Bobby Gillespie says playing “hard” in Primal Scream was painful after his accident in Switzerland.
Gillespie fell off the stage at Caribana Festival in 2016, and he has explained that the “light” nature to the tracks on his upcoming joint LP with Savages’ Jehnny Beth, ‘Utopian Ashes’, is to do with him breaking his back in four places.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, Bobby explained: “I was on a narrow stage at a Swiss festival on Lake Geneva.
“I climbed on to the bass speaker and fell straight down into the pit. When I was back in the house, on heavy painkillers, Andrew Innes and [drummer] Darrin Mooney came round and we started playing really light country and soul ballads. With Primal Scream you have to play hard, but Darrin’s a jazz drummer. I realised there was a chance to do something gentle.”
While Bobby embraced the gentler feel, his collaborator got to experiment with melody more.
She added: “Bobby said to me, ‘Melody suits you.’
“With Savages, we wanted to cut through and be heard and melodies were forbidden. But I love melody. It comes naturally to me, while this music reveals a more vulnerable side to Bobby. I don’t know if he likes me saying that.”
Meanwhile, Bobby Gillespie has insisted the album is not a “break-up record”, because that’s for “pussies”.
He explained: “Sometimes it is good to make a piece of work, put it out in the world, and not explain everything.
“These days I read so many interviews with singers who say, ‘Oh, I had a terrible break-up last year, so I wrote a record about it.’ How old are you, 29? Who cares? Get over it …
“It’s not a break-up record.
“Breaking up is for pussies. It’s a record about the struggle to stay together. Why get upset about the dishwasher not being loaded properly? It doesn’t really matter, but these small details add up and you can lose your connection as a result. It is a heroic thing to commit to each other, to make a life together, to have children, to make a home. It is a heroic idea to hang on to the idea of love.”
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