Real Groove Magazine October 98 - TRIALS, TRUTHS AND TRANSIT VANS

In a suite at NY's Marriott Hotel, spending time in the US on a publicity tour, Sean Moore, drummer with Manic Street Preachers, is lounging on his bed, "watching 56 channels of mind polluting shite on the telly".

Congratulations on the new album, there's some real powerful tunes on there.

S: Yeah, thanks. That's the strength of the Manic Street Preachers, we always try to write beautiful songs.

It seems like a lot of people have been gearing up to be disappointed by this record.

S: Yeah, I know what you mean. People have been very sceptical, they don't seem to think that we could come up with an album to beat Everything Must Go. We never look at it like that, we always just try and do one better than we did last time.

Are you saying there was zero pressure?

S: When we were recording there was no pressure whatsoever, but now that we've had four months to dwell on things, the pressure is on. We're waiting to see if people will accept the first single as readily as "Design For Life" and whether the album will be immediate. Everything Must Go took a while for people to get into it. We worry that This Is My Truth might take even longer.

How does this album compare with the last?

S: It's more concise lyrically, and musically it's much more diverse and beautiful. We spent a lot of time with the arrangements of the songs and the instrumentation. Throughout our history, right from Generation Terrorists through to Gold Against The Soul and Holy Bible, we've always tried to use different instruments and different ways of recording, so hopefully this is a progression from the last album... First and foremost I always try to please myself. I'm hypercritical of myself and the band, so if I can please myself, hopefully it will please a lot of other people. I'm so meticulous down to the point where it becomes, to most people, tedious. I'll ponder over every single beat and bar to make sure it's pleasing to me. I'd like to think that Richey would like the last album and this album, but for reasons beyond our control we'll never know...

What has kept the core of the band so solid?

S: We've never been a band about egos, we've always seen ourselves as the Manic Street Preachers. I remember when Richey disappeared, someone asked us if we still thought we were the Manic Street Preachers without him, we said that if a person loses a limb, they're still a person, and that's all that we see for ourselves, we've lost a limb. We're still very true and honest to ourselves and that's the thing that's most important to us.

I've read you're doing a transit van tour very soon.

S: Yeah, that's what we're trying to do in the UK. In September we're playing small theatres and travelling around in a van, because in December we're playing a huge arena tour where we'll be playing to 10,000 people every night.

What's going on musically in the UK right now?

S: At the moment there isn't really anything happening, we're almost in a downwards spiral. The record companies are after a quick return, so they go for the manufactured boy group/girl group pop thing, like Boyzone and The Spice Girls for example. At the moment in the UK there tends to be a reaction against the serious group where there's a lot of time and a lot of investment involved, the record companies tend not to want to take a risk. The thing that really disappoints me is the lack of imagination that record companies have at the moment.

Can you name the most significant lesson you've learnt in the last four years?

S: The biggest thing I've learnt is to appreciate just life, that life is such an important thing. Especially young people are so blase, there's almost this invincibility, they think they can do absolutely anything and nothing can touch them. People should embrace and appreciate life as fully as possible and take every opportunity there is and fulfil every ambition and every dream to the full.

When you're not involved in band carry-on, what are you doing day to day that reflects what you've just said?

S: I live a very simple life, really. I like to do a bit of gardening and look after my animals. Nicky's much the same, for him, utopia is at home with his family. He feels like he can experience the world from his armchair and that's what makes him happy. For me, I really enjoy travelling and I really enjoy meeting other people, the bit that I don't enjoy is the flight, I think it's the most unnatural thing in the world. You have this huge aluminium machine that just throws itself into space... I just find aeroplanes scary. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a phobia, it's just a dislike.

There's an Australian cricketer, David Boon, who drank 68 cans of lager on a trip from London to Sydney, he claimed to be terrified of flying.

(Laughter) He's a great batsman, but hell, 68 tinnies! I don't think we've ever got through that amount, but I can definately sympathise with him. This is a bad example, but just the other day on MTV they had a news item about the blonde singer from Ace Of Base, she lost her voice through fear of flying... Nicky thought it was the most perfect thing in the world.