Mark Redfern: How would you say that money has changed you in some way for better or for worse?
Richard Ashcroft: Of course it's changed me. I mean in some ways it's changed me in really positive ways, like I can go for a walk with my son in the woods. (Child noise in background, lets his son outside or something in the background). Yeah - it allows me to have a walk with my son in a nice garden, in an environment that I would never have had if I hadn't sold a few records. Of course it's given me things, it’s allowed me to see places that I probably would never have traveled to, what have you. Ultimately, it also brings many other kind of moral dilemmas into your life that never existed before when you were going around the world in a bin bag, do you know what I mean?

Redfern: Like what type of dilemmas?

Ashcroft: Well, I mean, because ultimately everybody on a daily basis is given the impression that money can change anything - can change any particular problem. So, everybody is led to believe that to be true. To put it plainly, people wait for you to hand out money to solve a problem that perhaps money - you're aware of is never gonna help it, but because they're so blinded by the mantra that the lottery – ‘it could be you.’ There’re so blinded by that they don't realize that, but you have to then start making moral decisions about things that you just never want to deal with. But that's what I mean - it actually gives you another tremendous insight in to the human instinct and human behavior, because it's something that wasn't actually a chief motivation anyway. Then you go the other way, and then I think ‘yeah fuck you, if I'm gonna get hassled like this, I am going to buy the most late 60s white convertible Mercedes, I’m gonna play the Elvis thing, you know, I'm going to play Elvis.’ (laughs)

Redfern: Is that what you've done?

Ashcroft: Oh, yeah. Do you know what I mean - that's where I go from. I go from sort of a twisted mentality and I think ‘Oh, well I can’t be twisted all day, I’m going to drive down to the petrol station in my Elvis car,’ you know. Basically it's just that life, I don't believe you can live a life unless you're on a certain drug, a certain amount of drugs. In a state of apathy, or the thinking, the mind doesn't just stop, life isn't like that. And the need to make music and the need to create, I could not ever stop, I can’t imagine it.

Redfern: How would you say that this new album differs from your first solo record, Alone with Everybody? Ashcroft: It differs I suppose, there was a bit more preparation in this record in a sense that I recorded it in my lounge. And then I recorded it in a little room with Chris Potter, a small studio and then I took those tapes and rehearsed it with some musicians in a small room and then we went to the studio, where as Alone with Everybody I started in a studio with an acoustic guitar and my wife Kate and Chris Potter and didn't know where it was gonna go from there. So this time it was a lot more, I wanted to go into the studio with a lot more o clearer an idea and waste less time. I think it was recorded in half the time, at half the price. Which is important to me. I still want to make records that contain a lot of human activity on them, but I also want to make records in a sensible, because you can make music that the sense comes in at a sensible price - do you know what I mean? I don't want to slip into that kind of thing, either, so I was happy with this record.

Redfern: You know, you said back in the days of the first two records were kind of out of time, too. They weren't really part of what was going on at the time w/Brit pop and shoegazing and all that stuff. Does it kind of feel like that again?

Ashcroft: Yeah, it does, really. I think it is that simple sometimes, that if you don't fit into a certain, and basically it is, it's the cycle. It works in cycles and it's based on money and I think - it's cool that. I am happy because I've always been someone who's tried to talk to people in this industry and say that you know, ‘somebody has to be bold, somebody has to be bold and build people and build catalogues and do it that way.’ Because unfortunately a majority of this music industry is based on people going reporting to the stock market every quarter and saying this is how it stands. So, how difficult is it going to be for the next Neil Young or whatever to build a catalogue, to build a number of albums that time tells with a lot of these records - you know there's a lot of rare records Neil Young and Lou Reed and people like that and Bowie at the time you know they didn't fit in at the time. It's only 5,6, 7, 8 years later, with hindsight, when there isn't all that kind of sheep like mentality going on. That happened with punk. There's a lot of records that were ignored for a while with punk, because idiots kind of went along with this bizarre idea of what it was to be a punk and didn't listen to different genres of music, which essentially wasn't punk. But that's what people can be like sometimes. They swallow it wholesale. And then so sonically their ears become kind of less eclectic, which I don't think that's the case really, I don't think that's happening because I think hip-hop's too strong to make people become, you know I think that's done wonders for letting people digest different kind of sounds more readily; but I do think things have become really categorized now and like if you ask your average person what should a rock guitar, what should a rock band sound like, I am sure they'd all play the same thing, you know.

Redfern: What do you think they'd play?

Ashcroft: (laughs) I don't know.

Redfern: I mean these days everybody is making...

