CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 148: HUGH CORNWELL

Interview by Patrick Staveley

Futuremag had the privilege of chatting to one of the most iconic artists to emerge out of the British punk scene in the 1970s, former vocalist and guitarist of The Stranglers (Golden Brown, Always The Sun, Skin Deep), Hugh Cornwell.

Cornwell has recently announced his return to Australia to play shows for the first time since 2019, following on from the release of his 2022 record, ‘Moments of Madness’.

FMM: After 5 years and a pandemic, you’re coming back to Australia. How are excited are you for your return?

Hugh: Yeah I’m looking forward to it. We tried to put it together to come last year, but it didn’t transpire in the end. So it had to wait another year and you know, it’s about time now. As a matter of fact, last year might have been a bit too soon because the album’s been out just over a year now, so it’s had a chance to bed in for people over there to possibly listen to it. So, if we’d have come before, we wouldn’t have been able to add the collection from that album on to what we would have done, so that’s probably better like this.

FMM: What’s your favourite thing in particular about coming here?

Hugh: I’ve always enjoyed coming there to play. It’s so different. It’s so different from where I’m used to - the UK - but it’s always a joy to make the journey. It’s a long way but it’s a worth it. It’s hard to put a finger on anything in particular but it’s just a great experience. It always is.

FMM: The album Moments of Madness sounds so much like the punk scene you originally started in. Can you talk about your creative process for this album and how you keep coming up with fresh ideas?

Hugh: This album had the benefit of a lockdown. It’s the complete product of about two years when we were twiddling our thumbs with not much to focus on and luckily, I had a studio at home, and I managed to get my trusted engineer to come over when neither of us were suffering from anything. And we managed to put this together in the period and so that’s how this came about. Coming Out Of The Wilderness is one of those songs that’s obviously you know, a metaphor for the end of the lockdown.

FMM: Yeah, Coming Out Of The Wilderness, that's such a great start to the album. The great thing is, it doesn't tail off from there either. Like sometimes an album starts high and then falls but I feel like all your songs sound really punchy, really rocky. And it's funny because it sounds like it would fit in the 70s but it also sounds completely brand new, how do you manage that? To bring something kind of old into the new?

Hugh: I've always been a believer that everything in music has been done. I mean, really, there's very little left to be shown. So artists, me included - we're always reinterpreting what we've been influenced by in our lives. So, I'm always trying to rewrite songs by the people that I really admired. I'm always trying to write a new Doors song, I'm always trying to write a new Velvet Underground song. I'm always trying to write a new song by Love, the garage band in LA. And these were the bands that really had an effect on me and so I'm gonna spend the rest of my life going through the motions again, again, again, but what I mean, McCartney said that he and Lennon used to do that. That they used to take an artist they really liked and then try and write a song in their style, and Back in the U.S.S.R. is their take on a Beach Boys song. But of course, you know, you start off with that idea, but then by the time you finished it, it doesn't sound anything like what you thought it was gonna sound like and it’s become your song. So that's my sort of take on why my album sounds like it...I mean really it could sit in the 60s because that's when I was really, really influenced by stuff.

FMM: You could say as well, that you're in the twilight of your career, but you could also argue this is some of your best work as well. There's obviously so much more work in you. Age is just a number right like when you produce something so quality now, does that help you defy expectation of when artists can continue making music until? 

Hugh: I mean, any album I've just made has always been the latest album and I'm always pleased about and satisfied with what I've come out with. It hasn't been blurted out without a lot of thought. So this latest one is just another one in the list, you know, and I hope to be able to continue to write songs and hopefully to go in the right direction. I hope that the albums are getting better, not worse if they were getting worse, that wouldn't be a very good trajectory would it? So I'm hoping that they're slowly getting a little bit better every time so it's trial and error, but I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that the next one continues in the same vein, you know,

FMM: It's been about probably twice as long that you've been a solo artist compared to how long you were with The Stranglers. How did that decision to leave when you did impact you in terms of being able to create your own path in a way? Do you look back on that thinking you probably made the right call?

