Adding a steady pulse to The Libertines, Gary Powell’s loyalty took him into Dirty Pretty Things.
Working with two of his generation’s most potent British guitar acts, the drummer stepped out last year with his new solo project. Emerging as a sophisticated and worldly songwriter, Gary Powell is set to launch The Invasion Of… with a new EP and some high profile appearances.
In between this, Powell is planning to launch a new label as well as work on music for London Fashion Week. Oh, and he’s just discovered a fresh talent in Glasgow who he hopes hook up with before the end of the year.
For most musicians, that’s a pretty packed schedule. Yet old ties took Gary Powell back into The Libertines, with the good ship Albion recently setting sail for an all too brief journey before docking at Reading and Leeds.
Perhaps the summer’s most talked about live performance, Gary Powell took time out of rehearsals to speak to ClashMusic.
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When did you begin writing material for The Invasion Of…?
Pretty much as soon as I finished working with Dirty Pretty Things. We were actually in the studio with the bass player and guitarist straight after our last show, jamming out a few ideas. I started writing from there. The first track came from the bass player, then I finished writing the rest of the track. From then onwards it’s been a constant flow of writing.
Did you always write songs?
Yeah I have always written songs, and I have always contributed to the writing. Especially on The Libertines first album, I contributed a lot to the arrangement of the overall songs. Albeit, Pete and Carl were the master craftsmen coming up with the essential, original ideas of the songs but when it came down to the overall arrangement and putting it all together that’s kind of where I stepped in. I had a hand in arranging that. That doesn’t take anything away from the initial input from Carl and Pete, which was always a work of genius anyway. I guess I helped steer it in the right direction.
Who is it that you look to as an inspiration?
I don’t! What I do, is that there are so many different genres of music that I take stuff from everywhere all of the time. I’m not looking at any particular source at one given time, with regards to writing. I’m forever singing songs in my head and I’ll wake up at three or four o’clock in the morning with a song i my head. Then I’ll sing it into my phone and when I get up I’ll write it out. Generally, I write it down otherwise I’ll forget it.
How important was it to you to use close friends in The Invasion Of…?
It’s more about the personalities of everyone involved rather than anything else. Especially when you’re making music it’s an emotional endeavour. People have to give a lot up. So it needs to be someone I get on well with, someone I knew on a very personal level. Rather than someone who I deem to be a great musician. Luckily for me I’m in the position where the people I know are great musicians, and I can get drunk with them and it’ll be all well and good in the hood.
How does the music intersect with the lyrics?
Surprisingly enough right now we’ve been working separately, which has just been great. I mean I write the songs but I don’t give them everything. I give them a skeleton, and then those guys pick a way of playing to give it their own personality. If it doesn’t have that personal touch then you just get music by numbers, something manufactured. This way you get to hear everyone’s personalities. Robin (Coombes) should be allowed to say the same things. Albeit, sometimes he’s written something which I’ve not felt was right but generally he’s had compete freedom. Generally, he’s responded. For me, it’s about improving everyone’s musicality as well so the more I can do to get them thinking about their own personal musical abilities is great – so the tracks are getting harder and harder.
You’re playing Reading and Leeds in your own right.
I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to both performances, on different levels altogether. I’m looking forward to The Invasion Of… as this is my project, the inspiration came from myself. Musically it’s somewhat different to pretty much everything that’s out there right now. So I’m looking forward to getting some feedback from that. Whether they like it or not, it’s all in the eye of the beholder I guess. Then I’m looking forward to The Libertines as I reckon it’s going to be a good old hoedown.
Is there an element of unfinished business for The Libertines?
Yes and no. I think from the two albums we did we got to exactly where we should be. Basically, I don’t think we should have taken it any further than that – there’s a reason why we stopped after two albums. Any more than that would have either killed us or or we would have passed our sell by date. Timing means everything. The time we made our music led to everyone doing our own thing – Dirty Pretty Things, Babyshambles, Yeti – it just made us better people. Being around each other is a much more open sincere relationship right now, and we’re obviously better musicians now. Playing with each other is a much more pleasant experience, and we hang out with each other more than we did before.
When the call came to reform the band, what was your first thought?
My first thought was: is everyone else involved? If it wasn’t everyone then I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t have done it without John, Pete or Carl – it had to be all four of us. That was my first thought, to find out if we were all doing it, because The Libertines isn’t the Libertines without all four of us doing it. Me, Carl and John continued under the guise of The Libertines but if we didn’t do that then for the majority of those shows then we would have got sued.
We had an obligation to play those shows. Plus there’s the fact that it was our bread and butter at that time – we needed money to pay our rent. I had no choice to do those shows just to keep on living. The nature of doing those shows gave Pete money as well, as he didn’t have any way to support himself either. But was it The Libertines? Not really, no. It was a pretend show, albeit a damn good pretend show. All for one and one for all.
Was it easy to slip back into the chemistry of the old days?
Surprisingly easy. Surprisingly easy. The first time that we got together it felt like we hadn’t seen each other for about a week or so. We just slotted back in there. There were no hugs, no “Oh my God it’s great to see you!” We just had a few drinks. We continued from there. The first performance at the Forum, the dressing room was completely silent. John was playing guitar, Pete and Carl were just wandering around talking absolute madness for a change. It literally felt that we had just gone back on tour after a week’s hiatus.
Is this the final word on The Libertines?
Just as beforehand, the status quo will not change. Who knows? There was a famous statement back at the beginning of The Libertines that we could end at any given moment. And we did end, but we always knew in the back of our minds that the Albion would set sail again at some stage – and it has. So who knows what for the future? I’d like to do more stuff, purely because I’ve enjoyed my time with the guys.
Even if we don’t do anything I’d like to see Pete, Carl and John go on to bigger and better things because it makes me happy to see my friends get success through doing what they’re good at. Regardless of the press, Pete is still a musical genius when he puts his mind to it. Same with Carl as well. The two work well together, and they work just as well apart. I want to see everyone do well – four ships are better than one!
The Invasion Of… are due to release their new EP ‘373’ on October 11th!
