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Graham Coxon - "Blur can't give me or Damon everything we need"
Virgin Radio
16 Oct 2022, 22:20
Credit: Getty
The guitarist talks his solo work, Gorillaz and his new band The Waeve.
Graham Coxon has got a book out, his first memoir, entitled Verse, Chorus, Monster! It's very good and available to buy in all good bookshops - and maybe even some bad ones - right now.
But speaking to The James McMahon Music Podcast last week, the guitarist talked about his relationship with Blur singer Damon Albarn, he of multiple projects, but predominantly Gorillaz.
"Damon is a great songwriter because he works hard at it," says Graham, who met the Blur singer when he was just 12 years old. "You don't just wake up and are able to write great songs. Damon has written songs where I think, 'Agh, I wish I'd written that...' He's written loads, but it's not like he hasn't got about 2,000 songs that are rubbish too. It's just that you'll never hear those!"
"That's just how it goes," continues Graham. "The more you work, the more you flex those muscles, the more good songs will be amongst the bad ones. If you're doing that every day, how many songs do you think you've got after six months? Damon's work ethic is brilliant. You just have to oil the machine and work hard and then the songs come..."
Graham is currently gearing up for the release of the debut album by his new band The Waeve, which he formed during lockdown with his partner Rose Elinor Dougall, previously of The Pipettes.
"That's been extremely exciting," he says. "We got together without really knowing each other all that well at all, really, just to do a couple of songs, but that ended up being an album and a lot more besides. That was extraordinary to me, to meet someone who is very much from my own species. It meant a lot to me and it meant a lot to her and it was something amazing that came out of lockdown and all the issues that chucked up in both of our faces."
Graham also went on to say that while Blur accommodates a lot of Damon, his and the other members musical ambitions, it can't fulfil all of them, and so it's "healthy" for him and the other members to work on their own projects outside the group.
"I think we all need to develop as musicians and we need to be selfish about that," he explains. "You have to do it yourself, because no one's going to encourage you to go off and do something outside of a band that is doing pretty well. Imagine saying to Damon, "You're doing really great in Blur. Why didn't you put it aside and start some weird cartoon band?" Or "Graham, why don't you go off and do some funny little self-produced records?" None of that makes sense, but taking risks is good for you. It helps you grow as a musician and I'm really pleased we all did that."
'Verse, Chorus, Monster!' is available in bookshops now.
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