{"id":53108,"date":"2025-09-09T14:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53108\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:40:10","slug":"i-dont-think-theres-any-band-of-our-generation-still-making-records-as-vital-as-ours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53108\/","title":{"rendered":"I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any band of our generation still making records as vital as ours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suede<\/a> have spoken to NME about their new album \u2018Antidepressants\u2019 \u2013 with frontman Brett Anderson<\/a> declaring: \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other band of our generation that are still making records as vital as the records we\u2019re making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently set to land at the Number One spot in the UK this week, the art-rock veterans\u2019 10th studio album sees them leaning on a \u201cpost-punk\u201d energy after the raw punk edge of predecessor \u2018Autofiction\u2019<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 continuing the band\u2019s purple patch comeback streak of acclaimed and inspired records following their 2010 reunion.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NME ahead of \u2018Autofiction\u2019 back in 2022, Anderson teased that Suede\u2019s next LP would be \u201cmuch more experimental\u201d<\/a>, adding: \u201cI\u2019d love to think that our most daring work is ahead of us.\u201d Does he feel as if the band lived up to that on \u2018Antidepressants\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely go into making every record now with that spirit,\u201d he replied. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the kind of position we seem to have found ourselves in, in the musical landscape. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other band of our generation that are still making records as vital as the records we\u2019re making.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other band that look at making records as something other than a souvenir for a tour or something like that. I feel that we\u2019re still making exciting music, pushing our sound and not just stuck as a self-parody. I never wanted to be the kind of band that rests on their laurels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back over their legacy as the inadvertent and reluctant pioneers of \u2018Britpop\u2019, Anderson continued: \u201cI\u2019m proud of the \u201890s stuff we did, but I don\u2019t think about it all the time. What I think about is this record and the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Suede at Southbank Centre August 26 2025. CREDIT: Pete Woodhead<\/p>\n

While the world rides a wave of \u201990s nostalgia due to Oasis<\/a>\u2018 ongoing Live \u201925 reunion tour and Pulp<\/a> returning with a stellar tour and comeback record \u2018More\u2019<\/a>, Anderson said that he wouldn\u2019t be able to continue with Suede as an endeavour unless they were fully invested in the present and the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can talk about [the \u201990s], but I\u2019ve not got anything interesting left to say about it,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t interest me that much. The last thing I ever wanted Suede to be was a nostalgia act. I\u2019ve always felt like we\u2019re out on our own. I felt like we were out on our own in \u201892, when no one wanted to sing about British life, and we were the only people doing it. I think we survived and now we\u2019re out on our own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe zeitgeist shifts and moves around. Sometimes we resonate with that and sometimes we\u2019re diametrically opposed to the zeitgeist, but we just carry on doing our own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing the zeitgeist of 2025, Suede\u2019s \u2018Antidepressants\u2019 offers a \u201cbroader societal record\u201d that\u2019s still personal, but looks for \u201cconnection in a disconnected world\u201d with music and togetherness ultimately proving the best way to beat global malaise and depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tone of the 21st century is something that I\u2019ve tried to reflect: the neurosis, the sense of suppression, the sense of latent control that I feel,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cThere are a lot of incidental sound effects and things like that. It seems to me that a citizen of the 21st century has always been issued commands. Lots of those little snippets are supposed to be that sense of chatter that\u2019s always going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might sound like the record is dark. There is a darkness, but there is also a joy to escaping that which I wanted to express as well. Lots of the songs are about escaping that suppression, and the joy there is to be had there. Something like \u2018The Sound Of The Summer\u2019 or \u2018Dancing With The Europeans\u2019<\/a>, it\u2019s that whole thing of finding connection in a disconnected world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s all this wonder to be had in life. Sometimes that\u2019s hard to find, but I\u2019m determined to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a widescreen sense of euphoria to cut through the fog of modern life, \u2018Antidepressants\u2019 excited fans when Anderson described it as their \u201cpost-punk album\u201d early doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned over the years that you have to be quite simplistic when you\u2019re describing your records, especially when you\u2019re describing them for the first time,\u201d he told NME. \u201cThose descriptions get used over and over again. There\u2019s no room for subtlety and nuance within the media, it just gets squashed. You have to refer to genres in a broad sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously anyone who\u2019s ever really listened to my descriptions of the records know that I\u2019m not saying that \u2018Autofiction\u2019 was \u2018a punk record\u2019, it was \u2018our punk record\u2019. It\u2019s Suede through a punk lens. It\u2019s the same with this \u2013 it\u2019s not a post-punk pastiche, but those things have crept in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson explained that those elements were largely provided by guitarist Richard Oakes contributing more \u2013 revealing his true self and teenage obsessions that he didn\u2019t previously feel as free to do so, when he joined the band as a 17-year-old to replace the departed Bernard Butler<\/a> in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard has become such an incredible and important part of Suede in the \u201920s,\u201d the frontman explained. \u201cHis influences are very post-punk. He\u2019s always been into PiL<\/a>, Siouxsie And The Banshees<\/a> and all these things.<\/p>\n

