Translated on Lloyd's facebook page (with some grammatical corrections):
Once he was described as "the Dylan of the 80's", and as a "talkative bookworm". He´s still happy to discuss and talk, still a dedicated golf player...who never smiles in pictures...Lloyd Cole.
He's bang up to date with his new electrified disc, "Standards", and is in good spirits despite a few hours of sleep. He has just arrived from Malmö to Stockholm on his month-long European tour, that doesn't consist of performances - just interviews about the new album "Standards" for newspapers, television and radio.
But he notes that it is probably the last PR trip he will make. It takes too much energy, costs too much and delivers too little back in record sales and therefore un-economical.
"If the "Standards" album will not sell much more than my last album, I will continue to focus on getting my records to those who already are my fans. Chasing new listeners costs too much, and if I only lived to make records, then I would have gone bankrupt long ago", says Lloyd Cole and points out that it´s the concerts that enables him, after all, to be doing well.
"I'm not young, I'm not new, I'm not particularly exciting, and even if you like my music and have a lot of my records, perhaps you maybe will feel in the end that you have enough. So I will make music as long as I have the ideas and motivation. But to reach the mass audience...no...those days are probably past."
In the 1980s and early 1990s,
Lloyd Cole, first with The Commotions and then solo, was a genuine pop star - one whose picture covered the music newspapers, and he became accustomed to being hailed for his academic centred lyrics that were packed with references to literature and were beautiful songs too.
Despite record label hassles and a music industry undergoing significant change - and despite the hype - he has continued to do what he has always done : music with an intellectual touch.
"In 1984 I thought I was the one of the world's best songwriters. I still think I have something of my own, something no one else has. Although no one will care", explains Lloyd Cole with a wry smile.
After many years of stripped-down/spartan acoustic music, he felt that he wanted to play with a rock and roll band again, the very same as the time when he worked on the acclaimed discs "Lloyd Cole" and "Don't get weird on me, babe" 1990 and 1991.
Thus, for "Standards", he has brought along drummer Fred Maher and bassist Matthew Sweet, but also his son Will Cole on guitar.
"I've lectured on songwriting and like to analyze, ponder and discuss pop music, but the songs I like best are the ones that just come...those that can not be explained. So it was now...for the first time in a long time I dared to be more bombastic and epic in my lyrics. It feels so good, not to be cautious or restrained", Lloyd Cole claims.
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