James Interview on The Mix Sunday 6th October I found out about this interview from foreverdelayed.com
Good morning
J: Hi de hi
You alright
J: Not too bad
Before we go any further, do I address you as James, as James Dean, or James Dean Bradfield or Mr Bradfield, or Sir. Which would you like.
J: I prefer genius.
Genius?
J: Yeah.
Genius.
J: James.
James.
J: Yeah.
And with the James Dean Bradfield, you must have been asked this countless times before, has James Dean always been there as your middle name or is it something you added, I don't know the story with this.
J: Basically it was a bit of daftness on my fathers behalf. My dad was like a biker when he was young and basically he wanted to call me Clint Eastwood Bradfield for some reason and my mother said she'd divorce him if her first son would be called Clint Eastwood Bradfield so he said ok I've gotta have James Dean Bradfield then. So James Dean Bradfield was my name because of my fathers daftness. God love him.
I've got to say Clint Eastwood Bradfield...
J: It wouldn't have worked really. I'm not a Clint.
That's a hell of a double barrel you've got there.
J: You know, just at that kind of age where you're trying to get into clubs and you've got to take identity with you, just like doorrmen would have been killing me all over Cardiff: "you're not Clint Eastwood Bradfield, get out of here".
OK we've got loads to talk about with the single and also the album as well which not just fans of yours but I've got to say people who like loud music in their cars are gonna love. We'll talk about that very soon. You're going to pick some songs. These are all Manics songs aren't they.
J: Yeah they are yeah.
Which are you going to go for first James.
J: I think I'll go for Motorcycle Emptiness.
[Motorcycle Emptiness]
I hate sometimes this sort of scenario in a way because I am a big big Manics fan and I don't want this to turn into a great big brown nose session James at the end of the day because that would be embarrassing.
J: It's alright, I can't feel any sycophancy coming over.
That's alright. But it's one of those songs we just played that everyone, everyone loves, from the Manic Street Preachers. It's from way, way back, what was that 1989 or something wasn't it.
J: No it's about 1991 something like that. With some of these songs, some of them do come from a wee while back and sometimes when people hear these songs they don't actually connect them with us. I think songs like Design For Life and If You Tolerate This are songs which a lot of people identify with us and then sometimes when people come and see us live because of those songs, when they see us play a song like Motorcycle Emptiness suddenly you can see their faces just going "wow I didn't know this band did this song" so it's kind of strange for us sometimes.
We should put this into context as well and say this is from the Forever Delayed greatest hits kind of collection but with some new tracks as well which is due out on the 28th. Sometimes best of, greatest hits, whatever, this kind of collection on an album spells the end for a band.
J: It does sometimes definately but um for us it was a completely different notion involved. For us we felt as if we had to actually close a chapter in our career, whatever you want to call it, to actually start a new one. That's the way it feels for us, you know, it's like finishing all this, which is bound up with a lot of history in terms of things we've gone through and then to close a chapter and just carry on. That's what it feels for us really. Because there are 2 new songs on the album which kind of perhaps point in a new direction as well.
We'll talk more about that new direction and also the new songs in a tick. You've already chosen Motorcycle Emptiness, what are you going to go for next.
J: Erm, kind of like, I think I'll go for Design For Life because it was a song that kept us alive at a pretty difficult time.
[Design For Life]
Thanks for the emails by the way, Samantha in Canada who's listening a massive Manics fan and also Stef who sent some questions for James Dean Bradfield. More from James in just a tick.
Back with James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers. The album then is Forever Delayed, which obviously tells a story in itself doesn't it. Is this something that's been on hold for quite some time.
J: Forever Delayed is an actual lyric from one of our songs Roses In The Hospital and for us the phrase Forever Delayed always summed up a lot of what our songs are about and that is that kind of in our songs there are probably many more - many more - questions than answers. Sometimes it's just as important just to ask the questions even if you haven't got the answers. I think Forever Delayed sums that up, it raises the ? so to speak. It doesn't mean you've got to find all the right answers, it just means you've got to try and ask all the right questions.
The album is out as we mentioned on the 28th of October. It's one of those albums that I know for one, I was lucky enough to get one of these in advance from the record company, and it's one of those that gets played a hell of a lot in the car. Manics songs generally are great driving songs aren't they, do you sort of find this yourself, do you listen to your own stuff.
J: I kind of listen to stuff in retrospect, it takes me about 3 years to get a bit of distance from something, to actually start listening to it again. So the actual excercise of going through all these tracks to pick them for the greatest hits was the first time I'd listened to a lot of the songs for a while. None of the songs are really designed to be played in the car while you're going on the M4 or anything [!!] I think the only song we've ever done like that is Australia. I was so lost as to what to do with that song. The only concept I could come up with was I wanted a song that could be played behind the goals of the week, and that's what Australia was.
I always think You Stole The Sun From My Heart is for me the ultimate driving song, you've had a crappy day at work, whatever, and you play it damn loud so that the whole car vibrates, that's probably to me the definition of a great driving song.
J: Cool, that works for me.
[Australia]
James Dean Bradfield my guest today, the album Forever Delayed. New single as well, which we'll touch on now actually. The single is one of the new tracks on there isn't it. There are a couple of new tracks. What was the thinking behind putting together this sort of best of collection plus a couple of new ones, is this to underline the fact this isn't the end of the Manics - this is the direction we're going to be taking.
J: Two new tracks on there does signal you've obviously got something left in you as a band but also I think we were slightly uncomfortable with the notion that a greatest hits is all about nostalgia. I think we wanted there just to be a hint of something else. Yeah obviously a greatest hits is about nostalgia but we also wanted perhaps a couple of pointers towards the future too. It's just giving the record a bit more of an edge perhaps rather than it just being a big nostalgic trip.
There By The Grace Of God is the single. What would be the one highlight for you in terms of Manic Street Preachers career, I know you're particularly proud of the Cuba gig. Would that be the one great big highlight for you.
J: No I've got to admit, perhaps the best memory for us as a band so far is when If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next came out and it went to number 1 for us that was our best memory so far because that song encapsulated everything we'd ever been trying to do. Obviously there was the bonus that it got to number 1. Quintessentially that is such a typical song for us, lyrically and musically and we also got our point across on a very large scale because it went to number 1. So we felt as if we'd achieved everything we wanted to achieve since we'd been 15 with that single so that's a really good memory for us.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the state of the charts what with pop idol and pop stars and everything else. How do you see things at the moment in terms of how music is and the charts.
J: Perhaps if I was a younger kid now, I would find it hard to define myself by my anger. When we were younger when we were 15 years old it was so easy to define our ambitions or ourselves by what we were angry at, and it was so easy to find an outlet, find that expression. Today if I was perhaps the same person but I was 15 years old I would feel pretty hopeless in terms of having an outlet for that expression in terms of my anger or whatever, to articulate that. So sometimes when I do look at the charts it kind of makes me feel sorry for somebody who might feel as if they have something to say but they have no way of finding a forum or platform to do it.
OK fingers crossed for you, hope it goes really well. Great talking to you today.
J: Cheers, thanks.
You've got one more choice to make from the album, what's it going to be.
J: It'll be If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, definately.
[Tolerate]
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