JOHN Grant is in the midst of touring his latest album, ‘Love Is Magic’ (2018). And he is enjoying the process and is in fine form when Limerick Post caught up him this week.
“It’s great fun – it seems strange for me to describe something as fun but it really is.”
“I think there is a great flow to the set. Once you get their booties shaken, you want to maintain that. There is some really dancy stuff, it’s a blast to perform. I enjoy that.”
‘Love Is Magic’ is the fourth solo album from the Michigan-born former member of The Czars, released on Bella Union.
Grant’s honey-toned baritone vocals and cutting wry wit have created a stunning back catalogue of acid tongued observations of lost love, disappointments and sexual politics, all delivered with his irresistible charm.
His piano-led debut album ‘Queen of Denmark’ recorded with Texan band Midlake was Mojo’s Album of 2010. The track GMF featuring Sinead O’Connor is a particular highlight.
Grant has lived in Reykjavik since 2012. Collaborations with Icelandic group GusGus and performing on stage with Hercules & Love Affair has seen Grant’s sound develop electronic and synthpop colours on 2013’s ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ and 2015’s ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’.
We chat about one track from the new album that has been getting attention. ‘Smug C’ is a darkly humorous take down of a kind of personality that is anathema to Grant.
“Initially the song was about Putin, then Trump came along and trumped Putin,” laughs.
“It’s a great description of what you see going on now. The rhetoric and control.
“Putin has a more regal quality to him to go along with his dictatorial style whereas Trump is just straight up childish temper tantrums, throwing his toys out of the pram 24/7.”
“It’s vile – the song is about people like that.”
Grant sees these megalomaniac political leaders through a prism of mental health and their incapacity to emphasise.
“People are constantly talking about mental illness. It seems like the only thing that belongs in that category are people who are people who are depressed or suicidal. Whereas something like the narcissism which seems to be on display when it comes to these two individuals is just as much a mental illness as anything else.”
The extraordinary record sleeve image is an ode to the work that Grant puts into find the perfect sound for his albums.
“It’s about going to whatever lengths you have to, to capture the right sounds in recording the vocals. Recording vocals with a cage on the head! – It could be a metaphor,” he teases.
John Grant plays University Concert Hall this Wednesday March 27.
