July 21st, 2026, sees the long-awaited release of IBC, the debut album from Interstellar Blues Cruise. The Mumble went on a deep dive with the band’s singer & songwriter
1. Hello Damo – can you sum yourself up in a single sentence?
Hi – I’m Damo Bullen, a double epic poet from Burnley, just back in town to spend a bit of time with my dad, post-stroke, but still playing with my band in Scotland, who are just about to release a cultural milestone.
2. What’s your global star sign?
I’m a Gemini Fire Dragon.
3. Tell us about your band?
We are Interstellar Blues Cruise – a three-piece. Jonny Harley’s on drums, and me and Daniel Donnelly share bass and guitars. I write the songs and am the lead singer.
4. Before you formed Interstellar Blues Cruise, what were the first sounds, records, or artists that made you want to become a musician?
The Stone Roses album, obviously. I must have listened to that album once or twice a day for most of my early teenage years. I then wrote my first songs at 16, got a band together, then the bass player left, so I decided to learn bass. I always remember playing Stone Roses bass lines on an acoustic guitar at the start of my playing life.
5. Was there a particular song that changed the way you understood what music could do?
I think “The End” and “When the Music’s Over”. Epic songs became the benchmark, I think. “Tumble Weed”, our album closer, is 18 minutes long, for example.
6. Which musicians made you realise that a song could be more than entertainment — that it could be poetry, storytelling, or even a kind of philosophy?
Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison – their lyrics showed me that poetry can fuse with music.
7. As the band’s principal bass player, are there any bass players whose work has particularly shaped the way you hear rhythm and arrangement?
McCartney for the melody, Mani for the groove. It’s no coincidence that they played on Sgt. Pepper and The Stone Roses.
8. Your band plays a bit of blues, a musical form which has influenced everything from rock to psychedelia to indie music. Which artists do you think carried that spirit forward most successfully?
Led Zeppelin are the best example – bluesmen at heart, who wove wonderful sonic tapestries.
9. Is there a particular lyric from another artist that has stayed with you throughout your life?
I guess “Cigarettes & Alcohol” – “When it comes on top, you’ve gotta make it happen.”
10. So, you like Oasis then?
In the early days, yeah. It’s interesting – Noel Gallagher said they were the last of his lot to make it. I beg to differ. I think IBC is gonna be the last. It’s just taken a bit of time. I did have my epic poems to write first.
11. Were you inspired by Oasis?
I guess as a teenager I was, yeah. I mean, I remember getting this NME in early 1994 which had a cassette on it. The last song was “Cigarettes & Alcohol” and I kept listening to it. I bought “Supersonic” the day it came out, and me and Nicky went to see Oasis play in Newport in 1994 when there were about 30 people in the room. I remember looking at the set list and saying, “They’re playing The Beatles, lads.” I also remember them all getting out of a van in Newport and me asking what time they were on. I saw them on my 18th birthday at Avenham Park in Preston. It was a free gig. I got Noel Gallagher to sign the back of a piece of paper that already had The Stone Roses’ signatures from Monmouth on it. Then later that summer we saw them play Glastonbury, and you knew then that things were taking off. We were singing along to Definitely Maybe before it was even released.
12. We’re here to talk about your own debut album, IBC. Its release feels like the arrival point of a long creative voyage — when did you first realise this album had become a major statement rather than just a collection of songs?
It’s just the timing. Within the overall context of my general work, with me completing all my other projects at roughly the same time, it feels like it’s part of the overall gang.
13. If someone looked at your record collection or playlist, what artists would they discover that explain the DNA of Interstellar Blues Cruise?
I have a really big CD collection. In it you’ll find it all – The Beatles, James, Inspiral Carpets, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, The Charlatans, Shed Seven, ’70s psychedelia, all sorts of blues, disco, everything really. There’s a bit of everything everywhere in the album.
14. You completed your second epic poem, The Silver Rose, four months before this album arrives. Do you see the poem and the album as separate works, or two expressions of the same creative energy?
Of course. Poetry and song are close bedfellows. Indeed, it’s the feminine energy that drives my work – the Muses, one could say. In December 2011 I was at Mount Parnassus and dedicated my life to the Muses. They’ve been looking after me ever since – and before. Euterpe, she’s the Muse of song and dance. IBC is her work.
