Cornershop: Tjinder Box.

Handcream For A Generation is in stores now.

You don't turn to Cornershop for conventional music, why would you expect a conventional interview? Tjinder Singh, undisputed leader of the unique British musical outfit, is talking on his mobile phone outside a friend's party. As he prepares to answer questions about Cornershop's much-anticipated new album Handcream For A Generation, he quips that interrupting his social life to undertake promotional duties proves his dedication to the cause.

Singh founded Cornershop in 1992 with a group of like-minded associates including sitarist Anthony Saffery, guitarists Ben Ayres and Avta Singh, and drummers Nick Simms and Pete Hall. Their culturally inclusive mix of beats and pop both Western and Eastern quickly captured the imagination of many, including Talking Head's David Byrne, who released the band's debut album Woman's Gotta Have It on his Luaka Bop label.

Since then, singles like Brimful Of Asha from 1997's When I Was Born For The 7th Time, have propelled Cornershop into their current, well-deserved status, revered by musicians, critics, and record buyers alike.

"I've been keeping quite busy really," Singh reviews the five years since the last Cornershop album. "Yeah we had to tie up some business stuff at the end of last year. And then there was sorting out the deal with the Clinton album, sorting that album out and then putting it out. Then I took some time off. And then I started recording with Cornershop. And then we started our own label at the same time as well. So yeah, non-stop."

The projects of which Singh speaks, his Northern British accent rendered difficult to understand by the background party/street noises, are Clinton, another of Singh's musical projects, and his record label Meccico which has released the latest recordings by The Toes. Far from retreating in recoil from the global embrace of Brimful Of Asha, Singh has clearly kept in touch with the music 'bizz.

"It's still as shit as it was," he refutes any change to the UK music climate, before conceding, "I think it is more shit actually. There's more managers in it, controlling the joint. Which that can't be good for anyone. Especially music.”

"It seems that music managers have realised that to sell it, you also need the attention of television. And the two are coming together to make the people that like music lives hell."

Therein lies the relevance of the glorious title of the latest single: Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III. A classy slice of vintage rock and roll guitar riffage spliced with Singh's distinctively repetitive vocal phrases that quickly become addictive, the single explores metaphorical themes of training and survival.

"Well yeah," Singh chuckles. "It's just that there are pointers and lessons to be learned from them that can be well adapted to the music industry because that's another fight. There's a lot of press ups to be done and a lot of jogging on the spot."

Though Singh states that the track "wipes the floor with a lot of American metal", he denies there was any attempt to deliberately surprise listeners with the choice of first single. In fact Singh asserts that his approach remains unchanged since the band's inception. 

"I mean they start at different points and finish up at different points and I don't really think about it that much" he reveals that the songs determine the direction of each Cornershop album rather than any preconceived vision. "And luckily there's lyrics that tie things together for different tracks. There's numbers and the production and a couple of aeroplanes and it all seems to gel. Not that we meant it to gel and much as this. People are saying 'concept album' and we're having to deny it!"

A Cornershop album is not a Cornershop album without some special guests. As well as Noel, Oasis' original bass player Paul McGuigan can be heard on the Lessons Learned... single, soul veteran Otis Clay guests on Heavy Soup, and Rob Swift of New York's X-Men lent both his turntable and production skills.
"Well we always liked the turntablist stuff as early as '95 when we were over in America, since then. And we've always been into the stuff of the Scratch Pickles, X-Men and Cut Chemist and we've always liked the X-Men, he's brilliant. And we wanted someone to come in and help out on a couple of the tracks.

"Someone like that, you know that they're only going to be on two tracks and you want them to bring whatever they're going to bring to it. And you trust what they're going to do and you know what they're going to do. And they're not being paid loads of money" Singh breaks off laughing. "Not that that should be a concern, but it was a concern which is why I'm doing production to start with really. It's not really something that I was burning to do but I do like it when I'm doing it.