Paul on BBC Radio 1 Lamacq Live

Steve Lamacq: So, they were our first guests, or first headline guests I should say on the first programme, this time last year. We got Paul Draper on the phone from Mansun earlier on today and asked him how he's keeping.

Paul Draper: Yeah, great Steve, cheers, yeah. We're just in the studio at the minute, started recording the third album last Wednesday.

SL: 'Cos er, rumour has it that everything was going so well with writing the LP that you just weren't gonna come out of rehearsal studios, you were just gonna stay there until it's done.

PD: Yeah, well I think we are, yeah. I think the only time we're gonna break is for Reading Festival, you know. I mean, me and Chad sort of went away a bit and locked ourselves away and done a lot of writing, and er, I mean, getting the tracks down this time's been probably the quickest we've ever done. So we're gonna keep going until Reading, do the Reading Festival, come back and tidy it up and I think we'll be ready to go after that.

SL: So when you say 'lock yourself away', where did you go?

PD: Me and Chad, we sort of like got a couple of rucsacks together and went across to Europe, took a couple of acoustic guitars and ended up er, up in the Spanish hills, and just had a little cottage up there and done a few weeks writing up there, and then we came back and we went up into North Wales for a bit and done some writing up there as well, went to our sort of childhood hangout places.

SL: Right.

PD: We've probably got two or three times as many tracks as we need, so I think we're gonna record maybe five EP's worth of stuff and the album all in one go.

SL: Really?!

PD: And then er, probably pick the tracklistings for everything up front.

SL: So how much did the setting affect what you were writing, or was it 'we wanna write something, I've got this idea in my head but I need the right place to, sort of, get it going'?

PD: I think the main thing for me was that when we'd erm, we finished touring in February, and er, I think we just needed to get away from everything, go somewhere really quiet and just be able to chill out and er, basically sort of concentrate just on writing, 'cos I ended up getting up every morning and just getting bogged down with allsorts of mundane tasks, so I just didn't want to have anything to worry about, really.

SL: It all sounds very idillic(sp.).

PD: Yeah, it wasn't really.

SL: (laughs) Wasn't it?

PD: No, it was pretty cold and er, you know rainy and all like that and if anyone lives up near Bangor in North Wales they'll tell you what it's like there in March.

SL: 'Cos you were on our very first Lamacq Live last year doing a sort of er, we did the Top Ten tunes with 'Wide Open Space' at the top.

PD: Yeah.

SL: Have you got any new favourite now, then, coming together, d'you reckon?

PD: Er, god, I tell you what, every time we do a new track it becomes your sort of new favourite, you know, and then like the next day you come in and do another track and it's like 'Oh no, this is definitely the best thing we've ever done'.

SL: 'That's better than the best thing we've ever done'.

PD: Yeah.

SL: 'Cos it's strange as well, with yourselves, isn't it because it's not always your singles, your single A-sides which are the fans' favourite, there's quite a few B-sides and album tracks which end up sort of being either the live favourites or the bedroom favourites.

PD: I know, I know. I mean, I dunno whether we've shot ourselves in the foot over the years, and this is what people keep telling us, by not picking the sort of best tracks to go out as singles, you know. There's definitely a few tracks like 'Drastic...' or 'Everyone Must Win', the track we done with Howard Devoto, stuff like 'The Chad Who Loved Me' or '...Blown It...', people say to us 'Why did you not release them as the singles? Why, why?' and you know, I really don't know why. In the sort of midst of making a record I don't think we've ever thought about singles ever.

SL: (laughs) And er, are you gonna be doing any new stuff at Reading, have you thought ahead that far?

PD: Yeah, I think so yeah. We've just been comtemplating this, and er, you know, we'll do a few. you know, the more sort of up-tempo stuff, I think. The danger with doing new stuff is that people are like 'Oh great, here's a new track' and they all stand there, listening to it and you think 'God,' you know, 'where's everything gone', and the great thing about doing old tracks is that people know 'em.

SL: Yeah.

PD: And er, people know how to react to 'em. So I think we're gonna probably just do a mix, really. Maybe really old stuff, and some new stuff, you know.

SL: I think it will be good, actually, Reading this year, it's on our stage, it's gotta be!

PD: Yeah, I do think it'll be good, yeah. I mean, I think Reading was our favourite festival last year, 'cos earlier on in the year we thought 'Oh, right are we gonna go 'round and do the festival circuit this year again?', and we just thought 'We'll do one thing for the people who wanna come along and see us', and the gigs we're doing around that time are centred towards Reading and Leeds and getting it right and you know...

SL: Excellent. Well, we'll see you at er, Reading.

PD: Yeah, see you there.

SL: And er, one question everyone's asking: 'Is Chad still off the cigarettes?'

PD: He is, yeah.

SL: Yeah?

PD: Yeah, it's unbelievable, he's given up drinking and smoking. He's now the most boring person in the band, officially.

SL: Did he have mood swings?

PD: Yeah, he has mild wood swings.

SL: Does he?

PD: Yeah. He had them before he gave up smoking though.

SL: (laughs)

PD: He taken up these er, what looks like a little white plastic pen.

SL: Oh yes, I know what you mean.

PD: Yeah, but he smokes more of them than he did cigarettes, so I don't think it's doing him any good.

SL: Thank you very much for talking to us, and er, coming out of the studio, and erm, good luck with the rest of the work on the LP.

PD: Yeah, cheers mate, happy birthday!

SL: Take care. Paul Draper, ladies and gentlemen.

('Wide Open Space' starts...)

broadcasted on 26th July 1999
this transcript by David Nattris
dave@mansun.co.uk
http://www.mansun.co.uk