm really excited for it.
It's the perfect combination.
I love playing the big festivals where people haven't seen you before.
You know what I mean?
I love new people coming to the band, young people coming to the band.
You know what I mean?
When we were younger, we didn't.
We liked to be adored.
But nowadays, I quite like having to win people over.
I quite like people going,
OK, we'll go and see what they're like.
Because I think we're good.
You know what I mean?
And I think we put on a show.
Having said that, knowing that we're going to do the Santiago gig,
where I think people will know every song,
and we can do a load of auto-fiction stuff,
and we can do B-sides and stuff like that,
it's a pretty good combination.
I think the two sides of being a band are there,
that tight little obsessive community,
and then just the big playing the hits thing.
Last year, the 30th anniversary edition of Dogman's Star,
the second record by the band,
did you listen to it again?
What happens to you when you check songs like The Wild Ones,
Heroin, New Generation?
I didn't listen to it a lot.
There was a couple of the additional tracks that I went back to
and had a little listen to.
I mean, those songs are kind of like fingerprints to me.
You know what I mean?
They're kind of ingrained in me.
I don't really need to listen to them to hear them,
if that makes any sense.
And that being said, if you were to pick two or three songs,
which would be your favourite ones?
Do you feel the same, for instance, for tunes you created?
Attitude, Golden Gun?
I would say...
I love Everything Will Flow.
There's just something about that song that I can remember the day we made it.
That weird thing that you get every now and then,
where the sum of what four people are playing
turns into something completely different that none of you had intended.
And still now, it's one of those songs that just...
the hairs rise on the back of my neck.
I really love Shadow Self from the last record.
It just feels like something we've never...
never really done before.
You know what I mean?
And that's really exciting to me,
to be this deep into, you know, kind of nine albums in.
And to come out of the studio and go,
oh, wow, we've never done anything like that before,
which is quite an achievement.
I really like Life Is Gold.
That's one that, more than anything, the reason I love it
is just the way it connects with an audience.
It has a message that we've played it in...
we've played it in China and Finland and, you know,
just the furthest places from London, and people get it.
You know, there's always someone in the audience for whom
it means something quite important.
And that connection, especially connection with people
whose English isn't their first language,
it's still magical to me every time it happens.
I don't know if you know this story,
but there's a very famous kids' show in Chile
from the 90s called Cachudeos.
Do you know that story?
Weirdly, I was talking to another journalist
who knew that song long before he heard Suede.
And when he heard The Beautiful Ones, he was like,
why are they covering this?
This is the weirdest thing for a British band to do.
You know, it's definitely out of place completely
whether they get the song to play it,
because there's... no, it's very different.
But it's the same and it's recognised.
It's incredible.
It's so strange.
It was actually Mariana Enriquez, the novelist,
Argentinian novelist, she sent it to us.
And everyone's just like, what's going on?
I don't remember approving this.
Well, there's a definition there about the fan
in Mariana Enriquez's work.
Did you like the book?
She wrote, being her, definitely a huge fan of the band.
The most annoying thing is that the latest one,
the one about being a fan, hasn't been translated into English.
So all her novels have and the short stories have,
so I haven't read it.
I mean, she kind of showed me a couple of bits of it beforehand
that people had done like praise to you.
But I mean, she's fantastic.
She's absolutely great.
She's a wonderful writer and really interesting
about fandom and stuff like that.
I really hope it comes out in English,
otherwise I'm going to have to learn Spanish
and that could be a problem.
That would be good. Very, very good.
Now, Matt, finally, The Ghost Theatre,
your most recent novel, picks up many ideas
that I think you recollected on the road,
but I think that you were also worried to create something
out of the musician's head, distance from that.
Can you tell us about this process?
It is indeed a story from way back in the past, I think.
Yeah, but weirdly, it's about actors
and it's about magic.
And I always, I end up seeing things
through the lens of kind of performance.
I'm constantly, constantly interested in performers
and what it is we're actually doing
and what masks we wear and how it affects us.
Weirdly, the central idea for the book came from,
you know, Kristen Hirsch of The Throwing Muses.
She wrote a fantastic autobiography
and she talks about the first kind of like 20 gigs
she did with The Throwing Muses.
She doesn't remember a minute of them.
She walks on stage, she blacks out,
she played the whole gig
and afterwards she had to ask people,
what did I say? What did we sing?
And the minute I read that, I was like,
I want to write about this, about where it is
that actors and musicians and painters,
where do they go when they're making stuff
and who's driving the bus?
You know what I mean? When that happens.
So I wanted to write something that wasn't set
in the present day and wasn't about musicians
so that I couldn't just rely on kind of
reminiscences and stories.
But it still ended up being about performance
and magic.
Performance and artistry and all that.
All those things, because it's all I really know.
Okay, Matt. One more mention.
Richard Rossman is very famous here.
His books have been translated too.
So we read a lot.
I imagine that we can have your two books here
soon enough to read them.
But I wish you luck.
And I wanted to ask you one last thing.
An ID for our radio station. Is it possible?
Yeah, of course it is.
You say your name, that you're from Sweden
and you're listening to Radio Futuro.
That is the name of the station.
Hello, everyone. This is Matt from Swede
and you're listening to Radio Futuro.
That is very good, Matt Rossman.
Thank you very much for this conversation.
Thank you, Patricia. That was great.
Thank you.
Goodbye.