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On Tour: Glenn Tilbrook
Singer, Songwriter, founding member, Squeeze
Friday, Aug. 3, 2001; Noon EDT
One of the founding members of Squeeze, one of England's best-known pop bands of the past quarter-century, Glenn Tilbrook co-wrote, sang and played on a string of hits starting with "Take Me I'm Yours" in 1978. Led by Tilbrook and longtime collaborator Chris Difford, the band produced 13 albums featuring sing-along-to-the-radio tunes like "Tempted" and "Black Coffee In Bed."
Now on tour supporting a solo album, "The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook," Tilbrook played to an enthusiastic house Thursday night at Iota in Arlington, Va. He plays tonight at Fletchers in Baltimore, Md., and continues on to Philadelphia and New York next week. He was online to talk about his new album, his tour and life both with and after Squeeze on Friday, Aug. 3.
The transcript follows.
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20008:
Hi Glen,
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us -- any truth to the rumour that you might be touring with a "supergroup" consisting of yourself, Black Francis, Lloyd Cole and Tim Finn -- what format would it take -- new songs or a sample of everyones songs?
Thanks!
Glenn Tilbrook: At the moment it's a rumor, but we're all talking about it. We're enthused about the idea. I've met up with Frank Black already, and I'm meeting up with Lloyd Cole. I'll be in Australia and New Zealand later this month and in September.
And maybe, if we all get along and like the idea, we may do it.
Back in the cubicle in Washington, D.C.:
Glenn,
Just wanted to say thanks so much for the AWESOME show at Iota last night! Also wanted to know how you enjoyed recording with Mark Knopfler for his last solo disc (which I think is one of the best discs of 2000). Is it odd to go from recording with a group to a smaller, one on one session? Thanks again!
P.S. Loved the "Sunday Breakfast Treat" video concept! Any chance of seeing it filmed?
Glenn Tilbrook: It was lovely working with Mark Knopfler -- Dire Straits and Squeeze started out in exactly the same area of London, so we played of the same pubs. So when Mark called to ask, it was really nice to see him. The songs that they had were fantastic -- really, really good songs. It was top notch.
It's not hard to go to the smaller session. When I record, I still think in terms of a band. I love working with a band -- I've got a great band and I enjoy working with them and I want to bring them over here. First, I'm going to buy a camper van and tour around the States in it for about a year. I love the whole idea -- I'm a big fan of camping, and love the idea of having your home with you.
I've got some ideas on the "Sunday Breakfast Treat" video concept I think it could be quite good. I've been thinking of all kinds of ways to introduce myself to people, and I think combining cooking and singing would be quite good. Don't know about the soft-porn video at the end, though.
Washington, D.C.:
Do you and Chris Difford still collaborate?
Glenn Tilbrook: Chris and I wrote a song about four months ago, and it was nice to work with him again, after a gap of about three years. The door's not closed, though -- nor is it very open.
Baltimore, Md.:
The members of Squeeze always seemed to get along pretty well, and even with the changing members of the band, there seemed to be very little infighting or ugly periods. Squeeze wouldn't be a good contender for VH-1's "Behind the Music," would it?
Glenn Tilbrook: We were talking to some people -- the producer of that show, I had a meeting with him Los Angeles and we were talking about doing it. There's a few things they could dig up -- a few bits of tragedy along the way.
Washington, D.C.:
I saw Ringo Starr this morning on the "Today" show, and no matter what he does solo, he always gets a ton of questions about the Beatles. Do you find yourself in the same situation with Squeeze? When you've been part of a successful band for so long, is it hard to get people to focus on what you're doing now?
Glenn Tilbrook: I think that people will always ask about Squeeze, and I'm still interested in it because I'm proud of what we've done over the period of time. It's not as though I'm a household name, so Squeeze is a way into that. I don't mind at all.
Capitol Hill:
You worked a lot with Elvis Costello early in your career. Did you have a good relationship? Do you still talk with him?
Glenn Tilbrook: Actually, yeah. It was a working relationship, but it was very good. Coincidentally, the last tour I did, we ended up in Florida, as did Elvis's tour. We took the same plane back, and I asked him to collaborate with me, and he said yes. I didn't do anything with him for this record, but am hoping to for the next.
Arlington, Va.:
You've been writing songs with Aimee Mann and Ron Sexsmith. How did those collaborations come about?
Glenn Tilbrook: With Aimee, she did a tour with us in 1994, which was lovely, because neither of us was promoting anything specifically. She basically joined the band and we were playing her songs as well as our own. So we kept in contact since then, and it's fantastic. It's lovely to see her come out winning with the "Magnolia" soundtrack and her own album.
