02.08.09. /

..i thought i'd show my face and write something before the album deluge begins and we're all caught up in a frenzied orgy of assessment and re- appraisal. i walked the dogs in the park today and listened to Slow Attack after deliberately giving it a bit of space. it's not precisely the record i intended to make (but when is it ever? , the meandering script is part of the creative process) and quite unusual i think... probably not as focussed as Wilderness but also freer , with less boundaries. it was made with agenuine spirit of experimentation... i'm still learning how to do this you see, and hopefully getting better at being this different version of myself.

if you think this doesn't sound like the usual, tedious 'this is the greatest piece of music that has ever been created' PR bullshit then that's cos it isn't (the bullshit i mean, not the music, that's up to you to decide). as i slowly dismantle my ego i am finding it less important to present a facade, i'll leave that to the bleating herd still tethered to the trough. the bottom line is that i feel it contains real moments of magic. there are a couple of songs on there that i would proudly sing next to anything from my career, and that, i think, is about as much as you can ask.

02.08.09.

the album was conceived and created in the bleak London winter. it's actually the time i feel the most creative as i often feel inspired to drown myself in my music as a simple escape from the pain of the city's icy embrace... the cycle i have slipped into seems to be a winter/summer loop of creation then pause and regurgitation....well, it suits me for the time being even if it does mean that i seem overly obsessed with seasonal change.

i tried to use words in a different way. not as the motor of the song but as fragments and hints of meaning. i suppose you could say they are less narrative. i was listening in awe to things like Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock and was inspired to be less obvious, to 'deepen the mystery' as Francis Bacon would have it.

02.08.09.

Leo was incredibly inspiring to work with. he's got a fascinating musical brain, always wanting to take the song somewhere else, sometimes to places it didn't seem to want to go to at first, but like a cat settling into a new home would learn to love the space. my single favorite moment on the album is actually an instrumental section which comes at the end of a song called Scarecrows and Lilacs. we had written the song and then Leo decided it needed to go somewhere else so he came up with a simply beautiful meandering coda section which still gives me goose- bumps. his choice of instrumentation was also inspired, edging me into accepting woodwind instead of the more conventional string sections and layering the songs with an Aladdin's Cave of bizarre instruments. we even had a glass-keyed marimba specially made to create the sound that you will hear on another of my favorites, Ashes of Us .

02.08.09.

so i suppose we are near the time when the inevitable, boring leaks will appear. if you come across my album before october , please have respect for me as an artist and keep it to yourself. i know the it's tempting to tell everyone that you 'heard it weeks ago' or something but i would really prefer it if there was just a little bit of magic and sanctity left in actually waiting. remember that. not to mention the body blow that is dealt to artists like myself who are trying to keep afloat by making music that isn't championed by Radio 1 and the music press.

the next time you will hear me is on friday when i will be singing an imprecise but passionate version of Frozen Roads as the first of this You Tube series. these fragile little films are just meant as 'the smell of a taste' as it were of the meal to come. i really enjoyed makng them and hope they will be listened to in the right spirit.

thanks

07.05.09. SLOW ATTACK

The album is finished and the title is Slow Attack. As yet unsequenced and un- mixed, it will probably contain up to 12 completely new tracks mainly written by Leo and myself. heavily featuring woodwind , it is fuller,stranger and more complex than the last two solo albums and influenced by Leo's command of atmospherics and his classical training. The decision to use woodwind as a primary colour on our palette of sound was inspired by the work of Mark Hollis, an artist whose constant development and distorsion of the pop model we both found fascinating. However, don't expect the record to sound like Talk Talk or anything else for that matter..we have carved these influences into our own shape and the outcome is a record which to me sounds like nothing i have ever done before.lt goes without saying that i am immensely proud of this body of work and extremely excited for the world to hear it.

I anticipate that it will be released in autumn this year but you'll forgive me if at this stage i cannot be more specific. of course live shows will follow , the format of which i have yet to decide. one thing is certain though, they will be different from those on the Wilderness tour.

