Noisy Again

UK-bred singer-songwriter Lloyd Cole has been plying his trade for over three decades now – first fronting acclaimed outfit The Commotions and then in solo guises – and in recent times had been treading quiet, predominantly acoustic ground, until new album Standards found him returning to his rock'n'roll roots.

“The records that I've been making haven't so much been acoustic – they've been quiet,” Lloyd muses. “Broken Record (2010) had a full band but the lead instruments on the top were predominantly acoustic, even though there were drums and bass. But I've presenting the tours primarily as solo acoustic performances. [Standards] sounds like a record made by a real band, even though it wasn't really – it was Fred [Maher – drums], Matthew [Sweet – bass] and I in LA, and then the rest was overdubs done at home.”

Nonetheless Lloyd attests that it was refreshing making some noise again in the studio. “I'd just about forgotten how to play electric guitar. What was bizarre really was that the last time the three of us would have played together was probably 20 years before, and as soon as we started playing it was exactly the same as it had been before and both of them just naturally came up with ideas that I liked and wouldn't have thought of. It was lovely.

“With Broken Record I was happy with the record but I wasn't happy with the people calling it 'Americana' – I don't particularly like that phrase – so I just thought on this record that I wouldn't have any pedal steel, no banjos and no pedal steel and then nobody can bloody call it Americana! Sure enough the first person I showed it to – the guy the record company wanted to write the press release – said, 'A fantastic slice of Americana!', and I was, like, 'Oh, for heaven's sake!'”

Ever since the early days Cole has taken inspiration from both sides of the Atlantic. “I was actually just making a list of my influences for a written interview, so let's see – Bolan, Bowie, Buzzcocks, Magazine, Isaac Hayes, Dylan, Cohen, Kraftwerk, Kristofferson,” he reels off. “Roughly half are from North America and half from the UK. The genre of music that I decided to try and work in – even though wide – is initially music derived from American folk music as compared to British folk music. British folk music makes me thing of groups like Fairport Convention and dancing around maypoles, and the harmonic content and feel of that music has never been attractive to me, whereas the Bob Dylan stuff which came from Woodie Guthrie which came from blues guys, that's always held an attraction.”

Which is unsurprising given that Cole's been getting Dylan comparisons since The Commotions' 1984 debut Rattlesnakes. “Somebody has to be the new Dylan every year and I was it for a couple of years,” he smiles. “It's fine, it's kind of an honour, I guess.”