Baxter Dury is a lone voice crying in the wilderness, a thorn in the side of a realm dominated by glitz, glamour, and ego. His remarkable decade-and-a-half run has seen the English wordsmith establish himself as a veritable renaissance man, releasing a string of fantastic broad-ranging albums and his excellent, wickedly funny memoir Chaise Longue.
Indeed, there must have been something in the air, with Baxter Dury following his reminiscences with a full anthology. Out now via the kind folks at Heavenly Recordings, ‘Mr. Maserati’ brings together two decades of character sketchs, surrealistic word play, and a very singular brand of songwriting.
Clash writer Hayley Scott caught up with Baxter Dury a few months back over email, presented her in full for the first time.
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Hi Baxter, it’s great to be in touch. How are you today and how have you been in general? Hopefully Covid hasn’t fucked you over too much.
Didn’t notice it, a minor distraction which allowed me to concentrate on pottery and other unnecessary projects.
You mention wealth a lot in your songs, particularly the lifestyles of the vanity classes, but in a way that doesn’t glamourise it – often the opposite. Do you like to make the luxuries of capitalist excess seem eerie? That’s the sense I get, especially with your vocals sometimes sounding quite cold and emotionally distant.
I’ve always felt like I’m an uninvited potato amongst some freshly prepared salad items and my criticism of the vanity people is more envy than genuine commentary on anything important. I feel like I don’t fit in and I’m angry.
You’re a great writer – you have an ability to capture the world around you in a way that’s very uniquely you. What / who inspires your writing the most? Do you read much? Do you think you’ll write any more books?
I read enough to pretend I read more but fortunately – or unfortunately – I have faulty valve inside my head that spews unfiltered rhetoric that I can usually sift through for moments that make sense. I will try and write more books but it’s a mammoth task.
You’ve been lumped in with the contemporary trend of ‘talky post-punk blokes’ – how do you feel about this?
I feel uncomfortable about men talking generally especially over music and I make inoffensive autumnal disco very distanced from punk so don’t think I should be included.
Speaking of talky blokes – it’s just past four years since Mark E Smith died. A lot of current bands attempt to emulate Smith’s lyrical narrative / prosey style, but for me you’re one of the few putting a modern stamp on it, seemingly without even trying. Have The Fall ever been something of an influence?
Never an influence as I don’t know the music. Not to say that I wouldn’t like it. A small acerbic bloke with a bloated spleen celebrated by journalists and middle class kids is how I saw it cynically. But that’s not fair probably on how good it must be.
What are you listening to at the moment? Any new bands/ artists that you rate in particular?
A little bit of the new Kendrick album who’s also small and acerbic.
Despite your music’s overt Britishness, it’s really apparent from your work that you’re a bit of a Francophile (I’ve been listening to your album ‘B.E.D.’ which is particularly Serge- esque) After Brexit and the disintegration between political relations in the UK and the rest of Europe, has this drift influenced your songwriting and/or world view in any way?
No, I’m not capable of capturing much politics in my songwriting it’s very self-centred / of the moment stuff.
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I read that you’re a fan of contemporary hip-hop and trap / R&B. Has that started to feed through your music? Do you feel yourself getting more comfortable drifting into these areas, as genres have become more fluid?
Yes, I’m comfortable but not sure anyone else is yet. Depends on how far I take myself seriously in such realms.
As someone who deals with wealth in a very literary manner, very much akin to Bret Easton Ellis (Ellis in his book, Glamorama, said “The better you look, the more you see”) do you think your connection to artistic and cultural heritage has allowed you to be a witness to a class of people most don’t see? How do you maintain a moral grounding in these situations? What keeps you rooted and wanting to express what you see rather than just blending in?
I may have answered a more uncomfortable reason why earlier but I guess I’ve had a unique view on a particular social landscape growing up considering our fluctuating fortunes as a family.
Seeing as a lot of your work deals with the emotional austerity of wealth, have you been watching succession? And with that in mind when can we expect a concept album loosely based on the Murdoch Family falling apart or have we had it already?
Yes we should be prepared for an R&B Citizen Kane influenced funk opera…
Do you see yourself as something of a night chancer? How have you found nightlife after the pandemic? Do you think it’s weird too or is it just me?
I am naturally more of a dawn botherer than any night ventures so unconcerned.
Lastly, what’s next for you? I know there’s the excellent Best Of due in February. I’m hoping for another tour..
I’m of to Australia in two hours and then who knows…?
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