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Would Johnny Marr reform The Smiths for $1,000?
We asked, he answered - and it's not 'no'!
Joe Bosso, Tue 17 Nov 2009, 3:50 pm UTC
"I'm sure when we were driving up on the day, I was kind of excited: 'Oh, this is gonna be cool. Something for the scrapbook.' But as soon as you start writing songs, it all goes out the window."
Marr: "You get down to work. I also think, just weirdly, it was a matter of synchronicity. I happened to be able to appear with the band at the same time back in the UK when they were doing some dates on a tour. I was playing some of the old songs just for fun. So we didn't have to wait a year to find out whether I sounded right on the old songs, 'cause I was doing that for fun anyway."
Where is the band actually based?
Marr: "We're together all the time. We had one four-week break, four and a half weeks maybe, in the summer, which is the longest we've been apart since I was in the band. Gary and I went to Portland at that time, but that's because we weren't working."
Jarman: "The band doesn't need to be based anywhere. For the last few years of my life, I've lived a completely nomadic existence, and I feel the band does that, too.
"Those guitars are like driving an old vintage sports car very, very fast. There's a lot of things that can go wrong with them, and I like that" Johnny Marr on Fender Jaguars
"When we were writing this album, we'd get together for a couple of weeks in Manchester, then we'd go to Portland for a couple of weeks, and the change in scenery was really good for our creativity. I like the fact that the band doesn't have a set base. I feel as though a set base would limit what we do creatively."
Let's talk about your guitars. Now, Johnny, you're known for playing Rickenbackers, particularly 330 models. But lately I've seen you playing Fender Jaguars and Jazzmasters.
Marr: "Yeah. The Rickenbacker I've had a real love for. The reason I started playing it, truth be told, is because of its limitations. I started playing the Jaguar for the same reason. They force me to play in a certain way. You can't really do blues-rock on a Rickenbacker, and a Jaguar isn't a right guitar for a blues-rock musician either.
"I had this idea for a very punchy, stinging kind of Fender sound, and when I played in Modest Mouse [singer-guitarist] Issac Brock had one lying around. It fit what I do real well. And I can make it sound Rickenbacker-ish, I can make it sound clean, but I do a lot of dirty stuff with it.
"The actual architecture of the guitar, I have to kind of wrestle with it. Those guitars are like driving an old vintage sports car very, very fast. There's a lot of things that can go wrong with them, and I like that - it keeps me on my toes."
Ryan, I've seen you go from Fender Mustangs to Gibson ES-335s.
Jarman: "My main guitar is the 335. I used to use the Mustang 'cause it was the only guitar I had. I always thought those guitars were fun to play, and they looked great. But when we went into the studio to record our third record, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand loaned me his 335, and it just sounded so much better."
