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An interview with Blur's producer about Blur's upc
With Blur currently in the studio working on the follow-up to "Parklife"
we spoke to their long time producer, Stephen Street, in an exclusive interview.
Stephen Street is a producer of a fine pedigree, starting his career twiddling
the knobs for the Smiths and from there he has worked with some of the best new British bands
of the last decade. In the last few years he has had immense success as the producer
of both the Cranberries and Blur.
He first worked with Blur by producing "There's No Other Way" and since then
he has worked on all their albums. He admits that Blur are the only band that he has
approached to work with (he normally works with bands that have asked for his services).
I met up with Stephen Street in a West London recording studio, where he was
hard at work producing Blur's 4th album, (due for release late 1995).
The band are being very protective about their new material, however, I was
given a sneak preview of a few of the new tracks, and I can say that they are well worth the wait.
So Stephen, what is it like producing Blur? "The way I work with them, is
that they play the song together as a band, and from that I know straight away what's
the vibe of the song. All the band know what they want and we have a lot of respect
for each other, so if I do not feel right about something, or if they are not happy
with a sound, then we will say to each other that it is not quite right. Blur
are the hardest working band that I have been involved with and that means we
cut tracks very quickly - I am not the type of producer who spends hours over a
small detail. It also helps with having John Smith (Engineer) by my side because
he understands the sound we are trying to achieve. I feel that John and I make a good team."
So when you produced "Parklife", did you realise it would be such a success?
"I knew we had done a really good piece of work and we were happy with the music.
I knew with `Girls And Boys' that it would really stand out as the first single
and I felt that `Parklife' would be the classic 3rd album, just like the Smiths
had `The Queen Is Dead', XTC had `Drums And Wires' and the Jam had `All Mod Cons'."
How do you think the new album will compare to "Parklife"? "I think that
`Parklife' is as commercial as Blur can go, so I think the new album is
going to be slightly darker, it is not going to alienate people and it will
be as diverse as "Parklife". However if you look at the past, all the bands
who released a classic 3rd album, followed up with a darker 4th album
(some may say a better album) - the Jam's 4th album was `Setting Sons'
and the Smiths had `Strangeways. .'. I think it is natural for Blur to follow `Parklife'
with this new album."
So do you think you have finally got rid of the tag as the ex-Smiths producer?
"I was always aware of being known as the ex-Smiths producer and as much as
I loved being part of that story, it is nice for me to define myself as the producer of Blur."
So are you pleased when Damon refers to you as the 5th member of Blur? "Well,
I feel honoured to work with Blur and I naturally feel for what they are
trying to achieve. I add a thing here and there but sometimes I do not touch
anything. I feel part of Blur and so when they gained success and won awards,
I felt proud to be a part of that."
So Stephen Street is the member of Blur who you will not see in the music
papers but he has helped make Blur the band they are today, and for that we must thank the man.</fon
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