It must be a special privilege to be a musician who has seen the world across a storied career, yet one who still loves your craft so intently that you don’t know how or when to stop.
55-year-old British songwriter Lloyd Cole has shown no outward signs of his creativity running dry, and until recently, given no hints of bringing a halt to his relentless touring. “Touring, touring and touring,” he says. “It’s been great, there’s been a lot of positive feedback. I’m not quite sure when it’s gonna end.”
It’s with a little trepidation, therefore, that the former frontman of The Commotions admits he is starting to feel drained. As he reels off his achievements for 2016 alone, it’s somewhat flooring to find that one man can still be pushing as ceaselessly as he is.
“Last year Universal released a box set of LC collections – six discs, posters, and everybody loved it,” he says. “They came back to me and said, ‘Can we do another of the solo records you made?’ I do like records in print rather than only file [formats] – I like vinyl, the way they feel, the way they sound.”
So what inspires Cole to keep going? “First and foremost, it is my job,” he says. “And if I have an audience in the world, that’s how I make a living, so if people want me to come places, within reason – as long as it’s not part of an evil dictatorship – I’ll do it.
“Probably these days it’s more about going back to restaurants I love in that town. I know how to walk to a fantastic cocktail bar with great burgers in Sydney; I’ll be taking my son there. But I’m still at the point in my career where I’m writing new music and still enjoying it.”
As he looks back at his catalogue, Cole explains the success of his live show might even be independent of the quality of his releases. “There have been years when more or less people have come to shows, and strangely, I don’t really know why,” he says. “I think my last album was better than a couple, though it’s not really for me to say. Maybe I did stick around long enough to feel successful.
“In terms of the response [to new material], you can play to 50 really enthusiastic people or 5,000 and the response is the same. I think people tend to enjoy when they get together in larger groups, they get really boisterous. We were like that with The Commotions – more people in a room, we were more relaxed, so we thought, ‘Oh, we’ll just do our thing.’
“Quite honestly, I’m close to the end of my career,” he admits. “I know I am. I feel the new music, it’s coming, but it’s coming more and more slowly. It’s gonna stop at some point, and I’m OK with that, and maybe at some point I’ll be touring with older songs. I don’t like the idea of that being my day job – I think maybe semi-retirement, and I’m actually experimenting with electronic music and there’s a possibility that’ll be the main thing I do when I’m older.”
In the meantime, Cole’s creative well has yet to run dry. The reception to releases like 2013’s Standards and 2015’s 1D has enabled him to return to Australia once again, though the setlist will very much be focused on the fan favourites.
“The set covers 1983 to 1996 and there’s far too many songs in that period to sing all of them, so I think mostly I’m going to try and focus on what I think are the better songs and cover the majority of everyone’s favourites, and I think it’s important to play songs we’ve not played before,” he says. “The songs you’ve been calling out for the last 20 years and I’ve said I’m not going to play them, well, I’m going to play them. You don’t really wanna throw a spanner in the works just to keep yourself amused.”
Though he’s been performing live for more than three decades now, Cole is busier than ever, and it’s hard to really believe him when he says he’s winding down.
“I do want to start making the next record – I’m not sure when I’ll finish it, but I would like to get started,” he says. “But I have to say, when things are going well, I keep saying yes, because you never know – in a couple of years promoters might not be calling. There’s not really a huge hurry for the next record, as long as I’m happy with the direction it’s going.
“It’s pretty much drudgery to write a song – you go to the office and you sit down and write. If there is such a thing as a musical muse, she helps you start the song but she certainly doesn’t help you finish it.”
Lloyd Cole playsCity Recital Hallon Sunday January 15.
