The Wake

I would take a bullet for Ian Brown. Any place. Any day. Any time.

He’s one of the greats – a legend of his time. A walking god among men. He is Lennon, McCartney, Jagger and Marley – all rolled into one. A primal genius incarnate capable of euphoriating anything he pleases. The man could bend the will of an entire country. And he has.

This may be the reason why I’d be so willing to let a shotgun slug rip through my chest to keep the swaggering Manchurian alive – maybe it’s why any of his fans would. Brown inspires on an outerwordly level; a level almost incomprehensible today. The man is a living legend in all of England. Walk his hometown Manchester streets and you’ll still see his name graffiti-ed all over city walls – living shrines to the shamanistic “king monkey,” as he’s affectionately known. Listen to British radio and hear his influence in handfuls of heady-rock bands, from Oasis to The Verve, Travis to Blur. Go to any rave today and see the look, locks, and lifestyle he coined twenty years ago. They are all living testaments to what is the touchtone truth: Ian Brown is the one true musical messiah of our time.

Brown’s story – a tale of death, resurrection, and ensuing glory of biblical proportions – is one of legend. One as grandiose as it is genuinely heartbreaking. Fronting the seminally psychedelic soarsters The Stone Roses in the late 1980s, Brown – a drifty shag-haired vision from Love’s 2nd album – became, almost overnight, the catalyst for change in the 1990s. In the shit-pop state of musical affairs that was the late 80s in Britain – a situation not too far from America 2005 – The Roses were a great big hit of fresh air. Something everyone needed – something none could resist. Something bigger and better and bolder than anyone could understand.

Rising from back-alley obscurity to become ushers for complete socio-sonic upheaval, the band’s sound – a swirl of bodega-delicious psychedelicette – took hold of all of Britain. Within a couple years the shined-boots pretension-pop of The Smiths and their close-shave contemporaries was for all practical purposes vanquished for good. The Stone Roses had arrived – and in a fashion unseen since the days of the Fab Four.

The Roses – like those four other Northerners – were nothing like anything that had ever been. They wore baggy pants. They listened to acid house. They used love-drugs – notably, ecstasy. They were never like the bands they followed. And only Oasis – a band who copped their nearly every move from the Roses – has held any legitimate affinity since.

They were the supposed spokesmen for everything the 1990s were supposed to be. They were, as one fan said, “the best band in the world.”

Then things came crashing down. In a trip-up of similarly epic proportions, the band disintegrated, almost as soon as they began, before the tearful eyes of millions of fans. A second album follow-up to the gigantic self-titled LP fell short of expectations, buoyed down by five years of plagued-production problems. Eventually calling it a quits in 1996, after a notorious performance at the Reading Festival, the members went their separate ways – including Brown.

While other founding members went on to form various sideprojects, Brown opted to remain solo. He has to date released five albums. His latest, and best, Solarized, is everything you’d expect – and not. Brown’s angelic voice and melodic muscle are there. So is his penchant for wandering into world music. But if anything, Solarized is an album that few probably thought Brown could make. It is fantastically beautiful – an LP which should finally cement Brown’s reputation as a songwriter in what many see as the unbreachable cosmos of the post-Stone Roses universe.

Recently he was so kind as to speak with The Wake from his home in Manchester, UK.

The Wake: You’ve got a few North American shows lined up – any plans for an all out tour?

an Brown: If I can get the money to me over there [laughs]. I’m comin’ over to the West Coast in March. I’ve got shows in Oakland, Anaheim, and San Francisco. Basically, any offer that I get that I can do – get my players and my crew from England and come over.

The Wake: You’re huge in Britain, but like a lot of bands, not in America. Why is that?

Brown: Yeah, sure. I had a bit of bad luck really with my record company. The first album came out, but didn’t get released because the company got bought out. The second one got released then it got pulled because the record company got sold out again. Then by the time the third one come the company didn’t know who I was. Now I’ve just done a deal with Koch and the new one’s gonna get a official American release. It’s just bad luck really. You know, I’d love to have been over there because it’s already been six or seven years of not showin’ up. It’s just luck of the draw.

The Wake: What are your thoughts on Solarized?

Brown: Delighted with it, yeah.

The Wake: All your albums are getting re-released here in the states – do you have high hopes?

Brown: Yeah, I do. I hope it picks up a little bit so that America becomes a place where I can come work. You know, come and do shows. Obviously it’s a huge country and given the chance I’d love to come to it – do some festivals, you know.

