Johnny Marr + the Healers
Throughout a career, which is often described as
"legendary", Johnny Marr has proved impossible to pin down. In The Smiths, he was guitarist and fifty
percent of the hallowed song-writing partnership: Morrissey (words) and Marr (music).
Since then, he has recorded three albums of sparkling, largely
synthesiser-driven pop with Bernard Sumner as Electronic. As a member of the
musically eccentric, social commentators The The, he has made two albums and
toured extensively. He has also played with artists as diverse as Beck and
Talking Heads, and donated his guitar to Noel Gallagher, so he could form a
band called Oasis.
What Johnny never did was the one thing
everybody most wanted him to, which was to form a band of his own after The
Smiths. "If I'd tried to form a group in the environment of The Smiths
split, it would have been so loaded with significance and judgement that the
music wouldn't have stood a chance," he says. However, now that the dust
of The Smiths split has settled as much as it is ever likely to, Marr is
hurtling back with the Healers, a band who will build on his legacy while
blasting it off in entirely new directions.
Initially, Johnny envisaged a, "collision
in the Arizona desert between T.Rex, The Stooges, Eno, Beck and The
Wailers." Although on the Healers thunderous debut, ‘Boomslang', we never
quite forget that we are listening to the same songwriter responsible for 'This
Charming Man', 'The Queen Is Dead' and 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.’ "I'm
glad if it seems that way to people," says Johnny of 'Boomslang'. "I
don't mind that it might sometimes sound like The Smiths, the way the music
comes out is how I sound these days."
Getting to how he sounds these days has taken
Johnny along some interesting paths. The seed for the Healers may have been
sown when he first heard T.Rex as a youngster, or possibly when he began an
adulthood journey into the transcendental. He devoured everything from books
about dreams to19th-century spiritualist medium Madame Blavatsky's book The
Secret Doctrine, who co-incidentally donated the Healers’ name. For practical purposes, the Healers have
their roots in a late 1997 meeting between Johnny and Zak Starkey. Zak,
obviously, is the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, however this is no
regular, cosy "celebrity" coupling.
At the time, Johnny was looking for a drummer but, as he relates with a
chuckle, was fed up with rehearsing with people who "couldn't hold their
sticks properly because they were so nervous." With Zak, the awe flowed the other way as the pair bonded over
Marc Bolan. "It was when he said he'd been on the set of ‘Born To
Boogie,’” laughs Johnny. "I just thought, "Oh my God!".
In 1999, once Johnny had finished various
Electronic commitments, work started on the Healers. Johnny and Zak were joined
by Alonza Bevan (ex-Kula Shaker), and various other musicians. Johnny already
had a bundle of new songs. What they didn't have was a vocalist - Marr was
filling in - until the rest of the band quietly took him to one side.
"They said 'We only want you to sing. Your voice sounds right.' I was a
bit stunned but I agreed to give it a go." Thus, Johnny Marr, guitar legend became Johnny Marr, the singer.
"It feels pretty natural, "Johnny says of his strident vocal. "
Once I identified my sound I was able to see where I could, or wouldn't go. I
didn't try to copy anyone particularly."
At this point, the Healers were a six-piece...
"a tribe,” according to Johnny's terminology, but having six minds in one
band proved a little unwieldy, so Johnny slimmed it down. In the meantime
Johnny was doing live shows with Neil Finn, producing and playing on Haven's
album and writing songs with Beth Orton and Liam Gallagher, which benefited the
band indirectly. "It was good for me and good for the songs that I was
able to do other things," he says, "as I got a different take on
them." Although, he was less than
impressed with "depressing" meetings with record companies, and
marketing-led executives who he felt wanted to put the Healers "in a box
with other music that was not coming from the same place."
This year he reunited with Smiths manager Joe
Moss and an old friend, Marc Geiger from iMUSIC, who were happy to let Johnny
have control of his own work, "a bit like the classic independent way, but
it's seen as revolutionary thinking now." Convinced that he had the right
people around him, Johnny + the Healers crafted their debut album in
Manchester.
The album soon came together. 'Long Gone' was
inspired by a surreal experience where Johnny was all but kidnapped by
"crazies" in Los Angeles; it also makes provocative points about the
culture of dumbing down and obsession with the notion of "celebrity.”
'Something To Shout About,' was, inspired by wandering in the Arizona
Mountains. 'InBetweens' is about being outside of the cultural stereotypes that
are forced upon people. Uncannily a similar sentiment to those once espoused by
The Smiths. Sonically, Marr acknowledges that the strings-drenched 'Another
Day' has echoes of the 1970s T.Rex/Tony Visconti productions - "I think
the things that first hit you are always there somewhere and they come out even
if you don't particularly try."
Meanwhile, 'Down On The Corner' is "a bit Smithsy."
The 21st century Johnny Marr is a very different
character to the 20th century boy.
Johnny's constant appetite for new things is currently leading him
towards "bugged out electronic
stuff" and idea-orientated bands like Boards Of Canada and Godspeed You
Black Emperor. He's mad about the internet, MP3s, computers, downloads and
still reads avidly.... everything from Hinduism, mysticism to Aldous Huxley.
Once the archetypal rock n' roller, nowadays Marr only half-jokingly says he
prefers "a good seance to an aftershow" and has embraced the esoteric...
although, equally importantly to Johnny is his belief that desert boots are the
ultimate sartorial statement because "I'm shallow like that!"
There's one thing left to clear up. What exactly
is a ‘Boomslang’?
"I had a dream...Yeah, I know, here we
go." laughs Johnny. "But it's true, this snake began to talk to me
and said "I'm Boomslang, I'm Boomslang".
The journey starts here. It's time to get
healed.
November 2002