I’m still very competitive
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine’s frontman is back with a second solo album
IT’S been nearly 30 years since Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine had a No1 with 1992 – The Love Album.
Singer Jim Bob – real name James Morrison – continues the duo’s mix of playful and political with his new solo album, Who Do We Hate Today.
You hadn’t released any new music for nearly seven years before last year’s Pop Up Jim Bob and now another new album. Was the productivity because of the success of Pop Up or the lockdown?
A bit of both really. Pop Up being successful did make me want to write more songs. But I definitely also needed something to occupy myself, and as the tour was postponed I sort of picked up where I’d left off with Pop Up.
Pop Up reached No27. Your first top 30 album since Carter USM. Feeling the pressure for the new album?
I can’t deny that I’ll be disappointed if the new album enters the charts lower than Pop Up Jim Bob, but if and when it does go in at number 62, I’ll pretend that I think charts are stupid. I’ll do my crying in private. Maybe smash some furniture. To be honest anything lower than 27 is bound to feel like a bit of a failure. I’m very competitive, even it is only with myself.
Next year is the 30th anniversary of Carter’s Love Album. Planning anything to mark it?
I knew this year was the 30th anniversary of 30 Something, and although it’s obvious, it hadn’t really occurred to me that next would be the same for the Love Album. Nothing is planned as far as I know. It’s also just occurred to me that my new album could be called The Hate Album.
Was it good to be at home with the family during lockdown?
I think Mrs Jim Bob might have something to say about that. But I’m sure I would have struggled if I lived on my own and wasn’t allowed to see my friends. We’ve lived together for a very long time so we’re a pretty good team.
It was actually our neighbours we really needed to get away from. As soon as the first lockdown restrictions eased we were on the A303 to Devon.
The new album has lots of nods to the year we’ve had. Did you catch Covid?
As far as I know I didn’t get it. I know loads of people who did, with varying degrees of severity. I met my daughter at double arm’s length in a park on my birthday last year.
Later that same day she tested positive for Covid and was devastated that she might have given her rapidly ageing old dad a terrible illness for his birthday.
I was fine though. And I’ve had both my jabs now. I can’t get enough vaccine in my body. I’d gladly get vaccinated every week just to p*** Laurence Fox and Eric Clapton off.
You are touring in November – worried or excited?
I thought I might be anxious about it but every time I do anything relatively normal I quickly forget there’s still a pandemic going on.
You catch the mood of worry about the climate in the new album’s The Earth Bleeds Out with the line “there was hope in the flu”. Have we still time to sort it out?
From what I’ve read it’s definitely not too late. I did get that feeling of hope at the start of lockdown though. Based mainly on the lack of planes in
the sky and how clear it seemed. And I’d never seen so many stars over South London. I also wondered if a global pandemic would bring us all together. That was super naive of me. Masks are the new Brexit.
The song The Summer of No Touching is also a great Covid anthem with the line “my first fear was losing the WiFi”. Was it?
Losing the WiFi was one of my earliest panics. When Netflix downgraded the definition of their shows because of the expected extra online activity it felt like the end of the world. I was glad I hadn’t got rid of all my DVDs and the DVD player. ●Jim Bob’s new album Who Do We Hate Today is out today. He plays Edinburgh Summerhall on November 12.