“Avalanche really does feel like our best album. Even our manager says so, and he never says anything nice.”
Danny McNamara on Sperm, Songwriting, and Stopping to Smell the Roses
By Darren Croft
For Embrace frontman Danny McNamara, hitting the 30-year milestone isn’t an excuse to pull up a chair and relive past glories. Instead, he’s currently trapped in a glorious, self-inflicted whirlwind. Between selling his house, entertaining his kids during half-term, prepping a multi-volume autobiography, pitching a new thriller to the BBC, and preparing to play to 20,000 fans in a single weekend, he's also releasing what he firmly believes is the band's finest work to date.
Darren Croft catches up with the beautifully chaotic and creative introvert to talk about mid-life renaissances, crossing paths with Chris Martin, and why the secret to life is simply learning how to stop.
How’s it going mate?
It’s busy! We’ve got a lot going on at the moment. We’ve got the new album coming out, some record store gigs, the Piece Hall Show, there’s a book coming out and a talking tour to promote the book, the tour with the band, I’m also selling my house, and I’ve got a four-year-old and a seven-year-old to entertain during half-term.
But apart from that, it’s relatively quiet, yeah?
It’s fairly tranquil and peaceful apart from that. I’m just twiddling my thumbs, trying to fill the time. Haha.
And the screenwriting…?
Oh, I’ve got that going on too. I’ve got a meeting with the BBC next week about a new thing I’m writing called ‘Danny Boy’, where a kid thinks he’s the serial killer that everyone’s looking for.
At the beginning of the year, the management and record company were asking us to do something for the band’s 30th anniversary. I’m kind of split in two, because on the one hand, I’m massively proud of all the songs we’ve done. I’ve been doing a lot of interviews for radio, and they usually put together a montage of our songs before I come on. I mean, it’s pretty impressive. I’m really proud of it all.
But the reason I get up in the morning is that I’m still excited about the next new thing. A lot of bands from our era are reforming and reliving their past glories, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. People want that nostalgic feeling, and they want to reminisce, especially in the times we’re in.
It’s not completely what I’m about, though. I do want to honour that, but at the same time, I’m all about what the next Embrace record will be about, so much so that I’m already working on the next album.
So on top of all the stuff I mentioned at the beginning of the interview, I’m doing that too!
Let’s talk about the forthcoming Embrace album- Avalanche. What’s the vibe around that?
It’s the third of a trilogy of albums, and they’re all songs I’ve written since I met my wife. I’ve really learned a lot. The biggest moment was when we went travelling before we got married. My wife took me to the Asian equivalent of the Grand Canyon. When we got there, I looked around and thought, “This is nice,” but after a couple of minutes, I just wanted to get something to eat.
My wife told me she wanted to film the sunset, so I had to wait around. At first, I was a bit bored, but then everything stopped. I realised I could smell the grass and see the birds and everything around me. And this ‘moment’ suddenly happened. I know a lot of people live in the moment and are used to these things, but as a creative introvert, I don’t tend to live in the real world most of the time.
So when this ‘moment’ hit me, it was really profound. It opened up the floodgates, and it was like a veil had lifted. I could see and feel all of these things. It all came at me like an avalanche, and the irony there is that despite having written all these albums, it turns out I’m a slow learner
A lot of bands’ first or second albums tend to be their best, because it's about the first time you fall in love, or the first time you get your heart broken, and then it can go a bit stale. I’m in my fifties now, and I really don’t think we have. Obviously, I’m biased, and there will be people who will say we’ll never top The Good Will Out, although technically we did in sales with Out Of Nothing. I get that, but Avalanche really does feel like our best album. Even our manager says so, and he never says anything nice.
Have you been asked to write another World Cup song?
Haha. No. That was a weird one, ’cause I’m not a massive fan of football. When I wrote World At Your Feet, I tried to write it from the feeling that everybody gets when England is doing well. I get caught up in all that. It’s real. I get massively excited. I almost passed out from all the screaming when England scored once.
I wanted to write a song from the perspective of the non-football fan who still gets caught up in it all, and I’m massively proud of the song. I think it’s up there with the best. What I took from Three Lions is that they didn’t do it ironically or tongue-in-cheek. There’s also another song that seems to look down on football supporters, but I won’t name names.
You’ve got a gig coming up at Bradford Bulls’ stadium. How did that happen?
Yeah, they asked us to play, and it’s the day after Piece Hall, so we’ll be playing to about 20,000 people that weekend, which is mental. And it’s all around the release of the album. I can’t wait for that. It’s the first gig my daughters will be able to go to, ‘cause it’s during the daytime.
You’ve got a book coming out later this year. Does it have a title yet?
Yeah, it’s called Good Good People. It’s volume one, and it covers everything from our childhood to the moment we got dropped after our third album. Volume two will be from the Out Of Nothing years and when we did all the arenas. The third volume will take us up to the present day. It’s the three eras of Embrace.
We’ve been asked to do books before, especially at the beginning when there was a lot of hype around the band. But the truth was, there wasn’t much to write about ‘cause we’d only done one album.
I guess there was something to write about as it had taken us eight years to get a record deal. We do have a story and it’s a proper one. I’m going out on a speaking tour later this year. I was asked to do one before and I wasn’t really sure about it. There were about 200 or so people in the room, and after the first two questions, I just grabbed the mike off the guy and went off-piste. I don't know if you can tell, but I’ve got a lot of enthusiasm for what I’m doing,
There are so many stories, like being naked in a hotel room with Hells Angels next door. There’s the Chris Martin story, where he played me Gravity on Angelina Jolie’s ‘spaceship, a near-death experience, I mean there’s a lot.
I was talking for an hour-and-a-half before and the guy asked me if I ever ran out of stories to talk about. Mate, I could talk for about a week-and-a-half!
I’m imagining that when they asked you to do a book, you replied, “What? Just the one?”
Haha. Well, we’ve committed for three volumes, so we’ll see. Life gets more and more interesting the older you get.
So what advice would you give to your younger self?
I guess it’s the usual one. “Don’t worry so much ‘cause it all works out in the end.” There’s the John Lennon quote that adds the bit about if it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end. Technically that’s not true, ‘cause we’re all going to die eventually and we’re all working to a bad ending I guess.
Will that be the theme of the final Embrace album?
Ha! The Embrace of death! Going back to the advice, I’d say not to sweat the small stuff. I’m quite OCD andI didn’t realise that until recently, but a lot of things started to make sense when I realised, and it’s given me a lot of power back.
I guess, with what you learned on the Asian trip, maybe stop and smell the roses, too?
Oh, yeah. That’s what the single, Stop, is all about. Stop messing about and get on with it. Like, leave your job if you don’t like it. Ask that person out that you’ve been mooning about. Say “Sorry” to your mum if you need to. You know, you’re not going to get to the end of your life wishing you’d said “Sorry” less.
We’re on this planet for such a short space of time, and it’s such a miracle that any of us are here if you look at the statistics about sperm and that. It’s like trillions to one.
I think I’ve just got my headline.
Well, it is Loaded, after all.
Avalanche is out 12th June. Catch Embrace on tour