11.02.09. —

i am working with musician/producer Leo Abrahams on the next record. we have written a whole bundle of stuff already and the chemistry seems to be fizzing away nicely. what does it sound like?.. well nothing like Wilderness, or like the first record for that matter... I guess if there's one musical theme that unites the songs it's a sense of atmosphere. Leo has a worked a lot on film soundtracks and it was that kind of mood that i was hoping to evoke when i approached him to work with me. the sound is forming slowly and shaping up to be a lot fuller than the last record but nevertheless laced with moments of stillness and calm .we are using less piano and strings and more woodwind and guitar.there are meandering instrumental passages and musical places i wouldn't normally be able to visit if i was working completely on my own.i suppose lyrically the songs are less romantic and more veiled than the last couple of records. i've been thinking a lot about that Francis Bacon quote about it being the artist's job to deepen the mystery. this time i want to hint at things rather than exhaustively detail them, create fragments for people to guess at

i would love to release the record this year and that is my vague plan but it at the moment all i can say is that it will be finished when it's ready.

02.01.09.

worming my way along a wintry M23 the other day it struck me that it might be time to show my face on here and say something profound and meaningful.i guess you'll just have to make do with this . the bite of january is upon us and with a nod to the two headed god himself i suppose it's time for some reflection and anticipation.

my wilderness year was a wonderful one. i still love it deeply and think i always will, maybe never again could i make something that is so completely part of me, my pulse, my breath. but now i think it's time to turn the page and look for another path. to where i don't know, the next few weeks will start to lead me as i prod around on my U1 and hang around with avant garde guitar players. i have started to entertain the idea that the next album i make will not be under my name. i am becoming bored of the baggage that i seem to drag everywhere i go . but who really cares what i call it as long as it pulses with passion, power and beauty.

02.01.09.

i want to release an album every year for the rest of my life so you wont have to wait too long to find out. the experience of recording wilderness in a matter of days was so inspiring i don't think i could ever go back to some laborious, sterile studio environment especially as i am now beginning to realise that the energy i can summon on stage is more magical than in the control room. the simpicity and freedom of recording everything live is something that i always want to keep.

there were a couple of moments last year when i felt as though i had really touched it, really connected: paris, berlin, london , stockholm, all beautiful, thank you, thank you

wishing you love.. x

ABOUT WILDERNESS

06.01.08.

hello you lot,

well, the sun is out , the sky is blue and life is beautiful so i thought i'd sit hunched over a computer keyboard and write a few words when i should be out canooing or something.

first up that irritating fake post on some website. i'd like to think that the more perceptive amoung you would realize that it was a crass forgery and would expect me break my silence with a little more elan... pur-pleeze people... oh well, whatever...

i read a recent post on here asking me about my top tens for 2007 and being the smug, 40 something, list-obsessed prat that i am i thought it was just the simplistic, linear thing i could excel at...

06.01.08

my album of the year by a country mile was Midlake's The Trails of Van Occupanther. it was the soundtrack to the happiest , most romantic summer of my life and my favortite record since Grandaddy's Software Slump. if you still haven't heard it i kind of envy you. it is a minor masterpiece and you need it in your life.

the best book i read this year was MacEwan's On Chesil Beach. the guy always comes up with the goods and what's not to like about a book dealing with the consequences of sexual failure? Audrey Whatsname's The Time Travellers Wife was also excellent (yes, i know it wasn't released in 2007). sad, strange, profound and compelling, i am looking forward to re-reading it on a beach in Jamaica in a few weeks time.

06.01.08.

my art event of the year was finally being able to visit the Musee D'Orsay in Paris and seeing some of the most beautiful paintings ever created. countless masterpieces by my two favorite artists; Gaugin and Manet were awe-inspiring to say the least but it was the work of Lautrec that really took me by surprise. well worth the endless , de-humanizing queuing.if any of you know what Stendhal's Syndrome is i think i experienced it there. i gave up watching tv last year so can't comment on anything relating to the small screen but did see some great films . my fave was probably Half Nelson with that Ryan Gosling dude. i was always going to enjoy a film about a crack-addict teacher but it was particularly excellent.

well that's it for cultural lists. some of you may be interested to know that i recently sung a duet with the French actress/singer Emmanuelle Seigner for her band Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle. the song is called Simple Words and is a real cinematic spine-tingler. dunno when/how it is gonna be released but i will keep you informed. it's very good.

