What Makes A Monster: A Hugh Cornwell Interview

HUGH CORNWELL: What Makes A Monster

An interview by Sarah Kidd.

Humans. When born we are basically all the same; little vessels ready to expand, grow and learn from the world. But along the way some of us will encounter desires; an internal need to be better, faster, richer, more powerful.

At what point do the scales tip and an everyday member of society becomes a monster? It is a question that Hugh Cornwell has not only thought about but explored on his stunning new album entitled Monster.

Almost thirty years on since leaving The Stranglers, Cornwell still values all that he learnt and the time he spent with the band. But he certainly hasn’t been sitting around with idle hands either. Having written several books, collaborated on an album with Dr John Cooper Clarke and now working on a film script, Hugh Cornwell likes to keep himself occupied with a rather enviable creative work ethic.

I sat down with Hugh Cornwell to discuss his latest album, upcoming projects, his mother and of course how brilliant it is that his Auckland show falls on a Friday night…

“A Friday night! A Friday night, kick the yah yahs out night!”

[laughs] We all love Friday and Saturday night gigs because then we can let our hair down, as most of us don’t have to worry about work the next day which is fantastic!

“Exactly, exactly. Well some of you don’t have to worry about work the next day, but I do.”

[laughs] This is true…

“I work on Sundays… all the time.”

I bet you do, well to be fair you just seem to work twenty-four seven my dear!

[laughs]

I actually read a wonderful statement about you the other day and I wondered what your thoughts would be on it. It said: ‘Hugh Cornwell is still fighting dragons with his music’.

“Fighting dragons? [laughs] It’s very good, I like it!”

So, would you agree with it?

“Fighting dragons? Well sometimes I’m applauding dragons. You know some of the people that I’ve chosen to write songs about on this latest album Monster are very controversial. Robert Mugabe, Benito Mussolini, but they’re just examples of how power corrupts, and I tried to give them a good brief by imagining when they first started out what they were doing. They were probably very, very passionate and very honest about what they were doing.

In fact, I know Mussolini was for one, it was only when he formed his pact with Nazi Germany that he lost the support of the people. Before that he was a socialist, he was a god; he was so socially active.

Most people stupidly lust for power but in fact most of the time it’s a terrible influence.”

Completely agree. Speaking of influence, obviously your time with The Stranglers was hugely influential on both fans and musicians alike. Almost three decades on since leaving the band, how do you look back on your time with them and does it still have an influence on the music you write today?

“Of course, while I was playing with The Stranglers, we were all learning on our feet. We didn’t go to school to learn what we did and I was learning how to play guitar, I was learning how to sing, I was learning how to perform on stage, I was learning how to communicate with the audience, I was learning how to write songs, I was learning how to record them in the studio, you know all these things I started from the zero.

So, my time with The Stranglers was almost like being at school, learning all these skills. And then when I left, I was able to continue learning – because you never stop learning.

Monster has got great reviews and I produced it myself, did all the writing and playing and everything and that to me still isn’t good enough. You know I want the next one to be even better! So hopefully if I can learn some more [chuckles] that’s the thing you gotta have a zeal, a zest to learn. If you get lazy and don’t want to learn anything new then that’s it, it’s all over really!”

And that goes back to what we were saying before; you never stop working! [laughs]

“Well I get bored; the trouble is I hate doing nothing. I go off in the early part of the year because it’s very quiet in the UK music wise, but I don’t do nothing. I work about four or five hours a day and I write prose, books or scripts or whatever. I’ve got a few projects on the go and it’s great to have a complete change from music you know?

But I’m not idle, I’m still trying to create something, just in a different form.”

Yes, you have written a number of books and I must ask what do you derive from that compared to music writing? Because obviously they are both creating, but they are two totally different avenues.

“Well it’s saved me a fortune on buying books to read when I’m away…”

[laughs]

“Because I don’t read books anymore, once you start writing books; well I can’t see anyone wanting to read a book again that someone else had written because you’re in the box seat, you’re in the driver’s seat.

When you’re writing a book, you can create anything you want, you are literally God. You can create or kill people as is your whim and it’s a fantastic feeling. I can’t wait to write again to see what’s going to come up, what’s going to happen in that period of time when you’re writing.

So, it’s completely different from writing songs and performing but it’s a very solitary business, it means spending time alone. But it’s never bothered me spending time alone, I love spending time alone because it just goes so fast if you’ve got an active mind.”

Just before we move on to discussing your brilliant new album Monster which has been reviewed by many critics as an absolute work of genius; you have also done some wonderful collaboration wok, including with the delightful Dr John Cooper Clarke. Will there be any more of these sorts of collaborations in the future? Not necessarily with Dr Clarke, but with other musicians?

“I’ve no idea! All the times I’ve collaborated with someone on something it has never been pre-planned or anything, it’s just happened whimsically when I’ve met them or started talking about something with somebody. And they just happen.

So, I would hope those circumstances would arise again because they are very creative and very healthy circumstances, nice atmosphere to be in and I hope that’ll happen again and occur again…

But I haven’t got any plans to do anything like that. I mean I am writing film scripts at the moment and of course a film is again completely different from music creatively and books, because there you really are collaborating I’ve realised – as this is the first time I have ever been involved in the film business – it’s a real collaboration with other people with different talents. Like the writer has a talent, the director has a talent, the producer has talents, the actors have talents and that really is collaboration. So that hopefully is going to be my next collaboration.”

