TERRORISM, HAMBURGERS & HEROIN

Andy Strickland - RECORD MIRROR – 1986


These are a few of the images squeezed out and slammed down by Matt Johnson, a boy who’s fast becoming a man, a man who’s developing into one of the most radical songwriters of the Eighties. The The man with the damning pen: Andy Strickland.

Hey folks, let’s celebrate the decline of this crappy country and its septic, lying leaders! Let’s dress up an ‘ordinary’ young woman who ‘knows what it’s like to have to work to make ends meet’ (ho ho), forgo the usual in depth and sordid prying into her past and get her hitched to a young ‘war hero’ prince before he becomes a complete embarrassment to the nation and his family.

Let’s take a day off from work – we can do without the Sunday roast for such a special occasion – and let’s gross out on the Royal bloody Wedding. Over £100,000 of yours and my money – forget the renal units waiting to be built and the hospital waiting lists – let’s wave a flag and have a party! After all, these two sides of contemporary Britain aren’t connected, are they?

Hey listen, they’re playing the new single by The The on Radio One’s wedding special. ‘Heartland’ is the second instalment of Matt Johnson’s latest musical incarnation (part one being the ‘difficult’ ‘Bird Of Pray’) and here it is sailing across the nation’s airwaves on this of all days. Its portrayal of piss stinking shopping centres and senior citizens in fear of the lives is connecting in the minds of a few human beings not glued to the box.

The phone lines at Radio One are burning – ‘bloody great, puts the whole thing into perspective,’ says X from Carlisle. ‘Outrageous, disgusting moral degenerate’, blubs brainless of Basildon. The heat shoots across the capital and the phone rings in the office of Matt Johnson’s record company, Some Bizzare. Mr radio producer demands to see lyric sheet before The The get played again on HIS show. Welcome back to the fray Matt!

‘I thought I might have this problem’, says Matt resignedly. ‘I had to do an edit of the track and take the word ‘piss’ out of it but it’s not used gratuitously, it’s actually descriptive – I man how else can you describe a lot of these shopping centres? They actually stink of piss and yes, pensioners are raped’, you see that every day on the cover of The Sun and the Mirror. It’s OK to have that on news programmes all day but you put it in a song and they get annoyed. It’s purely descriptive and they don’t like it much’.

Now before you get the idea that this is another pop songs designed to shock its way onto ‘Top Of The Pops’, let’s remember that Matt Johnson has enjoyed the reputation of being one of this country’s better young song writers for some years now. Sure, he’s not exactly prolific, this the The The’s first recording since 1983’s ‘Soul Mining’ LP, but when he does deliver the goods they’re always worth waiting for.

Not only that, but ‘Heartland’ just happens to be one of the best singles released this year. Matt’s finally managed to nail the steely sound that he’s been searching for, and matched it with some of the best modern bluesy vocals – deep and twisted one minute, with sweet backing singers the next, and soaring string sections and a harmonics solo that’ll stop you in your tracks. Yes, I like it!

‘With ‘Heartland’ I wanted to write a song which could be played on a guitar or piano

as an accompaniment to the voice in some little voice in some little bar in Rio De Janeiro in 10 years time. The power of this song is in the song itself, not the production, and I think it’s the best song I’ve ever written, it sums up everything I’m saying. It now goes to the top of my list of my own top five songs.

‘It sums up my feelings for this country, which although it frequently disgusts me, I still feel for it. It’s set somewhere between Wapping and Whitechapel on a really beautiful, cold, clear autumn day when the sun’s at a particular angle. If I’m ever going to have a successful single, it has to be this one, it’s the one that deserves it.

‘I should add, by the way, that the line ‘this is the 51st state of the U.S.A.’, doesn’t mean that I am anti-American. ‘Heartland’ is anti American foreign policy not anti America, because I actually think there’re a lot of good things about the place, there are some good attitudes there.’

Matt picks up his pen and scrawls The The on the table in front of him for the fifth time as he describes the last three years of his life. It all comes down to writing, recording, promoting ‘Soul Mining’ and travelling.’

‘I think you’ve got to lead some kind of life to have something to write about because if you spend all you time in studios, you’ve got nothing to comment upon. I did loads of travelling, going to all sorts of places – I think your songs should be a by-product of how you live. I’ve aged rapidly over the last few years.’

