Impeccable sci-fi influences aside, John Grant’s themes of identity, humanity, repressed upbringing, modern malaise and what it means to be a man with a caring soul remain his thematic obsessions for now. Only a heartless brick could resist his singular artistic vision and that ultra modern croon.
Asking John Grant to describe the essence of the record he is working on now, elicits a response that fascinates from the get go.
“I’m trying to marry the vibe of Blade Runner with - wait a minute - let me go and get this movie [shows me Tetsu The Iron Man]. I want to blend Sonic Youth with Blade Runner, Evil Dead and Halloween 3”.
John was struggling to articulate a few things on the day we met, including the one word essence of this new album project, but I’m going to guess the word that he was looking for was cyberpunk.
If you don’t know it, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a 1989 Japanese tokusatsu cyberpunk body horror film created (as in written, produced, edited, and directed) by Shinya Tsukamoto. It’s insane and unlike any other movie made then or now. It’s an auteur’s project and that sums up John Grant better than anything else. The man has a singular vision and for that we can be grateful. We do not want John Grant by way of compromise!
And then there is Blade Runner, which I’m guessing you are more familiar with. Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult classic is an anchor point for Grant, who is influenced by those sweeping, cosmic valve-synth Vangelis soundscapes that cropped up so fully formed on his last album Boy From Michigan - a high watermark record that John feels is only just finished, yet is already almost two years old. In today’s music biz, two years is an awfully long time.
But then, making the follow-up to Boy From Michigan is not a trivial undertaking. Creativity in John Grant’s particular zone of avant garde pop is not an environment in which you can simply turn up at the office and turn on the tap. His modus operandi is not always a well-oiled machine.
“Guy Garvey told me that creativity is like a pipeline that you have to keep flowing, even if it’s just to flush the shit out before you can get to the good stuff”.
I do love it when artists listen to artists.
Thing is, it doesn’t happen enough. The artists that are the lifeblood of this godforsaken business, are always having their ears bent one way or the other by members of the music biz chattering classes - A&R executives, managers, journalists and such, all of whom have their fingers in the pie. Everybody has something to say about who should make what record next, because they know best and it really is that simple. It’s really no different to armchair football management.
Those who have Grant's ear (on this day including yours truly guilty as charged) have muttered that he is on the verge of making a classic. That he should make a record more like Queen Of Denmark - his groundbreaking, genre-bending debut solo work. That if only he would lighten up on his lyrical themes, he is bound to have more commercial success. Blah Blah blah…
“I second guess myself a lot. We live in an age of toxic, crushing positivity, fake positivity that is hard to escape. And the people that know me probably think “oh god can you just fucking move on”. I’m supposed to be more like Eryka Badu by now, not manifesting negativity. But I can’t do that”.
Nor should he try. Impeccable sci-fi chops aside, Grant’s themes of identity, humanity, repressed upbringing, modern political malaise and what it means to be a man with a caring soul (as if anybody wants to hear about that!) remain his thematic obsessions for now. And we need to love him for it.
For the time being however, Grant’s alternative supergroup Creep Show brings a welcome escape from the weight of the world - for him and for us. New album Yawning Abyss is due for release June 2023.
Creep Show is a wonderful collaboration. With a name inspired by George A. Romero and Stephen King’s 1982 film and novel (it seems Jon Grant is drawn to the early 80s), Creep Show brings together John Grant with the dark analogue-electro of Wrangler (Stephen Mallinder / Phil Winter and Benge, the latter producing Grant’s 2018 album Love Is Magic). The Creep Show project deserves every bit the success achieved by Gorillaz, in a parallel universe in which all music is judged on listenability.
In any case, John rightly judges Creep Show as a lifetime achievement in a business in which success is increasingly difficult to get your head around. After all, he gets to work with his musical heroes.
But back to the next studio record by John Grant solo. As he says on early album track Silver Platter Club (in which he channels that least likely of piano-troubadours Gilbert O’ Sullivan) it is unlikely it will fall from the sky into his lap. But then, genius is a torturous process isn’t it? It may be cliche to say that, ironically, since cliche is everything Grant kicks against.
“It’s a fight with myself. Do I give in to what people say and make a disco record, or just continue to be myself. When the world is in turmoil like this you desperately want what brings you comfort”. There are a lot of songs on this record that are thematically difficult and painful to inhabit”. Well as the saying goes, pain is close to pleasure.
“At the end of the day I am an optimistic fellow because I keep showing up and I’m always working on finding ways in which to bring it”. He will bring us the cyberpunk masterpiece soon enough.
Yawning Aybss is released on Bella Union Records. Now on Bandcamp.