Last night, Liam Fray of Manchester band Courteeners joined The Evening Show with Dan O'Connell on Radio X.
Speaking to Dan O’Connell on Radio X, Courteeners frontman Liam Fray discussed the 15-year anniversary of the band’s debut album, St June, saying that the milestone gave the band new life after the industry had ‘washed their hands of them.’ Liam also discussed the influence of Oasis’ Definitely Maybe, and the ‘very freeing experience’ of working with several collaborators on Courtneers forthcoming new album, Pink Cactus Café.
Highlights:
Courteeners frontman Liam Fray says that the 15-year anniversary of debut album St Jude gave the band new life after the industry ‘washed their hands of them’
Liam Fray says bringing in collaborators made recording new Courteeners album Pink Cactus Café a ‘very freeing experience’ compared to earlier albums
Liam Fray says that every track on Oasis’ Definitely Maybe ‘stands the test of time’ as the classic record approaches its 30th birthday
Key
Liam Fray – LF
Dan O’Connell – DOC
Courteeners frontman Liam Fray says that 15-year anniversary of debut album St Jude gave the band new life after the industry ‘washed their hands of them’
DOC: “I just wondered, with that album [St Jude] going into number one, has that changed your mindset about how you feel, about how the world has received Courteeners?”
LF: “Oh, do you know what, a little bit, I guess... We got dropped after the second record, and I thought, ‘If this finishes us off, because we got a bit of a rough ride, I won’t be happy, because we’re better than that.’ To like dust yourself down from that. And then Anna and Concrete Love, you could feel it still going then. So, I guess it kind of dissipated a little bit. Once we did a couple of gigs in Manchester at Castlefield Bowl, and they were 8000 each – I think we did Saturday and Sunday, or Friday and Saturday. I thought, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Those gigs felt really special and came at just the right time. I think it might have been after Anna was out, just before Concrete Love, so perfect timing. At that time, that chip on the shoulder started to dissipate, to disappear, I should say. But it was definitely there for a bit. I thought, ‘If this finishes us off, I won't be happy.’ But the number one thing last year, it was, I think it was nice for all the other people involved. I think I probably let go of a lot of that, because I’m here doing it. So every day is like, you know how lucky you are and you don’t take that stuff for granted. But also, there are good bands that fall by the wayside; it’s not their fault. You know, they might not get this, or they might not get that. You have to have a lot of luck along the way.”
DOC: I think the interesting thing – which seems to be more the case now as well – is you can release a song, right? And then years later, yeah, it has this brand-new life that you never expected, and actually didn't even create. Like, it's organic, and it happens itself, you know? I think that's the that's the interesting thing now about music. I know lots of people have got lots of different opinions on streaming and all that sort of stuff, but things that happen on social media now with tracks that then create these moments, or people rediscovering music, it is a whole new world that didn't exist before.”
LF: “Yeah and going back to like bands that you didn't know. And even stuff like, I don’t know, let’s say bands from like the 80s – you might not know where they came in the lineage, and it's and it shouldn't be important, you just know… I’m probably not getting my point across very well, but yeah, there's just so much out there. I don't know, if I relate it back to us, if you were a 16-year-old now, you might listen to, like, something from the third album, but you don't know that that came out when we were like… basically the industry and whatever had washed its hands of us! They'd said, ‘Nah, we're not having them.’ But then they just do lose control and go, ‘That's a tune that.’ You don't know where it sits in your story, or whatever. So, I think that's quite interesting as well.”
Liam Fray says bringing in collaborators made recording new Courteeners album Pink Cactus Café a ‘very freeing experience’ compared to earlier albums
DOC: “Let's go old to new, let's talk new music. You've announced the album, number seven, lucky number seven – Pink Cactus Café is out in October. We've had the first taste, we've been playing it a lot on Radio X, and I wanted to sort of touch on the collaborative nature of the album, really. First up, I spent an hour or so with Brooke Combe recently down On The Beach in Brighton. She gave me the story of what happened there as well… and she said that, basically, she just came straight round, and did this vocal for you?”
LF: “Yeah, and you know what, what a vocal as well! Amazing voice, amazing performer. She is like one of the greats… Okay, the last three, four records, it's basically me and Joe, the producer, and then we get the rest of the band in, kind of thing. Well, this was like different producers, and a couple of people in the studio at different times and stuff, so there was no definite direction or whatever. There was just, like, ‘Let's see what happens.’ It was a very free, very freeing experience. It wasn't free, nothing is free! But it was a very freeing experience. Like, I liked that kind of unknown, and ‘Let's see what happens.’ Yeah, it was a really, really rewarding experience working with everyone who's on it.”
Liam Fray says that every track on Oasis’ Definitely Maybe ‘stands the test of time’ as the classic record approaches its 30th birthday
DOC: “You just mentioned Oasis, and we are very close to a birthday for Definitely Maybe. 30 years old. And I know you're not that old, so you wouldn't have been that old when it came out, but do you have memories of it?”
LF: “Weirdly enough, I had What’s The Story [Morning Glory] before Definitely Maybe. So I was 10, 11 for Morning Glory. But you couldn’t escape; I remember ‘Wonderwall’ on the radio, and I remember this very, very clearly – I'd just being able to sit in the front of the car with my dad. You get that, you know, ‘ Don't touch that, don't press this.’ Because they want to the vocal to pop out so much, the guitar was quite quiet. So I would go to hear that, because that good when I had that acoustic, and I’m not just saying this, but I remember thinking I’d never really heard that thing, or it’d never done that to me, so I cranked it up. But then when the vocal comes in, you know, it's massive. So, I remember my dad always going a bit mad and reining it in a bit, and my sister going, ‘Oh, you do know there's an album before that?’ So that was quite mad, to go ‘Wow.’ And then obviously, at 11, 12, you’ve probably got four CDs, haven’t you? So that’s all there was on rotation… I went to see Liam at the Co-Op. Just as good as ever. Better than ever, actually! Better than ever. I would say that's the best I think I've ever seen him.”
