Morrissey interviewed
Ask Me, Ask Me, Ask Me Interview CD, January, 1984

Interviewer: Not here tonight is... Morrissey: The other three Smiths, who are Johnny, Andy, and Mike. You didn't make it to your last show in New York, because, um, Mike got sick, right? Yes, and we were asked to leave the country, it's really quite dangerous. He had a contagious disease, which was the chicken pox, so we really had to leave straight away. It was really quite serious. Some of the members contracted critical flu, so we were really on the danger list. To step back in time a bit, the band was formed in Manchester. Did it start with just you and Johnny? Yes. It was just Johnny and I for quite a while, and we just wrote together, and then Johnny found the other two members, and wrote them in, and then we started working quite extensively and violently in January. We're really just a year old as a present group. How did you and Johnny get together and start writing together? Heaven knows, I just opened the door one day and there he was, exactly how he found me. He hasn't made it clear. He just appeared at the door one day. It sounds really fanciful, but that's exactly how it happened, and said "Would you like to write, and form a group?" You know, it's very basic and fundamental, and that's the way it happened. It was very strange for me because I had tried to do it for a very long time, and then during this period that he came I had decided that I would no longer try. And then everything happened. It's very weird. You write the words and Johnny writes the music. Had you been writing music before this, or had you been doing other sorts of writing? Well, yes. For as long as I've been alive I've been writing persistently. But I also think up vocal tunes, which are often completely different from the actual musical tunes that Johnny devises. So I've always had a very musical head, if you like. But yes, I've written words for years and years. So the band started playing last January, in Manchester. When did you start to come to the attention of people in London and elsewhere? It was really when we came to London, and began to play here. We've played here quite excessively since March. In March of last year we found our record contract with Rough Trade, and we began to appear a lot in London, and then everything seemed to happen as soon as we came to London. The press began to notice us, and it just all really snowballed. I've read that as far as the Manchester scene goes, there's a lot of bands there that you're not just not fond of, the way that they're so heavily into alienation. Yes. There isn't a great deal of point to this attitude. It seems as though they're really enchained in their own backyard, with their own ideas, which if they believe in is fine for them. But it doesn't really seem to get you very far. It doesn't seem to reach people, and it's not very positive. So therefore ultimately for me it has no value whatsoever. You've just moved to London. Was it for reasons such as that, or just because it's more efficient? Well, it's really completely business, I mean I have to be here for six out of seven days. Travelling to and fro every day was just complete lunacy because of the distance. So it's really a mental necessity above everything else. But obviously if I had a choice I would not live here. But I really have to be here. So the rest of the band has stayed in Manchester? Yes. Does that create any problems as far as communicating with the band? Not really, not as far as I can see. Things really continue as they always have done. We just seem to get together occasionally and work and that's how things happen. We aren't interlocked night and day, even though we all lived in the same city, so it's not as though any rift will appear. How did you go about choosing Rough Trade, or did they sort of seek you out? Well, at the time, we had lots of company interest, and it just seemed that Rough Trade were the most human. I liked that idea. They were down to earth, and they were very forthright. They said, "This is what we can do for you, and this is what we cannot do for you, but ultimately we'll do our best." With the majors it really wasn't like that. There seemed lots of fanciful nonsense about major record companies. So at the time Rough Trade just seemed to suit us more than anybody else. And that's why we chose them. Your first single was "Hand in Glove", and the B-side was "Handsome Devil." When was that released? That was released in April. It was recorded in March and released in April. The singles that you've released, were they stuff that you've had around that you've been working on, or has any of it been really new? Well, when we recorded "This Charming Man" we had only had it for two weeks. We had just written the song. We really felt that it had to be released at once, and we all felt a particular energy about the song. There was just this very strange urgency to have it released straightaway. So "This Charming Man" was a very new song when it was recorded. "What Difference Does it Make?" which followed it, is a very old song. Johnny and I wrote it something like eighteen months ago. You're working on an album now, is that correct? Well, its finished, and it's due for almost immediate release, which means at least a month away. We have worked on it for a very long time. We recorded it in July, believe it or not, and August, but we completely scrapped the tapes, so we had to redo the whole thing. It's been a very lengthy and very expensive process, but finally its finished, and I really expect the highest praise. It's really monumental. Are there any tracks on it that we are already familiar with? I think so, some. If you've seen the