Mansun - Paul Draper - The grey lantern storms britpop

We caught up with Paul Draper, former leader and frontman of Mansun, who granted us a generous, content-rich interview full of memories and personal reflections. With rare openness, he revealed details about the writing and composition of the British band's landmark albums, giving us free rein to explore his intimate, personal world. He also told us about his plans for the immediate future, hinting at ideas for his next album and his upcoming solo tour.

Hi Paul! First of all, how are you? What are your thoughts on the current situation in the world and in your country?

I've been in lockdown for ten weeks, venturing outside just to buy groceries and to mail handwritten lyrics to some fans. I'm also putting the finishing touches on my home studio work for my second solo album, mostly vocal parts. I live alone, and at times it's been hard to stop my mind from wandering down paths that can only lead to spirals of unhappiness. So it's been a challenge, although I know many people have gone through this period in far worse circumstances than me, and they have all my empathy. The virus has meant my new album's release has been pushed back a year, moving from April to early 2021. All international shows are on hold for now, so we haven't scheduled any international dates, but as soon as it's possible I'll be taking the new album on tour around the world: I plan to put together a three-hour show featuring performances of the Mansun albums, as well as a full set of solo material.

Let's talk about your beginnings as a musician. What were your main influences when you started out with Mansun? How did they shape your unique style, both as a songwriter and as a singer?

Prince, Happy Mondays, Abba, The Beatles, Sex Pistols, Metallica, house music, Pink Floyd. I think my songwriting is the result of all this music I listened to when I was young, and my style is a kind of melting pot of these influences. I started listening to music when I was seven, but my tastes weren't as sophisticated as, say, those of my older sister, who was eleven years older than me. Her record collection included Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Gary Numan, The Pretenders, Led Zeppelin, and whenever she went to work, I'd take the chance to sit down, put on my headphones and listen to those records for hours. At eleven I started playing regularly with my first band, and I haven't stopped since!

You recently reissued two Mansun classics, “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” and “Six”. Both shot to the top of the vinyl charts, and the accompanying tours were a success. What was it like revisiting your old material? Did you expect such a response from fans?

To be honest, Mansun have such a loyal fanbase that I wasn't surprised to see both “Six” and “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” hit the top of the vinyl charts and break into the top 40. I imagine there was a lot of demand for these records, given how the band split up so suddenly and under such mysterious circumstances. I really didn't expect both albums to become hits again, as if they'd popped back up out of nowhere. That happened because, yes, Mansun imploded, but the records lived on without the band - in fact they grew, and over time took on the stature of classic, seminal albums. Going back and listening to the old material was difficult at first, but I look at each album as a body of work in its own right; sometimes working on those songs makes me emotional or sad, other times I feel a rush of euphoria, like when I found myself playing “Dark Mavis” and “Disgusting” live for the first time.

“Attack” hit number one in 1997, the last year of major commercial success for Britpop. Maybe that's why it's always been seen as Mansun's quintessential pop album. Don't you think your debut is actually a far more complex record than that?

I think “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” delivered the death blow to Britpop - I think it was the first number-one album that could be called “post-Britpop”, along with the self-titled Blur record. Maybe it sounds Britpop if you take a couple of songs on their own, but it was a concept work, it functions best as a whole, and that's why the progressive rock community adopted Mansun as a sort of commercial version of prog, rather than as a purely Britpop band. I think bands like Muse, Public Service Broadcasting, Blood Orange, who call themselves fans, have taken Mansun's vision to the next level. Maybe we just happened to be making music at the wrong point in history, but I believe a complex piece of work like “Attack” was completely overlooked at the time, and “Six” even more so.

Speaking of “Six”, it's an extremely dynamic album, full of harmonic and rhythmic shifts. Its blend of Britpop and progressive attitude anticipated a lot of indie bands, like Everything Everything or Late of The Pier. Would you agree? In general, do you like today's independent music?

