It’s bizarre meeting your heroes. You’re conscious of the old dictum of not doing it for fear of them being cunts, but when they turn out as amicable as Ted Leo it’s easy to over-compensate and become an automated ass-licking machine. Listening back to the tape of this I was cringing at my over-enthusiastic laughter but Ted was genuinely a very witty and friendly guy to speak to. Throughout this interview before his pitifully attended Manchester gig, I was attempting to stay cool and attempt a pretty normal conversation. It’s hard when you’re sitting next to the author of some of your favourite melodic guitar music of all time, so this probably reads a little bit like one of those wonderful fifty word Q and As that fill up the spaces in shitty magazines…

How’s the tour been going?

It’s been okay. The shows have been nice, but we’ve got an “everyday brings a new minor or major disaster” problem.

That sucks. Is your driver ok now?

Yeah Joseph drove us here today, so that’s good news.

What made you come over here? Did the record company ask you to with the album getting released?

Oh no no no, It’s something I’ve been waiting to do for a long time – it’s what bands do, you know? But in our particular case I haven’t come over here that much firstly because we’re on tour like the whole time in the states which is a really big place. Also I felt like I wanted to “make it happen” at home and really deserve to be travelling around the world. I know this might ruffle some feathers but I get really frustrated with bands who come over and get blown up in the NME and then come back to New York or wherever they’re from like they’re gods and nobody knows who they are. Come on, man, make it happen at home and then branch out, you know what I’m saying?

You want them to pay their dues?

Yeah, I guess. It sounds a little crotchet-y old man but I feel like there’s a value in that.

What’s your perspective on the British music scene

It’s so up and down. I think I’d find it really hard to define - what the British music scene is… It seems…. Quite fickle. But you know, it’s a small island! It makes sense that things happen on a quicker cycle. It’s hard to understand sometimes.

Have you found it much different playing over here than at home?

Yeah, definitely. In the ways that you would expect, though…

Less travel?

Less travel… No, less distance. Same amount of time between gigs! We’re quite well known in the States at this point, and not very much over here but that’s to be expected.

How’s it been playing Conan O’Brien over there and coming over to play places like this . Is it kind of a culture shock?

It’s not, because it’s expected. I know England pretty well. I’ve been here not just to play shows and I know I go places and people don’t know who I am. Also, it’s not that long ago that we were really slugging it out to make gas money in the United States as well. So it’s a way of touring and a way of living that I haven’t forgotten. It still informs the way I approach my whole business. So coming over here to tour in my “career” is… I expect to have to prove myself, you know?

Yeah, it’s good you’re still willing to do that in spite of having success elsewhere… Looking at the Tyranny of Distance liner notes is like reading the bill to some Dischord all-stars concert yet to take place. Do you feel a part of that, or any other scene for that matter?

Yeah, I feel a part of a lot of scenes to tell you the truth. I grew up in Jersey, and I lived in Indiana for a number of years, then I lived in DC, then in Boston. I just recently moved up to Rhode Island. I’m really close to a lot of people in all of those places and I’ve been an active musician for a long time and been a part of “those scenes”. Really Boston, New York and DC are all very much like homecoming shows for me when we play. Luckily I remain close to people in all of those diverse places. When we did Tyranny of Distance I had been back living in Jersey for a while but decided I wanted to record in DC and was lucky enough to have all of my friends around, which was nice.

There’s a lot of explicitly political stuff on the new record, did that come about naturally or was it something you set out to do?

A bit of both, but I also think a lot’s been made of that because it’s always been there in my music. I think people are a bit more attuned to hearing it now. Over the course of the entire record it (politics) rears its head in songs more than in previous records, but politics in the larger sense is generally what I always write about.

Day to day does it feel different living in Bush America, as a hell of a lot is made out of this supposed wave of disenfranchisement sweeping the country, especially in music?

Yes and no, because a lot is made out of Bush’s victory. I was talking to someone in London the other night who was like “But he won a massive majority” , he was Welsh so…

That’s a wonderful sort of Indian accent you’ve got there…

Yeah, sorry… But he didn’t win a massive majority, he won by the smallest majority a sitting president has ever won by! You drive around on the interstates and see tons of Bush stickers everywhere then you go to meet the people you’re meeting and not a single one of them voted for Bush. I don’t know, the only thing’s that different is that more people are dying. Going to the shop or to a bar or whatever is not necessarily different but for the exact reasons that people would not want to have the Bush regime in power things are different.

