INFECTED WITH THE THE’S MATT JOHNSON

Kevin Fitzpatrick - THE COURIER-MAIL/BLITZ – 1987 - AUSTRALIA


The The’s sole member, Matt Johnson, was far from impressed with Brisbane night-life during his visit to our sunny city last week.

The British singer was taken to a bastion of yuppiedom on a popular Sunday night but left after 10 minutes.

‘It was terrible,’ Matt said. ‘Are there any good clubs in Brisbane? That place reminded me of a real thug’s pub in London. The kind of place I hate. Where do all the trendy young girls go? There must be some place. ‘

Johnson is in Australia to promote his new album, Infected, which has been in the Brisbane Top 10 album charts for many weeks. He has just returned from an extensive US promotional visit and said his interview with BLITZ was probably his 700th in the past six months.

‘There was always a moral obligation to come here because Australia supported Soul Mining (The The’s second album) so much and I appreciate that’, he said. ‘In relation to the size of the population, it’s the most successful area for me.’

Many people don’t realise Matt Johnson is the sole member of The The. His picture doesn’t appear on The The’s record sleeves and he hasn’t played live for four years. He has kept an extremely low profile.

Soul Mining has considerable Australian success in 1984 and the single. The Is The Day, is still a dance-floor favourite in ‘trendier’ nightclubs.

Matt Johnson started playing in band when he was 11. He released his first album, Burning Blue Soul, in 1981 aged only 18. The The first formed in 1979 as a four-piece band.

‘The keyboard player thought of the name’, Johnson said. ‘He just phoned me up and said ‘What about The The?’ I said. ‘Yeah, I like the sound of that’. I just kept it. It’s the only thing he ever did before I kicked him out.’

The band eventually split leaving Johnson to record his debut album. He resurrected the name The The for his second album, The Pornography Of Despair, which for various reasons was never released but should be available this year as a limited edition.

But The The is by no means a one-man-band. Matt said more than 150 people has played with The The over the years, including 62 on the Infected album. Johnson plans to release a compilation album and a book.

‘I’m going to release a compilation album of all the old 12-inches and B-sides,’ Matt said. ‘I just want to tie everything up. I’ve got the Infected book coming out which is a collaboration between myself and my brother. That’s every lyric I’ve written since 1979 and paintings, illustrations and photos. My brother does all the album sleeves and he put the book together and designed it’.

Matt co-produced most songs on Infected with Warne Livesey who is currently in Australia to co-produce Midnight Oil’s new album. Johnson also met fellow countryman Billy Brag during his Australian visit.

‘Funnily enough he was quoted in a paper as saying I hid behind drum machines’. Matt said. ‘He sent a message via another journalist to say it was a misquote and to invite me to a gig in Melbourne. I went to the gig and went backstage afterwards – we had a great night.

‘He’s actually in Adelaide when I’m in Perth so his tour has virtually followed my tour’.

Unlike Bragg, Johnson will not be performing during his Australian visit as he no longer plays live.

‘My last live performance was four years ago in London in the Marquee,’ he said. ‘I formed an underground supergroup with 13 people. There were a couple of guys from Orange Juice, a guy from Cabaret Voltaire, Marc Almond, Thomas Leer and a bunch of other people. We did a residence at the Marquee called Rock and Roll with The The.

‘In the third week we were all dressed in black and I made everyone wear balaclavas so the audience didn’t know who anybody was. Everyone was playing guitar. At the last show I said ‘ This is the last gig The The will every play’.

And will The The ever perform again? ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘I’m talking about getting a guitar and playing some benefits. But just as Matt Johnson not as The The. In the election year I want to become active. I was talking to Billy Brag about that and I said if he wanted to get something together I’d come along and play’.

Infected has a rawer sound than the introspective Soul Mining. The title track deals with sexuality-transmitted diseases such as AIDS while the first single, Heartland, is about the Americanisation and decay of modern-day Britain which Johnson describes as ‘the 51st State of the USA’.

‘First impression of Australia is that it is very Americanised,’ he said. ‘At least in Britain it’s a country that has a past but Australia never had a chance to develop it’s own culture.’

The new single from the album, Slow Train To Dawn, features Neneh Cherry singing a duet with Johnson and appearing in the video.

Johnson travelled to Bolivia, Peru and New York to shoot a full-length Infected video. The whole project, including the album, cost more than $1 million.

‘CBS put up the money but I’ve got to pay them back’, he said. ‘By the end of the Infected project, it will have been seen by a potential audience of 100 million people world-wide which is more than I could have ever reached if I played live’.

Johnson agreed it might seem strange for him to star in a video after staying out of the spotlight for so long.

‘It’s a contraction,’ he said. ‘But I don’t tour and I’d reached a kind of ceiling in some ways. I thought ‘How far can I go not playing live, not doing videos, how far can you take that?’ I made the decision that I was going to change direction.

‘When I was filming the videos I was acting myself. I almost feel I need to put myself in dangerous situations. I think every experience you have in your life is absorbed into your soul. I like my songs to have authenticity and therefore it can only be authentic if I’ve actually done what I’m singing about’.

Matt said his girlfriend of four and a half years found it difficult to accept aspects of their relationship appearing in The The’s songs.

‘There are things that you can’t even admit to yourself, let alone admit to anyone else’, he said. ‘It’s difficult for my girlfriend. Thinking that he personal life is being publicised.

‘I’m not religious buy I am spiritual. All I do with every record is write and express exactly what I’m feeling. All you can do is be sincere in your work and express what’s on your mind at the time. The subjects on Soul Mining are what I was feeling, same for Burning Blue Soul. That’s why I am proud of all three albums, or four albums including The Pornography Of Despair, because they were all done for the right reasons.

‘I may do another album in three months or it may be 30 years time. It depends really, but it’s guaranteed that when I do do one it’s because I really want to do it.

Johnson said he wanted to become more involved with films.

‘I’m moving on to films,’ he said. ‘I’m going to do some film soundtracks this year. I don’t really want to say what the film is but I’m going to do it with a director friend of mine. It could be a bit of a major film actually. I’m doing the whole score.

‘Ultimately I want to get involved in direction. I’d like to script score and direct. This video album is the first step in a way. The next album I want to make a whole film around it.’

Matt says he has no desire to die young and become a rock ‘n’ roll legend although he came close two years ago when he was taken to hospital after a drug overdose.

‘I do think about that’, he said. ‘It’s a pretty depressing thought but frankly I like life too much to want to die. I think Johnny Rotten should have died after the Sex Pistols – he would have become a legend. But he’s just become fat and boring now.

‘A couple of years ago I was on the stairs at this party and I couldn’t breathe. I thought ‘I can’t die, can’t die, I haven’t finished my album yet.’ That pleased me because I really thought I was dying and I realised then how important my work was to me.’

‘I don’t take any kind of stuff anymore. Cocaine is an evil drug – a terrible disgusting drug.’

Matt Johnson’s move is already organised.

‘The next project is having a month long holiday in Jamaica,’ he said. ‘I need a suntan.