Mark: Hi, Glenn, how are you? I must admit to being a long term fan of Squeeze, takes me back to my youth, and to find you guys coming over for the first time since you reformed is great!
Glenn: Yeah, I think we did that one tour of Australia in 1980, I think!
Mark: It’s been a very long time! It’ll be great to see you back here.
Glenn: I’m so looking forward to it.
Mark: Did you ever make it over here as a solo artist?
Glenn: I’ve done quite a lot of solo stuff and have been around a few small clubs, and I really enjoyed being over there, my two eldest sons grew up in Brisbane, and my eldest is now back in Melbourne, and so yes, I’ve spent a lot of time over there.
Mark: It is a wonderful place to be, I think you hit Perth on the 1st of May, although start on the 26th of April at The Tivoli, in Brisbane.
Glenn: Are you in Perth?
Mark: Yes, we’re based here in Perth. Because it’s been such a long time between visits, and a lot of music has happened between those times, and I know from the UK tour you’ve been playing stuff from the two new albums, are you looking at playing a different set list for us to allow us to catch up a little bit??
Glenn: That’s a good question! We haven’t actually addressed that issue yet, and our rehearsals start nearer to the time, but my information is that we will certainly do a few different songs.
Mark: One of the things that always intrigued me about yourself, and Squeeze, was that you always wrote the melodies and Chris wrote the lyrics, yet when I heard your solo stuff I thought you were a very good lyricist yourself! How did that all come about?
Glenn: Thank you, well, I was fifteen when I met Chris, and he was so much more of a natural lyricist than I was, and I was certainly much more musically inclined than lyrics. But when we split up in 1998, I sort of had to learn about all that, and Chris was my biggest influence. I discovered that I did have a voice that was different to Chris’s, and so I do slightly more of that now within Squeeze, but Chris is the primary writer.
Mark: I reviewed the album “The Knowledge” late last year, I always keep track of Squeeze, and of the bands from my youth, and what amazed me most about that album was how good that album is! You’ve lost absolutely nothing, and if anything the lyrical content is a little bit more politicised than it was back in the day.
Glenn: Yes, Chris has never been a political lyricist, and I think I sort of nudged him a bit in that direction. We’re living in odd times and it would be weird to live in a bubble where you didn’t express anything about anything happening. One of the things I thought about the record was you can’t solve the world’s problems, but the thing you can do is write about your own backyard, and I think that’s a good place to start.
Mark: Yes, it is, and you’ve touched on some very pertinent subjects, like the NHS, and stuff like that, and there’s always that sense of humour and a little bit of mischief in the lyrics as well, and I think to me, that drives the point home even better.
Glenn: Absolutely! You’ve just voiced exactly the album as we interpreted it, we wouldn’t want to do finger pointing, shouting stuff, that’s not our style. We can have some substance to what we’re writing, there’s loads of stuff about personal relationships, that’s what we’ve always done, about relationships.
Mark: Which of your songs are you proudest of, looking back over the years?
Glenn: Well, “Take Me I’m Yours” because it’s such a simple song, it’s undeniably “us” and it was experimental for us too, which was great. “Tempted” because that took us in a different direction, and from “The Knowledge”, I’d say it’s “Rough Ride” which talks about something that’s enveloping the whole world, which is the ability of our children and our grand-kids to be able to stay in the same places as they grew up, if they can afford it.
Mark: if you could take it all the way back for us, when did it all begin for you? I know you were young when Squeeze formed, what are your first memories of picking up an instrument, and when did you know music was going to be such a huge part of your life?
Glenn: For myself, as a kid, I was infatuated with music, I didn’t know that at the time, but I was, and I wanted to play, and sing, and I started to do that when I was seven as soon as I got a guitar, someone taught me how to tune it, and I taught myself how to play. By the time I was eleven, I could play the guitar, and that was great, and a fantastic release for me as I didn’t have a lot of other stuff going on in my life so I had a lot of time to devote to that. And it grew with me, from listening to music, to wanting to write, in fact the first song I wrote was at age twelve, I actually dreamt it! I actually dreamt a song, woke up and played it, and it was quite a complicated song, and I know it now, I can remember it, it’s a weird thing to happen, I don’t want to make it sound mystical, but it was like a calling for me.
Mark: Wow that was an incredible thing to happen! Has that happened since, or was it a one off?
Glenn: Dreaming songs, no, that never happened to me again!
Mark: That would be a great way to exist as a songwriter, going for a kip and then writing a song!!
Glenn: Yeah, get all your work done while you were asleep!! What’s not to love about that?!!