You say when you go to shows and stuff people are all very anti but what strikes me is that you have bands like Bright Eyes or R.E.M. touring on the Vote For Change thing but aren’t people seeing these bands already in that camp anyway? It seems like these guys are just preaching to the converted…

Yeah, to a certain extent but also I think the one big disappointment from this last election was how many young people voted for Bush, and I’m sure that a lot of them are R.E.M. fans, you know? Let’s face it, you mention Bright Eyes (and I don’t mean this directed this at Conor Oberst) but it’s a very middle class scene and it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of those people were Bush fans as well. I run into people at my own shows who are like “hey man, I looove the music but I gotta tell yeh, I don’t agree with the politics” . It’s really bizarre. But most of the time you’re absolutely right, people are not for Bush so you could say there’s a bit of naivety in those bands. I feel like it’s part of my job to deal with that stuff in an explicit way so I don’t fault anyone for joining in with a cause like that so long as their motives are pure.

Without wanting to sound cheeky, you’ve been writing songs for quite a while now. Do you find it comes naturally?

Sometimes. I’ll tell you what doesn’t come naturally is lyrics. Music can flow out of me but I really struggle over lyrics. The last record, most songs were written in a three week period. I’d make demos for a few hours during the day and then spend like six hours and an entire bottle of whiskey trying to write lyrics. Editing and re-editing, trying it out, realising it doesn’t work, going back to the drawing board.

It’s sounds strange to hear you say that as to me you’ve got the balance between stuff that’s fun to hear and flows well to analysis and comment spot on most of the time…

Thanks!

Is that something you strive for?

I do…

Congratulations

Thanks, sometimes I hit on something and think “that’s great” but mostly there’s a lot of revision to get it to a point that I’m happy with. I’m glad it seems the way you said.

Am I right in thinking Me and Mia’s about people choosing anorexia / bulimia as a lifestyle choice rather than a thing out of their control?

It’s interesting you say that. I’ve never had anyone come up to me and understand that before.

Do you strive to take a different viewpoint on subjects? Anorexia seems kind of done now in music, but Me and Mia’s exploring something new…

Ummm… No, it’s something that is personal so I would assume that I’m not the only one who’s been affected, as with most of the stuff I write about.

Everyone I’ve played your stuff to has loved it, it seems like you should be huge. Does it get frustrating? Do you want to get on a major label and stuff, or is that something that just doesn’t hold any appeal for you?

I want my music to be heard by and I want to play to as many people as possible. I like playing to crowds who appreciate what we do, it’s why you bring it out on stage to begin with, it’s nice you know? But there are certain parameters within which I’m comfortable to be working towards that. There are certain things about being a pop star on a major label that somewhat regretfully I can’t get right with, with my soul. I’m not trying to limit anything that we do but I understand that what we can achieve is limited to some degree.

Does where you are geographically have a big effect on what you write?

I think so. After I first moved back to the North East out of DC having really not lived back there for ten years almost I re-connected with something that I felt like I had lost. Something I didn’t really understand.

I guess that’s often the way with coming home, so to speak…

Yeah, one of the things that has always puzzled Americans about the UK is how quickly certain cultural differences occur as you go north and south or east and west. I think I understand a little bit about that, about why people identify with “the north”. I really connected with that when I moved back to the north east and that has effected the way that I write. Everything about where I’m from… This could turn into a really long answer, I’m sorry about that….

That’s ok…

Things for me and how I write are focused northwards and eastwards. I grew up an hour and a half from Philadelphia and three and half from Boston and on any given day I knew more about what was going on in Boston than in Philly. Possibly that’s because I was just over the river from Manhattan and the whole mindset of that area is “we go to work in New York, we go to party in New York” or whatever but I think it also has to do with the fact that you face the sea in that direction and have the hills and the mountains behind you. It’s hard to explain it without sounding too romantic about it but I’ve literally been all over the world at this point but I know that that is my home. There is still a colonial culture, an attachment to the UK. During the morning rush hour in Boston the public radio station broadcasts the BBC! There’s a weirdly un-severed thing there. It’s heavily Irish, Italian, immigrant generally and I think being close to the coast continues to engender that within the populous there, where it doesn’t in more homogenous places like the west. It definitely effects the way I look outward and come back… I don’t know.

I ask Ted a couple more, fairly fanboy questions. Turns out the English-looking cover for Hearts of Oak was in fact taken in Jersey and that my limited listening to his pre-solo band Chisel has given me totally the wrong impression. Ted does a brave job of attempting to rouse a room of about fifty in Manchester, but gets nothing back from an unenthusiastic crowd. Two nights later in London, with the first three rows or so singing every word, it feels a lot more like a packed homecoming show than the last in what’s been a tumultuous tour. Ted ends the set with an impassioned karaoke version of Pixies’ Gigantic, down in the crowd who seem up for a far longer set. Over both nights I’m struck by how passion and energy can lift traditional values of tight instrumentation and simple, catchy melody. Ted’s an inspiration to believers in hard work and dignity as means for getting your music heard and it’s a total crime he’s not better known in this country. He was also a total pleasure to talk to and… oh fuck it. Ted – I love you man!

Ted Leo is finishing up his European tour before heading out for dates in the U.S. and Australia. 'Shake the Sheets' was released on Lookout Records last year.
www.tedleo.com