PERFECT PITCH
JIM REID - RECORD MIRROR – 1983

Working with Marc Almond is driving The The’s Matt Johnson to drink. Matt, whose Perfect single is headed straight for your wunnerful RM top 40, tells me how one over the eight can buy you a little bit more than a nasty hangover.

‘I twisted an ankle last week when I was working with Marc and the Mambas. We drunk loads and loads of tequila after the session and I fell downstairs and twisted my ankle.

‘Today my wrist really hurts and I don’t know how I did it. I must have laid on it in my sleep or something.’

What with smashing up hotel rooms and twisting joints Mr Johnson is a right little ball of destruction. He’s also one of the few imaginative forces working in the synth-pop arena.

Matt works on his own, and works outside the limitations of most current synthi-chart dross. ‘Perfect’ is a prime example; a song that is driven by a simple drum beat and R’n’B harmonica, and simply uses the synth to decorate the tune rather than drown it.

Matt played all the instruments, bar the harmonica, on ‘Perfect’. Is this self reliance an advantage or a burden?

‘It makes life easier. I suppose it depends upon your personality. I don’t like groups, I play every instrument so I can get exactly what I want. Trouble is, I don’t play as well as I could do as I’ve got so many instruments to play and I can’t dedicate my time to one particular instrument.

‘I’m coming to the stage where I’ll have to bring in other people to play things. I’ve got lots of ideas in my mind that I’m not capable of playing.

‘In some respects it does put pressure on me ‘cos I’ve gotta write everything, It’s the writing that creates most pressure. If you’re in a group situation and you’ve got a couple of writers, you can always turn to someone for help.

‘I start the album in one and a half weeks time and it’s nowhere near written. I could do a couple of albums of old stuff, but I don’t want to do that.

‘Now I’m just getting myself in the frame of mind so I can write. I go through long periods when I can’t write anything. But then again you can get other periods when you just can’t stop writing.’

Matt might feel the pressure sometimes, but ever since he was a wee schoolboy he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

‘I didn’t get any qualifications at school because I didn’t bother.

‘I used to think everybody around me was idiotic and that I should be enjoying myself. I knew it wouldn’t make any difference to my career.’

Well it certainly didn’t. Yet the fact that Matt didn’t own a synth or a guitar until a couple of weeks ago might have held him back.

‘I didn’t buy a synth until three weeks ago. I used to hire them before. In fact I’ve only had a guitar for three or four weeks as well.

‘I borrowed a guitar years ago and this bloke phoned up my mum a few weeks ago and said ‘I want my guitar back, I saw him on TV with it.’

Matt has little time for most of his pop competitors, treating their vainglorious ambition with the disdain it deserves.

‘Most people are so desperate to be stars. They see being famous as the ultimate.

‘I think having respect for what you do, making good music, is the most important thing.

‘I’m not opposed to commercial success, it’s just that I wouldn’t sacrifice my personal integrity for success.’

Mr Johnson is a very sensible young man, he’s wise enough to see through pop’s transience and plan for the future.

‘Hopefully I’ll be able to look after the financial side, so I won’t have to stay in music for ever. A lot of people stay in music ‘cos they have to for financial reasons. I’d hate to have to keep regurgitating my work just to remain solvent, In five years I think I’ll have done all I want to.’

My dear Matt, if only some of our older pop brethren could act with such dignity.