Gaz Coombes left ‘Supergrass’ as it had stopped making him happy.
The singer-songwriter, 46, said he needed to find joy again in music as a solo artist once he left the band, which announced in 2010 they were splitting due to creative differences.
Gaz told the i newspaper on Friday (13.01.23): “I didn’t leave ‘Supergrass’ to go solo. I left because I wasn’t enjoying it, and it wasn’t making me happy. So I needed to get myself happy.”
He added about launching his solo career: “I realised that just because I wasn’t in the band didn’t mean I was going to stop.”
Gaz said about his first solo record, 2012’s ‘Here Comes the Bombs’: “It was transitional, there was definitely a hangover from ‘Supergrass’.”
But a Mercury Prize nominee for his 2015 record ‘Matador’ allowed him to establish himself as a solo artist.
Gaz added: “I made it without thinking about what I’d done before, or feeling like I needed to pull in a fan base, or any of those pressures.
“I just did whatever made me feel good. And when it worked, I thought, this is it.”
His fourth studio album, ‘Turn the Car Around’, released on Friday (13.01.23), features ballads, pop, folk and cinematic sounds.
Gaz began creating the record at his home studio when the Covid pandemic struck, but later brought in his band – who used films projected on the wall to inspire sounds.
Peter Jackson’s ‘The Beatles’ film ‘Get Back’ inspired the album’s closing track ‘Dance On’, while Martin Scorsese’s ‘Mean Streets’, Marlon Brando classic ‘On the Waterfront’ – and ‘Gremlins’ – also sparked ideas.
Gaz said: “It was mainly a way of getting a different vibe and stopping us from just staring down at our fret boards.
“We had ‘Gremlins’ on, and the guitarist did this mental guitar solo at the end of ‘Feel Loop (Lizard Dream)’.
“I looked up and he’s watching some evil Gremlins. So that did have an effect on his manic guitar.”