News Brett Anderson: “It’s A Strange Relationship We Have With Britpop”

“There's no better way to spend your twenties than in a successful band.” Brett Anderson told us, “To be that vanguard of it all, and what it led to in the nineties, with Britpop, was kind of exciting.”

We're speaking to Anderson ahead of the release of Suede's sixth long player, 'Bloodsports', the first since their reunion in 2010. As conversation turns to Britpop, Brett begins to reminisce about the band's impact on the scene when they first rose to prominence with their Mercury winning self titled debut.

“When we wrote those songs in 1992, we felt like we were on our own, doing something that was almost noble, in a sense, after years and years of people pretending to be sixties pop stars, or not really saying anything; talking in rock speak. We were talking about our lives, it felt like we were reclaiming something.”

“Of course, everything that's worth something gets reclaimed, and devalued,” he continues, before confirming that he'd rather not be associated with that scene at all. “It's a strange relationship we have with Britpop, because obviously we started it, but at the same time we weren't really part of it. It's an impossible relationship we had. To be so so part of it, that we fathered it, but then were completely cut off it.”

“I don't really see that the movement had much worth.” Anderson states, “In terms of rock history, it wasn't like punk. There was something a little bit cynical and a little bit parochial about it. It's easy to see it with rose tinted spectacles, but I don't think it really generated art of much value really, no.”

Suede's new album, 'Bloodsports' is released on March 18th.

Read more from Brett Anderson in the first issue DIY Weekly, available now.