With Ron, we toured with him in '96 -- same sort of thing. So when it came time to work on this album, I picked people to write with whose songwriting I really love.
Arlington, Va.:
How'd you end up interviewing Randy Newman?
Glenn Tilbrook: Because I was asked to do a show for BBC Radio 2, which involved me doing that. It was a special on Randy Newman. It really was one of the more excruciating hours of my life, because it was a complete panic attack out of nowhere. I think nerves are a good thing, because they prepare you for what's out there. But I really wasn't nervous, so I had no idea that I was going to be.
Washington, D.C.:
I'm a big fan, and I've read so many comparisions between you and Chris Difford and John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Do the two of you find that comparison more daunting or flattering?
Glenn Tilbrook: Actually, the truth is I stopped thinking about it a long time ago. At first, it was both daunting and flattering. But actually it doesn't really mean anything to me now.
Arlington, Va.:
Glenn:
Your performance last night at Iota was a remarkable one-man show. You're an extraordinary musician, so let me ask you this: what prompted you to drag all of us deliriously happy fans out into the parking lot and sing to us? It was a great spontaneous move and even cooler because you had all of us singing "Pulling Mussels from a Shell" -- was it the full moon?
Glenn Tilbrook: No, I just like doing something that you wouldn't normally do. I don't know too many people that do that. I like changing the environment, because it forces people to think about things in a different way. I like to change the scene, or sometimes I've run into the crowd or something like that.
Washington, D.C.:
Has your process of songwriting changed over the past 25 years? Do collaborate with other musicians differently than you do with Chris Difford?
Glenn Tilbrook: Yes and no. With Chris, because he was always the lyricist, he would always give me lyrics, which I would work to. I've found when I worked with Ron and Aimee, that worked out more or less the same way -- they were the lyricists on those songs. However, there are two other writers with whom I've collaborated on the album -- Chris Braide and Kim Stockwood -- we did everything together. Came up with words and music together. Initially, when I started writing this record I was going to write by myself. And the stuff I started writing at first was not good. So I started collaborating, and I found that I relaxed a bit and found that I could write better lyrics that I was happy with. Now I've started writing my next album, and I'm much more comfortable with the lyrics, though there are still some collaborations.
Now I approach it in one of two different ways. Either it all comes together or I write the lyrics first. Something to work with. Comes from that sort of historical collaboration with Chris.
New York, N.Y.:
What prompted your move to do a solo album after so many years with Squeeze?
Glenn Tilbrook: Chris didn't want to tour any more, and that sort of really meant the end of Squeeze to me.
Washington D.C.:
Glen,
Thanks a ton for the show last night. It genuinely special. I haven't seen that many happy fans in a parking lot since ... ever. Singing "Goodbye-Girl" on a loading dock was a perfectly inspired idea, and all the more so for having been inspired on the spot, rather than planned and programmed into some software.
Can I ask you some Squeeze trivia? What is the meaning of Vicky Verky? How about Argy Bargy?
Glenn Tilbrook: Argy Bargy is an English slang term for jostling and pushing and shoving, but in a friendly way.
Vicky Verky is a story -- can't really tell that one; it's just too long.
Alexandria, Va.:
Compare touring solo with touring with Squeeze. Do you like playing acoustic?
Glenn Tilbrook: I love playing acoustic. I would never stop doing that now. I liked touring with Squeeze when Squeeze was a happy band. It wasn't always happy, and you're only as happy as your least happy member.
However, I would love to tour with my band, because they're really great.
Baltimore, Md.:
I've read that Chris Difford draws on a lot of true stories -- autobiographical and otherwise -- for the lyrics in your songs. Have your personal stories ended up in Squeeze songs? For your solo work, do you use your own stories or make them up? Have you ever decided that some were just off limits?
Glenn Tilbrook: Yeah, certainly, I expect in Squeeze lyrics there are bits of me, but I'm not telling you what they are.
In my own lyrics, on the less personal side, "Interviewing Randy Newman" and "This is Where You Ain't," which is about my children living in Australia when I live in England. Which is hard when I can't see them.
Silver Spring, Md.:
Glenn: Would you talk a little about how you got started in songwriting? At some point in your past you must have had the revelation "Hey, I can write songs"; when did that occur and how? Also, who influenced you in the beginning?
Glenn Tilbrook: When I started, in England, there were songbooks of hits or songs they thought were going to be hits. And I would learn them, and the songs I didn't know I would make up a tune for. And my influences were, as I grew up -- in the '60s I listened to a lot of pop radio, and I enjoyed a lot of that pop music, and that influence has really stayed with me.
washingtonpost.com:
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