Don't be fooled by the cover of his new solo album, where he's sitting: Johnny Marr, ex-Smiths guitarist, can't stand still, even working with Billie Eilish on the
James Bond soundtrack.
With this musician, we can talk about everything.
Except for Morrissey, his former accomplice of the Smiths, a flagship group of English indie rock, active in the mid-1980s. produced in 2019 on a US show with a UK far-right party badge).
Read alsoThe return of the humble and eternal Johnny Marr, the former guitarist of the Smiths, in Paris
After a last acid exchange via their social networks this winter, Marr no longer says a word about the other
"M"
of the formation that made him famous.
Probably so as not to undermine the zen attitude that he patiently cultivates.
“I read the Bhagavad-Gita (one of the fundamental texts of Hinduism, at the roots of yoga) every day, it was Chrissie Hynde who gave it to me when I had highs and lows at one time in my life”
, tells AFP the guitarist, during an interview by videoconference.
Billie, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry...
After the Smiths implosion, Marr collaborated with various bands, including Chrissie Hynde's Pretenders, with whom he remained close.
The opportunity to ask him about the inspiring women artists he has met in his career.
The latest is Billie Eilish, since it is her guitar that we hear on the title song of
No time to die
( To die
can wait
), the last
James Bond
, sung by the American artist.
"Life as a musician in a recording studio, I've known since I was 18 (he's now 58) and when Billie is in the studio, after five minutes you have no more in front of you a young girl.
She's a great musician, she knows how to channel her energy, prioritize what needs to be prioritized.
She's impressive, she's here for a long time,”
he says.
The parallel comes all alone with Debbie Harry, the singer of Blondie.
“When I was 14-15 years old, I was already in groups of the elitist genre.
Blondie, I listened to them, they were great, Debbie had the right attitude, was cool, a woman to follow, like Billie today
.
"Billie, Debbie, or like this actress,
Jodie Comer
, from the series
Killing Eve
, are talented and speak to all women from 14 to 65
," he continues.
The circle is complete since a joint tour of Blondie and Marr is scheduled for April-May.
He will be able to defend on stage the titles of his double album
Fever Dreams Pts 1 - 4
, which is released on Friday.
This cryptic title (
Feverish Dreams Pts 1 - 4
) fits the energy of Marr, who wakes up with a start
“at 4 am, with my wife saying,
'
But what else is going on?
”
(laughs)”
because he just found the title of a song.
Texts with artistic references
The spindly rocker has kept the same helmet-like haircut from the Smiths days and hasn't lost any of his riffing savvy.
Its six strings are elegiac (
Lightning People
), surgical (
Sensory Street
) or emphatic (
Tenement Time
).
The texts he sings are sprinkled with artistic references such as Salvador Dali or Marcel Duchamp (
The Whirl
).
These liberated spirits, who called to think otherwise, he also quotes the writer Aldous Huxley, are invited to underline by opposition the
“retreat embodied today by people like Donald Trump”
.
The social and political chronicle also transpires when Marr evokes the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement in
Night and Day
(
Just wanna breathe in the hot spots
/
I just want to breathe in critical situations
).
But the native of Manchester also likes to surprise and is rabble on
Receiver
, remembering these atmospheres “
at three o'clock in the morning in bars, when a person emits an erotic signal to another”
.