15. Do you see yourself as a poet who makes music, a musician who writes poetry, or is that distinction no longer useful?
I’m a troubadour.
16. Your poetry often works on an epic scale. How did you balance that expansive vision with the intimacy and immediacy required for an album?
It’s nice to work with parameters, you know. An album is a form of artistic expression like any other medium. When you write a classic sonnet, you need 14 lines. When you write an album, you need enough music to fill two sides of a vinyl record – about 45 minutes.
17. Many artists spend years searching for their voice. Do you feel this album represents a moment where your different creative paths — poetry, music, criticism, performance — finally converge?
I would say that, yeah. It’s taken several bands and a lot of recording to get to this point. I think adding the album cover seals the deal – it’s a signature cover.
18. After five years on Arran, you’re moving to Burnley as the album emerges. How has island life shaped the music, and what are you carrying with you into this next chapter?
Yeah, you’re right. I’m from Burnley and my dad’s a bit sick these days, so I’m going there to support the family. It’s also the World Cup, so great timing. As for Arran, I played a lot of guitar there, learning covers, then writing songs for the Conchordia Folio. Last summer I was in a beautiful spot called Sannox. I wrote an album – a Goan love song – by hitting the beach every evening, adding bits to the songs by communing with the sea and osmosis. On one occasion all my lyric sheets blew into the sea. I was paddling, rescuing them like mad. After that I bought a folder from the book and card shop in Brodick. I recorded that in Germany in the winter as demos. It should be a musical of sorts going forward, but some songs might make the next album. We’ll see.
19. Looking back at the five years on Arran, what song, poem, or moment best captures that period of your life?
Arran was one long creative cauldron, to tell you the truth, so all of it was memorable. However, if I had to choose, I wrote a long ballad called “Black Watch Brodick”. There was a war memorial right outside my house, and I noticed several lads had died on the same day. It turns out they were neighbours on Arran and all died at the Battle of Loos. When I found that out I was off, and created a lovely poem which gave me a route into the energy of the island.
20. It was while on Arran that you formed Interstellar Blues Cruise. What was the initial impulse?
I think it’s just a feeling you get. It had been six years since the last time I was in a band. December 2017 was the last time I played in my own band – a Tinky Disco gig at the Stramash in Edinburgh. There’s nowt like a bit of fallow.
21. If Interstellar Blues Cruise is a musical voyage and the epic poems are literary journeys, what is the destination you are ultimately searching for as an artist?
Excellence. Mastery. Innovation.
22. Did you think about the album’s musical journey as having different landscapes, moods, or destinations?
Different planets, really. The original idea was to divide the songs into solar systems. The Love Star would have the love planet songs, the Imperial Star would have the Bonaparte songs, etc. Planet Tinky had “Empty Bottle”, for example. In the end, though, less is more, right?
23. You have described creative projects almost like worlds being built. If Interstellar Blues Cruise is a world, who are the travellers aboard it?
All the world, really, and me and the boys are the entertainment.
24. Was forming Interstellar Blues Cruise a natural progression from your poetry, or did it feel like stepping into a completely different artistic world?
It was just time to jam.
25. When did Interstellar Blues Cruise first come into existence?
The band had our first jam in February 2024, down Music Base in Leith, Edinburgh. I was on bass, Jonny Harley on drums and Daniel Donnelly on guitar.
26. Tell us about your relationship with Jonny Harley?
Me and Jonny go back about 15 years. The first time I met him, though, was a couple of years earlier, when he came to a house party I was throwing at Heather Lodge in East Lothian. Then, two years later, a mutual friend brought us together. I played bass, he played drums, and we’ve been married ever since. We played together in The Woods, were founder members of The Victor Pope Band, then Tinky Disco. Interstellar is the fourth band we’ve played in together. That’s well over 60 different songs we’ve jammed out on. We really bounce off each other’s energy. It’s easy.
27. What was Tinky Disco like?
Oh, that was a load of fun. Loads of musicians. I shared songwriting and vocals with Mike – aka MC Mad from Groove Armada. He lives in Edinburgh to be near his daughter. We ended up doing The Tinky Disco Show, like a mockumentary. It was cool, and the tunes were banging.
28. Let’s talk about Daniel. When did you start working together, and what was it about that creative partnership that made you feel this could become something special?
