Natural Gaz

IT’s not easy getting hold of Gaz Coombes. The former frontman of Supergrass just never seems to sit still.

When he’s not writing, he’s recording, performing or busy with his family.

Or, like today, he’s moving.

“I’ve just arrived from France,” he tells me, speaking from a Eurostar somewhere in Kent.

“I’m on my way back to Oxfordshire after hanging out with my brother and dad in Normandy. We’ve got a family gathering spot there, which is good fun.

“Now I’m going back to pick up a guitar, get some things together and go back to Paris tomorrow. I’ve got a radio interview to do there – and I have run out of clothes!”

He sees the funny side, but also admits he finds it hard to stay still. As if we didn’t know.

This, after all, is the sideburn-sporting creative dynamo who started his first band, The Jennifers, at 16, before forming Supergrass with his friends Danny Goffey, Mick Quinn, and later, brother Rob.

The band had six top 20 albums – three of them (I Should Coco, In it for the Money and Supergrass) going platinum. They also had six Top Ten singles, and picked up Mercury, Brit and Ivor Novello awards by the armful.

The band’s live shows, including joyous homecomings at South Park, The Zodiac, Oxford Town Hall and Truck Festival, went down in history.

Then, two years ago, they split up.

“It just wasn’t working out and we weren’t having a really good time in the studio,” says Wheatley’s best-known son.

“We weren’t firing on all cylinders and it seemed the right time to call it a day.”

No one seriously believed that was the end, however. And so it proved to be.

This month Gaz releases his solo album Here Come The Bombs. It was recorded at the family home in Wheatley (in which he grew up) and at producer Sam Williams’s Templesound Studios in Oxford. And a stunning piece of work it is too. While still appealing to Supergrass fans, it is a very different animal – bubbling with sonic experimentation, dreamy synths, pulsating grooves and distorted guitars.

And Gaz plays everything on it.

“The last few years have been manic,” says the 36-year-old dad-of-two. “And there didn’t seem time to do anything.

“After the split I had a couple of weeks off to hang out with the kids [daughters Raya May and Tiger]. But I’ve got a studio at home where I can do anything I need to do, so I just carried on writing – and these songs just came along.

“I wasn’t planning on doing a ‘big solo album’ thing. A surge of energy came out of nowhere and, with it, a bunch of songs. And I soon realised I already had half an album.”

The finished result, particularly its opener Bombs, betrays a more serious side to Gaz, whose image is still fixed in many people’s minds as the Chopper-riding cheeky chappy who once sang about being young, running green and keeping his teeth nice and clean.

Does it, I wonder, reveal a new concern for the world’s problems?

“It’s a pretty lose title which comes from the opening line on the opening track, which I’d had for a year or so,” he says.

“But it felt right. Throughout the album there are all kinds of social observations which range from war to space travel, sex and love.

“It’s definitely been a strange old time, these past 10-15 years, with lots of unrest. Having kids has had an effect too. They see things on TV and ask what’s going on. I am just making observations about the absurdities of life.”

He is clearly relishing the chance to strike out in a different direction, and his new-found freedom.

“Supergrass was pretty democratic,” he says. “We were all strong characters and each capable of great things individually. To get the best out of everyone we all had a say, and, when it was working, there was nothing stronger or better.

“But if you are not on the same page it can become a diluted process and a situation of too many compromises. I felt we were no longer a force to be reckoned with.

“I wouldn’t have changed anything in the past,” he goes on. “The way we worked was great, but things didn’t work out, for whatever reason, on the last album.

“You’ve got to be philosophical but strong,” he says. “When you are in a musical family, as we were, it’s hard to let it go.

“But you’ve got to make a move and head out of your comfort zone.”

So do they still hang out? “We haven’t seen too much of each other,” he admits.

“We’ve all got things going on and I’ve been working hard on this record, but I do see the boys. I’m still doing a bit of writing with Danny and I still enjoy Hot Rats (his rock covers side project) – and I’m sure there’s more of that to come. I still see Mick too, as he lives in the village.”

Gaz, who moved back to Wheatley after the death of his mother, is famously close to his family, and proud of his local connections, which, he says, extends to a keen interest in the local music scene, and, of course, reading the Oxford Mail.

“I love it here,” he says. “I’m close to my dad and brothers, and it makes sense to live here in so many ways. It gets pretty manic when you’re touring, but I enjoy the quiet and getting back to my roots.

“Oxford is a beautiful place,” he adds. “I lived in Cowley Road when I was younger, and was a part of that scene. I have always liked the mix of learned university students and artists co-existing. There’s always been an interesting side to the city, and coming back, I look at it in a different way to when I was a spaced-out teenager.

“I appreciate the culture – and being able to do things like taking the kids to the Pitt Rivers Museum.”

With the album out this month, Gaz is busy planning his first live dates as a solo artist. “I can’t wait to get out there,” he says. “I’ve got a few gigs coming up, and I’ll be heading out for a more decent tour in autumn.

“Then I’ll hopefully get to play an Oxford show.”

* Gaz Coombes presents: Here Come The Bombs is out on Hot Fruit Recordings on May 21. Single Hot Fruit is out on Monday.