"I do aspire to be a sort of a Soho alcoholic idiot genius."
"The good thing about being in a band is that you, you know, you form your own identity within that band. Bands are just gangs, really, aren't they?"
on media
"I don't think they really care about you being unique. I think they care about novelty, and I think you just have to be slightly different and slightly better than everything else."
"Music is merely the temporary escape from the tyranny of conscious thought."
"It's the hardest thing that you have to do in your life, is decide what you want to do... for some reason it's just assumed that it's something that you know, but it's actually a really very difficult thing. So if there's anything you like doing, it's good to sort of... it's good to do it, really."
"The world is run by cynical maniacs."
"I think we denied having any influences, really, we're far too proud. We just thought we had visceral genius."
"Drugs are just boring. And drug bores are the worst bores, possibly only beaten by drum bores and travel bores. You can have a lot more fun with booze because it's legal."
"Ultra-normality?... Hmmm, I don't know really... maybe it was to do with... oh bollocks, who cares?... do you want a shag?"
"Talent, genius, BOLLOCKS! There's no such thing as talent, no such thing as genius. Some people just want it more, which is twice as important as being good at it."
"I don't like arguing. I aspire to agree with everybody. That way I don't get beaten up... it's Damon who likes arguing."
"Emotion isn't about standing on mountains going, "I'VE GOT A BROKEN HEART!' If you're going to sing about your heart, you might as well rhyme it with fart, as far as I'm concerned."
on Iceland
"It's marvelous. It's made out of mountains and volcanoes and glaciers. Most of the places we've got are made out of pavement and bricks."
"It's four people who all think it's their band, trying to make their own record, and that's what makes it... that's what makes it rock, kids."
"I'm completely extravagant and decadent. I love going to Tesco's and just buying things like asparagus - I'm just extravagant with vegetables, not cars."
"If someone's horrible to you, be really nice to them. Then they'll feel bad."
"That's why you write, play music or make art, so you feel less shit about everything."
"At college, I told this lecturer my name was Alexander 'cos they had a really plummy way of saying "Alexander". I thought it was right royal and anyway Steve sounds all 'muscles' and 'motor'."
"I don't think of myself as a bumbling British person."
"Everybody is there for a reason and we all think its our band, Graham thinks it's his band, Damon thinks it's his band, but it's my band."
"Damon's probably quite grown up, but Graham and I have probably got a long, long way to go before we're grown up."
"When we want credibility we'll suck our cheeks and tummies in."
"Playing a guitar is about as mysterious as using a typewriter. It's the same thing, only your hands are the other way up."
"Pop that stinks of expensive aftershave and breath freshener is bad."
"I was served tea in a plastic cup with powdered milk by a load of people playing indoor cricket in Milton Keynes! What's happening to this country?"
"Science hasn't been hip for a long time. It'd be good if everyone could point to the Pole Star at a certain time every day. It'd be good to have a feeling of universal orientation."
"You know everything's fucked when the French start talking about L'Indie Pop..."
on "Blur"
"It's more Iggy Pop than Britpop."
"It's tragic when pop stars go out with pop stars, like twat from Bush and twat from No Doubt, validating each other by their fame."
"When you've lived in London for 10 years it's a bit insulting to have people tell you that London swings."
"We've all got very different tastes. I think Pavement are dreadful. I don't think they've got any tunes. But that's good. It's good that we all like different things really. If it was just me, we'd probably just sound like the Bee Gees."
"People don't look at things enough, especially in America. There's not enough contemplation of the horizon. Everything's sort of designed to take you away from yourself, do you know what I mean? You can't have fun without going somewhere that's made for you to have fun, as we careen into the future."
"It's got to the stage now where people have become interested in us as individuals. And they're even interested if we're just being boring. It's in the paper when you go to Tesco. That is very flattering, but all it means is that I've been to a supermarket, I'm afraid. I'm also required to talk about myself quite a lot, which obviously, I adore but it must get on other people's tits."
"It's hard to come to terms with the fact that it's more important to be cordial and blandly pleasant rather than an erratic genius in life. Just being nice to people does get you a lot further than actually being any good. Which is why shit bands like Bush do well."
"I don't know how international bass playing can be."
"Everyone who's in a band thinks they're in the best band in the world. That's only natural. But when other people start telling you you're the best band in the world as well, you just go... super nova confident!
All knowledge that we have in science is based on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Newton's Law of Gravity and Quantum Theory, and they all contradict each other. But Newton was the bloke who realised that everything was in motion. I mean, fucking hell! How do you suddenly realise that? I dunno, I suppose anyone could have realised it, but to work out the theory that verifies it is stunning."
"Touring's a dream. You don't have to pay for anything, you go to a different place every day, everywhere you go you get beer and drugs free, girls scream at you and you feel... shit actually, most of the time. But it's good."
"I'm ridiculous. Just ridiculous behaviour."
"I still think of Graham as probably my best mate... I don't think he likes me, I just feel close to Graham."
"I rarely think about what I'm thinking these days. I used to think about what I think a lot - but eventually you get sucked into a vortex and disappear down the plug-hole of confusion."
"My girlfriend cuts my hair; deciding what kind of hairstyle I have is too much responsiblitily for me... I dreamt I was bald last night, that's probably a really bad dream to have."
"It's nice to smile in photos. After all, I am a pop star and I'm thrilled about it."
"Every time you see a pretty girl, she rewrites the rule book. Girls are my big interest in life, definitely. I'm more interested in them than anything else. I'm not really specific, other than I like big bosoms when I'm drunk and small ones when I'm sober."
"Damon is gay, that's all I'm saying."
"I always wanted to spend my twenties drunk and ridiculous, being an alcoholic idiot-genius who lived in Soho. But it's just not so elegant when you get older and start looking like a potato. Vanity's my saving grace, definitely."
"Space is exactly like the sea was 6,000 years ago. All we can do is make tiny little boats that float a bit. I feel ridiculous talking about going to Mars, but there's nothing fucking better to do! It's even better than getting drunk!"
"Fat Les is just... funny. It's cheeky to deal with crass commercialism, and there's all these good people in the videos - they're potentially a millennial Carry On team. Obviously the records are shit. But you wouldn't get Radiohead making a Christmas record, would you? If I want to make stupid records with a bunch of idiots from the Groucho then fuck off, I will. Absinthe?"
Has anyone ever punched you in the face just for being a member of Blur?
"Graham. America, 1992. I had two black eyes at one point, one from Dave and one from Graham. And I once had a narrow shave at King's College. This really annoying bloke kept on going, ‘Alex from Blur, Alex from Blur'. So I went, ‘Didn't I shag your sister?', and he went absolutely fucking mental ‘cause his sister had died. The year before. I felt really bad..."
"There's a fashion bunny explosion tonight. Fashion bunnies, I love ‘em. I fucking love ‘em."
"Pop music seems a bit silly when compared with the beginning of time."
"Can you smell my breath? I've got something decomposing in my mouth."
"My life is a Gide novel."
On the cover of 13
"I thought it was me. Then I realised that that was because it's good, and you always think good art is about you, don't you?"
"It's 1999, we should be building fucking spaceships but there's this built-in nihilistic vision of 'what's the fucking point'. You know, people thinking they can't sing, they can't do maths or their hair is mousey brown. I've seen a mouse and I've never seen hair that colour, but there is this ingrained belief people have that they aren't very musical or scientifically minded. It's not true."
"It's a fucking myth that you don't see anything, invented by boring people in shit bands. You can see the world, if you're prepared to relinquish sleep."
"Lions have 18 hours' sleep a day, and that's cool with me."
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