Ashcroft: I don’t know. It'd have all the right - it's kind of music by numbers, where all the ticks have to be in there, you know. A little bit of white rap bit has to be in there, the quite part, the quiet section into blast hard section into over processed guitar section into ‘yeah eat me’ section. ‘Why you all hate me?’ It's just boring, man. Ultimately I think the main thing, it's also quite patronizing because I don't think you can package illness and mental illness doesn't tour well, you know. Mental illness doesn't tour well and it doesn't kiss ass well. That's why I find it quite off putting. That was the thing about Kurt Cobain, it was actually - we've got an example here - this is what happens when mental illness and other problems gets put into this business - this fucking mad business, you know? And that's why when people are coming around telling me how sick they are – ‘well, fuckin' go and sort yourself out.’

Redfern: So, does the criticism that you’ve gotten for your two solo albums kind of drive you, in some sort of sense? Ashcroft: Well, in some ways it doesn't drive me to kind of prove myself musically, it just, you do need your challenges in the way. And the challenge is now is to keep on the path that I got on when I was sixteen and remain on it. Remain cultivating this music and learning and you know striving to get better, make better music, and be a better father, and be a better husband, and live my life. It's a very simple menu. Redfern: The new album deals a lot with spirituality with lines like "I'm agnostic in God."

Ashcroft: Yeah, "I'm agnostic getting God, but man she takes a female form." Yeah, I mean that's basically you get a bit sick to death about the way we've fucked this up. Misogyny and power, and male power. It's a guy making love in a city that's falling apart through some kind of race riot or some kind of religious fucking riot; it's a guy making love in Jerusalem to his girlfriend, finding his god in bed. It's whatever, you know what I mean. It's like - through all these lines to me, they open up loads to different doors to the imagination. Some of the lines I don't have a definitive concept of what it is -they're there to kind of spark off ideas, do you know what I mean? I just thought it was funny anyway - the actual line is so funny.

Redfern: Well, I wanted to ask you about your own personal religious beliefs. Like, for example, is there a god in your opinion?

Ashcroft: Um, no. No, but I think again it's like I don't know, even with this record it's like - Nature is the Law - ultimately I think that's it. Ultimately I don't think we need a miracle I think this is the miracle. I think that's the main thing. People have difficulty getting breathing space and time to comprehend it or people don't have enough money to have breathing space and time to get it. To get that feeling, you know.

Redfern: So, you think that's why they turn to religion, is that what you're saying?

Ashcroft: Yeah - totally, yeah. When you're under the cross yeah, when you're living in fear, you're going to turn to something that feels bigger than you. Especially at a time when the church, at the time when many houses and structures weren't over two or three stories, you go and build something like a cathedral, like something - I don't know if you've ever been to Germany or Cologne seeing this cathedral there, it’s like, yeah. Or Milan, the cathedral in Milan is going to have a big impression on you then when you walk in there. You know, I pretty much got god when I walked into that. And I know what god feels like, but surely it's all just personal - it can only be a personal interpretation. It can't be defined in that way. I just do not know how anyone in their right mind could define it, you know.

Redfern: There is a strange question that we ask people when we interview them for the magazine, we get interesting responses. So, I figured I'd ask you, too: Do you have any recurring dreams or nightmares?

Ashcroft: Um, ...I used to have reoccurring dreams of when I was a kid. It wasn't actually a dream, what it would be is where a face would appear, kind of, in front of me. Normally you’d be able to get rid of this image. Well, these images would always stay for a milli-second longer than I'd wish them to and suddenly it was the first like concept that I am out of control here, do you know what I mean? So, I think it is just that feeling of being semi-consciousness just before you fall asleep. I used to have that reoccurring. I also used to - I think I must have bought some weird kid's Wind in the Willows or something like that. I still remember this badger riding a horse and cart that's dressed in clothes with glasses and I was in the hedges as it rolled past me at great speed for something really important and that was very twisted and dark and psychedelic - I didn't like that one. (laughs)

Redfern: That doesn't sound good.

Ashcroft: No, that was dark.

Redfern: What would you say is your biggest fear in life?

Ashcroft: Death, ultimately, you know, yeah. I really do admire people who say they don't fear it. Yeah, I really do and I think it's really wonderful. Ultimately, I do.

Redfern: I think most people do.

Ashcroft: Do you fear death?

Redfern: Oh, well, yeah, of course. I don't personally know anyone who doesn't, I mean I know there're people out there that don't.

Ashcroft: There are people who do claim to have gotten to a state of mind where they don't, which is a wonderful thing, I'm sure.

Redfern: Oh, yeah, it would be. Death's fuckin' scary.

Redfern: Have you ever had any near death type experiences?

