Here\u2019s the thing about Squeeze.<\/p>\n
The combination of Chris Difford\u2019s piquant, often humorous lyrics about everyday British life, combined with Glenn Tilbook\u2019s sunny and adventurous melodies, made Squeeze one of the most unique pop bands to come out of the mid \u201870s U.K.<\/p>\n
Less spiky than some of its contemporaries, Squeeze existed in its own universe. \u201cUp the Junction,\u201d \u201cCool For Cats,\u201d \u201cGoodbye Girl,\u201d \u201cAnother Nail In My Heart,\u201d \u201cPulling Mussels (From the Shell)\u201d \u201cIf I Didn\u2019t Love You\u201d and a handful of others still sound as fresh and fun as they did in the day.<\/p>\n
In America, Squeeze scored exactly one minor hit (1981\u2019s \u201cTempted\u201d) and was relegated, by the end of the 1980s, to cult status. It\u2019s a pretty big cult, too.<\/p>\n
After more than a few starts and stops, some of them nearly fatal, the band still exists and continues making records and touring.<\/p>\n
Tilbrook, the band\u2019s lead singer (although that\u2019s not him on \u201cTempted\u201d \u2013 long story there), maintains a separate career as a solo artist, as does Difford. They have always been the heart and soul of Squeeze, which makes it wholly understandable that after five decades, they\u2019re the only original members remaining. Even after a couple of bad breakups.<\/p>\n
Squeeze headlines at the BayCare Sound Wednesday, Aug. 19.<\/p>\n
In this interview, conducted over Zoom, Tilbrook talked about the band\u2019s fortunes (and misfortunes), the status of his relationship with his longtime musical partner, and \u2013 as the conversation began \u2013 Trixies, the first Squeeze album in eight years, which consists of new recordings of songs Difford and Tilbrook wrote as teenagers. Trixies is the name a fictitious London nightclub.<\/p>\n
Said Mojo: \u201cIt might be the best work of their career.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Pete Catalyst: If I discovered a bunch of songs that I\u2019d written at 16 or 17, I wouldn\u2019t want anybody to hear them. Did you remember these songs?<\/p>\n
Glenn Tilbrook: Yes, I did remember them. They\u2019ve always been bubbling along, and we\u2019ve thought, from time to time, about recording them. But the thing is, I think that they sound of their time. And when I went into thinking of it as a possible record, that\u2019s the first time it had occurred to me.<\/p>\n
Musically, I absorb stuff very transparently. So I can tell \u2018What More Can I Say\u2019 is me listening to Stevie Wonder repeatedly, and \u2018Don\u2019t Go Out in the Dark\u2019 is sort of Wings a bit. And \u2018Trixie\u2019s Part 2\u2019 is listening to the John Lennon Some Time in New York City album.<\/p>\n
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Was it forever in the back of your mind, \u2018Chris, we\u2019ve got these great old songs \u2013 maybe we should revisit them\u2019?<\/p>\n
No. I don\u2019t think it was. We always thought they were good songs, but Chris and I could never see where it would go. How you could interrupt the flow of your songwriting, moving on, and then go back to some of the first stuff that you\u2019d written? It just felt a bit of a weird move.<\/p>\n
And I think what changed it is time and context. Then there\u2019s a sort of validity to say \u2018Hey, we did this then. We\u2019re nothing like that now, but we can listen to the songs and go \u2018Fu-in\u2019 hell, they\u2019re good!\u2019<\/p>\n
Not only that, but we can put them through our blenders now, and any imperfections we can sort of get rid of. And we can play \u2018em properly. And we can sing them properly. That\u2019s the two most important things, that we couldn\u2019t do at that point.<\/p>\n
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With that benefit of hindsight and experience, how much tweaking did you do?<\/p>\n
Little bits of tweaks. Things that spring to mind: In \u2018The Place We Call Mars,\u2019 there were four verses, and there was no middle section. It was verse\/chorus, verse\/chorus, verse\/chorus, verse\/chorus, end. [Laughing]. So we added a middle section.<\/p>\n
But I think all that is the sort of thing any producer would do anyway. And I think if we\u2019d handed those songs to a producer in 1974, he\u2019d have taken one listen to the band and said \u2018Look. I\u2019m going to get other people to play on the records; all you do is sing.\u2019 Really, honestly. Because that\u2019s the only way we could\u2019ve made it.<\/p>\n
The tapes of Squeeze playing those songs sound like what we were: We hadn\u2019t had any gigs, we had no experience, we couldn\u2019t hold down a tempo, and we all followed each other like a bunch of 5-year-olds playing a game, you know? Flittin\u2019 all over the place.<\/p>\n
So the songs were good, but that was all that was good, really. Well, no, that wasn\u2019t all that was good \u2013 we had the enthusiasm. And we didn\u2019t know, but we had the ability to write stuff like that when we met.<\/p>\n