It began with him reviewing for me. Then we met, then we started hanging out. When I moved to Arran I started spending a lot more time at his place in Glasgow. It was like a transport hub and meet-up session. Anyway, we started jamming songs for ages, really. Then one day, after about three years, I said, “I think we’re ready for some drums.”
29. What did Daniel bring to the project that you couldn’t have created alone?
He’s got an amazing voice, his guitar work is excellent, and he’s also a great bass player. In fact, although I’d say I was the band’s bass player, he actually plays bass on four tracks of the album. It’s also cool when we play live, swapping instruments. Not many bands do that.
30. Are there particular guitar players or styles that have influenced the sound you and Daniel are creating?
Daniel’s made for the sixties and seventies, and Nirvana. He knows all the Doors, Beatles and Nirvana tunes, so that’s him. I’m a groovemeister, I’d say, but I do have some folky roots from my teenage years in Burnley.
31. The band name itself feels like a manifesto — part blues tradition, part cosmic adventure. How did you arrive at the name, and what did you want it to communicate?
Jonny liked Interstellar, but there is a band with that name, so I thought we’d have to add something. So Blues was a natural word. Then Blues sounds like booze, from where you get the Blues Cruise. A funny coincidence is Stella Artois. In fact, one girl thought we were into Stella, not Interstellar.
32. Many great bands are built around chemistry between people as much as individual talent. What is the chemistry between you, Jonny and Daniel that defines I.B.C.?
Well, we’re good friends first and foremost, with generally positive outlooks on life and living. That fusion of good energy translates via the music, I think.
33. Did you have a clear vision of the band’s sound from the beginning, or did the identity of I.B.C. reveal itself through playing together?
At the beginning it was just blues. In fact, Jonny, the drummer, who’s packed up his sticks for a while, had said that he’d only ever consider playing again if it was something like that. That must have stuck in my mind because when I got in touch with him I said it was to play mainly blues. So we did, about 10 songs’ worth, of which “Going Away Baby” made the album. Anyway, after a few months Jonny said, “Why don’t we play some of your songs?” I guess I was waiting for the green light from him on that, and off we went. That would have been about May–June 2024 when we started introducing my songs. The first jam had been in February of that year.
34. How do you approach the relationship between guitar, drums and bass in the arrangements? Are they supporting the song, challenging each other, or creating a conversation?
Well, the songs are very groove-orientated. That’s purely down to Jonny — he’s magnificent at that. Both mine and Daniel’s bass lines are easy to lay down there. Guitar comes next, which is also generally quite groovy, and is the connector to the melodies. I think, as a band, all the component parts work really well together.
35. What makes a guitar part memorable to you — technical skill, emotion, originality, simplicity, or something harder to define?
It has to make your ears prick up.
36. The best rhythm sections often create a feeling before the listener even notices the individual parts. How important is that sense of movement and flow in I.B.C.?
It’s massive. It’s a dance album, really. Just like The Stone Roses were played in the clubs to dance to, and just like the Sgt. Pepper songs were. It’s a certain style of dancing too — not just bopping, but moving.
37. The Mumble loves a bit of bass. What qualities do you look for in a bass line — does it provide the foundation, a melodic counterpoint, or another voice within the song?
A bass line needs to lock the song to the groove, yeah, but also do something interesting. Some of the best songs in the world have the bass line as the most prominent sound. Plus, I personally like to chuck in what I call my twiddly bits — the little flourishes which define the bass player’s voice, the accents, let’s say.
38. How much of the band’s identity comes from improvisation and discovery in the rehearsal room?
A big part of it. We enjoy the rehearsals very much. Lots of fun, lots of nice moments. I think that energy comes across in our live performances.
39. Was there a particular song or rehearsal where you first thought, “This is no longer an idea — this is a real band”?
When we were recording in Malta. A mate of ours, Alan Fortune, came along. His words were, “Which band does that?” I’m like, “Interstellar Blues Cruise — that’s what.”
40. When did you start recording IBC?
It was the first week of September 2024, in Substation Studios, Rosyth, near Dunfermline.
41. Why Substation?
When I was looking for a studio, I took into mind the fact that we all lived in different places. I was on Arran, Daniel in Glasgow, Jonny in Dalkeith. So Substation in Dunfermline seemed a good kind of central place. There’s buses from Glasgow, trains from Edinburgh, plus our mate Ewan lives in Dunfermline, so we would sometimes stay over at his. In fact, Ewan ended up coming to Malta with us and laying some vocals down. He also got the job of editing Dovydas’s sax parts at Substation once we got back from Malta.