\"Suede,Suede, 2025. Credit: Dean Chalkley<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re seeing Suede becoming more of a post-punk band rather than a \u201870s rock band, which we possibly could be. To oversimplistically describe it, we were that in the \u201890s. Mainly it\u2019s because Richard is finally expressing himself as a musician, and it\u2019s a really wonderful thing to see. It\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The frontman agreed that it was a much more freeing source to draw from, given that post-punk arguably has fewer rules and constraints than punk. \u201cYou could point to archetypal post-punk bands, but it\u2019s such a broad sound,\u201d he said. \u201cThe punk sound was much more narrow. Lots of post-punk is artier and more avant-garde, from PiL to Siouxsie to Joy Division<\/a> and New Order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPiL was [John] Lydon<\/a> becoming more in control of the overall sound. The Pistols<\/a> were a marriage of more traditional rock with his arty-er sensibilities. That\u2019s what made them amazing: the two things that married together really beautifully. It\u2019s difficult to fit it into a neater category. Post-punk is wider and more accepting of different influences; more of a marriage of different things and cross-pollination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admitting that it\u2019s a defiant spirit to never be tied to a single genre, scene or movement that has driven Suede through the decades, Anderson said that their working-class underdog spirit still remains from their days of obscurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early \u201890s when we were banging our heads against the wall because no one was interested and we were playing to two people in a pub, on a diet of tea, crisps and salad pittas, it was a bleak time,\u201d he said, recalling how all of the members of Suede had at one point had a job cleaning toilets.\u00a0\u201cThere certainly wasn\u2019t that cultural buoyancy of the late \u201890s. \u2018Cool Britannia\u2019 was a long way away in 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were singing about British life in 1991-92 when no one else was doing it, it was a very different world. We do our own thing, people sometimes get it, sometimes they don\u2019t. What we did in the early \u201890s happened to set the tone for that decade, for better or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he feels that a band Suede would make it if they emerged in 2025, the frontman replied: \u201cIf it means being passionate about music and loving it for the right reasons, then yes, of course. There\u2019s a purpose to the years of failure. There are no shortcuts in life, and there are no shortcuts in a career. There\u2019s a point to it because you\u2019re basically learning your craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have years of rejection and years of failure, because it\u2019s necessary to learn. I\u2019m always telling my kid that there\u2019s no such thing as failure: there\u2019s only success and learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFucking up\u201d and a sense of jeopardy remains at the core of the Suede live experience too<\/a>, Anderson told us \u2013 looking ahead to unpredictable nights and shaking up the setlists on their upcoming tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like John Peel\u2019s description of The Fall<\/a>: \u2018Always different, always the same\u2019. It\u2019s a brilliant description, and it\u2019s the same with Suede in a way. I like to keep people guessing and you know that I\u2019m not going to have Paula Abdul or choreography on stage. It\u2019s not my thing, but there will be something fresh about it and it will be fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re one of the most exciting live bands around, I really do. I want to maintain that reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another band who felt the impact of Suede as a live force were Manic Street Preachers<\/a>, with frontman James Dean Bradfield once telling us that Anderson and co inspired them to \u201cup their game<\/a>\u201d when they embarked on a series of joint tours of the UK, US and Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Manics are lovely boys and I\u2019m very, very fond of them,\u201d Anderson told us of the co-headline shows. \u201cThey\u2019re a fantastic band and it was a wonderful tour. There\u2019s something very complimentary about the bands and their fans. We tessellate quite beautifully, but at the same time it doesn\u2019t feel like some kind of nostalgic \u201890s Britpop party. We occupy similar territory, but different enough to be complimentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re amazing boys and I love so many of their songs. I\u2019d sit on the side of the stage night after night and watch \u2018Motorcycle Emptiness\u2019 and \u2018Design For Life\u2019. I\u2019ve only good things to say about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Suede\u2019s next big live spectacle comes with their takeover of London\u2019s Southbank Centre<\/a> \u2013 with highlights\u00a0set to be the band\u2019s \u201coff-mic\u201d show and their first fully-orchestrated gig.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we had enough range in our work to do different things,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cWe could do straight-up rock gigs, but we\u2019re also doing something at Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Paraorchestra who I\u2019ve worked with before and are absolutely amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll be a more orchestrated version of Suede ballads from our back catalogue and a couple of things from our new album.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we\u2019re doing this thing at the Purcell Rooms which we\u2019ve never done before. It\u2019s not unplugged, it\u2019s off-mic. Unplugged carries baggage of the whole \u2018MTV Unplugged\u2019 thing. Also that whole thing was a bit of a cheat because it wasn\u2019t unplugged, it was just plugged in acoustic instruments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I do live sometimes if I feel like the venue is intimate enough \u2013 you can\u2019t do it at really big places or festivals \u2013 I do an acoustic song completely off-mic. That can be a really exciting moment, because you\u2019re going from really fucking loud to quite quiet. If people are respectful enough, it can be really magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans should expect a Suede gig like no other at the Purcell Rooms, with Anderson likening it to \u201ca teenage band jamming in a bedroom\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Mat [Osman, bassist] used to be in this band many years ago in the \u201880s, in fact one of the first bands we were in together \u2013 and we were in a few,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWe used to have this thing called \u2018Bedroom Rock\u2019. It\u2019s not like we were a proper band, we were just a couple of kids banging around on crappy guitars with bad songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to invite a couple of mates into my bedroom in my dad\u2019s little council house in Linfield and sit there playing our crappy songs in the room. There\u2019s something quite intimate about it, and I suppose this is a little homage to that.<\/p>\n

After that and a 2026 winter tour, Suede look set to remain busy with Anderson admitting that he\u2019s \u201calways excited about the next record\u201d and has been thinking about album Number 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was speaking to Richard the other day about things we might bring in,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s always the next record to look forward to, and that\u2019s a great position to be in: when you\u2019ve got people listening and you feel as if people care. It\u2019s easy to care yourself, but if no one else does then it\u2019s quite hard!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always got to be something that\u2019s within the Suede universe.\u00a0I don\u2019t quite know where we\u2019re going to go yet, but I know it\u2019s going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Antidepressants\u2019 by Suede is out now. See their 2026 UK tour dates below and visit here for tickets and more information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Suede's<\/p>\n