Suede have shared an euphoric new single ‘Dancing With The Europeans’, with a music video filmed at a secret gig at London’s iconic Bush Hall. Check it out along with NME‘s behind-the-scenes video and our interview with frontman Brett Anderson below.
The fourth song to be lifted from the art-rock icons’ upcoming 10th album ‘Antidepressants‘ – following on from the title track, ‘Disintegrate‘ and ‘Trance State‘ – ‘Dancing With The Europeans’ sees the band at their most uplifting and engaged.
In keeping with that spirit, and the frenetic energy of their new “post-punk” album, the band shot the video at a secret mini gig for a packed room of lucky invited fans at Bush Hall. “Hopefully people will go crazy and there will be a stage invasion, and then we’ll go home to bed,” Anderson told NME backstage ahead of the show.
Anderson explained how the live energy of the video matched ‘Dancing With The Europeans’ being “a song about connection”.
“I have this phrase: connecting in a disconnected world,” he told us. “I feel as though the 21st Century is a paradox. The more we’re connected, the less we’re connected.
“The song was inspired by a gig we did a couple of years ago in Spain. I was going through a bad time personally, and the gig was just amazing. I just felt that amazing thing you have when you do a great gig. You feel like you’re bigger than something that’s just yourself – you’re part of a group of people.”
Asked about the feral reaction and sheer dedication on display at the video shoot, Anderson replied: “What is it about Suede fans that makes them so insane? I don’t know! The music is about passion. I’ve always wanted to inspire passion in people.
“The best live music is always incredibly loud or incredibly quiet – nothing in between. That’s what I try and do with my music. I either go full-on rock, or I get my acoustic guitar and go off-mic and no one can quite hear what I’m saying. I quite like those extremes. The drama and juxtaposition between quiet and loud is really important in live music.”
The make-up of the crowd was a microcosm of Suede’s fandom as a whole, one that continues to renew and refresh in the wake of the band’s consecutively acclaimed albums since their reunion in 2010.
“That’s been the really wonderful thing about the last 10 years: we keep attracting a younger and younger audience,” said Anderson. “I don’t know what it’s like for other bands like us or of our generation or whatever, but it is really exciting that we’re not a nostalgia act. The last thing I ever wanted to be was a nostalgia act – the idea of doing that whole circuit is just a really horrible thought.
“We go abroad to places like China and there are 100 18-year-olds there. It’s weird, but fantastic because there’s some spirit that they’re plugging into. I’ve always wanted to make music that’s universal. I never wanted to make parochial music for parochial people!”
Anderson added: “I’ve always tried to sing about passion and the human condition. We just happened to have been born in England, so there’s an English slant to it. It’s certainly never been a celebration of Britain, it’s more of a documentation.”
As for their standing as a live band still in the finest of fettle, the frontman put it down to experience and a simple trick of the mind.
“Playing live is all about confidence – or the illusion of confidence, which is the same thing,” he admitted. “People don’t want to see a stumbling, apologetic performer – they want to see someone who seems to command a sense of magic. It’s a quasi-religious thing. The lead singer is the high priest and the audience are the acolytes. That sounds hierarchical, but you’re all after the same thing. You’re all after the sense of connection: you’re doing something that’s bigger than any individual. We have in politics, we have it in sport, and we have it in music as well.
“When it goes well with Suede, I do feel like there’s a real magic in the room. I’ve learned to get better at manufacturing that magic. That sounds like a cynical word to use, but you just learn how to do it and engage with the audience, how to tease that energy out. Little venues like Bush Hall are absolutely fantastic and I love them. You can really get up close to the audience. I love getting up close to the audience physically. I love touching them, getting that feedback, diving in there. I love the messy drama of playing gigs.”
He went on: “I hate it when you play big festivals and there’s enormous pit between you. The audience are over there and there are some bored photographers standing in front of you. I almost think the audience don’t understand the basic psychology of gigs – or at least what makes a Suede gig work. It’s very much about contact with the audience. We’re not one of those bands that can stand there just in a rehearsal room. There’s a feedback between the audience and the band that is really important to nurture.”
For Anderson, there’s a process of translation that takes place when he steps on stage.
“I’ve never understood the bands that just stand there and play their songs,” he said. “I’ve always thought that the point has been something other; to give the songs a different drama. I don’t care about mistakes. Mistakes in live music are great. I don’t give a shit. I like the rough edges. I’ve learned to embrace that more and more as I get older. I’m not interested in perfection, I’m interested in passion. It’s about passion, not precision. As you get older, you lean into that more and more. You learn to embrace it. I like the fuck-ups, I like the messiness of playing live, that’s what it’s all about.
Anderson added: “There’s something real about that people these days value more and more. Because the world is so sanitised and how the internet has sanitised everything, everything is policed in many ways. Live music breaks free of those constraints, it breaks free of that sense of suppression. It lets go, and that’s why people love it so much.”
Check back at NME soon for more of our interview with Anderson explaining what went into ‘Antidepressants’. “Lots of the 21st Century is creeping into this album,” he told us, “in a way that it hasn’t on previous albums”
Speaking ahead of 2022 album ‘Autofiction’, Anderson teased that the band’s next album would be “much more experimental” adding that: “I’d love to think that our most daring work is ahead of us”.
The band’s self-declared “post-punk album” ‘Antidepressants’ will be released on September 5, around the time of a takeover of London’s Southbank Centre.
Suede now added two more nights to the residency: an immersive performance of ‘Antidepressants’ full, live and in the round from a new stage within the Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom on August 26, and a screening of up-close-and-personal 2018 documentary The Insatiable Ones featuring a Q&A with Miranda Sawyer and director Mike Christie on September 12.
Visit here for full details on Suede’s Southbank Takeover.