42. Tell us about that first session at Substation?
These were spent getting the drums right. From then on it was all overdubs for the next three months. The first bunch of songs were ready in December. Three months after that we went to Malta to continue recording the album.
43. Why did you record some of the album in Malta?
I was working on the Madchester Conchord at the time and was inspired by New Order recording Technique in Ibiza in 1988, just at the start of the ecstasy revolution. I was like to the lads, “Let’s go get some sunshine.” We were there for 11 days all in — a gig during Carnevale, a gig in Valletta, and three full days recording at Temple Studios near Mellieħa. Also in Malta were a couple of singers we’d invited over — Ewan from Dunfermline and Li-Ann from Burnley. There was also Dovydas, a Lithuanian who played the sax you hear on the album.
44. How did you get a Lithuanian saxophone player to go to Malta?
Well, he and his girlfriend had been guests at my Airbnb on Arran. I then visited them in Vilnius — a great city, by the way. It was there that I saw him in his full genius pomp. He’s like the general of the baritone army of Lithuania, and gets an amazing tune out of anything blowable. His sax gives the album its signature sound.
45. How did you find the studio there?
Temple Studios was great — this sea-girt old Maltese house in a fairly rural area, for Malta. There’s not much space on the island. David, the producer, was a seasoned pro. I think he was a little taken aback by our ramshackle approach to being in a band, but by the end he’d warmed to us and said, “Next time you’re here we’ll do it slightly differently,” which I took as a tacit invitation to return. I sent him the final mixes and he was impressed at how much we’d done to the tracks while still keeping the sun-soaked Maltese core.
46. How was the album mixed and mastered?
The mixing took place mostly remotely. Athol would send me a track, I’d bounce back my edits — like, “Take the second guitar out from 3:25 until 3:33,” or, “Double up the sax to make it meatier from 1:45 to 2:13.” That kind of vibe.
47. What can listeners expect emotionally from the album: a journey of escape, confrontation, celebration, reflection, or something else entirely?
I want to take people on a journey. We visit Jesus, Napoleon Bonaparte, supermodels, Tinky existence, love songs, and La Viuda at the end — a demon witch woman who leaves you bleeding out in the New Mexico desert. Lots of highs and lows there. There’s two love songs side by side, actually, “Faith, Love & Understanding” and “Sh-Ra”, which approach relationships from different angles. I like that.
48. When people hear Interstellar Blues Cruise for the first time, what do you hope they recognise about the spirit in which the band was created?
I hope they’ll hear the traditions which we have tapped into as a band and enjoy our own take on them.
49. If someone encounters the IBC album years from now, what do you hope they understand about the person and the artist who made it?
It was Damo, weren’t it? What a radge.
50. What is all this about ‘The Trilogy is Complete’?
Sgt. Pepper’s, The Stone Roses, and now IBC — it’s obvious, innit? I don’t see a classic album as an album that becomes a classic. A classic album is a work of art in itself.
51. What makes a classic album, then?
Every song on a classic album should be an anthem. At the end of each song you can hear in your head the start of the next song, and when it comes you get a massive rush of dopamine. They have the ingredients. Like a sonnet has 14 lines, a classic album has 9–13 anthems. Well, I’m very much an emulator. When searching for excellence in art, you need to achieve the baseline of the very best that’s been done before. So with IBC I’m like, I have to make it as good as Sgt. Pepper’s and The Stone Roses. Simple as that. That’s why it took 22 months.
52. What do albums like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Stone Roses’ debut mean to you personally as artistic landmarks?
They changed everything, really. The Beatles showed just what was possible, while The Stone Roses helped to define British guitar music. They showed that music could be both cool and euphoric at the same time.
53. Why do you think Sgt. Pepper’s and The Stone Roses had such an impact?
Well, it’s the strength of the songs. Imagine hearing Sgt. Pepper’s for the first time. They revolutionised what you could do with a pop song. Then The Stone Roses came along with something ethereal and seditious, and still wrote pop songs.