Hugh: I've never doubted that I made the right call. For a while, I was completely dizzy and disorientated for years. I'd been in this very strict setup, where I was the lead singer, I was the guitarist, I was the frontman - most of the time - but a setup where everyone's roles were very well defined. And so to suddenly be not in that anymore, I felt like you know, I was on a boat without a sail, I've just drifted around being taken by the current you know, and it took it took me literally years to get a handle on what I wanted to sound like and what I wanted to try and find something that felt like it was me. I mean, a couple years I didn't even play guitar and the producer Laurie Latham who worked with us Aural sculpture, I got to know him very well. I ended up making two records with him - Guilty and Hifi. When I asked him to make the record Guilty, he said ‘I’m only gonna do that if you play guitar’ because I hadn't been playing guitar, you know, I was that disorientated. So it did take a long while to get back on course,

FMM: You obviously get used to it now is it weird for you seeing this band that you played a part in forming, going its own path as well?

Hugh: They’ve got their own life. They are trapped in their old catalogue, it seems to me, and that's what you do when you carry on with something that has had a strong personality. And when you carry on with something like that for many many years you're trapped by that brand that  was created, you know, you can't really mess with the brand. You know what I mean? The Stranglers brand can't really be messed with now. I mean, that's what it is, and however much you try, you can't break away from it. And that's one of the reasons why I didn't want to stay in it. You know, I didn't want to be branded, I didn’t want to have this brand on my side saying Stranglers, like a head of cattle. I wanted to be brand free. And if I was going to be branded I wanted my name, not a group.

FMM: What’s your relationship like with the current band?

Hugh: The others (Jet Black and David Greenfield) are dead of course. I hadn’t really had much contact with any of them since I left. I had conversations with Jean(-Jacques Burnel) for a couple years afterwards. And Dave came to a show of mine. And Jet came to a show of mine to pick up his wife, but sat in his car in the parking lot and wouldn't come in to say hello, wanted me to go out to the parking lot which was a very, very odd situation. Anyway, no I haven't, I haven't really had a reason to. There's three new members and I don't know any of them. My drummer knows their drummer better than me. If I saw him on the street, I wouldn't even know who he was.

FMM: Do you know what's next for you already? Are there any ideas ready for a next album to come?

Hugh: Ohh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Loads of stuff bubbling under at the moment. I feel like it's something that’s been simmering for quite a while now since that last one was finished and I'm looking forward to getting in the studio, hopefully later this year to start putting stuff to the table. I’ve got one song totally worked out in my head, which I can't wait to work on. That's a telltale sign when you start doing that, then you think oh my god, it's time to go back into the studio I think.

FMM: Favourite album, artist and song?

Hugh: Well favourite album is easy because it's the first Soft Machine album and there’s not a guitar in sight. Drums, bass and keyboards, and apparently they started out with a guitarist, but the guitarist left. And they were doing a tour with Hendrix and Hendrix said, ‘Hey, man, don't get another guitar. Just put your keyboard through a wah-wag pedal, a distortion pedal.’ And that's what he did. And it sounds fantastic. It's remarkable. So that first album is remarkable.

Favourite artist…that's gonna be tough. It’s going to be very, very tough. Somebody who's ticked all the boxes just because of his longevity, it’s got to be (Bob) Dylan hasn’t it? He managed to do acoustic stuff and electric stuff. And he's changed his voice. He sounds completely different now. He's defied death, he was on death’s door for about two years. And then he recovered from that, he's just remarkable. It's phenomenal.

Favourite song…What about House Of The Rising Sun (by The Animals) ?

Hugh will be performing eight shows in Australia through July and August.

July 31 SYDNEY - Mary’s Underground

August 1 MARRICKVILLE - The Great Club

August 2 BLUE MOUNTAINS - Blue Mountains Theatre

August 3 THORNBURY - The Croxton

August 4 ST KILDA - Memo Music Hall

August 8 BRISBANE - The Triffid

August 10 PERTH - Rosemount Hotel