Graham Coxon Says New Album ‘Will Explore The Bleaker Side Of Things’

Graham Coxon has said that his new solo album ‘A+E’ is about “the bleaker side of things”. Speaking to Q, the Blur guitarist said that his forthcoming new LP, which is released on 2nd April, will focus less on romance and “moaning about relationships and girls” than his previous studio efforts.

“I suppose I’ve never gone so blatantly for a synthesizer and a drum machine before,” he said when asked what would be different about the record. “This time I started to listen to the bleaker side of things more. There is a bit of a drought of romantic songs on this record, which is usually my default setting.”

He went on to add:

“There are no love songs on it and no moaning about relationships and girls. So I’m quite proud of that, because sometimes you think, ‘Will I ever get away from singing about that crap?’ Still there’s plenty more where that all came from!”

Speaking about the current mood in Blur camp and the lack of pressure they felt under, he said:

“The situation we’re finding ourselves in now, creatively, is that all of that – any kind of second-guessing about the situation – seems to have disappeared, and we’re allowing ourselves to be absolutely OK and to be ourselves with each other. That’s really great, that’s what we really need.”

Blur picked up the Outstanding Contribution To Music gong at the Brit Awards earlier this month, and are also set to headline a special one-off show in London’s Hyde Park to celebrate the end of the Olympic Games this summer and Sweden’s Way Out Fest festival in August.