54. What draws you to those albums?
Well, two reasons. First, they’re banging albums, and secondly, as an artist I see them as models. I’ve gone from worshipping them to emulating them. Both albums also possess a fantastic set of songs, beautiful vocals and superb musicianship. As a bass player I also love McCartney’s bass. I’ll just listen to his playing all the way through sometimes. I’m a bit like that with Mani’s bass on The Stone Roses album. In fact, I’ve learnt all the bass lines from both albums.
55. You weren’t alive when Sgt. Pepper’s was released, but you were when The Stone Roses album came out. Are you closer to the latter?
Yeah, of course. I used to listen to it twice a day during my teenage years. Anyway, when I was 18 in 1994, me and my best mate Nicky went to Rockfield Studios and listened to Second Coming by The Stone Roses six months before it was released. Just burst right in. Anyway, track 90, “The Fuzz”, is on that album because we told them to put it there. It’s destiny that I complete that trilogy.
56. Sgt. Pepper arrived as a moment when popular music expanded what an album could be. Do you see Interstellar Blues Cruise as part of that tradition of the album being a journey, a narrative, or even a piece of modern folklore?
I do, yeah. But it’s the next album where I’m really going to push the art form. This one was all about emulating, joining the gang.
57. Both Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Stone Roses created the sense of a band building a complete world rather than simply releasing songs. Did those records influence the way you approached Interstellar Blues Cruise as an artistic statement?
Totally. The album is a cohesive collection. I must have had about 150 songs to choose from, 13 of which got recorded and nine made the album. It was an ongoing selective process. All the songs just had to fit.
58. Which songs from the recording sessions didn’t make the album?
“Freedom”, “Seminal Lives”, “Bawling Blues” and “Shoe Shine Blues”. There’s a good chance we’ll re-record at least a couple of them for the next album.
59. Have the band made any videos to support your album?
We’ve made two videos so far. “Shirley’s Bouncers” was filmed at Substation, while “Seminal Lives” was done over a few places, but more detail later. I’m just about to embark on a few more videos now. I’m also going to put the entire album on this film I’m making called Millennium Man. It was filmed in the year 2000, but I’m just getting round to editing it now. Luckily I’ve got a banging soundtrack.
60. What’s the film about?
In the year 2000 I was living this mad existence where I’d sign on in Hammersmith, then head south for two weeks, then sign on again, then head north for two weeks. Rinse and repeat. Eventually I thought, I need to film and document this.
61. Looking ahead, do you imagine the next Interstellar Blues Cruise album continuing the cosmic blues journey?
Definitely. We’re heading to a galaxy near you very soon.
62. If Interstellar Blues Cruise is the first voyage of this project, what have you learned from making it that will shape the next album — musically, lyrically and philosophically?
We’ve learned that we love Athol, the producer at Substation. He really understands the music and the way we work. We’ve also learned how to make the time work better for us. There’s no point spending three hours putting parts down and another three hours editing the best bits. If you’re practised thoroughly you can get the part right first time.
63. How much gigging have the band done?
Not as much as we’d have liked. We debuted on Arran at the Ormidale Hotel in July 2024, played a gig at Bannermans in August of that year, followed by two September dates at the Royal Dyche in Burnley and a venue in Keighley. The next gig was in December at Leith Arches, followed by a gig in Gozo at the end of February. Then we stopped gigging for a long time, just playing back at the Ormidale in June on Arran. We have a date coming up at The Biscuit Factory in Leith in August. Once the album’s released, we’re going to start creating tours to promote it going forward.
64. What does the live experience of Interstellar Blues Cruise offer that the album alone cannot?
You can see the musicianship in action. We can certainly play. Plus, I think we really tap into the music physically too. Watching Jonny play is a dream. I like a wee bop about. It certainly enhances the experience, I’m sure. And we’re tight too, so what you hear on the album you’ll get pretty much the same live.
65. How important is improvisation to the band’s sound? Do songs continue to evolve every time you play them live?
Not so much. We like to stick to our guns, though me and Daniel do have the moment where we do a guitar solo.
66. Let’s talk about the songs now. When you begin writing a song, does the idea usually start with a lyric, a melody, a guitar figure, a rhythm, or a feeling?
It’s different every time, but the best songs come from moments when I’m at complete peace. A visitation of the Muse, you could say. The songs are born through certain painless labour pains.
