Graham Coxon of Blur on 'The Magic Whip' and the simple life
by Jade and Graham Coxon
May 01, 2015
Graham Coxon has created some of your favorite Blur songs as well as a successful solo album in 2012's A+E. If that's not enough, Coxon is also a well-established visual artist.
Following the release of Blur's first album in 12 years, guitarist Graham Coxon joined The Current's Jade via telephone to talk about how The Magic Whip came together. He also spoke about his conflicting feelings about the creative life versus his vision of a simple life. Here are some interview highlights:
What is The Magic Whip?
"It's an album by Blur, it's also a firecracker. Damon got the packaging to one of these fireworks in his book of notes. … It's the packaging to one of those fireworks, it's called the Magic Whip.
"[The album] had a working title of 'Made in Hong Kong,' but we thought that was a bit dull … we wanted something that meant a little bit more. … It's up to you, how you want to see it."
How did the tracks on The Magic Whip originally come together?
"We had five days in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong, I thought I could get some rest, but Damon thought it would be a good idea to find a studio. … We jammed around for seven or eight hours over five days. And that was that."
What drew Blur back together after time apart?
"We'd got back together, we'd been playing a lot of shows, I guess for our own therapeutic reasons, really, because we'd missed each other, etc etc, we just wanted to get back together and play."
Thoughts on Blur's hiatus:
"It all sounds very dramatic — I'm not sure it was that dramatic when we went our separate ways; we just needed a really good rest after the '90s. It was a bit hectic."
On the creative life versus the simple life:
"I always wanted a simpler life. Particularly recently, with technology and everything else, life is more and more complicated; it's driving me mad. I dunno … work in pub? … It's just not possible, but maybe one day. But we keep making music, we have all this complicated busy stuff going on. … It's getting a bit crazy, but I won't regret it. I think this is a lovely chapter in the Blur story, and I'd like to do it really properly and work as hard as I can because soon it'll all be over."