James Dean Bradfield On New Manic Street Preachers Music, Mark Lanegan And Connection

Over the course of 35 years, Welsh alt rockers Manic Street Preachers have moved more than 10 million albums around the world.

Mark Lanegan, who passed away just five months after the album was released, was one of the artists who contributed. The band released an expanded version of their 2001 album Know Your Enemy in September. The group just wrapped a tour in the U.S. and is working on a new album.

We have a few songs at the moment. Manics singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield said they don't know what they mean. I don't know what they're talking about. Maybe there is more codification in the lyrics right now. I don't know what we're doing. He said that he thinks we're running off some kind of instinct that comes from our record collection. Considering we are still in a band with each other and it has been our job for a long time, to actually still have that instinct of a fan - to be influenced by your record collection - is still a nice place to be. That is a good place for me to come from.

James Dean Bradfield talked about his memories of Mark Lanegan and the future of Manic Street Preachers. A transcript of our phone conversation can be found below.

The way in which live music can connect people and bring people together is something I didn't know about during the Pandemic. The role that music plays is important.

It was important to me during that time. I enjoyed listening to a lot of music. I think I listened to every single song I owned. I started to like some music that I had never liked before. I don't understand why. Badfinger is an old Welsh band that I really like. The Bad Plus is a band that I like a lot. I think a few of their songs helped me through a bit of lockdown.

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As a result of the Pandemic, your writing has grown a bit more reflective. What did that say on The Ultra Vivid Lament?

A lot of the lyrics came from not knowing what the victory of defeat looked like. It felt like reality had been stripped away from you. I felt like I was watching The Truman Show. Everything felt that way. It felt like a joke.

I love living in Wales because I am always close to the beach. I am always close to a mountain. All of those things were in reach, but they hadn't been far away. I couldn't leave the house. I couldn't get to the beach. The magnetic fields pulled on my toes as I walked on the beach. Standing on top of a mountain doesn't give you a sense of respect. All of those things were there for me as they had always been, but I couldn't touch them. I didn't have the ability to share in them. That was the strangest thing I've ever seen.

It reflected in the songs. It was reflected in the song "Afterending." It was reflected in a song called "Still Snowing in Hokkaido" I remember when the band was formed, they had a song called " still snowing in Sapporo" which was written in 1993 or 1994. It was about seeing the past more clearly than the future. Songs about the past were shaped by it. Songs about the past were more complete and certain than the future could ever be.

It's possible to be confident about the future when you're happy. You can walk into it. If you can feel like you can achieve half of what you have in your head, then you can be confident. We didn't have anything. It informed songs about the past. Every song on the album was told by it.

Mark Lanegan is believed to have worked on a blank diary entry before he died. How did you work with him on that?

I don't feel crestfallen when I bring up Mark. It brings me back to a place where I feel like I'm lost. I don't like the fact that there wasn't a Hollywood ending for Mark, because he'd been through so much and been brutally honest about himself, and other people, and his experience and how much his life had affected other people in his life He wasn't shy about any of that. I don't believe he was looking for a pat on the back. He turned that back into a great record and song. He deserves a lot of credit for staying on that path and turning it into something.

I met him on the Oasis tour in 1997. I connected with him on the good days when he wasn't using drugs. On the days that I talked to him, we were able to connect over a lot of good references. He knew Jeffrey from the gun club. I have never had a conversation with him about his solo album. Which is how we got started. We talked about Joy Division, Killing Joke, and many other records. I got along with him on the days when he wasn't making noise.

I saw him the next time I was in London for a show by John Cale. He and I shared a dressing room. I hadn't seen him in a long time. He remembered me right away. He apologized for who he was back then. You don't need to apologize to me. I had a good time talking with you. He had to keep going. I felt like I had connected with him because he was on that path of apologizing.

He was incredible when he sang on the song. I inquired over email. We had a great exchange. We didn't have to make a change after he returned with it. Sometimes you ask if you can change the line. Is it possible to change that? Can you make the whole approach different? There was nothing we changed. Everything he returned was perfect. He was able to get it immediately.

I read through many of the emails we had with each other after he recorded that vocal part and it made me sad.

Manic street preachers have been around for a long time. Is it important to find new ways to push the music?

JDB doesn't know if it's about pushing it forward or not.

You have to be realist. We're 54. A band's lifespan is usually one and a half albums. The 15th will be ours. We are very fortunate. We are fortunate to have each other. We have the patience with each other to know that sometimes things just don't work right away.

We know that if there isn't a new record, it's the end. I think that is the only way to describe it. We know that the end is very close if there isn't a new record in us. It will be the beginning of the end when one of us says, "I don't feel like doing a new record"