(Paris) Don’t be fooled by the cover of his new solo album, where he’s sitting: Johnny Marr, ex-Smiths guitarist, can’t stand still, even working with Billie Eilish on the James Bond soundtrack.
Posted at 10:50 a.m.
With this musician, we can talk about everything. Except for Morrissey, his former accomplice of the Smiths, a flagship group of English indie rock, active in the mid-1980s. produced in 2019 on a US show with a UK far-right party badge).
After a last acidic exchange via their social networks this winter, Marr no longer says a word about the other “M” of the formation that made him famous. Probably so as not to undermine the zen attitude that he patiently cultivates.
“I read the Bhagavad-Gita (one of the fundamental texts of Hinduism, at the roots of yoga) every day, it was Chrissie Hynde who gave it to me when I had highs and lows at one time in my life,” the guitarist told AFP during a videoconference interview.
Blondie, Killing Eve
After the Smiths implosion, Marr collaborated with various bands, including Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders, with whom he remained close. The opportunity to ask him about the inspiring women artists he has met in his career. The latest is Billie Eilish, since it is her guitar that we hear on the title track of No time to die (Dying can wait), the last “James Bond”, sung by the American artist.
“The life of a musician in a recording studio, I have known since I was 18 (he is now 58) and, when Billie is in the studio, after five minutes, you have no more in front of you a young girl. She’s a great musician, she knows how to channel her energy, prioritize what needs to be prioritized. She is impressive, she is there for a long time, ”he confides.
The parallel comes all alone with Debbie Harry, the singer of Blondie. “When I was 14-15 years old, I was already in groups of the elitist genre. Blondie, I listened to them, they were great, Debbie had the right attitude, was cool, a woman to follow, like Billie today”. “Billie, Debbie, or like that actress, Jodie Comer, from the series Killing Eveare talented and speak to all women from 14 to 65 years old, ”he further develops.
The circle is complete since a joint tour of Blondie and Marr is scheduled for April-May. He will be able to defend on stage the titles of his double album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4which comes out on Friday.
Black Lives Matter
This cryptic title matches the energy of Marr, who wakes up with a start “at 4 a.m., with my wife saying: “But what else is going on?” (laughs)”, because he just found the title of a song.
The spindly rocker has kept the same helmet-like haircut from the Smiths days and has lost none of his sense of style. riff. Its six strings become elegiac (Lightning People), surgical (Sensory Street) or emphatic (Tenement Time).
The texts he sings are sprinkled with artistic references such as Salvador Dali or Marcel Duchamp (The Whirl). These liberated minds, who called for thinking differently – he also quotes the writer Aldous Huxley – are invited to underline by opposition the “retreat embodied today by people like Donald Trump”.
The social and political chronicle also transpires when Marr evokes the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement in Night and Day (“Just wanna breathe in the hot spots”).
But the native of Manchester also likes to surprise and is a rascal on receiverremembering these atmospheres “at three o’clock in the morning in bars, when a person emits an erotic signal to another”.