Jarvis Cocker, former leader of the beloved Pulp, recently released his appropriately-titled solo album, Jarvis (Rough Trade / World’s Fair); though this venture doesn’t venture all that far from what Pulp did brilliantly for over two decades prior. In case you’re new to the club, Cocker likes to take relatively standard pop songs and spice them up - lots of times with blunt bedroom talk. Although this new work is lighter on the sexually explicit, it’s nevertheless Jarvis Cocker through-and-through. Old dog Jarvis even learned a new musical trick for this rare solo flight.
Amplifier: I heard you mastered the piano in preparation of the writing and recording of Jarvis.
Jarvis Cocker: The phrase “mastered the piano” is a bit ironic there. We got a piano to try and encourage the children to play it. And needless to say, they showed no interest in it at all. So I suppose I just decided to play it so the money wasn’t going to waste. To say that I’ve mastered the piano; I haven’t at all. I can play three notes at once. But the way to get to know an instrument is to write songs on it, I think. I wrote some songs on the piano, and right up almost to the end of the record I was thinking, ‘Well, when we record the record, probably I’ll get somebody to play the piano properly as well.’ But in the end, I could have gotten somebody to play it a lot more technically, yeah. But I felt, ‘Well, it was a solo record and you want to give some idea of what you’re about.’ And the piano playing; I hope it’s got a certain naïve charm. I can’t see that I’ll be doing any recitals at Carnegie Hall very soon.
What is your primary choice of instrument?
I’ve played the guitar since I was thirteen or fourteen. I know about three chords now. Again, I’m not a virtuoso on the guitar but I can kind of play rudimentary chords, which is all you need to write songs, really.
What is your primary songwriting rule?
I’ve always thought the simpler a song, the better it is. For me, if I get to the end of a song and I realize I’ve only used, like, three chords, I’m really happy with that. I hate music that’s complicated for the sake of it, for no apparent reason. I find something very depressing about all that kind of energy and work going into something that’s basically worthless. Hank Williams only knew three basic guitar chords. But wow, look what he did with just those! I’m with Hank rather than with Getty Lee of Rush.
How do you put a personal stamp on your songs?
I tend to write songs in a fairly conventional manner, I’ve realized that. My songs are quite conventionally structured. They have a verse and a chorus, after a middle eight, and they also have a melody and stuff like that; because that’s what I like about pop songs, really. Where my songs go off into a different direction, I suppose, is that they often have some inappropriate subject matter in the lyrics. This is something I’ve always liked doing, really, because I guess I was brought up on pop music. I like the conventions of it. But I do find that a lot of pop songs are not very satisfying, lyrically.”
You’ll be performing at Coachella for the first time this year. I would think it’s safe to say that American festival audiences will not be familiar with your present material....or even much of your older material.
In a way, it was the same in England. We did some shows before the record was even out and it was the first time for a long, long time that I’d gone on stage and played a whole set of songs that probably 98% of the audience didn’t know. And that was kind of nerve-wracking in a way. But it’s also exciting because you’ve got to kind of work on communicating those songs that were there in front of you at that time. And it’s a long time since I’ve played in America. It must be ten years, probably, since Pulp played in America.
What do you see as the main reason Pulp was not able to make a sizeable dent in the American market?
It’s probably to do with the laziness of the band....not particularly laziness, but we were older. We never did like proper touring in the U.S. We played now and again, but we never did one of those 30-day tours. We didn’t have the stamina to do it, basically.
Jarvis Cocker may not have, nor ever had, the long distance runner mentality to conquer America, but hopefully this smart and witty songwriter’s charm and perseverance will let him breakthrough to those with ears to hear, and finish well the journey Pulp started.
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Interview by Dan MacIntosh
JARVIS COCKER's Jarvis is available now on Rough Trade Records.
http://www.myspace.com/jarvspace
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