Baxter Dury

Baxter Dury had a good 12 months, going from niche concern to indie crossover with the darkly lyrical ‘Miami’. Now, with a busy year of touring behind him, he’s released a collaborative record with Étienne De Crécy and Delilah Holliday. Which is, on paper why we’re talking. In reality, when we get through to Baxter, 15 minutes later than planned on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, we talk about nearly everything else. Touching on the ‘fame shift’, orchestras and why he and his band will always be “just the same basic bunch of cunts”...

Q: We’ve just been sent B.E.D - which we’ve been listening to a lot. Is this the next Baxter album, or an interim thing?

A: It’s just a little interim thing. I didn’t think it would even get released, and it did. Kind of by accident. Well, it wasn’t by accident. I obviously made some music. Someone liked it and put it out. And it’s gained a little bit of momentum in a nice way. It’s not meant to do too much, you know?

Q: How did that whole project come about?

A: I was just milling about Paris, as we all do, after making my last album. I just happened to be there a bit and I knew the guy Etienne, and he had a studio, and we just sort of grew from there really.

Q: So then you took it into Heavenly and they went for it?

A: They were just vibing about it. They vibe about unusual things. That’s what’s nice about them. That’s what makes them really good. They don’t think about much, they just react and are really positive. That’s what I like about them.

Q: It must be hard now, given the reaction. Trying to figure out what to do next.

A: Yeah, that’s always hard. To know what’s massive, or not massive, or what the fuck. You just go and make music and try and get a good reaction from it yourself. I’m quite free to do what I want I suppose. I try not to think about what other people might think of something. What’s good about you is when you’re at your freest.

Q: We read in an article that you’d said to the label, that they could keep the publishing for ‘Miami’ if you could have strings on it?

A: Well I wanted the strings yeah. Who did I say keep the publishing to, I want it back if i did? Well, I probably maxed out the budget more than they were really expecting. I kind of weaved, ducked and dived you know, and managed to get those strings, and the guy was really clever that came and helped. It was definitely an ambitious stroke I pulled, and it made it a better record. More interesting. It could be just be a bloke talking. A lot of the time that’s what it boils down to. My act is a bloke talking and that’s it, and the rest is a lot of devices built around the bloke talking to make it feel more impressive.

Q: We cover a lot of new bands, and I’d say, at least in that little corner, the music scene feels healthier than it has been for a long while. Goat Girl, Shame, Idles for example. What do you think of that lot?

A: I like some of them. I like some of them. Some of them are mates of mine. I usually like people that like me first. Goat Girl, I like them. They’re doing good things. I’m at an age difference so I’m not totally meant to be stuck in that world. I can allow myself to be out of that. I’m not into knocking bands, you know what I mean. I don’t think there’s anything amazing. I shouldn’t say that but I don’t know. The Idles thing, I’ve never seen Idles play but they’re always very nice to me..

Words by Rob Knaggs | Illustration by Jolanda Jokinen