Front-man of Scritti Politti, Cardiff born Green Gartside has worked with everyone from Miles Davies to Kylie Minogue. David Wyn speaks with him about nationalism, Cardiff and new material.
So which room are you in at the moment, Green?
I’m in my studio at home working on [cackles] a new tune, which is what I seem to do every day of my life. I write something new, which is all good and well but since my album for Rough Trade is four years overdue I really should finish some of these songs and stop starting new ones. I hate finishing songs but I love starting them. I’m actually working on something on for Alexis and Taylor and I to sing at the Tramshed for the Festival of Voice so I thought we’d do one especially for the occasion.
Any particular reason for choosing Tramshed?
I mentioned to my mum that we were playing there and she said my great-grandfather worked there. My mother’s side of the family are all from Grangetown and the other side are from Canton. I was born in Cardiff, Rhiwbina then we moved… well my parents seemed to move round South Wales. We seemed to move house every year… Newport, Caerphilly, Ystrad Mynach, Bridgend… I did spend a bit of time in Cwmbran… [chuckles] just laughing at all the glamorous places I’ve lived. My great-grandfather lived on Hereford Street. He had a lighter gas lamp job in Grangetown. The other was a tram conductor /engineer who would have worked at the Tramshed when it was a working tramshed. I thought it would be pretty cool to go back and play there… quite exciting for me.
Is there a big difference between Cardiff culture and valleys culture?
My passion was pop music when I really little, and I guess what you broadly would call rock music by the time I was in my teens, being as old as I am now. Back then in the places I mentioned, there weren’t many bands around. I’m not sure how well the visual arts were encouraged or represented, I had a sense that South Wales was poorly culturally represented. Ambitions in that direction were thwarted. In previously generations my family were very culturally active. My great-auntie Green was a pianist in a Cardiff dance band in the 40s called the Rolling Stones, the original Rolling Stones were from Cardiff! Why I am digressing to that? In the 60s when I was growing up and going to school, there was very little encouragement. I don’t remember there being many bands, not like it is today. It seemed that culturally there was fuck all going on. I don’t think Raymond Williams would be very impressed with that answer.
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Were you making a package that suited the times? Marxist critical theory would say that everything is a product of its time.
The first records we made for Rough Trade were considered post punk, which was a genre that rapidly lost its allure; blokey guitar stuff that wasn’t very interesting. Those punk years that got me interested in other music, initially reggae, funk, and hip hop. It took me to Prince’s first gig in London which was very poorly attended.
I also got interested in Continental philosophy like Derrida…all on the Left of course. Critical theory and all that stuff I used as a theoretical defence for embracing pop music as a more interesting place to be, much to the annoyance of my fellow band members of the time. We went to America to make music then I.went back to Wales to live a hermit’s life for a few years.
Thinking of yourself and Howard Jones in the eighties, and to compare you to the so-called Cool Cymru guitar brigade, were you ever tempted to go on stage draped in a Welsh flag?
Back then I was very anti-nationalism and didn’t like regionalism. It’s a very contentious area and my thoughts are in flux when I think about Wales now. Back then I didn’t feel a need. I was anti-nationalistic so I wouldn’t have championed anything. I would have been very interested to talk about the politics on what was happening in South Wales particularly, but I wouldn’t have waved a flag in that way back then. Musically, it didn’t seem to be the thing to do.
On the album White Bread Black Beer, the lyrics are really upfront on After Six…
In the 80s before the hiatus, I was quite concerned to make this mixture of banal lyrics; a mixture of banality and a bit of Continental philosophy. It seems like an odd mix but that’s what the plan was! I guess that White Bread Black Beer was more autobiographical and that was by design, influenced more by the music I listened to growing up than anything else.
You’ve said yourself that the industry has put you through the mill. What would your advice be to others wanting to make it in the industry?
My advice would be to embrace the ambition wholeheartedly. I did well out of it but it’s a lot different to the idea of a professional popular musician today. It may end up being seen as a 20th century phenomenon really in regards to how people were rewarded. Most of the people I know who are in bands today are in day jobs.
Scritti Politti, Tramshed, Cardiff, Thurs 9 June. Tickets: £22. Info: here.