Credit: Found On Internet

Once upon a time Graham Coxon was as famous for falling out of taxi cabs and drunken exploits in Camden as he was for being the man who, in the late ‘90s, knocked Damon Albarn’s mockney tendencies on the noggin in favour of a more experimental, guitar-driven direction for Blur. Now, with an impressive six solo albums under his belt, Coxon is becoming more widely known and respected in his own right and, now that he’s become a dad and kicked a booze habit that wiped out most of his twenties, is knocking out strong and accessible albums with what seems like accomplished ease. His latest, ‘Love Travels At Illegal Speeds’ is arguably his most easy-going of all, packed full of affable and charming songs detailing Coxon’s peculiar inability to make it work with the ladies, and those everyday, small tragedies of love’s young nightmare…

Would you say ‘Love Travels At Illegal Speeds’ is an excitable, if self aware, album lyrically, Graham? You sound excited about girls, if that’s not a cheeky thing to say:
“But in a way it’s quite empty, there’s not a lot of depth to it. I suppose the last two albums I’ve been more accepting of what I am, I’ve tried to deal with beautiful things before… Well, depression, but that’s romantic, and I think the last two albums I’ve thought about things in a more witty way and an ugly way as well. There’s a couple of songs about the more ugly side of the male outlook.”

Is that something you see in yourself and are trying to address?
“Yeah, it’s better out than in really.”

Does writing about your insecurities make you more confident with girls?
“Well, it’s not much of a relationship, it’s more of a dangerous infatuation isn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be a two-way thing. In some ways it’s like I’m a desperate person. It’s strange, because the LP, although it’s got the L O V E word it’s not so much about the union, it’s not about marriage or anything, it’s a bit more confused.”

How do you think that confusion comes out on ‘Love Travels At Illegal Speeds’?
“It comes across as quite bipolar in a way, my stuff, because there’s the frustrated chuggy unhinged songs about feeling dislocated, and then there’s the stuff that’d be construed as being not very realist and more like ‘Flights To The Sea’ which I’m not sure what it’s about, whether it’s fairies or guardian angels. I don’t really know. Or it could be just another fantasy about girls. I have no idea.”