Making new music without blurred vision

Graham Coxon was part of Blur when they reformed to record 'Think Tank'. Then they showed him the door - but he's happy now, he tells Brian Boyd

When Blur re-assembled to record their 2003 Think Tank album, guitarist Graham Coxon, a childhood friend of singer Damon Albarn and essential creative cog of the band, had no idea he would be thrown out of the band. After two days in the studio, Coxon received a call from the band's manager saying the other three members of the group didn't want him around - something about his "attitude".

The band didn't want to be seen to be sacking Coxon, but they did ask him to leave. "It was like they opened the door and I just walked through it. It was more a "can you go away until further notice" than anything else. I don't feel that bitchy or bitter about what happened, I just feel that of all the people who misunderstood me in the world, they [the rest of Blur] were probably the ones who did so the most".

Throughout his 20s - when Blur rivalled Oasis to be kings of the Britpop castle - Coxon was a reluctant rock/pop star, and left most of the talking to voluble Albarn. By his own admission, he was a "scruffy, complaining little brat". He was also an alcoholic. "Drinking has vandalised my mind completely," he says. "My drinking was linked to my experience of being in Blur, I was happiest in the band at the beginning; as time went on I felt the music was more angled towards commercial success. I never felt any real connection to that Britpop laddishness or football or any of that. I began to get lost."

Ironically, he was asked to leave the band when he had got himself sober. It was the musical differences that did for him in the end. Back when the Parklife album launched Blur into the mainstream, the band were talking about how much they hated US grunge music, in particular Nirvana, and how glad they were to be creating a new form of British pop music to rival the then US dominance of the charts. Coxon now admits he did, in fact, love Nirvana, but went along with the game because it seemed like the right thing to do.

When Blur began to sound like an indie Chas 'n' Dave, Coxon would quietly retreat back to scratchy, lo-fi guitar rock (Pavement et al). He was desperately unhappy with Blur albums such as The Great Escape and even if the band did rescue themselves with the 1997 Blur album, it had become clear that he and the band had irrevocable musical differences.

He still doesn't know the exact reason he was asked to leave. "I think Blur just stopped giving me 'one more chance' - but I think they stopped giving me chances at the wrong time - I'm very different now to how I was three to four years ago," he says, referring to his new state of sobriety.

While with Blur he had released four solo albums, all low-key experimental efforts that seemed like he was playing the sort of music that he wasn't allowed to in Blur. "Those four albums were side-projects but this album is something different, because it's not me doing something outside the band's time, it's me entirely solo," he says of Happiness In Magazines, his critically lauded and most accessible work to date.

The album is bright and shiny where the previous ones were dark and gloomy. The songs boast more pop hooks, Coxon seems more relaxed - especially about his singing voice - and the production is cleaner. "I actually had fun recording these songs," he says. "I feel I like myself a lot more but I'm just relieved with this album - the album is a reaction to my freedom."

When asked whether he would have made this type of album if he were still in Blur, he says: "No, not at all, this is me, not me doing something outside Blur. I got in a producer called Stephen Street [Morrissey's ex-producer] to work on it and it does have a different sound to anything I've done before. I just feel I'm able to try out so many different things - things I wouldn't have been able to do in the band".

A lot of the reviews have mentioned The Cars - the new wave US band of the 1970s and 1980s - as an influence on Happiness In Magazines. "They'd certainly be favourites of mine," he says. "People have mentioned Split Enz also - all the punk-pop favourites. Maybe there is that mid- to late-1970s sound to it - but then that was exactly the time when I really started listening to music so that was bound to be an influence. I think the relationship between the guitars and drums on this has a mid- to late-1970s feel, so maybe in making this record, I was reaffirming my musical beginnings."

He agrees his music is a lot less self-conscious than it used to be. On his previous albums he never really exercised his voice or explored the potential in his songs. Perhaps it's no surprise when he says they were self-produced.

"I think certainly my voice has changed, or rather how I use my voice has changed," he says. "I think, overall, what this album represents is the changes in me. I'm more accepting of myself now, warts and all; I don't panic that much about my bad points and always feeling I have to change them. I suppose in a way I was ready to leave Blur when I was asked to leave. I really didn't know what to do at the time and I think musically, this album was a big risk for me. I'm happy to stand by it and I'm happy too that I don't resent anybody anymore - especially those three people in Blur."

Happiness In Magazines is on the EMI label. Graham Coxon plays The Village in Dublin on June 10th and The Limelight in Belfast on June 11th.