Bobby Gillespie: “This country is poisoned by class”

I had no idea I was going to make a record again. Making music had, for me, started to become too familiar, too predictable. Primal Scream would release an album, tour it for a year or two, and then I would be back in the studio with Andrew Innes beginning to write new songs, and starting the whole process again.

There were a couple of times that we probably started that process too soon after the album before. I think we probably needed a break. I started to lose belief and was thinking that there had to be another way of doing this.

At the beginning of 2020, just before COVID struck, I began to think about exactly what I did and didn’t want to do. I did not want to make another Primal Scream record. We’d trapped ourselves in a corner and needed to get out. Instead, I decided to write my book, Tenement Kid. I wanted to be on my own. I was ready for a challenge.

Writing the book gave me a lot of confidence as a writer, as did my work on Utopian Ashes, the duets album with Jehnny Beth, for which I wrote about 90% of the lyrics. I wrote most of the music on acoustic guitar at home, which was the first time since the early days that I’d done that. I’d grown so used to the electronic soundscapes that Andrew would make and I would craft a song around. By the time I had finished publicising Utopian Ashes, I was straight into doing the same for the book.

I’d written a lot of songs, all with complete lyrics, chords, and melodies, and as David began sending through more rhythm tracks, they just seemed to fit my songs perfectly. It was uncanny. Though the lyrics had all been written at various times over a two or three-year period, they each came to me in one flow of inspiration. If I get an idea, it just comes flying out. I keep going, and before I know it I’ve got a song.

David brought with him a new spin on the process, and that was inspiring for me. It was like a fresh beginning, which every new album should be, and I was very excited. In the past with Primal Scream, we would have the music first, then I would write a melody, then lyrics that fitted the melody and the mood of the music. I think that might have been putting the cart before the horse. It's much better to have the lyrics first. You've already got your story, and it’s a much more satisfying process.

I would go to David’s house in Belfast and sing my lyrics onto his rhythm tracks - bass, drums and percussion were recorded in LA - and then Andrew would go separately and add guitars and keyboards. You’d feel the tracks building up, and it all came together really quickly. We had ourselves an album.

If there was an overall theme to Come Ahead it might be one of conflict, whether inner or outer. There is also a thread of compassion running through the album. The title is a Glaswegian term. If someone threatens to fight you, you say, ‘Come ahead!’ It means, ‘Let’s fucking have it.’ It’s redolent of the indomitable spirit of the Glaswegian, and the album itself shares that same aggressive attitude and confidence. They have a word for this up there, gallus. Come Ahead’s quite a cheeky title too.

The album cover is a photo of my dad, taken in Dunoon on a works outing in 1960. He was courting my mother then. He looks sharp as fuck in his three-button suit; half-mod, half-Teddy boy. I love the attitude of it. It’s very rock ’n’ roll, very working class. My dad was a socialist, very left-wing, and fought all his life for social justice. Maybe some of the themes on Come Ahead reflect his beliefs and my upbringing.

Themes of class run through this record. This country is poisoned by class, which I find myself in the strange position of being both inside and outside of. That’s something that I wrestle with and think about. They say that none of us are free unless all of us are free. We have to make a better world. I don’t know how, but I would like to see everybody have a good standard of living, feel safe, have a roof over their head, a well paid job, and dignity. That’s what I would like to see: no exploitation.

You’ve got to have hope. If you don’t have hope, you become too cynical, and I don’t really see how that’s helpful to anybody, least of all yourself. So, there is a message of hope in the record, but it’s tempered with an acceptance of the worst side of human nature.

Lyrically, the record is quite heavy in places, but there’s also a sense of fun. We had a blast making it. You can hear the energy in the tracks. You should always remind yourself that rock ’n’ roll is really meant to be fun. Part of our aesthetic is melding lyrics about heavy subjects to joyous music. It creates a duality that works powerfully, to my mind.

I’ve always taken great inspiration from music, especially in times when I’ve been low in my life. Music has lifted me and given me strength and encouragement to keep going, and I hope that this record does the same for other people.

Come Ahead is out now.

Primal Scream are touring the UK next year, tickets are now on sale. 

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