Yes, a lot of English bands have told me they were influenced by Mansun, particularly by the “Six” album, including the aforementioned Blood Orange and Public Service Broadcasting, but many others too. I don't listen to much modern music, unless a small circle of people recommend me something, since I'm not doing much A&R scouting at the moment. I like a few songs from Laura Marling's new album, but mostly I listen to music from the past - right now, for instance, I'm listening to a lot of Miles Davis. As you say, a lot of current bands do seem to carry elements of Mansun, and many artists have told me Mansun were a major influence on them; maybe one day we'll get some kind of recognition for having influenced other artists. It was interesting mixing “Attack” in the studio next to Radiohead, who loved the way we blended the different parts of “The Chad Who Loved Me”. They later told us they tried using the same method on an idea they weren't entirely sure they could pull off, and the result was “Paranoid Android”. They also really liked all the Mellotron sounds we used on our first album, and afterwards they piled on plenty more of them on “Ok Computer”. Going back to what I said earlier, I think “Attack” was therefore the first of a new generation of hit records. Of course Radiohead were already an established band, and so they got all the credit, but I remember at the Q Awards Ed O'Brien was very kind, and when he picked up the award he said “Attack” had been the year's greatest artistic achievement.

It's not just the music - the lyrics on “Six” are also very intricate. There's a dark, nihilistic atmosphere, and a wide range of references to art, literature, religion, cinema and so on. What was the writing process like? Were you really living through those feelings at the time?

The lyrics were a cross between my personal emotions and the books I was reading in the studio at the time, which are depicted on the cover of “Six”. I drew a lot on what I'd learned about Taoism, the death of Brian Jones, and the connection between that whole range of themes, a particular Winnie The Pooh book called “Now We Are Six” and references to “The Prisoner” (the 1967 British science-fiction TV series whose protagonist is called “Number 6”, ed.) all went into shaping these lyrics, which are sporadically emotional and full of observations drawn from books, all tied together by the number six. It's a broad range of lyrical themes, but they're all linked by that number, hence the album's title and conceptual direction. Some of the lyrics - the best ones, I think - simply reflect where I was at the time, in a genuinely dark place, because of situations building up around the band and my unhappiness about what was happening. Lines like “life it's a compromise anyway”, “all relationships are emptying and temporary” and parts of “Special/Blown It” and “Being A Girl” are reflections of my state of mind at the time rather than coming from reading, and those are the lyrics people remember.

You're very active on social media. A recent poll you ran confirmed fans' desire to see you and Andy Rathbone on stage together again. What do you think of him as a drummer? Do you think his contribution to Mansun's music has been underrated?

Andy Rathbone was the best drummer of the Britpop era and of his generation. His contribution is massively underrated - he took us from being an average live band to an explosive one, and on the “Six” album he proved himself the finest exponent of the art of drumming among all the drummers of that genre at the time; he's still not recognised as the best of his generation, but he will be in the future. I'm aware fans want to see me and Andy play on stage together again - we've been on good terms again since we ran into each other at Tim Burgess's Twitter Listening Party. We've spoken on the phone a few times; it's too early to say whether we'll actually make it happen, but we both agree we want to try our best and do something for the fans, given that the cult around Mansun keeps growing. We're on the same page and we've started talking about playing together again - I have no idea what will happen, we're just in the early stages of trying to rebuild our relationship, and as you know we went through one of the most bitter splits in rock history. Right now we're being cautious about it, so I'd say the chances of this actually happening are currently at 50%, though somehow we do want to play together again, and if we let ourselves get carried along, it could happen. But we're at an early stage, and there are still a lot of wounds to heal.

Between 2016 and 2017 you returned with new music, this time as a solo artist. You released two EPs and the album “Spooky Action”, all through Kscope (the British independent label specialising in progressive rock, ed.). Tell us something about the writing and production process. Will there be more collaborations with Steven Wilson, after the song “No Ideas”?

