After a seemingly very quiet few years the Levellers returned in 2002 with Green Blade Rising. Just before it’s release, I got on the blower to the band’s bassist, Jeremy Cunningham to ask him where the hell he’d been. In doing this I managed to put my foot in it at the first question but luckily I managed to get away with it and it all went very well. If only all musicians were this nice and chatty…

Indigo Flow: First off, congratulations on the new album.

Jeremy Cunningham: Thank you.

IF: How come it took you five years from Mouth To Mouth to get to Green Blade Rising?

JC: Well no, we had another on out after Mouth To Mouth.

IF: Oh sorry! I completely missed that one!

JC: Well, a lot of people did, it was on a different record company - on Warner Brothers. Basically, after Mouth To Mouth we had a greatest hits album, which did pretty well (well, very well) and then China our old record company got bought by Warner Brothers, [along with] all the bands on it. So we found ourselves on a major company with no wish be there. But anyway, we recorded another album, which was called Hello Pig, which is quite an experimental record - Nothing like any other previous Levellers stuff - but the record company were absolutely useless, you know, they didn’t know how to market it because it was so different, we didn’t do any promo, even our fans didn’t really like it ‘cos it was so different and we hated being on that major company.

After that album we managed to get out of that contract and then we did a tour. So we toured that album for a year, this new album and getting a new record deal took a year to come together - to write, come together, get the deal and everything - so that’s two years. The greatest hits we toured for a year, so that’s three. Mouth To Mouth we toured for a year, so that’s four and then all the writing and a couple of holidays probably accounts for the rest of it.

IF: So are you confident to get back on top with this new album?

JC: Um, well, I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes. I mean we’re pleased with it, pleased with the record, so that’s as much as we can do really. It’s up to the public now. We’re touring and that seems to be going okay. You know, we’re just looking forward to getting out there and playing it really.

IF: Where does the title, Green Blade Rising Come from?

JC: It actually comes from a very old song of ours that we wrote way before we recorded any albums or anything and it was just a song about standing up at all the barriers people were putting in your way, you know, especially in those days when we were a young band trying to start out and everyone’s trying to rip you off or just ignore you, which is even worse. We just always liked the title, to us it’s always summed up what we’re about and it’s a good proactive title, you know, and we’re just really anti apathy. So that’s why it’s called that.

IF: How did you go about writing the new album? A lot of it sounds like it was written from the point of view of playing it live.

JC: Yeah, well we did really. ‘Cos the last album we did, Hello Pig, we actually recorded that to be not played live really [laughs]. Even though we recorded it live we had a whole load of other musicians in and we did a lot of studio editing afterwards and backing vocals, overdubs and stuff. So when we came to writing this one we really wanted it to be stripped down so we could play it live, or most it live and we just wanted it to be more up-tempo than the previous one, which is quick slow and out there. We just wanted this to be more of a, you know, written-in-your-bedroom kind of thing, which is basically what it was. You know, just written on acoustic guitars and bashed out.

IF: Back to basics then?

JC: Yeah. We recorded most of the basic tracks live - guitars, bass, drums and singing - and then we put on all the melodic stuff and the backing vocals and everything after that.

IF: Staying with playing live, why do you use the name Drunk In Public when you play acoustic gigs?

Well, for starters, it’s a different line-up. It’s the two singer/songwriters from the Levellers, Mark and Simon, and our fiddle player John. Then there’s another songwriter/guitarist called Rev Hammer, it’s those four. Also because they play really small clubs and pubs, so you don’t wanna advertise the Levellers ‘cos it’d be madness. Yeah, they like to keep it low key and play in small places… and they do just get really drunk and play old folk songs, Levellers songs, Rev Hammer songs, you know, and traditional stuff. It’s just like a night out in a folk club really, they just like getting to places where the Levellers don’t go and getting pissed and meeting people.

IF: Well, it’s the kind of places no one goes like Orkney and the Scilly Isles, isn’t it?

JC: Well, the Levellers are going up to Shetland in December to play a festival. So even the full band likes to get to places off the beaten track, which not everybody does. ‘Cos basically our fans write to us and ask us to come to places and if it’s the right sized venue we’ll usually go, if we can fit it into the itinery.

IF: That’s quite a bit of travelling though.

JC: Yeah [laughs]. Well, we never listen to them as far as, you know, when they say, “why can’t you write an album that sounds like this?” We don’t listen to people when they as things like that but if they’re giving us their favourite venue, we take all that on board.

IF: When are you touring?

JC: Er, we start on October the 20th in Luxembourg, then we go all ’round Europe ’til November-ish. Then we have a couple of weeks off and then November/December we go all ’round the UK. Then after Christmas, I think, we go back and do Belgium, Holland and Scandinavia. And then I think we’re possibly gonna do the UK again after that, in March. Then we’re looking at America after that and then in the summer we’re gonna try doing our Green Blade Fayre again, which is a festival we tried doing this summer but the Police scuppered us at the last license hearing, so we couldn’t do it in end. But next year we reckon we’ll get the license, so after about May we’re gonna put all our energies into doing that.

IF: So, quite a full calendar then.

JC: Yeah, it always is.

IF: Right then, let’s finish up by talking about the Metway Sessions. How did they start?

Well, because we have a studio here. In fact we have several studios here but we have one that actually belongs to us and, er, we just started off with us recording our albums and then we thought, when we go on tour we could hire it out to other bands. So then that started and we were going on tour and hiring it out to other major bands to come and record. But, you know, most of them like to go home at weekends and so we thought it would be a good idea to let the weekends go for nothing and let local bands come in and record for nothing. They come in and record a couple of songs and then the session gets broadcast on Juice FM, which is the local radio station and then we promote a night, or a couple of nights a month for the bands that have done the sessions to play at in local venues in [Brighton].

It’s just ‘cos we hate seeing waste, you know, we hate seeing the studio with no one in it and we remember the times when we were a band trying to start off and everyone was out to rip you off, trying to stitch you up in one way or another, and we though it would be good to do something for local bands that didn’t have any catches in it or strings attached, hidden clauses or anything.

Now some of the bands that have done the sessions are starting to get quite well known. Electric Soft Parade are the best known example. [They] were in last week recording.

IF: Were they still doing it for free or do they have to pay now?

JC: No no, the sessions are always free.