67. Have you ever put one of your poems to music? What makes a piece of writing demand a musical life?
Never my own poems, but I have put music to several other poets’ work — Keats’ La Belle Dame sans Merci, “The White Birds” by Yeats, a number of Shakespeare’s songs, Byron, Shelley. That’s Oratoria Romantica. In fact, I wrote two oratorios in January 2024 on Arran.
68. What about the songs on IBC — how did you choose them?
They came from different impulses. Some are just pure classics and needed to be there, a couple by consent from band members. There’s also the pure blues number, which felt obligatory to be on an album by a band with “Blues” in its name.
69. What is your favourite moment on the album?
There’s a lot, but if I had to choose, I love the ending of “Cat’s Parade”. Pure Sgt. Pepper era Beatles, that.
70. How did you get the running order for the album?
I was in Spain in May — Torrevecchia. I was staying in a caravan park writing my history book. Anyway, I got this dodgy Spanish coke one day. Great come-up, terrible come-down. Anyway, on the up I spent hours dancing to the tunes in the sun, getting the exact songs and the exact running order.
71. Tell us about “Jesus Country Home”?
This song is straight from my acid days in 1996, written mainly in a session in my little bedroom on Arran Street in Burnley, just before I went off to Barnsley Music College. The double chorus of “How Does Your Soul Feel?” and “Give Me the Peace” were actually written by two different people. Tam Treanor wrote the first one. We used to jam it together at the first Jockstock. The “Give Me the Peace” section was written by Daniel McGeever, who had this really cool band in the same era called Alfonso. They played at a Jockstock. That’s the 2005–2019 period.
72. What is a Jockstock?
Jockstock was well cool. My missus at the time was off farming stock. She was meant to get tickets for Glastonbury for her and her mate, but we went out the night before and she missed the phone lines. So I’m like, “Your dad has a field. He’s called Jock. Let’s have our own festival.” And so Jockstock was born. It was quite funny — this cheeky newcomer to Scotland from Burnley had, within 12 months of arriving, pulled off one of the coolest parties Scotland’s ever seen.
73. OK, back to the tracks. Tell us about “Bonaparte Bloodline”?
This is from the Concordia Folio, written on Arran in 2023. It was one of the songs from Flight of the White Eagles, about the 1812 retreat from Moscow by Napoleon. It’s all about when Napoleon’s son was born in 1811. Of all the songs it’s got a harder Nirvana-style edge, which I was glad to texturise into the album. It’s partly where the album began. After Jonny had said we could do some of my tunes with the band, I sent him a video of this saying, “What d’you think?” He was like, “Wow, that’s banging.”
74. Tell us about “The Cat’s Parade”?
Oh, I love this tune. It’s from 2009. My girlfriend from the Jockstock era, right, she was doing my head in, so I went on an epic coast walk from Wick to Ullapool. Anyway, she decided to join me near the Summer Isles and dumped me. I’m like, “You could have waited till I got back home, love. No need to come all this way.” Anyway, she starts singing the first verse of “Cat’s Parade” — music and lyrics. I’m like, “That’s banging.” Couldn’t get it out of my head. So I ended up writing the rest of the song. It’s about supermodels, by the way.
75. Tell us about “Shirley’s Bouncers”?
This is from my 2022 set of original Tinky Disco songs. It’s where I cut up disco tracks, knit the instrumentals together and write my own lyrics over the top. This one’s a round — singing the same lyrics again — but it’s well funky. Basically, it’s about a mad night out.
76. Tell us about “Faith, Love & Understanding”?
This song is a mixture of different parts. The mellow bit was written on a beach in Newquay in 1994. Me and Nicky had gone there to visit my girlfriend at the time after Glastonbury. The main song was written in Penicuik for my Jockstock girlfriend during one of our more emotional moments (she was hard work on that front). Then I added the middle eight when it became a song for the Albion Concord. Added a bit more drama.
77. Tell us about “She-Ra”?
This song was written in India in the winter of 2013–14, pretty much as it is now. On the album there’s Michael Scott playing as well. He’d come over to Substation for a session.
78. Tell us about “Empty Bottles”?
This song was from Arran in the summer of 2024. The band had begun by then. The song came from two things. I was with this girl in Burnley and she said, “Ooh, she’s a right ten bob billionaire, her,” a phrase that stuck in my mind. Then back on Arran I watched St. Elmo’s Fire — Brat Pack era — and straight away the whole song, more or less, was written in ten minutes.
