Michael Head “This feeling that shoots up from your toes”
Less than two years have elapsed since – a pretty swift return by Dear Scott Michael Head standards… The writing continued to flow. I like the fact that the album’s bookended by two songs that grew out of older songs: “Shirl’s Ghost” grew out of the instrumental version at the end of the last record; and “Coda” dates back to the riff at the end of [1999’s] “Comedy”. People used to come up and say, “What was that thing that you played at the end?” – and I’d be like, “I don’t fucking know!” But finally some chords attached themselves to it, and the lyric landed. “Merry-go-round” is inspired by a period when I was staying with Pete [Wilkinson from Shack], detoxing. I was eating Marmite on toast; Robbie Fowler had just signed back to Liverpool from Man City and there was Pete playing this beautiful riff.
“You Smiled At Me” is partly inspired by the ‘Rush-hour Crush’ section in the newspaper. It’s funny to think of you Metro mixing it with the commuters at that time of day.
Well, I was living in the north end [of Liverpool] with my sons, and my wife lives in the south end. Initially I travel from one to the other on my bike, but when I hit 60, I got my bus pass and I was using public transport. I’d get me paper and that was the first thing I’d reach for. It’s all stuff like, “You wore a genie hat and you were wearing purple cords and you smiled at me.” And really that’s all it is – how a smile from someone can start this feeling that shoots up from your toes and passes right through you like an electric current.
And you’ve signed off the upcoming memoir. Exciting times.
Yeah, it wouldn’t have occurred to me had someone not suggested it. But I thought to myself, “If anyone’s gonna tell these stories, they should be written down the way I told them.” So that’s what it is.