group live you will be familiar with some, but there are a few that we haven't performed live. I think that's really quite necessary because I really don't want people to get too bored, or too familiar with everything. So none of the singles are on it? "What Difference Does it Make?" is on it, and a re-recording of "Hand in Glove" is on it, but "This Charming Man" is not. So we'll just see; just have it out and see what happens. In America, it's going to be released on Sire. Did you work out a good understanding with them? Is this just working with Rough Trade here and that's just a distribution deal? Perhaps, mainly, yes; it sounds a bit brutal to say that it's just a distribution deal, but I suppose that at the end of the day that's exactly what it amounts to. They seemed quite fairly agreeable, the people at Sire. We haven't had enormous contact, but everything seems quite suitable, and the money they offer is quite high, even though we are in such extreme debt that most of it is already gone. But it seems quite agreeable, on most levels, so I'm quite pleased. It will be released in America on February the 28th. Are you worried.. .You've gotten such an amazing amount of press, and often with the British press that often leads to a backlash. It almost always does, but there's not a great deal I can do about this. I'm sure it will happen, and there are almost whispering signs of it somewhere. But this is how things go. Nobody is always popular, and nobody gets the support of every living person. This is how the business is, and regardless of what we do in the future I'm sure there will be a backlash. This is not something I worry a great deal about, because it's a pleasurable dilemma in the first place to be in the situation where you are receiving a great deal of press. I find it really pessimistic, and really blank, to sit down and say, "Oh, we've got all this good press but I'm really worried about the future." It's really nonsense. I'm just going to bask in the good press, and bask in what's happening now. "Hand in Glove": that was your first single, and it's being remixed for the album. Anything about the writing of it... This is to me the most special song that we've ever done. It was our first single, and of course for that reason it has great romantic value for me. But I think that it was a very special record, certainly in this country. To me, it still sounds like a record that really had to be made. I'm really so pleased that all the emotion and all the urgency comes right through. I've still not given up hope with it. I still hope that it will go further, and become somewhat of an anthem, at least in this country. Everywhere in fact. Do you thing you're geared up for hitting America now and trying to get across your music to them? I think so. It's really up to the American people. It really depends on the amount of scope that America is prepared to have in 1984. Obviously, within recent years it hasn't shown tremendous scope-many Americans will agree with this point, it's not like a slur against the country. I really believe that people are ready for something different, they're waiting for something different. But not extreme and not dangerous. I think we slip into the kind of category into which most Americans must find completely accepting. The band has a very positive attitude. Is that the sort of thing you're trying to get across? I think so. I think it's really necessary for everybody, not really just in music, but in all walks of life. We really have to be positive now, because the last few years have been too depressing and too inverted. I think people believe that nothing is possible in life, and we have the nuclear cloud hanging over our head. People really must wake up and be a bit more assertive, and I think we'll help considerably toward this way of thinking. Do you think you've made impact in England? I think we certainly have made a considerable dent in England. I think we have a very good position. I'm very pleased with that, but obviously there are more people to be reached. There are other countries to be reached. Everything doesn't stop in London, or in England. But I feel enormously comfortable. I think we have a long way to go, and I'm very pleased about that. I don't feel as if the group will be very short-lived. I feel as though we're still in an introductory period, even though we've had an enormous amount of press and considerable exposure. What sort of working relationship does the band have? Is it you and Johnny getting together, or is it a very collaborative, sort of... It isn't collaborative really, in the writing sense it's just Johnny and I. We just get together when it's necessary to write songs. When Johnny and I have the absolute skeleton, if you like, of the song, Andy and Mike also come into the picture and contribute their parts. The writing is absolutely constricted to Johnny and I. It's just a very natural process, there's no question about that. I could never ever sing anybody else's words, and Johnny could never play anybody else's music. Also in things I've read, it's talked a great deal about your lifestyle, no drinking, et cetera, a very clean life... A boring life, very boring life. (laughing) Do you think that that's just something that's your own business, or it is very important to what you're writing, and what you're trying to do? I think it's both. It really is my business, but I think it is necessary to make one's business public sometimes if I think it can have a very positive influence on people. I get really tired of the old rock n' roll image, the old drunken "Let's have fun persistently for twenty-eight hours a day." I find this really boring, the whole rock n' roll