Gustav Temple meets the man who put ‘Chap’ into Hip Hop and called it ‘Chap Hop’. The full interview appears in CHAP Winter 23
I understand you’ve just finished your never-ending tour – or was it a never-beginning tour?
I’m always effectively on tour, but every now and again you just bracket things – I’ve just finished this album called National Treasure which I’m very pleased with. I think it’s my best.
Why is it your best?
There was a track called The House which I wrote during Lockdown, which is based on a, Jerome K. Jerome short story called The House, about man having a conversation with a house, and how the house is what really understood what had gone on in the past, whereas humans would tend to make stuff up and imagine how things were.
I understand there’s a song on the album called Take Myself Out to Lunch?
I wrote a lot of this album while I was on tour was Sparks last year, and there’s definitely a little bit of Sparks influences in some of the songs; with that one it would be I Married Myself. When we were on the tour, whenever Ron Mael and I had our little chats, he kept saying, ‘We’re so compatible!’ They’re both lovely but it’s Ron who’s more old fashioned and elegant and, you know, Chap – although he does collect Nike Air Jordans. He’ll be wearing a jacket, trousers, tie, shirt and a pair of Nike Dunks.
What do you think about chaps who wear three-piece suits with plimsolls?
I have a song on my 2019 long player Dandynista called Three-Piece Suit and Sneakers, and this has always been a thing with me because there is ‘hop’ in chap-hop. So it’s like everything, there are suits and there are suits, and in the same way there are suit and trainer combos and there are suit and trainer combos.
Why do the shoes have to represent the hop? Why can’t you wear a pair of brogues and a tracksuit?
It’s an interesting question, but probably because I would feel like I looked terrible. Some things just work and you can’t explain why. As far as the trousers go, I like a nice Oxford bag and they can work quite nicely with trainers.
Today you’re wearing one of your siren suits. Is that a comfortable option?
The only uncomfortable part is having explain to people, when they come up to you and say, ‘I like your onesie’ about how Churchill invented the siren suit. They’re called Siren Suits so that when the sirens went off he had something he could leap into – although I don’t think Churchill leaped into anything. He obviously had someone to put it on for him, because I know from wearing a siren suit that there’s a quite a lot of contortion to actually getting it on. It isn’t like putting a jacket and trousers on.
So your new album is called National Treasure. Why did you choose that title?
I thought, if no-one else is going to say it, then I’ll show them the new merchandise we’ve got – these medals on a ribbon. I’ve sort of attempted to pre-empt my inevitable national treasure status.
Which album is this in the chronology of your entire canon?
National Treasure is probably about album number twelve, as far as Mr. B albums go. The first album was called Flattery Not Included and that was 2008.
So who plays all the instruments?
That’s me. Bass, drums, trombone… I even found this piccolo trombone for the last album.
Are you one of those people who can just pick up any instrument and work it out fairly quickly?
Yes, most of the very early photos of me when I’m just a baby, I’ve got an instrument in my hand. Maybe a xylophone or a harmonica. I used to get a guitar or a ukulele every Christmas. They’d usually last a couple of weeks, and then would be destroyed.
Like The Who in the seventies?
Very much like the Who, smashed up on stage.
Read the full interview in CHAP Winter 23