Ashcroft: Um, you know things in airplanes when you're just about to land and then you suddenly shoot back up again in the planes, things like that in planes, cars - I think we all have through the years and you know it gets worse and worse. The amount of traffic on the roads in England now, I do a two-hour journey from London along the motorway to get here and it's just like Escape from New York. I probably have a near death experience on the road once every two weeks. (laughs)

Redfern: How concerned are you about getting older and getting even mellower in terms of your music and stuff like that? Ashcroft: I don't think that exists, really, that concept of age and mellowness. I don't think it's just. My process in my mind and my thoughts and my energy for writing music and my desire to produce records and stretch my imagination is just as potent. I think a lot of things you do in youth are in a way to try and get there - a shortcut to those places - it's a way to get there as fast as you can. But once you keep getting there at such a rate, it starts really really tiring you out and you've got to start working yourself out and working out how best to get this music down and create this stuff and make the records because ultimately after A Northern Soul I knew that we couldn't make another record like that. Sometimes we were in the studio at 11 in the morning on Urban Hymns - just to get like the freshness of the morning - to get a completely different vibe.

Redfern: I've read quotes where you said you wanted to release as many albums as possible and just keep putting them out, basically.

Ashcroft: Yeah, totally. Because I think there’s too much analysis and shit goes into each record. It's like get it out. But the mechanics of the business are just, obviously when you start having a successful record, you want to ring every last drop out of it and if it's not successful, you better go out and try to make it successful. Hopefully I'm going to try and start recording in the next few months and have it out the end of the year. If not, the New Year next year.

Redfern: Cool. I mean you already have the songs pretty much written and all that?

Ashcroft: Not all of them, but I've got a few of them, yeah.

Redfern: What about touring this record - are there any plans for you to come to the States and bring the band?

Ashcroft: Yeah - I'd love to come and do some tours. It's a matter of I don't want to come over to the States and just play the lone troubadour again. I want to come over and play with a band and sonically represent what I am up to, rather than doing it that way. It's trying to figure out how to do it without coming back from three weeks in the States with a 300,000 pound bill on my hands, cause I'm going to try and bring over nine musicians. So, I'm just buying my time in the next few weeks. There are a couple of offers coming in and I am going to see whether I can make it with the full thing, hopefully late spring, early summer.

Redfern: That'd be great to see you with the full band. I saw you when you were here last time when it was just you and a few other people.

Ashcroft: Yeah, with Jim and Kate.

Redfern: Which was cool, but I’d definitely like to hear the full sound.

Ashcroft: Yeah definitely man, it’s great. I think it's easy for people to fall into the trap, to just get him out here with his acoustic, it’s like, ‘yeah, but that's not what I'm about.’

Redfern: I think I read that you were planning or thinking about doing a show with a full orchestra, is that true?

Ashcroft: Yeah, I am just trying to find some sort of venue that's suitable and a film crew and get it filmed, really. For the first time, I just want to get Will (Malone, Ashcroft’s arranger) there, get the orchestra there and if Shadow (DJ Shadow) was free on the right day and we'd do “Lonely Soul” cause Will also did the strings for that. and just really present the first wave of tunes that I wrote. We’d do a number of them with strings on it from “History” and onwards kind of thing. And do that and film it. I'd love to do that. I just think it would be a great vibe to just do that a couple of nights.

Redfern: That would be pretty amazing to see Bitter Sweet Symphony and all that stuff with a full orchestra.

Ashcroft: Yeah, I'd love to do it and then I think I'd just get addicted to it and retire in Vegas or something.

Redfern: Were you originally going to try and get DJ Shadow and the Chemical Brothers to work on your actual album? Ashcroft: I was trying to get Shadow to have a look at “Check the Meaning,” but he was writing bang at the tail end of his record, so he didn't have time. I am leaving things open for the next record to see what happens, you know? But there is so much to do - there is a long way to go yet. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen yet. Redfern: I have two more questions and then we'll wrap it up: I was curious what new bands, if any, were you into right now? Ashcroft: Let me think. I love... I mean, I don't know if you've seen the Polyphonic Spree

Redfern: Yeah, I interviewed them, actually.

Ashcroft: Did you, yea? Well, I've been waiting for something like that for a long time, actually, cause I used to look at the sleeves of 5th Dimension and sort of the Edwin Hawkins Singers and things and I used to wonder who's going to do it and I used to think it must have been a logistics and finances thing why no one did it and it still amazes me how they do manage to do it. Yeah, they give me a buzz. I want to hear a fifteen-minute psych version of “Oh Happy Day “or something like that. And Pete drummed with BRMC.

Redfern: Yeah, I've interviewed them as well.

Ashcroft: And I saw them play when Pete was playing with them and there were moments of them, some of the drone stuff was really good. They're cool.

Redfern: Have you seen the Polyphonic Spree live?

Ashcroft: I've actually only seen them live on the tele - they came and played this Jools Holland show in England, which was hilarious, it was amazing. It was great.

Redfern: They are even better live than on record. And we did a photo shoot with all 25 of them, which was an experience in itself. Last question: How would you like Richard Ashcroft to be remembered in like 20 years, 30 years time?

Ashcroft: Um, I really don't really give a shit, really to be honest. I just want to live this life and I want to be remembered... What's that son? Ok I'll come. (He says to his son in the background). Right, I better go, my son is calling me. Take care kiddo.

www.richardashcroft.com