'Golf Is Sort Of Like My Heroin,' Lloyd Cole Explains

Collected Recordings 1983 - 1989 by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions — a box set containing five CDs, one DVD and a book — was released halfway through 2015 and we wonder how listening back to this material makes Cole feel these days. "Sometimes I'm sort of in awe of the music we made and — not very often — other times I just think, 'What? What? What? Why didn't I have somebody — was I surrounded by yes men? That's rubbish!'"

On whether his opinions on certain songs he's written have changed over time, Cole says, "I try not to think about it too much, because I can't really remember what it was like to be 23-year-old me. I remember some of the motivations, but some of the thought processes that I had? I can't remember writing many of the songs... The only things I can remember about songs are interesting anecdotes about where I wrote them, but why I wrote them? Gosh, I just wanted to be a pop star!"

"I can't remember writing many of the songs... The only things I can remember about songs are interesting anecdotes about where I wrote them..."

Remarkably, Cole wrote his band's first two hits "over a weekend" using a portastudio. "The Commotions — after we signed a publishing deal, we owned one of those [portastudios] and we owned one synthesiser, I think it was a Yamaha DX7, and we used to take turns taking the portastudio home at the weekend to record ideas, and I recorded Perfect Skin and Forest Fire the same weekend. And I remember taking the rough tracks back to the band and going, 'I'm pretty sure we're onto something now'," he laughs. "But, I mean, then I'd go for years without writing anything else sometimes." As well as these two songs, Cole admits he also "had a feeling" about Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? and Brand New Friend.

He's currently working on a box set of solo material and admits he'd originally hoped it would be out "in time to coincide with the Australian dates". But this just wasn't feasible, Cole explaining, "My PR guy just said, 'No way, I can't do it', so I said, 'Okay'." He then advises the solo box set "is coming in March".

When asked whether he was unable to locate some of the recorded material he wished to include in one of these collections, Cole reveals, "There is a recording of me doing a demo of a Lee Hazlewood song called Pour Man; I think that's the only track that completely disappeared. And there was also a session in between an album I did called Bad Vibes and an album called Love Story when I went into the studio with Neil [Clark, guitar] and Stephen [Irvine, drums] from The Commotions, and there is one very ropey cassette recording remaining from that and no record of it anywhere at Universal so, yeah! There's a few things that have fallen between the cracks, but we've managed to find most everything and, even if it had to be mastered from cassette, well then so be it."

"Half the time I wish I could stop writing, it would be nice to have a break from it for a while."

Cole speaks to us from his attic, in the office part of his library at his home in Western Massachusetts. "I came over here in 1988 for six months and ended up staying for half my life," he tells. Initially based in New York, which was Cole describes as "still very exciting" at the time, he details, "I met my wife and we got married, and we liked living in New York... We didn't have kids and my career seemed somewhat - I don't know, 'buoyant' is probably the best word; it wasn't fantastic, but it definitely wasn't going under. And so living in New York was fun, and we left in '99 when we had a second child and no real expectancy that my career would be able to put both of them through private school and private university in New York [laughs]. So we went somewhere where the schools were a little bit more affordable and yet still sort of, you know, three hours drive from New York."

While considering what was "really nice about New York... compared to being in London" around the time he relocated, Cole cites "probably the most public" band feud: "when Blur and Oasis were both popular, and they both hated each other." While discussing how UK music magazines such as Smash Hits encouraged bands to slag each other off in print, Cole offers, "There was always a bit of that going on in the UK... you would like your rivals but, I don't know: it wasn't very healthy." According to Cole, in the UK, you would never "run into someone from another band" and have a dialogue during which they'd say, "Feel free to give me a call if you want someone to play guitar". "But that's exactly what it was like when I got to New York," Cole points out. "I mean, I ran into people all over the city and they just would say, 'Oh, yes, yes, yes, if you wanna make some music just gimme a call.' It was lovely, and I just met a whole bunch of people, and it was just very natural... I, you know, wasn't really famous in New York; [I] was just kinda more of a cult figure."

After moving to New York, Cole observes, "My life was comfortable again. It'd been a little bit difficult... in the UK, you know, when you go shopping you eventually have a train of people following you around [laughs]." While considering other factors that may have contributed to British band wars in the UK, Cole posits, "I remember growing up with people like [Echo & The Bunnymen's] Ian McCulloch as heroes and McCulloch spent all his time slagging everybody else off. So I think we sort of thought that's what you were supposed to do and it was quite nice to get away from that. In fact, I think if I'd stayed in the UK I'd have retired from music a long time ago. I think I'd have just been worn out with it." Fortunately for us, then, Cole relocated. "Or not, depending on your point of view," Cole quips with a chuckle.

Cole finds it hard to switch off, confessing, "Half the time I wish I could stop writing, it would be nice to have a break from it for a while [laughs]." So does he suffer from insomnia? "Not just insomnia, it's during the day as well when you're trying to just sit around and watch sports or something and a new bloody song is kicking around in your head. That's one of the reasons why I play golf, and golf has been one of the very few things that allows me to focus my brain on something that pushes music and everything else out. And I suppose golf is sort of like my heroin and thank heavens I don't need that."