11: Interview: MALCOLM MIDDLETON

In preperation for his new album release, I thought I'd dig up a short old Interview from Christmas 2007 where I interviewed Malcolm about 'A Brighter Beat', Arab Strap, the dreaded Xmas number 1 spot he was going for, and what was still to come... This interview was also for cowandfield.co.uk, but like the LOW interview (below), you can't get it on there at the moment, so here it is.

The new single “We're All Going To Die” is now one of the top contenders for the Christmas number 1. How much of that was down to you or was it just a bit of a laugh?
Some asked if I wanted to hold it back for the Christmas stuff and I just said 'aye, let's do it for a laugh'. It kinda just snowballed from there and William Hill started putting odds on it. It would be funny to get it, but it'd not be funny too. I don't really mind.

A Brighter Beat is considerably more upbeat than your first two solo efforts, was this a conscious decision or was it more of a natural progression?
It was both. The first one was so bleak and depressing that it makes me cringe a bit, the second album was a bit like me wearing a mask. I was covering the same themes but through more upbeat tunes so it was a bit less painful for people to listen to. Brighter Beat continued that but I just wanted better production, it's not really about having a brighter beat, it's about not having a brighter beat and not having a good mentality. I think I've done that now so I can;t really go any further with it.

Looking back at your first album, what do you think?
I'm glad people like it because it's honest... but like I said, it tends to make me cringe a bit these days.

Is there any plans for an Arab Strap DVD from the farewell tour or something similar?
We didn't really think about it until it came to the last night of the tour and we thought 'we should've filmed this'. We did record a lot of the concerts so maybe you'll hear some of that some day, we're not really a DVD band I don't think.

I remember setting off to the last Arab Strap gig in Manchester before (stupidly) changing my mind, as a result I never got to catch you guys live
I've done that before too. I had a ticket for Nirvana but went to some shit house party in Falkirk instead. That's what happens, you should always go to the concert, you'll regret it.

Any chance of a reformation?
It's a bit early for that. Never say never. If we went back to it it'd have to be because we enjoyed it, at the moment we're both doing our solo stuff so we're kept pretty busy.

Your new album Sleight of Heart is out in February, are there plans to tour that?
That's the plan yeah but it'll just be an acoustic tour with maybe 2 or 3 others to help out.

Has it been hard to adjust to touring as a full band doing electric shows after your last 2 albums which were pretty stripped down and acoustic?
It's hard because I hate doing it when things are missing like the strings and stuff. You've just gotta make sense of it as it is.

You've had to travel up from London this morning from a Radio session, what was that like for you?
Just a bit shit yunno, 6 hours in a van. We didn't get here til about 6:30

What's the tour been like in comparison to the tour earlier in the year?
It's been good. I was expecting all this Christmas shit to of brought a lot of people here to hear one song but it's been alright, a lot of people seem to know the songs and stuff. I've enjoyed it.

How do you go about sorting the setlists for the shows? Do you vary them a lot or do you tend to stick to the same songs?
We tend to play the stuff we're most comfortable with, we've had to rehearse stuff a bit differently for this tour like Cold Winter and King of Bring but we left them out anyway tonight. I've done King of Bring pretty much every gig since it was released so I decided it needed a rest.

How does the writing process differ from when you were in Arab Strap? Is it easier for you to do it alone or harder?
Well the main difference is that in Arab Strap I wrote the music and Aidan wrote the lyrics, whereas now I have to do both. Doing my own stuff is more natural for me because I have my own influences. Arab Strap was sometimes hard work because I'd write a song I liked and Aidan would just say 'that's shit'. But that's why Arab Strap worked, just that chemistry between us, a bit of compromise and fighting in the studio. With my own stuff I get total freedom. Some of my own stuff was originally for Arab Strap, the song Devil and The Angel was originally for Philophobia and fight like the night I've had knocking around for about10 years.

Have you taken your solo stuff more seriously since the split from Arab Strap?
I've always taken it seriously. I never wanted it to be a side project because to me that was all of me rather than with Arab Strap it was just half of me because Aidan was there. So, I've always taken it seriously. Sometimes too seriously which is why I miss Arab Strap.