{"id":299062,"date":"2025-07-28T17:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/299062\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:48:17","slug":"its-about-connecting-in-a-disconnected-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/299062\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s about connecting in a disconnected world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suede<\/a> have shared an euphoric new single \u2018Dancing With The Europeans\u2019, with a music video filmed at a secret gig at London\u2019s iconic Bush Hall. Check it out along with NME\u2018s behind-the-scenes video and our interview with frontman Brett Anderson below.<\/p>\n

The fourth song to be lifted from the art-rock icons\u2019 upcoming 10th album \u2018Antidepressants<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 following on from the title track, <\/a>\u2018Disintegrate<\/a>\u2018 and \u2018Trance State<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 \u2018Dancing With The Europeans\u2019 sees the band at their most uplifting and engaged.<\/p>\n

In keeping with that spirit, and the frenetic energy of their new \u201cpost-punk\u201d album, the band shot the video at a secret mini gig for a packed room of lucky invited fans at Bush Hall. \u201cHopefully people will go crazy and there will be a stage invasion, and then we\u2019ll go home to bed,\u201d Anderson told NME backstage ahead of the show.<\/p>\n

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Anderson explained how the live energy of the video matched \u2018Dancing With The Europeans\u2019 being \u201ca song about connection\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this phrase: connecting in a disconnected world,\u201d he told us. \u201cI feel as though the 21st Century is a paradox. The more we\u2019re connected, the less we\u2019re connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe song was inspired by a gig we did a couple of years ago in Spain.\u00a0I was going through a bad time personally, and the gig was just amazing. I just felt that amazing thing you have when you do a great gig. You feel like you\u2019re bigger than something that\u2019s just yourself \u2013 you\u2019re part of a group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the feral reaction and sheer dedication on display at the video shoot, Anderson replied:\u00a0\u201cWhat is it about Suede fans that makes them so insane? I don\u2019t know! The music is about passion. I\u2019ve always wanted to inspire passion in people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best live music is always incredibly loud or incredibly quiet \u2013 nothing in between. That\u2019s what I try and do with my music. I either go full-on rock, or I get my acoustic guitar and go off-mic and no one can quite hear what I\u2019m saying. I quite like those extremes. The drama and juxtaposition between quiet and loud is really important in live music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The make-up of the crowd was a microcosm of Suede\u2019s fandom as a whole, one that continues to renew and refresh in the wake of the band\u2019s consecutively acclaimed albums since their reunion in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been the really wonderful thing about the last 10 years: we keep attracting a younger and younger audience,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like for other bands like us or of our generation or whatever, but it is really exciting that we\u2019re not a nostalgia act. The last thing I ever wanted to be was a nostalgia act \u2013 the idea of doing that whole circuit is just a really horrible thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go abroad to places like China and there are 100 18-year-olds there. It\u2019s weird, but fantastic because there\u2019s some spirit that they\u2019re plugging into. I\u2019ve always wanted to make music that\u2019s universal. I never wanted to make parochial music for parochial people!\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson added: \u201cI\u2019ve always tried to sing about passion and the human condition. We just happened to have been born in England, so there\u2019s an English slant to it. It\u2019s certainly never been a celebration of Britain, it\u2019s more of a documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Suede. CREDIT: Dean Chalkley<\/p>\n

As for their standing as a live band still in the finest of fettle, the frontman put it down to experience and a simple trick of the mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying live is all about confidence \u2013 or the illusion of confidence, which is the same thing,\u201d he admitted.\u00a0\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to see a stumbling, apologetic performer \u2013 they want to see someone who seems to command a sense of magic. It\u2019s a quasi-religious thing. The lead singer is the high priest and the audience are the acolytes. That sounds hierarchical, but you\u2019re all after the same thing. You\u2019re all after the sense of connection: you\u2019re doing something that\u2019s bigger than any individual. We have in politics, we have it in sport, and we have it in music as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it goes well with Suede, I do feel like there\u2019s a real magic in the room. I\u2019ve learned to get better at manufacturing that magic. That sounds like a cynical word to use, but you just learn how to do it and engage with the audience, how to tease that energy out. Little venues like Bush Hall are absolutely fantastic and I love them. You can really get up close to the audience. I love getting up close to the audience physically. I love touching them, getting that feedback, diving in there. I love the messy drama of playing gigs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cI hate it when you play big festivals and there\u2019s enormous pit between you. The audience are over there and there are some bored photographers standing in front of you. I almost think the audience don\u2019t understand the basic psychology of gigs \u2013 or at least what makes a Suede gig work. It\u2019s very much about contact with the audience. We\u2019re not one of those bands that can stand there just in a rehearsal room. There\u2019s a feedback between the audience and the band that is really important to nurture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Suede. CREDIT: Dean Chalkley<\/p>\n

For Anderson, there\u2019s a process of translation that takes place when he steps on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never understood the bands that just stand there and play their songs,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought that the point has been something other; to give the songs a different drama. I don\u2019t care about mistakes. Mistakes in live music are great. I don\u2019t give a shit. I like the rough edges. I\u2019ve learned to embrace that more and more as I get older. I\u2019m not interested in perfection, I\u2019m interested in passion. It\u2019s about passion, not precision. As you get older, you lean into that more and more. You learn to embrace it. I like the fuck-ups, I like the messiness of playing live, that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n

Anderson added:\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s something real about that people these days value more and more. Because the world is so sanitised and how the internet has sanitised everything, everything is policed in many ways. Live music breaks free of those constraints, it breaks free of that sense of suppression. It lets go, and that\u2019s why people love it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check back at NME soon for more of our interview with Anderson explaining what went into \u2018Antidepressants\u2019.\u00a0\u201cLots of the 21st Century is creeping into this album,\u201d he told us, \u201cin a way that it hasn\u2019t on previous albums\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of 2022 album \u2018Autofiction\u2019<\/a>, Anderson teased that the band\u2019s next album would be \u201cmuch more experimental<\/a>\u201d adding that: \u201cI\u2019d love to think that our most daring work is ahead of us\u201d.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s self-declared \u201cpost-punk album\u201d \u2018Antidepressants\u2019 will be released on September 5, around the time of a takeover of London\u2019s Southbank Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Suede now added two more nights to the residency:\u00a0an immersive performance of \u2018Antidepressants\u2019 full, live and in the round from a new stage within the Southbank Centre\u2019s Clore Ballroom on August 26, and a screening of\u00a0up-close-and-personal 2018 documentary The Insatiable Ones featuring a Q&A with Miranda Sawyer and director Mike Christie on September 12.<\/p>\n

Visit here<\/a> for full details on Suede\u2019s Southbank Takeover.<\/p>\n