79. Tell us about “Going Away Baby”?
This is the only song that survived from the first bunch of blues songs we jammed. It was also written by James A. Lane and recorded by Jimmy Rogers in 1950, which makes it copyright-free. It also gives the band a chance to do what it says on the tin — a bit of blues. The previous song, “Empty Bottles”, is bluesy too, so it’s a nice way to finish the album off.
80. Tell us about “Tumbleweed”?
The album closer is 18 minutes long. A great album needs a great closer, usually a long one. “I Am the Resurrection” is the benchmark — a big wig-out at the end and everything. The main song was mostly written when I was only 21, in a house in Isleworth just before I set off to Europe to become a poet. In fact, I used my rent money. Anyway, I think it’s my best song. It’s all about being shot in the New Mexico desert by a demon woman. It’s my best song, but I’ve never performed it live or recorded it. I was waiting for the right band, and Interstellar is that band, and IBC is the album. I mean, who waits nearly 30 years to record and play their greatest song?
81. You released some of the tracks as part of Roger’s Golden Ratio: Part One. What’s that all about?
Well, the first lot of recordings was eight tunes. I’m into the golden ratio of eight and five. I mean, there’s eight white keys and five black keys on a piano scale, for example. The Malta tunes were five, so that was supposed to be Part Two. Then the full album was going to be 13 tracks, but in the end we just chose nine. But in a way that’s what the golden ratio does — it drives life. Fractals are that. So by adhering to the 8:5 formula we eventually got what we were looking for.
82. Let’s talk more about your epic poetry for a bit. I mean, The Mumble hasn’t come across many in our time. Your epic poems operate on a very different scale from most contemporary poetry. What first drew you towards the epic form rather than shorter, more contained poems?
At first it was timing. I became a poet about 1998 and felt I had to write something to celebrate the millennium. I opted for a history of Britain up to that time — Testamenti Imperatrix. All of a sudden I’m writing long historical poems, very bardic, and it all just grew from there. I wrote the first parts of Axis and Allies, my main epic, during that period, in 1999.
83. Do you see the epic poem as a way of preserving stories, characters and cultural moments that might otherwise disappear?
For sure. It’s living cinema, innit? A movie in the mind. I want people to be in the room with the events I write about. Not abstract — flesh and blood.
84. How do you know when an epic poem is finished? Is there a moment where the journey reaches its destination, or do you have to choose to let it go?
I guess it’s never finished. You can make corrections till you die, but it’s all about the overall structure — the architecture. When you feel satisfied with that, and all the bits are full of poetry, then the poem can be considered finished. Tweaks are like tattoos — you can put them on later, but the flesh-and-blood existence is there.
85. The epic tradition stretches from Homer and Dante through to modern writers. Where do you see your own work fitting within that long conversation?
For some reason I got the baton next. I hope the next poet to get it can learn from my work, and also my engagement with our predecessors.
86. Your poetry often combines mythology, personal experience and cultural commentary. Is the epic form the ideal vehicle for bringing all those worlds together?
It is, yeah. Epic poetry needs to penetrate every nook and cranny of existence — put a voice to everything.
87. Do you approach writing an epic poem more like composing a symphony — with recurring themes, motifs and movements — than like writing a conventional poem?
I never looked at it like that, but I guess you do. You return to themes and characters like leitmotifs. For example, in Axis and Allies there’s two main families — the English Sumners and the German Stemmlers. It is through their personal stories that I show the progress of the Second World War and its effects on ordinary people.
88. What are the biggest challenges of sustaining a single creative vision across thousands of lines of poetry?
Staying alive.
89. Do you think modern audiences have lost touch with the idea of the epic — of art that asks people to commit time, attention and imagination?
Of course they have. We live in a swiping, TikTok-video world of instant gratification. But there’s also an element that previous epics don’t connect with modernity. The last English-language epic was Byron’s Don Juan, which was an amazing, zeitgeist-slicing piece that everyone loved. But we don’t live in those times anymore, so the poem has lost its hold. Of my two epics, The Silver Rose is for my zeitgeist, while Axis and Allies is forever. It’s WWII, man. It needed proper epic treatment.
90. Has writing epic poetry changed your understanding of rhythm and musicality — does the poet’s ear influence the songwriter, and vice versa?
