TURNING POINTS: Tim Burgess

He’s had what you could call a ‘turbulent’ career, but Tim Burgess has well and truly weathered the storm. Following the huge commercial success of The Charlatans in the 90s, the frontman indulged in a notoriously hedonistic lifestyle that would see him consume cocaine on a daily basis for almost 10 years. Sober since 2006, Burgess has remained prolific and productive, adapting to the digital revolution’s seismic shift in the music industry while keeping his finger firmly on the pulse. The Charlatans recently released their new single Talking In Tones via The Quietus’ Phonographic Corporation label, and their 12th studio album Modern Nature will be released in January 2015.

They were awesome, and pretty serious about wanting to be in a group that meant something. I looked up to Martin [Blunt, bassist], who was previously in a band called Makin’ Time that I’d been to see a few times. Rob [Collins, keyboard player] was pretty scary at first, he was tough but once he warmed to you he softened up a bit. Jon [Brookes, drummer] was really friendly and took me round to his Mum’s for tea. At my very first rehearsal with them, they had three instrumentals and they kinda blew me away. I sang on two of them. One became Flower, which made it onto our debut album. Another became Always In Mind, which we played on our first John Peel Session on Radio 1.

[Having a No.1 album] happened three times. The first time was with our debut album so that was huge. It was our moment as a band. It’s something nobody can take away from you – our Mums and Dads were maybe not that impressed with the fact we could sell out The Duchess of York in Leeds, but everyone knows that a number one album really is something. Maybe even those careers advisors who’d thought there wasn’t really anything I could do.

The second number one was just as big but in a different way as we were on a comeback. Almost even sweeter. The third time was for Tellin’ Stories. We’d lost Rob so the success of that album came with a sucker punch as it always brought to mind how much it would have meant to him.

There’s a temptation to go looking for that archetypal rock star lifestyle. Vodka for breakfast, that kind of thing. You take the crazy fork in the crossroads and it’s fun for a while but it turns into a dusty road inhabited by the same kind of loons who’ve made the same choices. Eventually enough is enough. It felt OK at the time, but I think it was a lifestyle that couldn’t go on forever. It’s great for meeting like-minded freaky friends when you’re living like that and most of them are still my friends now – although they are like a calmer, quieter remix of themselves. Regrets can be dangerous and you can end up blaming your past for having too much of an effect on your future.

Record labels were closing down. New ways of working were needed. Heads of the music industry were scared. It seemed like a great way to slap people round the face. We did it just before Radiohead released In Rainbows, so we like to think of ourselves as pathfinders. Ours was entirely free, which was maybe a bit foolhardy, but we felt we wanted to put down a marker that the old way of doing things was over. As far as getting to lots of people, it worked really well. We got lots of thank you messages anyway.

The vibe is good, I think we’re all very happy with the record. We’ve played it to some close friends and associates of the band, and everyone loves it. They’re telling me they love it anyway! We spent the first few months of the year at the studio, and it was a difficult time after losing Jon [Brookes passed away in 2013]. But we all brought lots of ideas with us and we were enjoying spending time together. I think they’re the best songs we’ve written in years.