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You\u2019d never been in a nightclub when you wrote these songs. Did you dream the whole thing up?<\/p>\n
Well, I hadn\u2019t; Chris was 19. He could\u2019ve gone. But I had a sheltered life! [Laughing]<\/p>\n
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Has the process always been the same? Does he give you lyrics and you think, \u2018OK, what can I do with this?\u2019 Or does it sometimes start with the melody?<\/p>\n
It very rarely starts with the melody. And it certainly didn\u2019t at that point.<\/p>\n
Chris had many more songs than me. And when I met him, and heard his lyrics, I couldn\u2019t even begin to aspire to being anything like as good as he was. And he had his own sense of musicality. I think my musical ability was stronger than Chris.\u2019 And my tunes were also good, but I wrote a lyric every six months or something. I\u2019ve had been on my third album by now, or something ridiculous like that.<\/p>\n
When we got together, he gave me lyrics, and I could match him with tunes. We didn\u2019t have a plan for that to happen. We tried it out, and it just kept on happening.<\/p>\n
If I think about it, what are the chances, someone living half a mile away from you, having that talent? And you being the person being able to respond to it? It\u2019s quite mind-blowing, really, because this has been our whole lives.<\/p>\n
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How do you reflect on 50 years of doing this? Are you thinking \u2018How is it we\u2019re still here?\u2019<\/p>\n
Yeah. I think more of the marvel is, to me, having experienced that career go up, and falter, and then gradually fall down, and then we split up \u2026 going back to, really, the beginning. It was like the beginning of my career, except I was in my 40s.<\/p>\n
The thing that really gave me a great realization was the fact that I wouldn\u2019t have chosen for it to end up there, but if that\u2019s where I ended up, I was happy. I like playing gigs. I like pubs. I can do it by myself.<\/p>\n
So all that stuff, all the insecurity I had about where my career was going, left at my lowest point: \u2018I\u2019m here. And it\u2019s OK.\u2019<\/p>\n
And so when we got Squeeze back together, it felt much more liberating to be able to go \u2018Well, wherever this takes us, we can make it good. And let\u2019s do what we want to do.\u2019<\/p>\n
The dispiriting thing about being A&R\u2019d when you\u2019re not being successful \u2026 and I\u2019m going to say we went through four different A&R guys\u2019 versions of what we were \u2026 some of it was good, and a lot of it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
And then, towards the end, it began to feel like we were desperate for something. And I went away from the last Squeeze record thinking \u2018Well, there\u2019s some good stuff on there, but I never want to go through that process again.\u2019 If I sell 20 records to people who like it, I\u2019d rather do that.<\/p>\n
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I guess it\u2019s liberating when you realize you don\u2019t have to chase the golden goose any more. I think that\u2019s what you\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n
It is what I\u2019m saying. In doing that, you have to settle with the fact that you\u2019re not going to be rich. You\u2019re not going to have all the things you thought you might have. Or you might have had them, but they\u2019ve gone.<\/p>\n
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You\u2019re not rich, Glenn?<\/p>\n
[Laughing] No, no, I am not. But it\u2019s all OK. We\u2019re in a good place now. We\u2019re selling more tickets than we have done for a long while. The band is the best it\u2019s ever been. I can only say, hand on my heart, I feel it in my bones that we are great, and the reaction we\u2019re getting now tells me I\u2019m right. I can listen back to us playing and think \u2018That\u2019s really good. We\u2019re really nailing it now.\u2019 In a way that I don\u2019t think we ever did.<\/p>\n
In the other Squeezes, what we had our side was energy, and we were punky, we played fast and we looked great and all that. And we had great songs as well. But the sophistication really came a bit later.<\/p>\n
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How much of this was re-building your relationship with Chris? There were some rocky patches there, we all know.<\/p>\n
As I understand it, we\u2019re something like the Everly Brothers. Or whatever it is, you know? We don\u2019t really have a relationship outside our professionalism. I love Chris, but we have been through so many things together, a lot of them not good, that our personal relationship is done. But our professional relationship is great. And we leave whatever baggage we have at the door when we play. And it\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re doing stuff that we could never have dreamed of \u00a0\u2026 in the last century, let\u2019s put it that way.<\/p>\n