It’s a matter of confidence and self belief that Matt can stay out of the game for so long and yet confidently return with a new single and album that must surely see him become a widely acknowledged and accepted songwriter and commentator.

He loves a good chat, has an ear for a possibly well rehearsed line or two and admits to being a bit of a wind up merchant. He also agrees that too many bands release too many records these days.

‘Yes I do, because it’s such a short term industry for most people, they think they have to saturate the market, they think they’ve got five years to make their financial nest egg. Too many people just do reruns, their albums all sound so similar and it’s only if you take the first, the fourth and the eighth that you notice any difference. I probably should have released an album between this next one and the last, so consequently the new one is totally different from ‘Soul Mining’.

Having been treated to an airing of the new The The album, I can tell you that yes, it is different from the excellent ‘Soul Mining’. It’s a harder, fuller sound and the songs are crackers. More than that it is difficult to impart, due to the listening conditions imposed by the Some Bizzare organisation.

This includes sitting in an old London Underground carriage opposite the PA they use at the Reading Rock Festival and being pinned to the wall by the shear volume. Not ideal, critical listening conditions you’ll agree (so does Matt), but it’s enough to leave you wanting your own copy.

You’ll have to wait a couple of months for the release of the album, but believe me you won’t be disappointed. Former The The fans will be delighted and newer converts will be hooked.

‘I feel really proud of the new album,’ states Matt. ‘I listen to it nearly every day and still get goose bumps, and that’s how it should be. It’ll be out in the last week in September and it’s called ‘Infected’. It’s an apt title, infected by Western desire, taking desire as a venereal disease of the heart and soul. There’s a lot of Western imagery in the videos I’m doing, lots of things like Coca-Cola, the space shuttle as well as terrorism, test tube babies, hamburgers and heroin.

‘All the images of 1986 juxtaposed, squeezed out and slammed down, it sums up what a lot of people think in this country and by the same token, you get the electronic media pumping more crap down you. It’s quite bizarre , the juxtaposition of the Royal Wedding and the South Africa thing, and people just sit there passively and take it all in.

‘I think this is the most fertile time, from an artistic view, in this nation’s history because there’s so much going on. When people moan on about ‘oh, everything’s been done’ – that’s crap. There’s so much to do, to be done and written about. I find it all terribly uplifting because I can sense it all coming to a head. The new album is far superior to everything else I’ve done, it’s like an athlete coming to his peak or like a footballer who has the experience to pace his game, but is also young enough to be effective, and that’s how I feel. I’m approaching my peak with this one, it’s a grown up record.’

I’ve always been impressed by Matt’s basement voice, quite an achievement for a mere slip of a lad, there’s a fine almost blues touch to ‘Heartland’ and the other songs on ‘Infected’.

Along with most of you reading this, I’d have had a job picking Matt out of crowd before this interview. For someone with such a reputation in the music business, he’s managed or been condemned to keeping a remarkably low profile.

‘Well I’ve never courted publicity and I’ve never courted the press, I hate all that stuff like being harangued by people when you go out. I’m really not interested in it at all, it makes me sick. It’s like make models, most pop stars are a step up from male models aren’t they? Except they happen to sing occasionally – not very well. I just try and keep as low a profile as I can while doing enough to sell records.

‘On the last album, I had tonsillitis anyway and my voice was so below par that I didn’t have the confidence I have now. As far as the blues thing goes, I mean the source and the purity that I am for, and I think that’s what comes across in the blues. Most modern day records are so swamped by production that the emotion disappears if you pull the plug on emotion.’

Matt tentatively explains his idea to release a songbook, film and record simultaneously later in the year and there’s even a suggestion that The The will play live around Christmas ‘if I can put together the right band’. Other than that, young Mr Johnson is looking forward to causing a bit more of a stir.

‘I want to become more radical and become a thorn in the side of CBS and the BBC,’ he grins. ‘I haven’t been radical enough in the past and the more powerful you get – that’s the time to use it. It’s all very we’ll being radical when you’re signed to Rough Trade records when you can’t get anything done.’

I’ve a feeling that Matt Johnson’s The The are going to achieve all that and more in the next six months. Now, if I hurry, I’ll be home in time for the wedding highlights.