Graham Coxon - Love Travels At Illegal Speeds Interview / Track By Track

Interview conducted in London in early 2006. Produced and edited by Tony Hale and Kevin McCabe. Released in March 2006. Promo CD. COXON 03 / 0946 357182 2 5 Questions: 01. So, did you make this new album at home in your own studio? 02. And is the CD ’all your own work’; or are there other players on it? 03. And what is your recording technique: how do you actually go about the process? 04. And as previously, you have Stephen Street producing? 05. One of the reasons that you like working with Stephen is that he pushes you. Is that right? 06. So, the CD is called Love Travels At Illegal Speeds, but there isn’t a track called that. So what kind of variety of songs will we find? 07. There are a number of love songs on the album: as one would expect from you, love lost rather more often that love won! But when the singer sings ’I love you’ or whatever, is the ’I’ actually you? 08. Would it be reasonable, having listened to the album a few times, to argue that Graham Coxon is feeling a bit less introspective on this album? That there’s a bit more outward looking? 09. OK, let’s work our way through the album, track by track. Track 1 is Standing On My Own Again: right back to the post punk late 70s, Jam, Buzzcocks, Jags. It’s Power Pop, isn’t it? 10. Track 2 is I Can’t Look At Your Skin. The vocal sounds a little bit like Johnny Rotten, I think... 11. Next up, Don’t Let Your Man Know, is a song about illicit sex: with the singer cast as The Other Man... 12. The end of Don’t Let Your Man Know seems to mark a major change in emphasis on the album. After the power pop of tracks 1 and 2, we settle to a more melodic, easier pace on Just a State of Mind. 13. Track 5, You & I, is a song sung to a loved one. But in fact, it started out being sung to your daughter, Pepper, didn’t it? 14. Now, on Gimme Some Love, Track 6, we’re back on that post punk, power pop trail... 15. I Don’t Wanna Go Out is Track 7. Tell us about that one. 16. Would it be fair to describe the next track, Don’t Believe Anything I Say as auto biographical at all? 17. Tell It Like It Is sounds like a single. Do you ever think about chart success and the possibilities for your songs? 18. Flights To The Sea (Lovely Rain) is the only song on the album that isn’t in 4/4 time. 19. Track 11 is a terrific song. What’s He Got? It’s all about seeing a good looking girl with another guy. “Why him - not me?“ Very Graham Coxon!! 20. You Always Let Me Down is next. And it sounds so real, I wonder, is about someone we might know? 21. Tell us about the last track ’See A Better Day’.