Lloyd Cole
As legendary musician Lloyd Cole approaches 35 years in the music business he took some time to sit down and chat with City Hub. During the conversation, Cole spoke about his career and the hidden challenges of the creative process.
Although many years ago Cole still recalls with clarity the moment he realised music could become a full-time career.
“I went to my parents in the summer of 1983 and said ‘we have a job and a following. So I’m going to leave university,’” Cole reflected before adding, “You don’t get many opportunities like that so had we decided to wait a year we may have missed it. In retrospect, although I knew absolutely nothing about what we were doing in The Commotions I was incredibly confident that we could do it.”
From that moment on Lloyd Cole And The Commotions would go on to become household names around the world with multiple top 20 charting records.
With the period between 1984 and 1994 being so lucrative for Cole and his band he told us he began making retirement arrangements at just 29 years of age.
“When I was 29 I started making my retirement arrangements for when I was 45 because I had more money than I ever thought I would have.”
However then life took a turn for the worse and early retirement was no longer a feasible option. Which luckily for fans of his music has meant Cole has continued to produce wonderful music for over three decades, the latest release being the 2019 album Guesswork.
Guesswork saw Cole reuniting with former bandmates Neil Clark and Blair Cowan but in a new unique way.
“It was odd because we were never in the same room,” explained Cole, “I was up here in my attic most of the time. Neil was in Toronto and Blair was in Glasgow.”
Another odd thing about this record was the time it took Cole to finally begin working on it.
“I was thinking about [the record] for about five years before I started making it. I think for the last two years I had a lot of sketches and ideas in my notebook but was a little overwhelmed by the task at hand which prevented me from getting started.”
For Cole, it was the prospect of being alone in a room with constantly changing creative requirements that were so overwhelming.
“I can’t just go from thinking about programming drums to writing lyrics the next minute. I need time to get into the right frame of mind. It’s like it’s not the same part of me that does all of these different jobs.”
Ultimately it was the notion that not putting out any new material would see him relegated to “oldies artist” status that spurred Cole to dive in and make the record.
“When I look in the mirror I’m not ready to see myself as an oldies artist just yet!”
Dec 20. City Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place, Sydney. $54-$80+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.cityrecitalhall.com
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