If you write metrically, yeah. Of course, as a classical poet I use rhyme. The two intertwine. The lyrics become musical themselves. I use cynghanedd, a Welsh bardic device, to give my poetry more music.
91. What role does humour play in your epic work? Great epics often contain both the heroic and the absurd — is that contrast important to you?
I like to think I’m a funny guy at times. The Silver Rose has some funny bits, yeah, and the album too. No harm in having a laugh from time to time.
92. Do you write with a particular future reader in mind — someone discovering these works decades from now — or is the process more immediate and personal?
I’m definitely writing for the future. I’m a natural archivist because I fully appreciate the labours of previous archivists, from whose work I have drawn much manna. I’d be happy if people read my epics today, but I’ve always been conscious that I’m writing as part of a tradition, not to please the clamourings of public popularity. Saying that, I’ve kind of invented a new form of epic out of necessity, really. It’s nice to be heard. That’s why, within the Concordia Folio, Madchester is like a new epic poem for the North, and one that can be watched as well as read.
93. Tell us more about the Concordia Folio?
The Concordia Folio is my attempt to emulate Shakespeare. He did 36 plays in the First Folio. I’m on 20-odd plays now. They’re all musicals, by the way, but I call them Conchords — it means “with chords”. So I’m approaching 200 songs at the moment. That’s a big pool of songs to choose from.
94. What draws you to the Madchester era, and why does it deserve an epic treatment?
I’m a Burnley boy. I grew up on the tailcoats of the Madchester movement. I was 12 when The Stone Roses album came out. I didn’t take my first E till the Peckham Laserdrome in 1992, so I missed it really, but the music was very much a part of my fabric still. Roll on three decades and I felt drawn to recreating what I missed first time round — to be in the Madchester moment, so to speak. I hope what I’m doing helps others in the future do the same. I was walking through Edinburgh on the Oasis gig day last summer and saw the excitement in a lot of teenagers’ eyes, born after Oasis originally split up. Roses fans are born every day when they hear the album. Now they’re gonna get to be in the room with their heroes.
95. The Concordia Folio and the Madchester epic suggest you are creating a connected body of work. Do you see these poems as individual works, or chapters in one larger mythology?
In the end I want everyone to have a Damo bookcase in their studies, with all my works in a row. It’ll look good.
96. Getting back to the album now — the cover is quite memorable. How did it come about?
It evolved with the album, I guess. The central square is the Roger’s Golden Ratio: Part One image. Then I had the idea of nine boxes for the songs. It became a mixture of mine and Daniel’s artwork, plus loads of graffiti art I’d seen on the walls around Torrevieja.
97. After making this first album, what have you learned about songwriting and musicianship that will influence the next Interstellar Blues Cruise record?
Well, the next album is called Remember Where You’re From, by the way. This is going to be based around dancey programmed stuff, over which we will overlay instruments. Jonny is going to a few festivals this summer. I told him to record the best dance stuff he hears so we can recreate it at home. Then we start recording on 24 November, the sixth anniversary of the first Sgt. Pepper’s session, after which I’ll be taking the band to Goa and then Sawmills Studio. I hope to release the album on May 26th next year, when Sgt. Pepper’s is 60 years old.
98. Is the 60 years thing of any significance?
Sure it is. The Indians call 60-year periods “God years”. Sixty seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour — that kind of thing. Time works in cycles. I mean, in 1907 Buddy Bolden died, who was pretty much the founder of modern jazz. Sixty years after that Sgt. Pepper’s was released, and I hope that 60 years after that the second Interstellar Blues Cruise album is going to be released. Bolden and Bullen, with the Beatles in between. Three Bs, innit.
99. What songs are going to be on the new album — are they written already?
I’m not sure what’s going to make the next album. I’m looking forward to it, really. I’m guessing the groove and feel will come first from the dancey skeletons we’re going to create over the next few months. I’ll know from my oeuvre which songs could fit the skeletons, or whether I’ll need to write new songs, or maybe even mish-mash loads of lyrics and tunes together. We’ll see.
100. Where will you be recording the next album?
The plan is to start at Substation, then Goa for some overdubs, then Sawmills Studio next spring. It’s where “Fool’s Gold” and Definitely Maybe were recorded. It’ll be apt. Watch this space…
INTERSTELLAR BLUES CRUISE
IBC
AVAILBLE ON ALL PLATFORMS
21/07/26