Now this might be a loaded question, but tell me about your mother?

“Well I would love to tell you about my mother, I will try and condense it. When I was a kid, she was quite draconian and very ogre like and I was quite scared of her and then she mellowed out a it as I got a bit older and I grew to be very, very, very fond of her.

But at first, I was scared of her when I was a teenager and she didn’t like me being involved in music, they wanted me to be a doctor. And then when I started playing music, funnily enough my Dad was the one that never forgave me. My Mum forgave me and actually enjoyed the music that I was making.

So, she used to go swimming, her big passion was swimming in the open air and she used to go five or six times a day to a ladies open air pond on Hampstead Heath throughout the year to swim. And because of this zest for swimming that she had, this enthusiasm, when I wrote that song which was the starting song for the album basically the concept was her song, I really wanted to put something about swimming in it, so I tried to do that.

It’s just a tribute to her, but unfortunately, she wasn’t around to hear it you know, but I think she’d be pleased to hear it. My brothers and sisters all like it, they’ve all heard it and they like it so that’s good enough for me.”

I think there are a few of us who certainly know what it is like to have a draconian mother that scares you… [chuckles]

“But they have to be, because they’re scared. They want to protect their children so they gotta be like that haven’t they really, there’s no other way to be. Otherwise you end up spoiling them and you see spoiled kids now, they’re terrible, they’re impossible you know?”

I love the idea of the concept with the Monster album of the ‘public persona vs private’ because I think it is something that every single person does, but just on varying scales wouldn’t you agree? I think the higher profile the personality the more the variance between the public and the private face.

“Interesting. Yeah, yeah, well what it pointed out to me was that the shallowness of everyone’s desire to be a celebrity. They just want to be famous for the sake of it and these people [featured on the album] at least they are for some sort of achievement” [chuckles]

We do sadly live in an age where many people are famous for absolutely nothing and that frustrates the shit out of me…

“For Nothing! Yeah!”

At least create something, whether it be music or art or poetry at least you are contributing something of value to the world!

“Yeah, a lot of people are now famous just for being famous!” [laughs]

Obviously, your mother was an inspiration for the album Monster, but what prompted you to make a concept album in the first place?

“Well it happened you know. She was the first song that I wrote; I hadn’t written a song in a while and she died, and I thought ‘Well that’s a nice tribute to her’ so I did that, and it turned out really well.

And then I – I’m a big movie fanatic – was watching a movie about Evel Knievel played by George Hamilton, which was a funny casting, but it was pretty good, and I suddenly realised that Evel Knievel was the most famous man in the 1970’s decade and no one had ever written a song about him! So I thought ‘There’s a guy who should have a song written about him’ so the idea of motorbikes and born to be wild, easy rider and all that, I thought that’s perfect for a rock song. And yet no ones done it, so I’m gonna do it you know?

And then just one by one the others just cropped up and it seemed the right thing to do.”

Many of the songs are autobiographical as well though – such as Mr Leather?

“Yeah, well of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean Lou was a huge influence and that song was all about my sad attempt to meet him.

We were due to meet up and hang out together but we both got ill at the same time in New York, so I was very sad because he passed away a couple of years after that attempt failed and I felt very sad that I had missed the opportunity. But what can you do?

That’s fate, fate dealt us this flu. We both got terrible flu, at the same time, in New York, we had to cancel our meeting and then a huge snowstorm hit New York which was the worse they’d ever known in history and I had just managed to get out of there on the last flight leaving from Newark airport for Christmas.

That’s what happens, fate conspires to thwart our plans doesn’t it?”

Now what would you say is your favourite track?

“There was a couple, but I loved the way Evel turned out and it almost sounds like it’s a jam at times and the mood changes, and I love ‘Duce Coochie Man’. Man, I love playing ‘Duce Coochie Man’, it’s great to play live and the others love it too. So that really felt like a great achievement and it’s got a middle seven as well, not a middle eight which is very nice and feels totally natural.”

Now with your tour here in New Zealand you will be playing some of the tracks from Monster and I understand some of your other solo work as well as some Stranglers songs?

“Yeah, we’re gonna separate them. I’ve never done this before, but the first set is Monster plus other solo tracks and then second set is Stranglers songs.

We’re gonna ram them down your throats until they scream for mercy and say ‘Please let us go home, we don’t want to hear anymore Stranglers songs!’”

[laughs] Yeah, I think you will find that in New Zealand they’re gonna make you play Stranglers songs until you’re begging to leave the stage!

“Ah! Well they’re going to be late nights then aren’t they?”

Yes, which is why it is perfect that it is on a Friday night for the Auckland show [laughs]

“Good!

Well we might get turfed off the stage, they might say ‘You gotta stop now because it’s getting too late’. They might come on brushing their teeth, you know the venue manager. If he comes out to the side of the stage in his pyjamas, brushing his teeth then we know we gotta stop!”

[mutual raucous laughter]

Hugh Cornwell will perform one more time in New Zealand, tonight (3rd May 2019) at Auckland’s Powerstation. Tickets are no longer available online, but may be available at the box office if you’re quick!

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