An Interview with Malcolm Middleton

You’ve been in a band, worked in a collective, collaborated with numerous artists and this month sees you come to Norwich with your solo acoustic tour, ‘Long Dark Night’ - with just you on the bill, can it be a lonely period?

No, I quite enjoy it; I’m really looking forward to getting in my car and traveling up and down the country. I’ve got Sat Nav, so I won’t get lost and I’ll play my music really loud in the car. It might turn out to be quite lonely; you’d have to ask me at the end of the tour…

Looking back, you embarked upon your solo career four years before Arab Strap split up, so what message were you trying to get across that you couldn’t say within the band?

Well, I was just the instrumentalist in Arab Strap really; I just played the guitar and Aidan was the frontman, y’know, he was the one writing the lyrics and I thought, ‘I have to get this out’, because I wasn’t expressing myself fully in the band.

I’ve read that you said hearing those songs back is like “hearing an old friend who was severely depressed, desperate and unhappy”, so without meaning to sound like Oprah Winfrey, what was the turning point for you?

Erm, I think at the time, the turning point was writing the songs; I managed to laugh myself out of the situation I was in which was quite negative. Because it was so negative, I wrote about how negative it was and it made me laugh, ‘cause the songs are written sort of tongue-in-cheek and they’re meant to have a laugh at themselves, so it made me realize how pathetic the situation was – that itself was a turning point.

Obviously your songwriting is a real form of catharsis for you, and from that, it seems like your personal journey is well documented because you exorcise your demons quite publicly, but with ‘A Brighter Beat’, it was quite a landmark moment – does it signify a happier chapter?

Erm, it’s weird because it’s definitely more emotionally stable than the previous two records, I mean, I don’t normally write about relationships, but I’ve been in a happy, stable relationship for about the last six or seven years and I think most of the stuff I write about now is just lack of contentment, maybe, with my place in life, or figuring out what I should be doing, or that I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got or that I’m trying to figure out the answers.

Songs like ‘Stay Close Sit Tight’ and ‘Death Love Depression Love Death’ are maybe signatories of the darker times – is that to keep some cohesion with the earlier material, or are they still matters you need to get off your chest?

No, it’s more like – especially with the album ‘A Brighter Beat’ – I was quite happy at the time, but that album was more about the lulls of depression, like you get the mundane things on a Tuesday morning… I don’t mean now, even though it’s Tuesday morning! It was more about the mid-week afternoon types of depression, rather than being floored by something bigger. Since then, I do only tend to write when I’m feeling a certain way, so it tends to come across as seriously quite negative, but I just write about how I feel at that moment and hopefully someone else can relate to it at a certain point.

When it comes to writing your songs, do you write the lyrics first and then the music, as the words and melody often seem to juxtapose each other?

It’s done in a number of different ways; sometimes it’s me and my guitar trying to sing along with the music, or I’ll have a line and I’ll try and get music to go along with it, but most of the time, I’ll have a guitar part worked out and I’ll wait to see what lyrics shape up. I’ve got a program on my computer that I can put the music on and then work out the lyrics next.

Is a lot done electronically? Your upcoming acoustic tour seems a world away from that, but does the process usually involve computers?

It has been for a few years, I mean, with the last album, I think maybe half the songs were written on the computer and I’m not sure, it’s not like my goal or anything to have the music done electronically, but I just kinda wait and see, I mean, some of them obviously don’t work that way.

So if someone’s first introduction to you was the song ‘Red Travellin’ Socks’, which has that juxtaposition I was talking about, they might not appreciate the weight of feeling you’re famous for, as it’s a little more light-hearted; is this an indication of a direction you’re hoping to go in?

Erm, no! I don’t know what direction I’m going in next, but ‘Red Travellin’ Socks’ is the result of being away on tour quite a lot, singing quite depressing songs; I came home and just wanted to write something quite stupid, so I started singing about socks and while the song isn’t just about socks – there’s quite a bit more to it – I’m not sure it’s the best introduction to what I’m doing, because I’m not even sure what that would be.

It’s been well reported that you want to sort of split up from yourself and stop recording as Malcolm Middleton and start doing something else, but how far into that idea have you got?

I’m not entirely sure, I mean, the way I’m seeing it is that once I’ve finished doing this acoustic tour in November and December, I’m gonna stop for a bit, but I’m not actually gonna stop, like stop breathing, or stop working or stop trying stuff. I do want to do something different, but in a way, I do like what I’ve done under my own name and I’m proud of it – especially this year – but for the last few albums I think I have been quite unenthusiastic and quite cynical about it. I feel quite bad about that, because I don’t think it’s fair to berate your own style of music, but I definitely think I need to change my way of thinking about it, like, what I’m doing, otherwise there’ll just be another stupid press release of negativity! I do want to step outside my own shoes for a bit and not do these kind of songs. I’m not sure… the first week in January I’ll probably be just staring at the walls for a long time, thinking ‘what the hell am I going to do now?’ It’s quite exciting, I mean, I’m quite excited about doing stuff, but I’m also quite excited about doing something maybe 2 or 3 years down the line with a blank notebook, maybe trying to express a different part of my character.

I really appreciate the self-deprecating reviews section on your website, where you’ve edited and shortened the reviews so they look almost negative, but do reviews actually mean anything to you, or do you treat them all with blithe humour?