Brett Lewis Anderson was born in Haywards Heath in the year of 1967. His mother was an unsuccessful artist and his father was an ice-cream man. His mum sadly passed away not very long ago and today his dad is a taxi-driver. Brett has described Haywards Heath as "a horrific place with a vivid undercurrent of violence". He, like so many other kids there, got into gangs. But Brett turned to music and found a way out of it. He moved to London with Mat Osman in 1986 and the band today known as Suede was slowly formed. In the early days of Suede, Brett was wearing chiffon blouses and spanked himself black and blue with the microphone. On one occasion wild fans tore five blouses of his to pieces. Today he has a more masculine (and slimmer) look and the spanking is almost completely gone, although now the other members are beaten black and blue by the swinging mic (rumour says that Richard had to be taken to hospital once because he was hit in the head by the microphone). Brett had a rough childhood and a lot of the songs he writes are about low-life vs. high-life, moneymakers, housewives, the beautiful people, violence, and drugs. He feels that housewives are the sad, silent heroes of society and that they are underrated by many. Brett is one of those people who with his voice can make a roundabout sound like god's gift to earth and a drive in the car sound like the most exciting thing there is. Brett likes drugs and isn't shy about it. He has openly (and controversially) said that he do drugs and that it is like having a cup of tea, but he doesn't recommend anyone to do what he does. He thinks that drugs and creativity have no connection at all, although he thinks that you can let it seep into your work sometimes. Damon Albarn of Blur (Justine's current boyfriend) launched an attack on Brett by saying: "I think heroin is shit and I know for a fact that Brett is doing heroin." Brett denies it by stating that he has a phobia about needles. He has also had a drinking problem, but is said to be off alcohol at the moment. During the writing of 'Dog Man Star', Brett rented a maisonette off Ladbroke Grove. He spent his time in a sound-proof room and didn't eat or sleep much. That took him into a drug-like/zombie state of mind. He was thinking of ways to describe his closest friends because he wanted the record to be partly about them. It's a common but wrong conception to think that Brett and Bernard didn't have much of a co-operation whilst writing songs. Now that Bernard's gone, Brett has been writing stuff on his own as well as with both Richard and Neil. "There's no meaning with my life but to be in Suede, none at all. I would stop excisting; there is absolutely nothing else I care about. I'm definitely not interested in getting up in the morning if it hasn't got to do with music. That's the only thing I know I can do really well, so I put my soul and all my time in it. There is nothing else..."