While their contemporaries were launching reunion shows, up until two years ago Supergrass were still producing new material and touring up and down the country.
That was until April 2010, when midway through making their projected seventh album, Release The Drones, the Oxford four-piece announced they were splitting due to musical differences.
Now frontman Gaz Coombes is back, with his debut solo album Here Come The Bombs, containingwhat he describes as “some of the best stuff I have ever written”.
“It just wasn’t fun,” says Coombes about the break-up of his band of 17 years, while holidaying with his family in Normandy. “We weren’t enjoying the studio time, I think partly because we were on different paths – we all wanted different things out of the record.
“We couldn’t seem to gel on the final decisions, which was unusual for us.
Over the years we had always been collaborative and pretty strong and focused. This time around it wasn’t working like that.
“We could have carried on and got through it, but the quality of the songs wasn’t good enough – we didn’t want to release anything that was substandard. I wanted to get out before we killed each other.”
Coombes returned to his home studio in Oxford and carried on pretty much as normal.
“I was having ideas, whether it was a beat or melody or some chords,” he says.
“I put some stuff down, writing and recording, and pretty much straight away I had a new bunch of songs that I was into.”
Listening to the extracts of Here Come The Bombs that have been released so far, there is no mistaking Coombes’s characteristic vocal style and guitar lines.
But there is much more electronic experimentation, particularly when it comes to the rhythms.
“Over the years, as far as programmed beats went, there wasn’t much point because we had Danny [Goffey], who is one of the best drummers around,” says Coombes.
“On this record I was either playing live beats myself and chopping them up, or I programmed stuff. There was a lot that involved weird little boxes, and I love doing that in the studio – getting carried away with little beats, strange noises and bleeps and stuff.”
He brought in producer Sam Williams as a sounding board after he had recorded the first handful of songs. He went on to co-produce the album.
“He got it straightaway,” says Coombes.
“It felt like a natural progression to carry on together.”
Not having the band with him gave him time to truly experiment.
“I’m a great believer in getting through s*** to get something beautiful,” he says. “If you’re in the studio and working on an idea that is taking a while to come together, in a band situation quite often one of the guys would end up saying, ‘Hurry up, we’re getting really bored now, you’ve been at it for ages.’ It’s satisfying to have that freedom.
“I’ve heard some of Danny’s stuff that he’s been writing and it’s really cool because he’s been left to experiment and explore and freak out in his own way.”
Coombes’s songs got their first public airing in an intimate solo show in Oxford, which saw him backed by his iPad, electric drum boxes, Wurlitzer and acoustic guitar.
“It was good fun, but it was just an interpretation of the record,” says Coombes, who put together a four-piece band to tour live, including his younger brother Charlie on keyboards, loops and samples.
“The band is playing so well. The music is coming out as I hear it in my head,” he says, admitting the strangest part about being with a new band is the time offstage.
“Me and Danny have been musically inseparable since I was 13 years old. It’s funny going out after the show and not having him around.
“I wouldn’t rule out us playing together again completely, but at the moment there’s no chance. I’m excited about the future and the next record.
“I’m not really sure about all these reunions. I remember seeing Happy Mondays at the Manchester G-Mex in 1989/1990, which was a brilliant show. I don’t know if I’d want to see them now.
I want to leave that memory intact rather than see everyone 20 years older.
“It’s tricky to think of us playing together when we’re entering into our 40s. Something about that doesn’t fit for me.”
The Blind Tiger, Grand Parade, Brighton
Thursday, May 10, 10.15pm
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