As anyone who’s watched Grant’s magnificent solo career develop across his solo albums will tell you, Grant specialises in bracingly honest songwriting. These LPs have brought commercial and critical success to the notoriously self-critical Grant. But before this solo acclaim, there were The Cza...
The Czars
Goodbye
Bella Union, 2004
As Bella Union lose faith, Grant sinks deeper into alcoholism; but the band overcome obstacles both internal and external to make their best album.
GRANT: Again made at NFA Studios in Denver and self-produced. 2004 was when I got sober, I guess. But we had started Goodbye the year before and then I went off to Paris in 2003 and started to bottom out. We were kind of giving up, but then I came back to Denver and we decided to finish the album. The future of the band was uncertain, but I’ve blocked out so much of what happened around that time because I don’t want to remember it and don’t want to think about it. I know I wrote a couple of the songs in Paris. I wrote “Paint The Moon” while I was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone on French TV called “The Midnight Sun”. I was very, very proud of that song and always will be and still perform it sometimes. I was starting to understand how to open up and how to be vigilant, and take advantage of ideas. This is supposed to be fun. And you can hear I was starting to get that. “My Love” was me putting one of my favourite pieces of Russian animation in a song. We sampled it, and even got permission from the wife of the guy who did it [Vadim Kurchevsky]. It was called My Green Crocodile. It’s about a crocodile who falls in love with a beautiful cow. “Los” is called “Los” because I was ashamed of the sentiment of the song and worried I was gonna be called a whiny bitch for writing about my feelings. “Los” stands for “Lake Of Syrup”.
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The Czars
Sorry I Made You Cry
Bella Union, 2005
With The Czars finally breaking up, Raymonde compiles an album of cover versions from B-sides and unreleased recordings. Grant’s refusal to alter the gender perspective in songs that were originally performed by the likes of Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee sees him ‘coming out’, just as he quits music for five years.
GRANT: This came out after the band had split and sold more than any other Czars album. So I finally show everyone what kind of singer I am and then promptly disappear? That about sums it up. I didn’t want to do the record at all but Simon wanted it. He even had this picture he’d taken of a friend that he wanted to use for the cover and I was just like, “Whatever. I’m quitting. ’Cos I just don’t have what it takes.” I was horribly embarrassed about who I was. But then Midlake gave me this push that I needed. And I always knew that I had it in me. I was the person that I wanted to be. I just couldn’t access him. But I am really proud of the cover of “Angel Eyes” by Abba. I need to start doing it live ’cos I love it so much.
