JOHN GRANT is a man of contradictions – a big bearded bear on the outside and a deeply sensitive soul on the inside. His songs veer from serene balladry to angular electronica, all knitted together by his honeyed baritone. His unflin-ching lyrics can be poignant or playful, raging or loving.
When we meet at his label’s London HQ, he takes a seat at one end of a long sofa emblazoned with a Union Flag . . .
entirely appropriate for an Anglophile American. Coffee in hand, he’s having a welcome break from the laborious task of signing copies of his sixth solo album. The Art Of The Lie is his most all-encompassing song cycle yet, the one he’s been striving for in the years since his old band The Czars split up in the mid-Noughties.
Opening track, All That School For Nothing, summons his playful side and was originally written by Grant for Blondie. He says: “John Congleton was producing their album and he had also worked on my third record (Grey Tickles, Black Pressure). “He asked if I would like to submit something because they were accepting ideas.
“So I sent the demo incarnation of All That School For Nothing. I thought Debbie Harry would look really cool singing the line, ‘You’re not honest, you’re just a p*k, the personification of a selfie stick.’ “When Blondie didn’t respond, I really John Grant-ed it up with personal remarks about how somebody eats their food — ‘I’d rather watch a seagull swallow a rabbit.
’” Another song, the funky Meek A.
