the jesus and mary chain
 
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The Think Tank
Miranda Sawyer / Select
04.1992
Jim Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain ponders the big issues of the day

Are you unhappy? You always look so miserable.

No, not at all. I guess that we're unhappy in front of a camera lens, which gives the wrong impression. I don't think we're any more or less unhappy than anybody else. To stand in front of a camera and be expected to look...chirpy, is so unnatural that we can't perform. We're not very showbizzy. It might be a good idea to have someone following us around with a camera or something. Except we'd probably end up so intimidated that we'd look glum again. But it's just a camera lens that makes us like that, I swear to God, honest. The usual things make me happy -- money, sex, loads of spare time to do absolutely fuck all. I'm reasonably happy at the moment. I guess I was ecstatically happy on Sunday when I found out our record was number ten without any help from Radio 1 or anybody. I felt incredibly happy then.

How often do you go out and where do you go?

I go out a lot but not to clubs or anything like that. I just don't like staying in too often. I get fed up with sitting in front of the TV. I eat out all the time. I'm a kind of gannet that eats anything. I like Mexican, Spanish, Italian, Indian...not Chinese for some reason, but anything else. I go to the pictures a lot. And I go to see other bands to see what other people are up to. I went to see Lush last Saturday and they were pretty good. That's it. Pretty boring, but that's what I do.

What's the most shameful thing you've ever done?

Really, honestly, I don't do that many shameful things. I really don't. I can't think of anything, and that's the truth. I've got a conscience so I try not to do things that are gonna go against that conscience.

What keeps you awake at night?

I'm an insomniac, so just about everything keeps me awake at night. My mind just races and I find it difficult to switch off and go to sleep. I try to think of things that we should be doing, things that have to be done that I'd better remember to do, or...(pause)...or I start to get really sort of depressed at nights, thinking about stuff like what am I gonna be like when I'm 65. (Seriously) You know, am I...am I gonna get gangrene in my leg and have to get it chopped off? All sorts of bizarre, depressing things come into my head late at night. You never solve it, you never do.

Are you ever too old to rock 'n' roll?

Yeah, I think you are. Take a band like the Stones. I think Mick should give up but I don't think Keith should. It's an attitude towards the music that you're making and I could be completely wrong, but it appears to me that Keith still loves what he does. Whether he's making good music or not is irrelevant -- they haven't made a good record in years, I don't think -- but I get the impression that Keith's still very much into music and loves making music. Whereas I think Mick's just a bit of a businessman nowadays. As long as you still believe in what you're doing I don't think it matters how old you are. Will I still be doing it when I'm 65 with gangrene in my leg? That's too depressing, don't ask me that. I dunno what I'm gonna be doing.

You've got a gun and five bullets. Who gets them?

Nobody. Partly because of my conscience and partly because I don't really hate anybody. I dislike a lot of people intensely, you can despise somebody completely for five minutes because they've done something to you, but then you go away and you cool off. It's easy to hate politicians. Politicians are like the most slimy, cynical, creepy bastards that crawl this earth. Maybe I could despise a couple of them. Maybe I should go and buy a gun and bullets, get on the News At Ten and promote the single.

Who is God?

You mean, like the man who created it all, who is he? (sighs) Christ...I don't think there is a God. Some little geezer with a white beard got bored one afternoon and created the universe, it's ridiculous. It's too childlike. I think when you die, something happens to you. I don't think you just conk out, it's more complex than that. There's no possible way to understand what it's all about while we're on this earth. It's difficult to explain, but as long as you've got this form, this shape...there's an answer here that's probably pretty obvious, but because we're stuck here on earth we can't see it. When you die you go through some kind of change and things are probably gonna look much clearer, and probably the answer to everything is incredibly simple and obvious. And I think that when you die you're gonna get to know all these things. How can you understand something when you've got absolutely no real experience of it? Nobody's died and come back -- how can you describe something you've never seen? When you die it'll appear in front of you, but there's no way you can say what it's all about.

Who's sexy?

I don't really find that many famous people sexy. Sexy is people walking down the street, you see loads of sexy people on the street. People in adverts really don't turn me on. Film stars don't. Trying too hard to be sexy is a real turn off. I can tell you who isn't sexy. I don't think Madonna's sexy at all, that kinda in-your-face sexiness isn't sexy. But let me see now, I'll try and think of someone that's famous that I think's beautiful, a girl and a guy...I think Vanessa Paradis is really beautiful, and have you ever seen pictures of Syd Barrett when he was young? He was beautiful.

Do you wish you were still at Creation?

Hmmm. Probably not, because 'Psychocandy' wouldn't exist, because at the time Creation wouldn't have had the money. Not that it was an expensive record, it cost 15,000 pounds to record, which isn't really that much but at the time they didn't have that money. We'd have made an album, but it wouldn't have been 'Psychocandy'. Obviously now Creation is a different thing. On Creation there's a kinda intimate atmosphere, everybody getting along with each other. It's more like everybody's friends than a group of businessmen. I miss that, but I'm not complaining.

Who's the new Jesus & Mary Chain?

I feel sorry for anybody that gets called that. It's horrible. It's been said about us, we were the new Sex Pistols. In 1985 that's what people were saying. To be called the new anybody is an insult, it means that you don't have any identity of your own. So, nobody is.

What's the best thing about being Jim Reid?

There's loads of good things. The ones that spring to mind are, it's allowed for you to be a weirdo. You can act as strange as you like and people go, Oh, that's the guy out the Mary Chain, well, that's OK then -- we'll forget it, it's not so bad. But if I worked as a plumber or something they'd lock me up and throw away the key -- what a complete and utter fucking nut. And you can be just a spoilt brat. And you get loads of time where you can just lie in bed for five and a half weeks, doing absolutely sod all. And people think you're great (laughs). And you get to see the world. I like to travel (chuckles). Sounds good doesn't it?

Anything else to say?

Probably, but I'll remember it in about half an hour. Nah, not really. I mean, I get the chance to say things too often, it's not as though you sit around for ten years desperate for someone to ask you a question. There's too many opportunities to voice an opinion in what we do. (more brightly) That was alright, wasn't it? I did find something to say...

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