Rock Sound catches up with Brighton-based singer / songwriter and all-round nice bloke Chris T-T in issue 107, on sale now. Unfortunately we only had room to print a smidgen of the interview, so here’s the full(er) transcript, just ’cos we’re dead nice like that.
Your new record ‘Capital’ feels a bit more accessible and cohesive than your previous mini-album ‘9 Red Songs’ – how do you feel this album compares / slots in with your previous output?
“Mainly, there’s less dicking around on ‘Capital’ than previous albums, we reined in my psychedelic idiot tendencies and stuck to a collection of songs… I’m bored of people saying – especially when they’ve only heard ‘9 Red Songs’ – that my lyrics are good but my music-making is ‘basic’. I’m getting a chip about being a decent musician, so I’m edging towards expressing that more. Also, I’m writing more at the piano instead of on guitar, so future songs will be more ambitious.
“I slightly regret releasing ‘9 Red Songs’ when I did. Up ’til then, my solo acoustic shows had been a kind of precious occasional extra, while the band got on with the main job. After ‘9 Red Songs’, solo became the mainstay. To be honest, I’m not sure how I became a political protest singer, after four albums of what I thought was psych-rock.”
You don’t shy away from political / social commentary in your lyrics – do you participate in any political groups / activities outside of your music?
“I hardly ever do, but we joined the striking LA writers outside NBC recently, to see what it’s like compared to a UK picket. And the answer is, they have more doughnuts and while they march around, they’re actually networking and hustling for the future. I didn’t take my guitar because I thought there’d be loads of good music, but the only band was doing a shite mariachi version of ‘Debaser’, so I should’ve performed. I was put off because KT Tunstall played for them the previous week and it looked like a PR move. To be honest, writing or performing is the best thing I can offer. I struggle with involvement with groups because inevitably you compromise some aspect of your belief. Like with the Greens in Brighton, who I’ll always vote for and support beyond any other mainstream political party, I can’t bring myself to actively join them because they’ve got this nutty thing about curtailing free speech that I not only disagree with but actually find quite frightening.”
Your song ‘None Of Them Give A Fuck About The Future’ offers a pretty bleak worldview. Are you of the Rob Newman school of thought that it’s unlikely anything is going to change and that we’re all pretty fucked?
“Yes. The current system won’t get anywhere near defeating climate change and even if it does, what kind of filthy unbalanced status quo are we protecting? It’s like, ‘Oh god, Bangladesh might drown under rising sea levels’, but the trickling altruism within capitalism ain’t ever going to pump enough resources into Bangladesh to make their lives anything other than abjectly miserable anyway. Not that that means they might as well drown, just that the triumphalism in trying to save them from drowning, without offering any more substantial solution, is misplaced. For me, trying to live a vaguely ‘green’ life is about teaching my kids – if I have any – the skills to survive what’s brewing. So being thrifty and learning to home-make things instead of buying pre-packaged are just as important elements as recycling or not owning a car.”
Is it true that you’ve stopped playing your anti fox-hunting song ‘The Huntsman Comes A-Marching’ on the back of Frank Turner’s version being better?! Is there now a brewing intra-label rivalry between you?
“Ha, no chance! I haven’t stopped playing ‘Huntsman’, although I don’t play it abroad because it’s so UK-specific. Maybe Frank live is better than my ‘9 Red Songs’ original because it was a first take and I didn’t kick arse enough. Apart from being honoured that he covered me, I like Frank doing ‘Huntsman’ because he’s got an impassioned, bitter tone that I relate to. He says his dad called him a wanker when he sang it, whereas my mum just warned me not to use the word ‘cunt’ earlier in the set, because it’d reduce its impact in the song. That probably sums up the difference. But I’m defending my own live versions, they rule, they take the lid off that song! Frank just gets the anger right.”
Although you’ve been releasing records for the best part of 10 years now to critical acclaim, a real ‘breakthrough’ seems to have eluded you. How do you feel about that – has commercial success ever meant a huge amount to you?
“Well, a bigger audience worldwide would be good but most times, if I’m jealous of a band or singer because of their rise to stardom, two years later I’m feeling sorry for them and relieved their journey curve didn’t happen to me when I was 22. The best thing will be to get more songs in films or on TV, to spread the word and make some cash. We’re working on it in the States, but it’s separate from day-to-day writing and recording.
“So yeah, of course I’d love a bigger audience – but only if they come to me, I’m not going to them with a bunch of crappy songs about nothing and a slick nu goth haircut. It wouldn’t work anyway! I don’t mind the schmooze – meeting people is fun – but it’s not about that, or adding to the background noise at Top Shop, it’s about leaving a paper trail of life-improving moments behind that matter a lot to the individual people who listen to them properly. Ha, give it nine months, I’ll be on the cover of Heat in Tesco car park in my pyjamas with cocaine all over my chin!”
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