INTERVIEW: JAMES MILNE OF CORNERSHOP

By Deborah Cohen

James Milne has had a hectic weekend. He is hungover and tired and so it comes as no surprise when he orders strong coffee from the bar rather than a pint of beer. But the rock and roll image is shattered the minute he says he’s been back to Worthing to visit his parents and has rushed here straight from the train.

James, 24, is the new bassist in the ‘Anglo-Asian’ band Cornershop. Midway through his final year of his Commercial Music degree at the University of Westminster, James decided he needed to do something about his future and answered an advert in NME for a bassist. He was asked for an audition, but it wasn’t until he was invited back to the studio in London Bridge that he realised it was for Cornershop. “Someone opened the door to let me in and it was them,” he says.

Despite their standoffish and sullen image, James describes the other band members as “really nice friendly guys”, who made him feel welcome. But when he had to play along to a ‘Brimful of Asha’, which topped the charts in 1998 and sold over 500,000 copies after it was given a big beat remix by Fat Boy Slim, he said he felt quite daunted. “It was strange. I’d always liked Cornershop and I’d seen them in concert in 1998 and of course, ‘Brimful of Asha’ was a big hit. Then I had to play some of the tracks on their new album, ‘Handcream for a Generation,’” he says. “I thought the audition went okay but I didn’t think any more of it. So when they phoned me back it was really exciting.”

James only had one rehearsal before he was launched into a European tour, the group’s first in four years, which culminated in a gig at London’s Scala venue. The aim of the tour was to gel the band and promote the release of their single ‘Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III’, a parody of the ‘nu-metal’ scene, which the band thinks is worthless. “I was really dropped in at the deep end. But because I was enjoying it, I felt I could handle it,” he says. “Going on tour is tiring even though you don’t tend to do much in the day. You travel from place to place on a tour bus without really stopping. Only sometimes do you check into a hotel.”

Luckily for James, his touring has not disrupted his degree and his tutors have been extremely supportive. But he admits that he has been able to use his experience in the band as the backbone for his final project. “The tutors have been really happy for me and the course has given me the leeway to do both the touring and the studying, so I can devote my time to Cornershop,” he says.

Although he has been in bands since he was a teenager, James says that he his only in the music industry “by the skin of his teeth”. Born in Wakefield to a carpenter father and a mother who is a nurse, James moved to the Worthing when he was small. He says his parents were not musical, but he was surrounded by the music of 'the teachers' when he was growing up notably the Beatles’, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson. “This all provided a really good grounding; they’re all masters of their art and you can learn so much from them,” he says.

But James wasn’t a musical prodigy from an early age. He only started to play bass guitar when he was 15 because his best friends at his school, Worthing High, had formed a band called ‘The Lemon Revolution’ and needed a bass player. “I didn’t initially start playing because I wanted to learn it. I just wanted to be part of the band and so I had to learn bass to be part of the gang,” he says. “I did take lessons at first, which really helped. My teacher taught me things I wanted to learn and that meant I got really into it.”

Music wasn’t the most important aspect of being in a band at that age and they tried to emulate their idols Nirvana, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Oasis. “For me it was about the clothes, trying to grow my hair and just picking up my guitar and making a noise. I didn’t take it seriously. I just wanted to perform in front of other people,” he admits. “In the end, the band split up because we got bored and were all going in different directions. It was more a social thing.”

It is the social aspect of being in a band and the chance to meet other musicians he’s admired that James cites as the best things about being in Cornershop. “Bands you’ve always loved just stroll into your dressing room and it’s so nice to be behind the scenes and speak to them on an equal level,” he says. “The music industry is not all about musical talent. It’s about getting on with other people, working with people and networking. So communicating and socialising are important. It’s one big blag really.” But at the same time, he does enjoy being able to share his music with other people through performing on stage and says that it feels great when other people appreciate his music.

James will get an opportunity to play with one of his teenage idols at the end of April when Cornershop go on a five-week tour of the United States. Noel Gallagher appears on the track ‘Spectral Mornings’. “The first gig is really exciting. We are confirmed to support Oasis in Las Vegas and then we will be playing at different festivals with a variety of bands.”

James says that although he loves being in the band, he knows that he will have to turn to writing music to stay in the industry and make some money. “The problem is you don’t know where you are heading,” he says. “For me, my job is a dream job to have. I realise that I have to appreciate every single second.”

Their album ‘Handcream for a Generation’ is released on April 1st and they will be touring the UK next month.