Graham Coxon found it “hard work” to develop his songwriting skills alongside Damon Albarn.
The Blur guitarist – who is finally releasing his ‘lost’ solo album Castle Park this month – brought out his debut solo LP, The Sky Is Too High, in 1998 between his group’s self-titled fourth record and follow-up 13, and he admitted his bandmates virtually ignored the project, though he was pleased when the frontman seemed to like one track in particular.
He told The Sun newspaper: “They didn’t talk about it. Though I did once catch Damon singing R U Lonely? He said, ‘That’s quite a catchy little tune’.
“Attempting to develop as a songwriter when Damon Albarn is your best mate is hard work. I mean, he’d already written some bloody good songs by then.”
The solo record came about when Graham was asked to write some songs for a film about Victorian bare-knuckle fighter Tom Sayers.
He noted: “That request turned into an addiction to writing songs and releasing them.”
Castle Park is Graham’s eighth solo album, and the 57-year-old musician thinks his records show how he has changed over the years.
He reflected: “I think it has had a lot to do with my development as a person.
“You know, that anxiety-ridden creative weirdo who puts all this stuff out there.
“I guess that’s why I like Castle Park coming out — because now there are no secrets. You’ve got it all.”
The songs for Castle Park were left over from the recording sessions for Graham’s 2012 album A+E and he isn’t sure why he has taken so long to release them, particularly as fans have been aware of the missing record for all that time.
He said: “It was really odd because I recorded 20 songs and ten of them became A+E, which was based around improvised bass lines.
“The other ten were weirdly different — more trad indie, jingle-jangly, with a bit of Sixties influence.
“I’m really not sure what happened. Maybe it was lack of confidence. Maybe I thought these songs weren’t fashionable and who would give a s***?”
One of his favourite songs on the record is called Isn’t It Funny.
Graham said of the track: “It came to me in the dream. I had the chords and half of the chorus, I heard some words — and then I woke up. I thought, ‘My gosh, I need to make a quick note of this.’
“I realise that there’s always been this elusive feminine spirit or a goddess of nature in my work.
“I don’t write songs about this entity for my own excitement. They just come out.”