Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch Wanted Your Nine-to-Five Job

After a fairly long stretch of time in which twee monarchs Belle and Sebastian haven't graced our shores, the prolific Glaswegian darlings of indie pop, and facilitators of bedroom dancing everywhere since 1996 are returning to Australia. Even though our arty-side-of-weird inner teenage selves are squeeing with excitement, no one's begrudging them the long absence; frontman Stuart Murdoch has been keeping well busy writing and directing his 2014 movie musical, God Help the Girl.

This tour comes in the immediate wake of the release of their ninth studio album in two decades, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. We spoke to Murdoch about stylistic changes, having cocktails created in one's honour, putting politics in pop, and how — once — you may have just been his unwitting muse.

You’re heading to Australia very soon, and you’re doing a show at Taronga Zoo — pretty cool. Have you ever played anywhere else kind of unusual?

Well, we played at the American ambassador’s house in London last month at a party, because his wife was a big fan. That was interesting. They made a special cocktail in our honour and served them, and people got really drunk. It was pretty red, so I think there was raspberry in it somewhere, but I think that was the only thing that was non-alcoholic.

Do you think it summed you up as a band in a cocktail?

I didn’t taste it, because I don’t really drink. But it went down pretty sweet, so maybe it did sum us up.

I was reading this interview you did with Meredith Graves and you're talking about the new record and whether it's a political record or a radical record. Some of the tracks — like 'Allie' and 'The Party Line' — do seem overtly current and like commentary on the state of the world. Were you consciously making something more political with this album?

No, not consciously. I think it crept in there. When you say overtly, I think it's probably more covertly. I don't think I could ever put the politics first and foremost. I think if I was in The Clash, or if I was Billy Bragg... They have a flair for that kind of stuff. They're telling it how it is, whereas I don’t feel quite so polarised. I'm not quite sure what I think about certain subjects, so it's nice to have the characters in the songs think about the politics. You see the story of Allie who seems to be pretty messed up with all the pressures on her personally and politically. In 'The Cat with the Cream' it's almost like a similar character who's musing about the disappointments of the politics of the day, wishing she could get behind a true leader.

I love the line about her making a list of her heroes and thinking about what they went through and how "it's much darker, much harder than anything that happened to you." I feel like everyone who lives privileged, safe lives must have that thought.

I agree with that. I'm always looking back. You can't avoid all that. I watch so many history shows on the BBC. Growing up in the '70s in Scotland, I felt that we were living in the shadow of the Second World War. It wasn't really too much after that. Most of the teachers at our schools fought in the war. You didn't have a choice. You went off and did your bit for your country and you went through all this hardship, and it does put into perspective the troubles in our own lives.

What about your song 'Enter Sylvia Plath'? Everyone seems to be saying how big of a change it is for you, that it's super dancey and it doesn’t really sound like the Belle and Sebastian that we're used to. Tell me about making that and what went into it and how it came to be as it is.

I'll tell you — that one was super easy. I don't mean to sound like I'm being arrogant. Okay, maybe on the surface there's a little bit of a stylistic change but there's nothing unnatural about it; it was super easy for us to do. I just woke up and I heard that sound in my head, it couldn't sound any other way. Once we got the bass going and we got a few synths on it — that's definitely the way it's supposed to be. I love so much of the music from the early '80s, and I guess I'm channeling some of that into this new record, which is fun to do. But I think the theme of the story, the words, they're consistent with what Belle and Sebastian has written about for years and years.

You've talked about muses in the past, and there's a song on the album called 'The Everlasting Muse'. Back around the time of your diary-series-cum-book The Celestial Cafe you said your muse was the Belle and Sebastian fan. You've also talked about Glasgow being your muse before. What about now — do you have a muse or muses?

I do change my mind from year to year. You change and you grow up and you think. But that's a life, isn't it? I do remember specifically when I was writing the diary all the time. I was a single guy, I was living on my own, so every night I would be addressing who I thought was the Belle and Sebastian fan, because they were reading the diaries. I knew who I was writing for. But the idea of the muse is almost like a two-way street. Sometimes I can't decide whether you're writing for the muse, or whether the muse is writing for you. In that song on the new record, it's a two-way thing. I'm acknowledging that the muse exists — that somebody is sending me this music, that it's coming from somewhere else. But I'm beseeching her to send me some pop songs because I need to write a whole album. That was the first song that I wrote for this album. I just thought it would be kind of funny, kind of cheeky to actually address the muse directly.

I love that line, at the end, what is it? "Be popular, play pop—"

"Be popular, play pop, and you will win my love." It's a bit tongue-in-cheek. I like that idea. I like that idea that if we ever somehow cut through to the general public, that at last the muse will return her love.

One thing that seems to be carried through all the music you've made with Belle and Sebastian — which spans about two decades now — is that it's full of characters and stories. Not all pop music has that. Why do you think there is that storytelling pattern in your music?

I'm not saying that’s an ideal thing, I'm not saying it's better than other music. It's a trick, to an extent. Sometimes the best pop music comes from a person’s experience. But the trouble was I didn't have so much experience, especially when the group started, because I was sort of waylaid with this illness, and it stopped me from doing so many things. I was really stuck inside a room a lot of the time, so I used to dream. I used to fantasise about everyday living. To me, the idea of people going off to their nine-to-five job was tremendously glamorous. The idea that they would be around other people all day, that they would tell jokes at the photocopier... All that stuff seemed glamorous to me. So I ended up writing about characters rather than my own life.

Have you got any glamorous plans for while you're here in Australia?

Not too much. I just want to feel the sun on my bones. I want to lie out on a park bench and just feel the warmth.

See Belle and Sebastian at the Tivoli on January 28, at the Enmore Theatre on January 29, at Twilight at Taronga on January 31, or at the Palais Theatre on February 1.

Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance is out now via Matador.