Richard Ashcroft (English)

Music is power: Richard Ashcroft!

Students.ch: What would the world look like if you really had the keys to the world?

Richard Ashcroft: (laughs out loud) Well the thing is that it wouldn`t be a perfect world because we definitely wouldn`t understand what perfection, disappointment or excitement will be about. On Keys to the world on the album the narrator is talking to somebody who's been through a rough time and who is saying: “I have the keys to the world! I`ve got everything!” But when we get there, what are we going to do? Because the world is corrupt and a suicidal place. There are people who are prepared to be suicidal on the name of religion. The earth is suicidal itself. What you have to find is your redemption. And that`s why music is power. It`s about listening to it, performing, thinking about it. There is no key, no specific key, there is just finding your individual way through life.

Are you considering yourself as a religious person?

I love Jesus Christ, but what has happened in his name is a different matter. People have hijacked Jesus Christ. I don't follow any king of religious doctrine, but I do admire certain religious figures like Franz of Assisi. I've got total love for those kind of people. I'm looking for what people find in a religious moment. I think I find it through music. Music is a key to a place where pain can be dealt with, a new place of ecstasy. People get a religious ecstasy.

So, you`ve been sticking around for a long time now.

Yeah, it has been a while. But not as long as Neil Young or Bob Dylan. Dylan released one of the best albums of the year. It gives me hope that I`ve not even started.

You really think so?

Yeah, in a way. I don`t think that I`ve truly written the best songs yet.

You don`t consider the ones on Urban Hymns as the best ones?

These are my songs. I wrote them. If you look at Urban Hymns it says: Written by Richard Ashcroft. It doesn`t say The Verve, it says me. They are great songs, it`s not about toping them, it`s about moving in different directions and using different colours. I never say that every album gets better, it`s all about the same thing. I think that’s the problem: everybody wants a comeback, everyone wants something to be. When I die, the songs are all together and they will be as one…

...and the record company will make a Greatest Hits Album.

(laughs) Exactly. Or a box set...

You are said to be a shy and introverted person. How does it fit together with being a rockstar?

I don`t know what rockstar means. Rockstar is something that was created in the 70ies. I don`t know what it all means. I just write songs, I`m just performing them live, I travel, I take my sons to school, I lose my mind sometimes, I get depressed, I get excited. Sometimes I'm happy. There is no difference between me and anyone else.

Is it right to say that the Songs on Urban Hymns are drugged?

Drugged? - Not really. I think on Northern Soul, the second album yes. But not on Urban Hymns. The songwriting approach was the same, the musicians were different. The producer is still the same.

What has been your high point as a musician so far?

Just making the songs to communicate to people, to touch people, to have the balls to sing certain lines. It`s easy to be a little band or be a little songwriter who has ten songs and 50 fans. Taking it out to the world stages is a different matter. To do that is great. It is something that I believed in. No one ever styled me, no one ever dressed me, no one ever told me what to say, no one ever told me what to sing. That`s the biggest thing: keeping true to myself.

You said 2006 could be a great year when we survive the bird flu.

All the birds haven`t arrived yet. Musically it has been a superb year, just moving forward. With this album I've taken a big step forward. My group of fans around the world has grown, which is brilliant, which is exciting for the next record. I think history will say, how bizarre it is, a guy wrote all these songs. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the songs of Urban Hymns were my first solo record. I`m excited about next year as well, because that is when the new record comes out.

So, in this case you would say you’re a lucky man nowadays?

Oh yeah man. Just to still be here, being alive, talking to you, playing the gig far away from home, people have bought some tickets -it`s amazing. I`ve got a family, I`ve got a wife, I`ve got a career. Of course I`m a lucky man. Cigarette anyone? Beer?

Thanks a lot Richard.

It was a pleasure.

Links

• www.richardashcroft.com/
• www.emimusic.ch