The Wake: So we’re from Minnesota here – you’re from Manchester. What’s your take on coming from the northern realm?

Brown: It keeps you on your toes, donnit? You’ve got a bullshit detector. There’s no sort of pretension in an area like that, innit? All you’ve got is each other. I mean I’m not a materialistic person at all. I mean, here, like down in London they sometimes will think you’re stupid if you come from the north.

The Wake: That bullshit detector – what’s some bullshit music right now?

Brown: I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s always been there. It seems like the industry’s got a stranglehold like the 1950s – there’s a lot of disposable pop music. But that’s the nature of the game. To collect the kids’ extra money.

The Wake: Checked out your Under the Influence [a mix-tape collection of Brown’s favorite songs] CD the other day – you have any plans for similar projects?

Brown: Yeah, you know, if I’m asked to do another. I mean, it wasn’t as easy at it seems though. Once you sit down there, it isn’t easy – making your selection. It’s like, it’s gotta work and it’s gotta run together. So I just wrote down a list of what’s been the best tunes of the past 20 years.

The Wake: You’ve been playing some Stone Roses songs in your sets lately – you going to keep that up?

Brown: Yeah, I am. I mean, it’s something that I sort of resisted when I first when solo – you know, I wanted to stand on my own two feet as a music maker. You know, I didn’t wanna just be ex-Stone Roses. So I figured like, by the time me finished my forth album, that makes me a catalog artist. Which means that I’ve done it – I have established myself as a music-maker in my own write. So I feel comfortable taking on the past.

The Wake: Have you thought about reuniting with John, Mani – the rest of the Roses?

Brown: I spoke to Mani on Saturday – still good friends with him. John I’ve not seen since he left the group in ’96 – he phoned me, but I’ve not actually seen him since 1996. But I mean, it’s nearly nine years ago, and music’s an intimate things you know – so I’d say highly unlikely. But now I’ve got twice as many albums as the Roses, have been to Japan like fifteen times since then. So I’m putting together a great thing in England. I just feel like I did it, and it was great, and that was it.

The Wake: You get enough credit for jump-starting a lot of the 1990s culture?

Brown: Eh, well we do in England. But the funny thing is, that was just the way we dressed – we never expected the audience to dress like that, you know, seeing clones out there in the audience. I actually just got asked to design a shoe. I’m going to New York this week for the launch of the shoe – other designers are Missy Elliot, Puff Daddy, Red Hot Chili Peppers. So I mean, we did have an impact on the sort of, fashion, or streetwear or whatever. You know, the money I make from it I can donate to charity. I’m working with Sightsavers International [sightsavers.org.uk]which is £15 to save a cataract. So if you buy the shoe you’re saving some eyesight. They’re going to be released on the 1st of March and will be available in sports outlets. I might get 100 pairs meself, so it’s a good deal. I’ll have shoes until I’m 85 years old.

The Wake: Does it piss you off to get asked about the Roses?

Brown: No, not at all. Cos’ I’m proud of what I did. I mean, I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for The Roses. So, no – I don’t slog it off.

The Wake: What’s your view of spirituality?

Brown: I believe in a higher force than myself. All the great religions just get it down to one spirit, whether that’s the aborigines, or the Native American Indians, you know? I just believe in that one god.

The Wake: Are drugs a way to see that god?

Brown: I think it could go either way, depending on the thinking and the environment of the person. I mean, what could alter one man’s life could send another crazy. Something like psychedelic drugs can expand your mind. You know, I took peyote in Mexico and they say that if you take that – that that will get you close to the universe. And I understand what they mean by that, because I felt really close to the universe. But I wouldn’t say you strictly need drugs to find god – if you want to find it, you’ll find it.

The Wake: How has being a father changed you?

Brown: They say it makes you mellow, but I don’t know. Maybe more hungry really. I’ve got these three little lads that I put before me. Honestly I can’t remember what I used to do in my free time before my kids – I just honestly can’t remember. It’s like, “shit, what was it like looking up my own ass?”

The Wake: You going to get them to start a band?

Brown: Yeah – I mean, they’re really into music. They have Ipods and they’re always on rewind trying to figure out lyrics.

The Wake: Any hopes for a family band?

Brown: Like the Partridge Family? [laughs] Why not yeah? It’s a family business. I’ll manage them if we do though, make sure they get paid, not like their dad.

The Wake: What makes you happiest in life?

Brown: Just that I’m free.