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 Back to: Archive · 2006
Graham Coxon talks Love, Blur, Milky

From pitchforkmedia.com, 21 November 2006. By Matthew Solarski.

Beginning during his tenure with Blur and continuing since his messy departure from the band in 2002, guitarist Graham Coxon has mounted a fairly successful solo career, spanning six full-length albums and counting. His latest, the solid Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, hit UK shops back in March and landed Stateside just last week via Parlophone.


Pitchfork recently phoned up Graham for a brief but revealing chat about the predominant forces behind Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, a desire to lead a simple life, the inevitable Blur/Coxon reunion question, and why people should leave that poor animated milk carton in peace.


"Dislocation, regret, and despondency," a matter-of-fact Coxon cited as three of the primary muses behind his work. "I think they're key to good music, really."


According to Coxon, Love Travels' "Don't Believe Anything I Say" best captures and balances those unfortunate sentiments. "I dig that one. I just got across the feeling that I was feeling at that time about regret, being on your own, feeling dislocated from everybody-- all people. It's got the right levels of despondency and regret."


As Coxon wryly continued, "I guess I always find something to moan about: my skill." So what's the talented songsmith, writer, and visual artist bemoaning these days?


"Not enough time to do the stuff that I enjoy doing. I haven't had much time to write, and I haven't had much time to ride my bikes and just stare at the sky. That's what I like to do." Instead, his time is sucked up by "all sorts of chores. And just stuff-- just life, you know? Just the grown up stuff we hate to do, but have to."


For that reason Coxon's determined to slow things down a bit in the year to come, to do "as little as possible, I think. I'll mainly write [and] force myself to rest a little bit. And spend some time with my little girl and other people I love, and relax and forget about the music industry for a little bit-- you know, ride my bikes and be in the countryside away from all the lunatics."


Lunatics...like those who worship Milky, the star of Blur's now classic Hammer & Tongs-directed 1999 video for "Coffee & TV", off 13.


"He's a pain in the arse," grumbled Coxon when asked about the cutesy character, who's inspired quite a following. "Is his name Milky or something like that? That's pretty gross, isn't it? Being called Milky? Weird."


When further questioned, Coxon admitted his qualms are less with Milky himself than with folks who take the character too seriously. "I don't mind Milky. I just think he was made out of wire and cardboard, and people can be such freaks, making websites out of it. People should go out more, maybe, to coffee shops and talk to other people."


Haha, but he is an enduring character, is he not? "Yeah, he is nice. But he's up there in heaven with the strawberry milk girl, so it's fine...He probably doesn't need to be brought back to life. He's probably having a good time with her."


Coxon was significantly less dour about the possibility of a reunion with Blur. The band's former guitarist admits he hasn't "spoken to them for a bit, [except bassist] Alex [James]. I'm going to see him tomorrow at his birthday...Alex will always be my friend. I guess they all will be in some way, but it's somewhat strange."


"I haven't been approached about it," reported Coxon about getting back together with the Brit-pop titans. But "I think about it, yeah. I think about it: would it be fun? Would it be a bit too scary? What would the dynamic be in a studio? Would I have to do promotion? Would I tour? You know, it's a lot of thinking. So I guess I still mull around and think about it every now and then."


So it's not completely ruled out, then? "No, no."


Speaking of touring, Coxon hopes to return to the States in late 2007. Until then, however, it's writing, biking, and maybe "a little stint at the Cambridge Folk Festival next year here. I don't know, there's a few bits maybe to do if I'm in the mood, but I don't really want to plan much, because I don't know what mood I'm going to be in. I wouldn't mind doing a few things musically, but we'll see."


Moods and whims won't dictate all of Graham's decisions, however. "I'm driven by whim when it comes to collaboration, but when it comes to writing, then I'm not. That's something I try to do every day."


"Hopefully some of it will be good enough for an LP. Sometimes it isn't. And I'm going to write for a long period of time, longer than I normally do-- so I have a lot of songs of differing qualities, types-- and just see what happens, really."