21 July 2000 (source : Melody Maker)

Suede have failed to see the funny side of a letter sent to them by the animal-rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). As part of PETA's anti-leather campaign, they asked Brett Anderson:

"As a gesture of goodwill towards these gentle creatures, would you consider a cruelty free alternative to the name suede? We think Velour (oh puhlease!) has a certain glamourous ring to it."
Andrew Butler, the UK representative for PETA said: "Its a very serious subject. The cows are the subject of appaling abuses and it's a trade we are trying to stop. There are fashion alternatives: Acupuncture's goods are 95% non-leather.

The leather trade has terrible environmental consequences, too, both rearing the cows and tanning the hides. We know that suede are sympathetic to animal issues and hope that they will support this cause.
They have enormous influence and could do a lot of good. There is no excuse for buying leather products if you give a damn about animals and the environment."

But suede's spokesman said that asking the band to change their name was "absurd".
He said: "As soon as the letter came, it went in the bin. The band are all vegetarians - suede is just a name. The band arn't going to respond, it's ridiculous."

Meanwhile, reports on an unofficial suede website have claimed (?!?) that Brett Anderson has "completely isolated himself" from the rest of the band to concentrate on the follow up to 'Head Music' in a cottage on the fringes of Croydon! The site also said that the band had finished work on five demo's and are expected to start recording the album later this year.

and another one (do they have nothing better to write about! *s*). . .

12 july - interview with David Barnett, Suede Information.

*-Have you heard the new suede material? What do you think of it?

i've heard about six or seven songs so far. obviously i'm extremely biased, but they are very very good. everyone in the suede camp is extremely excited about the new stuff. it's absolutely true that they are the best set of demos the band have ever recorded. that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll end up as the best songs they've ever done, but it's certainly a very encouraging start. i can't tell you any titles yet, but we should be including some of these in the next fanzine which we're working on at the moment.

*-What direction are they going with the new songs? There were rumours that they sound like the later Head Music B-sides, and Melody Maker said that they sounded like Travis.. what comparisons would you make?

i think the later b-sides do tend to point towards the style of each successive album, ie high rising was a good indication of dog man star, together was very poppy like coming up, and most obviously europe and graffiti women were regularly referred to as the blueprint for head music.
obviously it's impossible to say, but let go and since you went away have a similarly effortlessly classic feel to what we've heard so far. The Travis comparison is a red herring, someone jumping to conclusions after hearing that the songs are very simple and straightforward sonically, but that's simply because they're concentrating on the melodies at this stage - and the actual sound will probably change drastically by the time they get into the studio. it's like seeing a rough pencil sketch of the mona lisa or something, it might look promising but you won't see the full picture until it's coloured in.

*-How does the band feel about the new songs?

they all seem to be quietly confident, they're extremely focused and rehearsing a lot more regularly than in the early stages of the previous records.

*-Are they working in a different way from Head Music or other albums, if so, why?

yes and no. brett has completely isolated himself from the distractions of london life. he's spending days at a time in this cottage he's rented out on the fringes of croydon. i suppose it's similar to when he locked himself away in a monastery in highgate for dogmanstar, which is quite exciting since that's by far my favourite album. the others are all writing from home then they're getting together once or twice a week to conjure up the magic that is suede (!).

*-Head Music got a lot of negative reviews in regard to the simplicity of the lyrics. What are the new songs like in that respect?

one of the most encouraging things for me is the fact that brett has obviously been taking a lot more time and care over the words. they're still very much suede but there's far less "she killers" and a lot more variety in his lyrical lexicon, a lot of interesting imagery. he's been reading a lot of books. the cottage doesn't have a phone or a tv so he's totally immersing himself in music and literature which i think can only be a good thing.

*-Who has been writing most of the lyrics so far?

well, apart from neil's solo compositions, brett has always written all the words and i can't see that changing, but you never know.

*-Have they got any idea when the album is going to be released? How many demos’ do they have so far?

a release date is impossible to say. i wouldn't want to be any more specific than "next year". they've recorded 5 proper demos so far to my knowledge and they're planning to go into another residential studio in august for a week which will probably result in another handful of tracks. it's important to realise that these are only demos and they won't actually start recording the album itself till much later this year.