The famous meme might declare that ”you Have the Same 24 Hours as Beyoncé”, but it might be more apt to swap the pop diva’s name for Tim Burgess’s.
Best known as the frontman of indie-rock band The Charlatans, the Manchester-born musician has always been a man who likes to keep busy. Aside from his output with the band and his solo material, over the past decade he has written a memoir, pursued a plethora of unexpected collaborations, hosted a radio show, done a bit of acting, inspired Kellogg’s to make a new breakfast cereal in his honour and curated Tim’s Twitter Listening Party during the pandemic, which continues to provide glimmers of sunshine on a social media platform that is routinely derided.
So I just had to get stuck into writing about the pandemic — which sounds really dull
— Tim Burgess
When we speak via Zoom, the blonde-haired, ruddy-cheeked frontman is at the band’s studio near Manchester, relieved now that normal service has resumed and the solo album that he finished almost a year ago is finally being released. True to form, Typical Music — his sixth record, and a double album — will be released while he continues to tour with The Charlatans on their 31st Anniversary “Best Of” tour.
It was a very different story in March 2020, when the pre-release campaign trail for his last album I Love the New Sky was nixed. He had intended to travel to SXSW and a New York showcase festival to launch it, but then the former was cancelled. “I went to New York, but it was pretty evident towards the end of our visit that we were gonna have to come back,” he says with a resigned nod. “And that’s when everything sort of … changed.”
Back home in the UK as lockdown began, Burgess re-launched the Twitter Listening Parties (where fans listen to a particular record, while the artist who created it synchronously tweets stories and insights from its recording) with a newfound gusto, having previously done them for The Charlatans’ back catalogue. Still feeling at a loose end and unable to tour, however, his label boss Simon Raymonde of Bella Union suggested that he write another album, and tour both in a few months’ time.
Burgess baulked at the idea, with no new experiences on the road to write about, as is his usual manner. “So I just had to get stuck into writing about the pandemic — which sounds really dull,” he laughs. “Actually, none of it ended up being about the pandemic; maybe one song. But I just had to start the whole process all over again. The world stopped, and imaginations ran riot; everyone lost faith in politicians and … well, everything was happening, really.”
Instead of a dour, depressing pandemic record, Typical Music is infused with a sense of optimism and is Burgess’s most musically sprawling record to date, taking in psych-pop (Revenge Through Art), swirling indie (Slacker (Than I’ve Ever Been), surf-rock (Sooner Than Yesterday) and quirky 1960s-style love songs (After This).
“I had to kind of try and create a world that would transcend what was going on in the real world,” he agrees. “I think I’ve always written about part-fact and part-fantasy, and this was the same. I think all musicians are quite equipped to deal with something like the pandemic — so I feel like I’ve hopefully built a hermetically-sealed spaceship with a minimal crew, comprising Welsh experimental musician Thighpaulsandra (Julian Cope, Spiritualized, Coil) and Daniel O’Sullivan (Grumbling Fur, Guapo)], and transcended the bullshit.”
He is aware of the connotations that come with releasing a double album and has the decency to look suitably embarrassed. “But I’ve always wanted to do a double album,” he says with a guilty chuckle. “And I’ve always been scared of double albums. I nearly managed to do it with I Love the New Sky, but with this one I really went for it. I felt I had a lot to write about.”
The songs on Typical Music, he says, are about “love and loss, and the future and the past”. The “loss” aspect comes in the form of several songs that touch upon his father’s death in 2020. The “love” part? That’s a little less specific — or so he would have the listener believe. In reality, songs like the glittering When I See You, with its spoken word intro and earnest lyrics recounting the first meeting with someone special (“It was in Soho — London, rather than New York — and I saw you walking towards me on Great Windmill Street …”) are as heart on sleeve as they come.
I would go down to the gate, and just look at the field and try and absorb a history that I’m a part of
He won’t be drawn on specifics but grins like a Cheshire Cat when I suggest that the rumours about him and Irish actress Sharon Horgan, who provided backing vocals on The Charlatans’ 2017 album Different Days, maybe more than mere tabloid fodder. He refuses to commit to an answer, but his smile gives him away.
‘How much do I wanna talk about it? Well, not very much … for obvious reasons,” he grins, suddenly bashful. “But yes, [that song] is about falling in love, and it is definitely about … somebody.”
He goes tight-lipped again. How about this angle, then: having been a public figure for so long, is this new intrusion into his private life strange, just because he’s dating someone else who’s famous?
“God!” he says, exhaling deeply as he laughs. “I don’t know, it’s never really happened before.” He catches himself. “Well, I didn’t say I was or I wasn’t! Erm … I think it’s a beautiful thing, whatever it is. There are lots of songs on the album about love. And loss. And positivity … Anyway.” He can’t stop smiling. “I don’t know … I don’t know. I don’t know what to say!”
Love life aside, there were other emotional factors to tackle on the record. Typical Music was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, where another significant moment of his life took place in 1996. As The Charlatans were recording their best-known album Tellin’ Stories, keyboardist Rob Collins was killed in a single-vehicle crash close to the studio’s gates.
I thought I wanted it to remain in the past, but actually, I wanted my past to become a part of my present
Although Burgess returned to Rockfield “to get a feeling” when he was writing his memoir Telling Stories (published in 2012), this was the first time that he had spent a significant period of time in the area in 25 years.
“I don’t know how this is gonna sound, but I’m hopeful that people can get a picture of it,” he says, thoughtfully. “I would go down to the gate, and just look at the field [where the accident happened], and try and absorb a history that I’m a part of. Try to just remember Rob, for all the incredible things that he’d given to the world, and the chance that he gave me [in the band]. I would just go down most mornings, and just look, and feel. So going back to Rockfield was a beautiful thing, really. I thought I wanted it to remain in the past, but actually, I wanted my past to become a part of my present.”
These days, after a few decades of excess, partying and hard living, the now 55-year-old Burgess’s present is pretty content. The Twitter Listening Parties continue to thrive, and he can’t hide his excitement about the fact that he confirmed Roxy Music an hour before we speak. The roll call of names that have participated is astonishing: everyone from Paul McCartney to New Order to Pixies, Pulp, Iron Maiden and Yoko Ono have taken part, while he recalls spending two hours in a layby on the way to Rockfield to work out the logistics of squeezing Kylie Minogue in when he got word that she was interested, too.
“People just liked it,” he says of the concept’s resurgence during the pandemic. “I thought the pandemic was going to last for about three weeks, and I made a programme of all the people that I knew: Chemical Brothers, Bonehead, Dave Rowntree, Wendy Smith, Alex Kapranos — all to use my platform and invite their fans along in a ‘we can get through this together with people listening in’ kind of thing, with their favourite artists tweeting along.” He shrugs. “And it just resonated with people.”
There has already been a Listening Party book that compiles the stories behind the tweets for each album, while volume two will be published in November. “You forget how many you’ve done. Just flicking through the pages, I’m like ‘Iron Maiden! Blondie! Nirvana! Garbage! Kurt Vile! Dennis Bovell!’,” he says in wonderment. “It’s like, ‘Crikey!’”
There’s a lot going on in Burgess’s world, but it’s clear that he prefers it that way. He intends to keep things moving on all fronts, he says; the reason he is in the studio today is to start writing some new Charlatans material with his band-mate Mark Collins, and there’s lots more to come, besides that.
“I think I can do things at all different speeds, really. Do my solo stuff fast; do The Charlatans slowly; write books at leisure, and play gigs whenever they come. So I think there’s room for it all,” he says with an enthusiastic nod and another of those infectiously cheeky grins. “I really think there is.”
Typical Music is released on September 23rd