Yes, there will certainly be another collaboration with Steven Wilson - I'm working on it right now. I'm not sure exactly when, but it'll be around the time our next two albums come out. A lot of “Spooky Action” was written after Mansun split up, and I was venting the anger I felt over that whole situation. Anyway, Parlophone kept calling me into their offices trying to convince me to put the record out, but I was busy with other things and didn't feel like I belonged to the era of The Strokes or The White Stripes, so I focused on writing for other artists and producing them at my studio in London. Anyway, there was a big Mansun convention in England about six years ago, and around that time a lot of record companies kept pitching me to release the record with them, so it seemed like a natural next step for my career. I had no intention of touring it - I just wanted to finish off an old unreleased record - but it made the English top 20, so we put together a few shows that sold out, and ended up touring America, France, Ireland, Japan and China on a huge tour, with the album selling well everywhere. Given that success, I really couldn't say no to making a follow-up.

Speaking of which, we know you're working on your second solo album. Can you tell us anything about it?

Well, for starters it's a fake concept album, along the same lines as “Attack”. It's called “Cult Leader Tactics”, and there's a self-help book planned as part of the full album package. It'll be 72 pages long and it's about how, by having no morals whatsoever, behaving like an absolute bastard and being ready to trample over anyone to get what you want, you can climb to the top of any company or industry. There are plenty of self-help books out there, and this is a dark parody of that kind of literature - it'll also come with a hypnosis CD to listen to on headphones at night: it's an ASMR-style hypnosis CD designed to subliminally programme the listener into becoming a successful person by being a complete arsehole. We've all met people like that - now you can be one too. “Cult Leader Tactics” is a book for everyone, from mild-mannered, well-behaved people to Machiavellian types, and even psychopaths with narcissistic personality disorder can learn some of the techniques for screwing everyone over on your way to the top - techniques I've personally observed over my 25 years in the record industry. Remember, this is a parody. So, the whole new album will be built around “Cult Leader Tactics”. If whoever's reading this thinks it all sounds funny, or just wants to see how far you can go to get what you want, then they'll have to buy “Cult Leader Tactics” to find out. If you want details about the release, I'll leave my mailing list here for anyone who wants to sign up.

At the start of the interview, we were discussing the current state of the world. Covid-19 and everything that comes with it will certainly cause crises for businesses and industries all over the world. The music business, in particular, will be hit hard. What are your plans for the immediate future?

Speaking from my own situation, yes, a lot of things are going to change - for instance, the release of my second solo album has been pushed back to early next year, and my UK tour has been postponed. Fans had been loudly demanding tickets for my show, which runs three hours with a twenty-minute break in the middle. On the tour I'll be playing solo material in the first half, while in the second half we'll be performing "Six" live in its entirety for the first time. We've done this kind of show before, a few years back, but back then we played "Attack" in the second half.

Thank you so much for this generous interview, Paul. We're really grateful. We only have one last wish: as soon as these hard times are over, promise us you'll come to Italy for a show!

I'm desperately trying to come and tour Italy for my second album. First of all, I don't know what kind of audience I might have, so fans and anyone who'd like to see my show, please make yourselves heard. If there are any promoters in Italy who want to make this happen, please get in touch with my agent or reach out to me directly on social media - I'll put you in touch with my agent and we'll make it happen. I love Italy and I really want to come back. I worked there with Skin on her solo album "Fake Chemical State", where I co-wrote the first two singles with her, and I toured with David Bowie before his untimely death. We played our own shows and toured with Manic Street Preachers. I'd love to play some dates in Italy, but it's in the hands of Italian promoters and their willingness to put on shows for me. I'd even be up for doing more intimate acoustic shows - I've done that in the United States, France, Japan, Belgium... or I could bring my whole band and play my full show, doing either "Attack" or "Six" in the second half, depending on what Italian fans prefer. But please, spread the word among promoters - I want to make a real impact in Italy and play as many dates as possible, if there's an audience for me out there. It's in your hands to make it happen, I'm just waiting for offers, and I promise you, I'll be touring Italy next year.

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