by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Just over two decades ago, one guitar prodigy knocked on the door of one local eccentric and formed the Smiths, the Mancunian quartet the NME recently named “Most Influential Band in British History.” (The Beatles were second.) Since the Smiths split in 1987, Marr has been living his childhood dream, working in recording studios with the artists of his choice, among them Kirsty MacColl, Billy Bragg, Talking Heads, the Pet Shop Boys, Beth Orton and Oasis. He’s also been a member of Electronic and The The. But now, with a backup band including ex-Kula Shaker bassist Alonza Bevan and drummer (and Beatle son) Zak Starkey, Marr has realized his own, lone musical vision, writing, playing, producing and singing on Boomslang, the debut album by Johnny Marr and the Healers. The Mirror spoke to the 39-year-old legend about blues, lads, legacies, and the cult of the Smiths.

Mirror: Would you say that the Healers is the most rock project you’ve worked on?

Johnny Marr: No, not really. People who make the assumption that I’ve suddenly gone heavy metal are probably reading too many articles and not listening to enough records. I’d say there’s about 20 Smiths songs that are just as rock as anything on this record. There’s this idea that the Smiths were a fey, weedy, indie folk band, much like a lot of the imitators that some of those records spawned, but anyone who saw us live will tell you that we sounded more like the New York Dolls than Belle & Sebastian. But it is the bluesiest thing I’ve done because I’m more of a sexually orientated person now, and I’m a bit older and a bit heavier. I find some blues to be sexier, harder, more radical, punkier and trippier than most modern music that would adopt any of those labels.

M: You recently said that you always wanted to form the Mancunian Sly and the Family Stone.

JM: Yeah, and we tried going turbo with this band but it didn’t quite work out. But the four-piece, English-boys-with-guitars band can be a bit of a restrictive blueprint. I like the fact that some ’60s bands, like Sly and the Family Stone, had girls in the group and didn’t do the usual laddish beer-boys thing that’s always coming out of the U.K. I really don’t wanna be associated with that. I might be down to earth but I’m not some kind of macho man. That’s roughly what the song “Inbetweens” is about, that it’s okay to like sports and wear nail polish at the same time. You don’t have to be Placebo, and you don’t have to be Oasis.

Dance to a rock ’n’ roll station

M: Would you say your background with the Smiths is helping or hurting the Healers?

JM: I think it’s doing both. I would hate to regard a legacy as a burden ’cause that would be churlish, to say the least, and just fucking brattish otherwise. I try to keep a certain perspective and remember what it was like to be a frustrated musician, so, 20 years later, to be still interesting the people for whatever reason—it could be worse, right? I’m not gonna complain. All I ask is for Healers records and our concerts to be judged alongside Supergrass and the Vines and the Kills and Primal Scream and Stereophonics, not the canon of work I’ve done in the past.

M: It seems the cult of the Smiths hasn’t stopped with the generation who were teenagers in the ’80s. Do you find it overwhelming sometimes?

JM: No, no. All I know is that when I was 15, I discovered the Velvet Underground, I found some music that I felt was really vital, that gave me a real high when I listened to it. I didn’t want them to reform and I didn’t care that they were an old band, I just loved looking at the photographs and tracking down the music and enjoying it. If there are people who want to turn the Smiths into some kind of Star Trek thing, that’s their prerogative. There are all kinds of retro rock ’n’ roll societies, it’s just like trainspotters, isn’t it? And if it keeps them out of trouble, then great, but it’s no reflection on me ’cause I don’t live in the past. I try not to live in the future either, I try to live now, and that takes some doing, you know.

With Palo Alto and Essex Green at
Café Campus on Friday, May 23, 8pm, $21.50

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