Mark E Smith

Name
Mark E Smith

Where are you from?
Salford, Lower Broughton, Manchester.

Describe your style in three words
I create style.

What inspires your lyrics?
I was an addictive reader as a teenager and wanted to put intelligence into music. Create simple, brutal music and combine it all in The Fall. I wanted to show lyrics could be more than just songs about ‘love’. Used to read a lot of cheap horror books and started writing songs - trying to look objectively at things. Objective - so that it isn’t me talking - writing freeform and automatic.

Sometimes with old tracks, I am reading out what I’ve written, and I don’t understand half of it - but it sounds good. I listen to people and their conversations, but I also misinterpret things - a bit of a Smith family trait that. But I try to put humour in there too. Not everyone gets the jokes. The Russian fans get the jokes actually - they get them.

I use different methods to write - at the moment I am getting up at 6 am and writing until 9 am. Writing notes down straight from sleep, what’s in your dreams - just when it is clear in your head. The meaning is getting clearer now. An old way of writing I am coming back to.

How important is identity? 
People got me wrong about this when I was a teenager, well not wrong; I never wanted an identity - that’s why it’s good being a Smith. You can disappear in the crowd. You can be an invisible watcher. But I can also make people cross the road - which is a good skill to have.

I’m actually a bit of a Fall fan - in the sense that when everyone always thinks everything is really down and things are coming to an end - something always comes up. Always does.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Some General, some nutty f**king General. From a different place and time... Napoleon Bonaparte. What was that guy about? What was he trying to prove? Like the new guard and old guard thing. And how did he get all them Frenchmen to fight for him, when he was from Corsica? He was a bit of a bottler though. I mean why go into Russia - to then run back out again?

Name a band you think are criminally underrated?
I like to think of a world where it is a bit of an alternate reality. Like the Beatles didn’t happen and The Kinks were the biggest band, and The Move were the second. Parallel universe - where it all happened in a different way.

The Troggs - they were great, some of those records were brilliant - in the seventies, there was f**k all around to buy except for Ramones records. So those old Troggs records were worth finding. Saw them in '77 at the Electric in London supporting Billy Idol... was sad to see them playing that gig.

But saw them play a great Gig at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in the 90’s. We were in town to play a gig and were looking around at what was on and saw them listed in a pamphlet. Went down and they were playing a Bingo hall - full of old ladies with all the chairs out. Wet, Wet, Wet had just covered them so they had a bit of money and Reg Presley had this big gold watch on. They were ace, what a f**king brilliant gig that was.

If you could play on the bill with any two bands or artists from history?
The Seeds, they were good - had one chord and played it all the way through. I liked the LA Garage scene.

There was a group that started out with us from Preston called the Worst, punk band with two mechanics and they were great, brilliant but were always so filthy from working on cars. Did 10-minute covers of Elvis - were f**kin brilliant - you’ll never see the like of them again.

Is there a writer or artist that had a big influence on you?
Early English Gothic novels - I read a lot of those when I was younger - like Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Another influence was Albert Camus - he wrote The Outsider, which is a good book - he was French Algerian. Louis-Ferdinand Celine, another French writer, he wrote Journey to the End of the Night.

Do you consider yourself an outsider?
I just try to be objective, but people try to change that in me. I hate people who deliberately try to be outsiders or try to be different. I always wanted The Fall to be quite straight in a way. We had all the sex and drugs in the early stages of The Fall and decided to reject it. The Fall is a kind of anti group, really.

Another you? Any other career that would have appealed?
Dunno - I was a very accomplished container clerk - they are very in demand nowadays. Used to work with my Dad as a plumber’s mate over the Summers. Best job I ever had was as a dustbin man - f**king great. Had that job for six weeks and then me Dad stopped me doing it. I like physical, manual labour and in those days they paid an enormous amount - the bin men. Get up and go to the depot, big breakfast, it was when you had to lift all the metal bins in those days - onto your back and into the cart. Start at 6 am - finish at 11 am and into pub chatting and listening to music till 3 pm. It was paradise.

One book every teenager should read?
Pop. 1280, by Jim Thompson. His books are really mad. Or, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by TE Lawrence. 

What was the first song you played on repeat?
Paranoid - Black Sabbath. My sister bought it for me.

One record you would keep forever?
Pebbles Vol. 7 - it's been under the floorboards, been covered in food, I’ve thrown it at people, I’ve been robbed, but it keeps turning up. And it still sounds great, and I’ve still got it. Plays great.

A song you wish you had written?
Folsom Prison Blues, by Johnny Cash. It’s the only song I know lyric by lyric, off by heart. Know it better than some of my own songs. Love it.

A song that defines the teenage you?
I Heard Her Call My Name - The Velvet Underground.

A song people wouldn’t expect you to like?
Summer Breeze - The Isley Brothers.
Telstar - The Tornados.

Any new music you are listening to now?
Bo Ningen - Soko.
Goat Girl - Country Sleaze.
Rihanna - Rude Boy.