star trip. I think by saying some of the things that I've said about the way that I live, it's really quite a different voice. It's an unusual voice within this whole sphere. Nobody can associate being in a group like The Smiths with having such an austere life, if you like, and being so regimented about what one does. I think this is really quite common with people. There's really just certain things about one's personal life that you are not supposed to say. You can't tell people that you don't drink because, you know, it's quite immature and naïve - It sounds that way. But I say it because I really believe in it, and I'm not ashamed of the fact that I don't smoke, and that I have no interest whatsoever in drugs. Your brand new single is "What Difference Does it Make?" That's just been released, and you said it was written quite a while ago. Yes, it was written a very long time ago. People seem to really look for quite staunchly philosophical edges in what I write, and certainly they're there. But "What Difference Does it Make?" just struck me as a very necessary little term, I don't know...what difference does almost anything make? I just wanted to have a very easy attitude, and that's what the lyrics imply. People get so neurotic about themselves: their lives, their hair, their teeth...what difference does anything make, really? I've just read that you're about to enter into a project with Sandie Shaw, or have you already started that? Well, we're really well into the entire product and it should be released quite shortly. It's just a single, but I think it's an incredibly important record, certainly for her. Already we've had so much media attention, and so many of the country's top DJs are very eager to have the record, that in a way it almost seems like a hit record before it's even released. I'm really pleased. I've worshipped her for so long, and then to work with her is just the highest thrill that I can possibly think of. Yes, I had read that you were a big fan of her. What was it like actually working with her? Was it just as you expected? Well, really, I dribbled for hours and hours. I can't get round this. I can't be very sophisticated about this issue. I was incredibly nervous the first time I met her, but she was such an easy person, that suddenly it just seemed as if I'd known her for years and years and years and I suppose in a way Ireally did. But now we have become friends and I see her quite often, and it's really a wonderful thing for me. People have mentioned in writing about your connection with the sixties. How do you feel about that sort of thing? I don't really understand it. I suppose that it's really because we're guitar orientated, or guitar based - a guitar based group - and the guitar was obviously the instrument of the 1960's, and we're a four piece which seems to hark back to the 1960's in what so many people describe as a very traditional line-up, but I don't really know what that means. So, the sixties thing, I don't know. Also because I mention Sandie so much people think that I'm just a nostalgic freak and I'm really buried somewhere in the 1960's, which isn't true. The Smiths are very very 1984. You're looking more toward the album to break you possibly into some of the more commercial stations or some of the more open commercial stations... I think it really does depend on the album. The American music press is not something that can be relied upon. It's very scant, and it never really seems to be there, and one has to wait months and months and months for an issue of a particular magazine. So really, we just simply rely on good reviews and simply the distribution of Sire records. But I really do feel in a way that it's completely open over there. Even though many people see it as a completely locked door. I don't really think that anybody anywhere can actually understand or fathom the American market. People all have their theories but they're always wrong. People say, "Now, in order to break America you just have to do this, and you must be like this," but it never really seems to stick to any particularly rigid guideline. I don't think anybody really understands it. There's just so many different avenues to go through that there's no guarantee... And the most ludicrous people make it there, so you can't really pinpoint any particular direction. And most of the people there are talking about a guaranteed way, or that you have to imitate specifically another band... I think so, that they really believe that what will be successful is simply to repeat what has been successful, if you like. So, what is good to most people in the American music business is anything that has been successful in the past, which of course is utter piffle. Have you found that life has become almost very difficult to deal with now that you've gotten all this attention, and everything seems to be heating up at this point, especially with the release of the single and then an album and then a tour... Yes of course. I can really sit here and complain, but it's a pleasurable dilemma. A year ago, I was complaining about other things: the fact that I had no money to buy food and I was living in a horrible place, so I just think back to that period and I'm really quite grateful for the fact that I'm busy. It's really a joy to be busy and to be quite hysterical at times. But at the end of the week people say "So have you written those new songs, and have you written those new words, and have you done this?" and they really don't understand when I turn around and say, "Well, where exactly was I supposed to find the time to do these things?" So, in a way there's great pressure, but I want the pressure, otherwise I wouldn't be here.