Mark: You never know, you might wake up one day with another song!! I was gutted in 1982, when Squeeze first broke up, you got back together a few years later, and the broke up again in 1999, does it feel different this third time around?
Glenn: Yeah, it does, you know we wrote some of the best songs in the nineties, but I think equally we lost our way the most, we were totally out of sync with everything else that was happening, and towards the end of it, it felt like we really fizzled out. Chris left the band before he physically left the band, something that he’s prone to do, and so it fizzled out. This time round, if we do nothing else, I’m very proud of the two albums we’ve done of new material, they stand up and I think are equal to anything we have done before. And I think it shows that creativity doesn’t end, we’re on a roll at the moment, the band feels it has the same vibe and the same buzz as the band had at the beginning, which is unusual, as we spent many years not having that.
Mark: I think you’re right, “Cradle to the Grave” and “The Knowledge” are right up there with my favourite Squeeze albums. It’s a weird thing when a band has been around for such a long time, it’s not often you get that late burst of creativity, and you think, wow, these guys are just as good as they always were! You spent some of your solo career touring around the States in your RV; I always thought that was a great story when I read about that, playing small venues, what was it like in reality? Was it a great experience?
Glenn: Yeah, that was a brilliant time for me, it was hard, it was hard work and it taught me, everything I think anyone says about success, I was successful when I was 20, and one of the bad things about that is that if I wanted it to happen, it always did, and so it was natural to me to be successful, and what wasn’t natural is to not be successful!! You have to learn how to be that, and sometimes it’s not my favourite of lessons, but in terms of knowing what counts in terms of humanity, and appreciating people, that’s when I learnt all that in that time, and I will never forget that now. It’s what makes this time so much sweeter in a way that it ever has been, because I have that experience and knowledge under my belt, and I know the importance of hard work, integrity and honesty, in what you do and it’s just lovely that the stars have aligned for us to be able to do that at this time, I didn’t think that time was ever going to come again and I was alright with that, but the fact that it has, is brilliant.
Mark: What music moves you, and has it changed over the years?
Glenn: It’s weird, I can go back really, and the albums that have moved me most, let’s say, in the last 20 years, is Bjork’s first solo album in ’93, that was an absolute game changer for me, she did an amazing thing. And I saw The Coral play for the first time, their first album, that was an amazing time. And now with Kate Tempest and Stormzy, the lyrics that they’re coming out with, are again, game changers, they are the people who have the crown, as far as I am concerned, and deservedly so, they’ve taken lyric writing to another level. Kate Tempest is a poet, and when I heard the album “Everybody Down”, it was just the most amazing thing I have ever heard!
Mark: Some musicians do get stuck in a time warp, saying the old music is always the best, so it’s great to hear you’re listening to some new stuff.
Glenn: The thing about Kate Tempest and Stormzy is that I will never do what they do, what I can do, is to say how would Squeeze do that? We’ve done that a bit on this record, we’re never going to be very specific about it, but there’s a couple of songs like “Rough Ride” and “A&E” We are talking about stuff that affects us, our country, and I think it’s very important to start at home if you’re going to start being political, and it’s political, but in a Squeeze way! Gentle, but there’s a sentiment about it.
Mark: The next question I started asking a lot of old Blues guitarists, and I rate you as a great guitarist, if I had to put you on the spot and name a single song that exemplifies your feelings about music, and especially the guitar, what would it be?
Glenn: I would say, and speaking particularly as a guitarist, it would be Jimi Hendrix; he’s right up there, Wes Montgomery, and Jeff Beck. There’s a bit of a mixture of Rock, Blues and jazz, and the one single track is Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, mastered The Star Spangled Banner, where he played this jazzy ‘thing’ with a lot of octaves in it, and he had a scratch ban for that gig, but his playing is just off the scale!! It’s beautiful and understated, and very evocative.
Mark: I know it well, it is sublime! My final question, and one we ask everyone, is what is the meaning of life?
Glenn: The meaning of life is to try and not hurt people, and leave things better than you found them!
Mark: Sounds good. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us at The Rockpit.
Glenn: Honestly, it’s been a pleasure to talk to you, thank you so much.
Mark: You’re over at the end of April, and as a special guest, you’ve got Dr John Cooper Clarke!
Glenn: It’ll be great! We toured together in the UK, three years ago, and it was fantastic, it was so good.
Mark: I’m sure it will be, I’ve not seen him for a while! Thank you again, have a safe trip over, take care.
Glenn: Brilliant, thank you, it’s been a pleasure, bye.
