#johnny borrell

Razorlight's Johnny Borrell recalls night with Emma Watson

Bonus: Johnny wasn’t the only one who had beef with The Kooks. Everyone just seemed to. All the indie bands. They had a thing, almost one-sided, with Arctic Monkeys as well. 00s indie was a strange time.

Taken from the old NME (plus its comment section from back in the day)…

I have been toying with the idea of reaching out to Razorlight management. They just put out an album, Planet Nothing on Friday. I have been thinking about this for a whole MONTH. In defence of my delusions who else is clamouring to interview them in Canada? This continent knows two songs (America and In The Morning, maybe Golden Touch at a stretch). Besides their management has liked my posts about them twice. So feed my delusions. I’ll try and reach out even though the album is now out. Worst case I won’t hear back, which is normal.

If they did say yes though, imagine that. It would make them one of the highest profile guests I’ve had, but that’s also good reason to be nervous. What the fuck do I know about touring the world, being in showbiz, doing telly, festivals, you know what I mean? You have to know about something yourself to ask questions about it.

And there’s say that Johnny is apparently a notoriously hard interviewee, though I’ve only ever heard him be delightful and insightful in interviews. Man doesn’t have a phone though, he’s like old-school old-school. He doesn’t trust social media which is valid and based. But I also find it’s easier for such people to fall out of touch. Like. What do I do if this guy shows up completely uncomfortable with the concept and practice of using Zoom? They aren’t touring Canada, any interviews will most likely be remote. This has literally happened before, where an interviewer in 2020 was like ?? Buddy you’re taken aback seeing yourself on the screen on Zoom, again, valid but like. Have you never used FaceTime or any such thing before? You’re in your forties. And he’s just like nope, never had an iPhone, don’t have one now, it’s borrowed for the interview, don’t trust it.

Man I want to talk about music? Let’s not get stuck here. He is completely right about how social media is killing creativity though, it doesn’t give you a chance to be bored and think, dream. Still, it does mean that we’d start things off on quite different pages, and then I’d also be working to pull him onto the same page, or meet him somewhere halfway. Whatever.

He was even asked about his supposedly difficult and standoffish persona, and he said he’s never had a tough time talking to music interviewers, you know music journalists from radio, music magazines, whatever; anyone who actually wanted to talk about the music itself, but because Razorlight got big quite fast and found themselves miserably thrown onto like art, culture lifestyle and celebrity programmes and magazines, and the interviewers would ask them inane questions, and Johnny just doesn’t seem like the kind of person that had the patience for that rubbish. He apparently groaned and moaned about having to go to the BRIT Awards because he had no interest in the façade of importance the music industry builds around itself, but the management had said yes before he ever had a chance to decline the invites and didn’t want to look like a dickhead pulling out at the last minute. That’s pure artist, and always a tricky interview— but one that could go really really well!

Here’s one interview Johnny gets criticised for, from I think 2007? Johnny gets asked questions regarding press about him, and he gets quite uncomfortable and says he’d rather not do it at all. All I see here is someone setting down firm boundaries over something he isn’t comfortable with, which should’ve been applauded! Instead almost universally the mood in the studio (and in the 16 year old comment section) is sour, there are people calling him a diva for politely saying he’s uncomfortable with and doesn’t want to dignify lies about himself written in the press— some of which the interviewers say they’ve made up for a laugh. Johnny says he’d rather they moved on, and they’re like 😐 we don’t have any more questions, we have a minute to fill.

Like that’s not Johnny Borrell’s job? Good on him for standing up for himself, the interviewers should’ve had backup questions. It’s so awkward, not because a musician set down boundaries but because the interviewers then made it awkward! Goodness, if that happened to me I think a TV Interviewer would never see me again. This is the kind of shit that made Godspeed stop doing interviews entirely.

In contrast, here’s an interview Johnny did with Face Culture in 2018 where he’s perfectly forthcoming and extremely pleasant (it’s more recent as well, which could be a confounding factor). He even said at the end when he’s called away for soundcheck, that’s a shame, I could’ve talked longer, I really enjoyed that, thanks for the intelligent questions.

I think he gets unfairly maligned in the press, and it’s a bad cycle that keeps spinning faster— one bad interview and suddenly journalists (especially non-music ones) are approaching you with that predator-out-on-the-prowl attitude and you’re cooked then because they can write what they please. They can make things awkward where there was no right to be awkwardness. Things like that.