Continuing the britpop reunion vibe, two members of the once-all-powerful-turned-pedestrian Suede are giving it a go again. The long silently feuding pair of Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler are back together and recording under the new name, The Tears. Backed by two new members, Mako Sakamoto on drums and Nathan Fisher on bass, The Tears plan to play their first live shows before the end of the year. They surprisingly say the sessions have been as exciting as when they recorded the first Suede album. [What else are they supposed to say? "We're has-beens, we need the cash. He's still a prick"] Nonetheless, we’re glad to have them back. The name of the band is a reference to a Philip Larkin poem, Femmes Damnées, which ends “The only sound heard is the sound of tears”. The band is currently mixing the final songs for the as-yet-untitled debut album, which is due for release in the spring reports NME.
After not speaking with each other for a decade, Anderson and Butler’s acrimonious split ended with Anderson picking up the phone at the end of last year in an attempt to regain his inspiration after dissolving Suede. “It seemed like the time was right. I didn’t finish with Suede in order to give Bernard a call. It had to happen naturally, the band had to come to its natural termination. I felt that I’d written my best songs with Bernard.”
Bernard added: “There’s only one purpose of doing (the new album), and that’s to make a great record. There’s no social ambitions, we don’t go bowling together!” Brett continued the quintessential “band reunion” scripted credo: “The first thing we said when we got together was that we won’t release a note of music unless the album’s spectacular. That’s the most important thing about it. We could have written for three years and if the songs hadn’t been any good we wouldn’t have bothered getting to this stage with it. We don’t want that to be an issue so it has to be spectacular.”
Followed by, “let’s make some money! The taxman is after me!”
