Page 42 - 368649 LP250851 NE Volume Magazine (170mm x 245mm 52pp) November 2022

THE LIGHTNING SEEDS
Next NE Gig
Friday 11th November
VENUE
Boiler Shop, Newcastle
The Lightning Seeds have released their first album in 13 years in ‘See You In The Stars’. Emma Chesworth spoke to frontman Ian Broudie about their new album, touring and that football song as they head to Newcastle’s Boiler Shop on Friday 11th November.
It’s great to see you’ve released new music, but why has it taken so long to bring out a new album?
I wasn’t sure I was going to make another album – I felt I had lost the mojo of being The Lightning Seeds. When I write Lightning Seeds songs, they need to be very positive and I think it is very difficult to write a positive and upbeat song that isn’t banal or vacuous. Also, I’m not 15 and I wondered what I wanted to write about. I have been playing a lot over the past few years – I haven’t been doing nothing. Partly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to
‘See You In The Stars’ is instantly recognisable as The Lightning Seeds. What is it that makes a Lightning Seeds song?
There is a certain kind of positivity to the songs but there are also layers to them as well, so when you play them again, you discover something else. In the past, I’ve not been very confident and have hidden things musically. I’ve tried not to do that and I think this album is more emotional and a little less guarded – I feel that is a good thing and this is a bit more personal than past albums.
A couple of the songs have been written together with James Skelly (The Coral) and Terry Hall (The Specials). Do you like working with other musicians? I do like collaborating. Because I was a producer
before I started the first album, I really felt that when I made my first record, I wanted to include other people’s dreams in my dream and try to widen it out that way. I worked on ‘Great To Be Alive’ with James Skelly and it was the first song I recorded and that made me feel like I could make this album. It sounded like The Lightning Seeds and I recorded a few more, got stuck in and from there, it probably took about three
months to complete.
Finally, we have the World Cup this year. Could we see a Three Lions revival?
It’s a thought rather than a reality at the moment, but the idea of doing a Christmas football song is really kind of tantalising. So, the thought is there - and it wouldn’t be a terrible thing.
The Lightning Seeds head to Boiler Shop, Newcastle on Friday 11th November. Tickets, priced at £35.75 in advance, are available from boilershop.net.
record and partly, I was enjoying a troubadour kind of lifestyle playing gigs.
You’ve always appeared a somewhat reluctant frontman. Are you more comfortable with that role now?
“I felt I had lost the mojo”
I have achieved my version of
a frontman which is not really a
frontman. I’m definitely not a Mick Jagger
or a Rod Stewart but I love playing live and feel very comfortable on stage; I look forward to it these days rather than dread it. Bands are funny little ecosystems that go through lots of changes. Right now, I think it is the best incarnation of The Lightning Seeds there has ever been. It’s a great moment to have an album out and a great moment to be doing a tour. We get to play new songs for the first time in ages as well as loads of old songs that people love. I’m going to enjoy this moment for as long as it lasts.
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