Whether or not the Blur bandwagon keeps rolling, Dave Rowntree looks like he has found himself a second longevous career in music. With a new solo album Radio Songs, he’s proved a point (it’s good). Now he wants to make two more albums over the next two years. Knowing his productivity levels, he probably will.
When drummers make solo records, one does not get a sense of the public cheering with pent-up release. A mild sense of curiosity is perhaps the best to hope for. There are a few who have managed it on moderately successful terms - Queen’s Roger Taylor, Radiohead’s Phil Selway. Of course, some drummers have stepped up to the front of stage with more spectacular results: Dave Grohl, Phil Collins…Karen Carpenter.
During the making of Radio Songs, his first solo album, none of this was paid any mind by Dave Rowntree. When I asked him if he had considered the track record of drummers stepping out from behind their kits, he was so nonplussed, we edited the question out. It has taken him ages to make his first non-soundtrack body of work outside of Blur, especially when you consider their last album Magic Whip, is almost a decade old.
Dave has been busy though. An infamous purveyor of the plural career, he has, since 2015, been a practising criminal lawyer and Labour councillor for Norwich for a four year term. He gets a lot done, but his secret seems to be to do one thing at a time and do it well. It explains why Radio Songs has come out very well indeed - better than the public might have a right to expect.
The album’s electrosonic palette is drawn from all his influences, including Air and Talk Talk, with - as we discuss, hints of Robert Wyatt and Thomas Dolby. And more predictably perhaps, Blur. It is surprising just how much Rowntree’s vocal style is reminiscent of his bandmate Damon Albarn. Damon collaborated on the record only from a distance though, giving Rowntree feedback in the form of one page of notes.
Now he’s gotten round to it, Rowntree has caught the bug for making solo records, he plans two more over the next two years, provided he doesn’t get too distracted by Blur. His plans to tour Radio Songs this year have been somewhat derailed by what he calls “Blur’s megapolis summer”.
And so inevitably then, to Blur. Where does it fit in his schedule and his headspace?
“Fundamentally I’m still the drummer in Blur, that’s how I see myself, but if you plot Blur activity on a graph, it’s tapering away to zero, so it’s not going to last forever”.
Of course, Blur is a major longevity story, even though their self-imposed scarcity and long career breaks help them cheat the system somewhat. There aren't many bands that can fill two nights at Wembley Stadium (selling out in minutes) having taken a break from collective music making for eight years. Did Blur ever even worry about longevity during their peak, the mad heights of Britpop mania?
“The music industry of the 90s was that rollercoaster. Broadsheets and magazines were desperate for news and there was never enough music to fill the space, so the papers were full of gossip - bands slagging each other off. The journalists had bigger egos than the lead singers of the bands - it was a crazy unsustainable situation. To be part of that was destabilising. Sometimes we didn’t know if we were still the next big thing or tired old has-beens. Blur was saved by the fact that we’re a great live band. It saved us - no matter what crazy things we’ve done outside that arena - live performance has given us longevity. It’s the thing you can’t fake”.
So, how does he feel about stepping out to perform live as frontman after all those years behind the kit? Undaunted is the answer:
“It has felt surprisingly natural really. The music starts and you get swept along in it. I’m happiest out on the road, gig every night, different town every day - there’s something seductive about that”.
Whether or not the Blur bandwagon keeps rolling, Dave Rowntree looks like he has found himself a second longevous career in music.
Dave Rowntree tour details and the album Radio Songs can be found here