Singer-songwriter Marc Carroll is reaping the benefits of being on an established label – but he still has no time for the industry hoo-haas, he tells TONY CLAYTON-LEA
You’ve been through quite a few records labels in the past 10 years, and are now signed to One Little Indian. What’s it like to be on a label that has some presence and profile?
It's a positive step and a boost to the confidence. My previous album, Dust of Rumour, came out on my own label, and it was hard work. There were only two people doing it – myself and my manager – and even though we were using the facilities of Rough Trade, it was yet another record of good reviews and zero sales. So you constantly think, well, I'm a musician, so I have to do it again, but you get tired thinking of the same thing happening again. So when someone comes in, who has been secretly keeping an eye on you for 10 years, it was great. One Little Indian had never seen me play; they've heard none of the new material, but I know this time that I'm going to make a record and it's going to get proper distribution, which is the key.
You were raised on punk rock, yet throughout your solo work there is a folkie element – will that also be part of your new material?
The folk thing is always there, a starting point – as well as the punk influence; mentally, anyway, which is a thought process more than a musical one for me these days. The next record? Folk? I don’t think so, I’m not even sure I want to make a guitar record. I say that now, of course, but that idea is subject to change.
Your albums receive mostly great reviews, but your audience is niche, to say the least. Have you ever questioned why you’re doing what you do?
I don’t analyse why something of mine might not get heard. In fact, I’m the complete opposite, I actually understand why, and that’s because I don’t make music that’s being made out there. I could follow a trend if I chose, because that’s very easy to do. But I’m 39, so why would I choose to do that? It’d be madness. Music works in cycles, and I’ve never fitted in. I don’t even think I fitted in when I was in The Hormones in 1992. I’ve never followed anything, and more importantly, I’ve never peaked. I think that’s why I’ve survived. I mean, if I’d had a major song or hit 10 or five years, would I be in the position I’m in now? It’d be foolish, childish, to say that I don’t want people to hear my music, but I’m fully aware of my position.
Your new collection, In Silence, is an introductory album – how representative is it of what you do?
The tracks are culled from my last two records, Dust of Rumourand World on a Wire, and I suppose those two are the best. There's something I really like about World on a Wire. It's quiet, raw, very empty, very naked. The worst reviews I ever got were for this record. One reviewer described it as the benchmark for disappointing records in 2005. Offended? No; it wasn't a guitar record, but rather a very lonely, late-at-night record. Me at my bravest, and riskiest, I think.
You’ve been through the mill with record labels, haven’t you?
I have no expectations with the new label. Yes, I’m delighted the albums are coming out again in the reissue series, but my own focus is on the new material. I have a reserve towards the back catalogue – and I think it’s good to keep distance. That said, the reissues make me having a back catalogue official. I’m 40 in January, so it feels as if some kind of chapter is finished and a new one is starting. Do I feel as if it’s a worthy back catalogue to be reissued? Some of it, yes. It’s all part of the story, isn’t it?
Despite all the plaudits you’ve received along the way, you strike me as someone who cares little for the showbiz elements of the music industry.
Yes, I’ve been among glam and glitz, and every time I am among the music industry hoo-haas, I can’t handle it, I feel like there are ants all over my hands. I realised way back that there was going to be a problem – I’m cut out for making music, but the other side of it makes me question why I got into making music in the first place. Whenever I get any doubts about why I’m doing what I do I think back to my bedroom when I was a teenager, with my posters of The Clash and Sex Pistols. Have I experienced curves along the way? Yes, but I cling on to those memories – they keep me grounded.
In Silence
is released today, July 22.
