Eugene McGuinness Interview
Eschewing band life for a solo career, London-born, Liverpool-based alt.folk singer songwriter Eugene McGuinness won an increasing army of fans last year, with his debut album, ‘The Early Learnings Of Eugene McGuinness’.
What were your biggest achievements of 2008?
Touring Europe for the first time was quite a big thing for me, and also Glastonbury – I think everyone I spoke to at Glastonbury was unanimous in thinking it was a roaring success.
What are your plans for 2009?
There’ll be more touring for me in England and elsewhere. It’ll be a bit of everything, a couple of headline performances and I’ll be supporting someone – I’ve only heard whispers so far about details.
Apart from you (obviously!), who do you think is going to be big in 2009?
I think people have already made up their minds about who’s going to be big in 2009. In terms of what I’m into, there’s a band called Swanton Bombs who’re doing alright. Next week they were played on Steve Lamacq and their EP is out soon. I’m really looking forward to seeing Blur again, I’ll have to get a ticket for that.
Are there any musical trends you’d like to see this year?
Hopefully it will be a band not from London. It’ll be great to see one of those bands come through who have nothing to do with stuff like label money, media hype or their unusual story.Those things are rare, like normally a band come around, not because they have a good singer or whatever, but because there’s a bit of a sad story behind the band that makes them easy to sell. People seem just as interested in the story rather than the music. So perhaps we’ll get something like a mass-murdering pop star this year and they’ll be massive!
Did you make any New Year’s resolutions, and if so, how are you getting on with keeping them?
No, because I think I’m wicked. New Year’s resolutions are about improving somehow, but I think I’m incredible.This is going to sound really bad in print, but I think I’m really great! So my new year’s resolution is to carry on thinking I’m great.