06.01.08.

speaking of getting off my arse and working, you might be pleased to hear that i'm starting work on the new album tomorrow. i plan for it to be the most minimal thing i have ever done, heavily influenced by my recent acoustic shows but who knows? i've had strict blueprints for records before and they have inevitably deviated so it might end up sounding like Van Halen.

ok, well that's your lot for now. hope 2008 is beautiful and inspiring for you. i am off to Hyde Park to drink in all the love and poison of London.

stay lovely... x

ABOUT THE FIRST ALBUM

07.01.07.

i know it sounds nostalgic , but i remember when the release date of a record meant something. i remember shuffling off down to Rounder Records in Burgess Hill with my £7.99 and buying the Queen Is Dead.

i remember hurrying home with the sacred item and smuggling it up to my bedroom like a copy of Mayfair. i remember playing it and playing it and playing it and learning the words and burning the melodies into my head. i remember when the release date of a record meant something.

so i suppose we are merely weeks away from the inevitable leak. the last two records i have made have been horribly spoiled by this 21st century downer. all of the sense of drama and expectation ruined by a grubby little link to a grubby little site where you can get bored of the music 2 months early .

07.01.07.

i suppose what i am trying to say is, if there is anyone out there who 'comes across' my album before March 26th please, please, please, if you have any regard for me and the music i make, keep it to yourself. i can understand that there is a thrilling frisson of power in being 'the one with the album' but just stop and think about the damaging consequences to me the artist and it's effect on the big picture. before you start thinking that i am moaning about loss of royalties through illegal downloads i am not. i just want March 26th to be special. after that, i don't give a monkeys if i don't get a penny from the sales of the album. i will still know it is a truly great record.

i like to think that you lot are generally a bunch of sensitive and intelligent people and so i appeal to your compassion and have faith in your judgement.

x Brett

01.01.07.

hello people... well 2007's wintery claws are already scratching at our throats so i thought it was high time i came on here and told you about the when, the where and the what for this year. the why you will have to figure out for yourselves. ok ...straight to business..

the single Love ls Dead will be released on 12th March on Drowned in Sound in the UK and V2 worldwide. although the exact formating is something i can't be bothered to bother you with i can tell you that b sides include songs called Clowns, Mother Night, We Can Be Anyone and Elegant. for anyone who's interested, i played all the guitars on the b-sides so if you you're a fan of cack-handed, naive noodling then i guess they will be right up your alley.

01.01.07.

the album 'Brett Anderson' will be released on26th March on the same labels. there will be 11 tracks including Scorpio Rising,Song For My Father and Love Is Dead. exact track listing to follow soon, well you don't want all your sweets at once do you? before the inevitable cries of 'why isn't Back to You on the album' i will tell you the story. when i first started working with Fred in 2004 the intention was to write for his new Pleasure record. then we wrote Love Is Dead and a handfull of other gems and i got greedy and said i wanted to make a solo album with these songs. making the album was a hugely enjoyable experience but inevitably, like anything worthwhile, fucking hard work and at the end of it i thought the least i could do was to offer this song to Fred for his record. actually that's not completely true... i did spend a period on my knees begging him to let me have it but then realised i was behaving like a 10 year old and decided to capitulate to grace. you will be able to hear the properly recorded song on his album which is out in february i think. because it is on the Pleasure album it is recorded and arranged as a Pleasure song. if i ever re-record it i will do it in my own style which is how i intend to play it live . we will be performing Back to You (the Pleasure version) live on a Norwegian TV show in january so keep your eyes peeled all you Vikings.