Its a balmy spring evening in north London, and Ian McCulloch, the Bunnymens iconic frontman and dagger-sharp wit, is discussing The Idolness Of Gods, the epic, soul-wrenching ballad at the heart of new album The Fountain. I cant imagine anyone else singing it, he says in his deep, Mersey dockers accent. Its beautiful, pure, theres a real strength to it. I havent heard any poetry quite like that, telling you about the crying inside, life as you grow older.
McCulloch trademark tousled hair and dark shades in tact pauses for a moment. With a soul-baring song like that, he says, a soul bared is a bared-soul shared. He grins at his tongue-tying witticism. I need to have a ciggie after coming up with a sentence as good as that.
Today, Mac is in a playful mood, and with good reason. This last year has been a triumphant one for Echo & The Bunnymen, the group he formed in Liverpool in 1978 with guitarist and fellow Iggy, Velvets and Bowie fan, Will Sergeant. In September 2008, the Bunnymen were invited to perform their 1985 orchestral-rock masterpiece, Ocean Rain (famously dubbed by Mac on its release as the greatest album ever made), at the Royal Albert Hall, with similar sell-out shows following shortly afterwards in New York at Radio City Music Hall and the massive new arena in their native Liverpool. Reviews of the gigs oozed adjectives such as euphoric and transcendental , the romance and grandeur of songs like The Killing Moon, Silver and Seven Seas undimmed by the passing of time. There was a magic at those gigs that only the Bunnymen can conjure up, ventures Mac. It was incredible.
Returning to London this April, the groups appearance at Kokos as the centrepiece of the annual Camden Crawl saw hundreds left outside on the pavement, and the band are set to fly to New York again this summer to play the massive All Points West Festival at New Jerseys Liberty State
Park along side Coldplay, MGMT, The Fleet Foxes, Artic Monkeys and the Beastie Boys.
That the Bunnymen are these days legends, whose extraordinary musical legacy has inspired a raft of 21st Century musicians, from Coldplay, The Killers and Glasvegas, to the Chili Peppers, Courtney Love, The Flaming Lips and Perry Farrell, is in little doubt.
Which brings us to The Fountain, a feisty album of pulsating rock anthems (Think I Need It Too, Do You Know Who I Am, Everlasting) and Bowie- ish pop (Proxy, Shroud Of Turin), all centred around a grand, reflective soul-stirring ballad (The Idolness Of Gods).
Siberia got a lot of good press, especially in America, explains Mac. But it wasnt the best thing ever, it never is. This one was exciting to make I felt excited to think of the Bunnymen as exciting again. Ive re-found my spite some might call it angst , I prefer to think of it as spite.
The Fountain was kick-started in 2007 when McCulloch began working on some new ideas with three London-based musicians. I thought [Will Sergeant and I] needed to do stuff differently, but so the result still sounded like the Bunnymen, he says. What we got with Think I Need It Too and Forgotten Fields, I thought, Yeah, this is how it should sound.
The album was pieced together over the next year, with Mac and Will working on tracks at their managements Parr Street Studios in Liverpool.
Mac : The last few years have been pre-and post renaissance years, and the Bunnymen, because of this album & these songs and the Ocean Rain shows, feel more important than ever
He points to The Idolness Of Gods cathartic soul-baring and the words of Do You Know Who I Am. Do you know who I am? is a phrase you darent ever say, he muses. Its very tongue in cheek, but Im saying throughout the album that I know exactly who I am. And I feel like rubbing your noses in it again. I know what Im on about now. Its more like if I was an actor, it would be like Jack Nicholson or De Niro, they just know what theyre fucking doing. But Id like to think I choose my roles better than De Niro
I think that sense of confidence has been borne out by natural habitat. Not that Im looking down on the audience, but physically I am. I love it, but then I also think, What the hell is it all about?
Among the albums greatest moments is the shimmering, impish Shroud Of Turin, in which Mac comes face-to-face with Christ.
The song is a kind of conversation with Jesus, says Mac. Its tongue-in-cheek, but its also just another way of praying. It was based around a gig in Rimini at a club called, I think, The Transylvania, and I saw this image in the monitors, it was Jesuss face. I stopped the song, and said, If you all want to file past, you can see the Shroud Of Turin. Its also a play on urine, he pissed his keks on the cross. That urine stained shroud in Rimini.
So how did you think you and Jesus would get on? Well, we got on fine. But theres a version of me thats Beelzebub, and then theres the Ian people seem to prefer Ian, the nice but fragile one. But hes actually Mr Hyde. Hes the one thats hard to live in, the awkward one that bottles things up, hes the nightmare. Not the loon. But I love my Dr Jekyll, he just flies off, hes a clever little sod.
The albums widescreen, crystalline sound is the work of Scottish producer John McLaughlin, whose credits may come as a surprise to some Bunnymen fans. Hes done work with Busted and Five, who I loved! smiles Mac. He said the Bunnymen were his favourite thing of all time, but really I think its The Clash and Bruce Springsteen. I just became really good friends with him. I really want a big, solid undertow beneath the lyrics, not all jingly jangly like Siberia. I wanted someone I could trust to get the sound when he heard me playing The Idolness Of Gods with just guitar, it made him cry. He gets why I write the way I do. Theres glory in it. Certain lyrics make you go, Bloody hell. Its the atmosphere I can evoke with the way I sing and write melody.
Im just a better writer and better singer these days, he adds. I want to sound like Sinatra singing in the Reprise years. I know I go on about it a lot, but hes the only one I can still aspire to better, cos Im better than all the others. My voice has got more honest, which fits these songs. This album is about something, rather than just sounding like its about something. Its about having lived life, but still feeling like a kid. Im a not traditional songwriter. What I do at my best is poetry.
And how do you rate The Fountain in terms of the Bunnymens other albums?
Mac smiles. Its the best thing weve done since Ocean Rain.
|
