In the 'Driver Seat

Swervedriver seems to always be lumped in with those bands, and you obviously had some connections, peers on the same labels and some stylistic similarities. But it seemed like you were bringing more rock to the table than some of the other bands like My Bloody Valentine or Lush.

Having a supposed genre of music... I mean, you're never going to like all of the bands. There were a bunch of those bands that I liked and some that I thought were shit, you know? Likewise there were grunge bands that I thought were great and certainly a hell of a lot of grunge bands that I thought were shit.

It does seem like some new bands are doing a really great job at reinterpreting the supposed genre though. Would you agree?

Yeah. At the end of the day if a band does really do something honest that ends up being called shoegaze, then fair enough. But there are some bands that follow it almost like it's a code — that you have to have a certain drum sound and a certain haircut and certain guitars, even.

What are your plans for the future? Can we expect more solo output or do you have other projects in mind?

It would be good to get another solo album out next year if I can. The songs are there and it would be good to follow up on this one. There's also this thing the Setting Suns that I've been doing with Sam [Fogarino] from Interpol and we just recorded an EP that I believe is going to come out around November. Depending on how busy we are, there are loose plans to record an album as well.

Any chance of a Swervedriver reunion down the line?

Well, it's great that people still talk about the band. It's been ten years since Swervedriver has done anything and twenty years since the band formed. Obviously a lot of bands have been reforming lately. A lot of these bands you go and see them, and it's really quite awe-inspiring. I went and saw the Pixies when they reformed and it was kind of spine-tingling. So, who knows? Perhaps.