Interview from Reuters India
PARIS (Reuters Life!) - It's been four years since cult British rock band the Libertines broke up and guitarist and singer Carl Barat finally feels free of his past.
While former bandmate Pete Doherty stole the limelight with swings between rehab, jail and celebrity girlfriends, Barat found a new gang, and quietly set out to reinvent himself.
Dirty Pretty Things, formed in 2005, also features former Libertines drummer Gary Powell, guitarist Anthony Rossomando, and former Cooper Temple Clause bassist Didz Hammond.
Barat, 30,and Rossomando, 32, spoke to Reuters at the Rock-En-Seine music festival in the 17th-century Saint-Cloud park near Paris where the band was promoting "Romance At Short Notice", the follow-up to debut album "Waterloo to Anywhere" released in 2006.
Q: Do you think that with this second album you have become tighter, closer as a band ?
Rossomando: We stayed together as a band as our own little family. With this album it's choosing to be a band.
Barat: We have grown to a stage where we can communicate without talking. So here we are.
Q: The Title of the new album is a reference to the closing line of "The Open Window", a short story by Edwardian writer Saki "Romance at short notice was her specialty". What meaning did you want to convey ?
Rossomando: Each song is like a little vignette, a little novel. There is also a common theme to the songs, that spirit of adventure, chasing the new, feeling free.
Q: The album mixes pop-rock influences from the Kinks to the Smiths with the energy of mid-1970s New York City punk. Do you feel you have now found a new musical identity or are you still looking for it ?
Rossomando: We are on the path to it. We found a new freedom. It's a liberating album.
Barat: You can hear a lot of potential directions in this album. As to what follows, I do not know...It's a searchy record but we like it that way.
Q: Would you say you are now free of the Libertines past ?
Barat: I feel free of the negative aspects (of that past). I am still proud of the Libertines. It has not changed. It certainly has been a lot easier than in the past. It's not a problem anymore. It's not something that keeps me up at night, something that worries me as it used to. I feel a lot freer.
Q: You had a bit of a health scare in June when you were hospitalized and diagnosed with pancreatis. I see you are drinking mineral water. Have you changed your lifestyle?
Barat: Everyone needed to slow down. It took one person to take the bullet and of course it had to be me. It could have been a lot worse.
Rossomando: I was kind of inspired he's got such a constitution to bounce back like that ... we were sailing dangerous seas. It's a time to appreciate and feel lucky for it.
Q: You were reunited with Pete Doherty for a gig at the Hackney Empire in London last year. This created lots of expectations among Libertines fans. Is there any chance the band could reform ?
Barat: I never rule anything out but it does not look like this at the moment. I am doing this (Dirty Pretty Things) right now. My head is completely into it.
Q: Would you consider playing other gigs with Doherty?
Barat: It cannot be like that because of the press. Because of this hysteria, especially in England, it's not possible. There is no chance of that at the moment.
(Editing by Matthew Jones)