INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!

Jarvis Cocker tells NME.COM that the band's "general ineptitude" led them to start again on the follow-up to '98's 'This Is Hardcore'...

JARVIS COCKER has revealed PULP have decided to re-record their entire new album due to what he laughingly referred to as the band’s “general ineptitude”.

Speaking exclusively to NME.COM, Cocker said that after the Reading and Leeds festivals in August, where they played their first major live shows in two years, they decided to scrap everything because it “didn’t seem right”.

He said: “We just went back into the studio, hopefully to get it right this time. There are no problems with the material, we just weren’t happy with the way it sounded. It didn’t seem right so we decided to start it (the entire recording process) again.”

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Cocker said the festival shows gave the group “a lot of confidence” and helped them work out “what is good and bad” about their new material. However, he refused to elaborate on how legendary songwriter Scott Walker was working out in a production capacity, saying: “It’s not appropriate to discuss it at this time.”

Speaking about the as-yet-untitled new album, Cocker said morale was high. He continued: “We normally have loads of arguments which I think is fair enough for a band. I don’t like it when bands get on too well, you know, ‘That was a fantastic solo you just played’, it’s crap innit? So we are actually agreeing on a lot of things – it’s slightly worrying actually!”

He said the album currently has no overriding mood, unlike its predecessor ‘This Is Hardcore’, which had “A bit of a mood – misery and terror and fear”. He continued: “This one is probably not as heavy. They’re still not nice songs though, you know?”

Jarvis cited two possible singles, ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Weeds’, which the band want released “as soon as possible”. He continued: “I’d like to have the record out for spring so we’d have to have a single before then. It’s been too long as it is. I never want it to take a long time when we’re recording but somehow it always seems to. I don’t really know why that is. Maybe it’s just general ineptitude, I dunno. I don’t think it takes long to make a good record, sometimes the more you think about it the worse it becomes, but I’m not a fan of taking a long time.”

Finally, Cocker said that the band will tour the UK in the “early summer”. He said: “Because I’m getting on a bit I have to be careful – it would be horrible if you went on and it just didn’t feel right no more.” When asked about the size of venues he joked: “We did two warm-ups at the (London) Garage and up in Edinburgh and they were quite nice shows. The Garage one was good because I could touch the audience and I was performing in bare feet and this girl was stroking my foot in the quieter bits of the songs, it was really nice! It’s nice when you feel more like you’re performing to specific people rather than just a mass.”

NME.COM understands that, despite the setbacks, Pulp are close to completing the project.

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