News from The poetic Streets

Sep 5 2008 By Andy Welch

MIKE Skinner, or to give him his stage name, The Streets, looks a little tired today.

But then that’s what happens if you don’t get enough sleep.

“I’ve been doing Gordon Brown hours lately,” says Mike who was brought up in West Heath and attended Bournville School and Sutton Coldfield College.

“Maybe not Gordon Brown, actually. More like Maggie Thatcher in her heyday, four-hours-sleep-a-night kind of thing, and constantly on the go.

He’s been an alternative social commentator since the early noughties, when The Streets’ Has It Come To This made the cultural crossover from the small UK Garage music and pirate radio scene to the mainstream. The indie kids and chart fans loved the song’s poetic lyrics just as much as the clubbers did.

Just over a year and a couple of equally impressive singles later, came The Streets’ first album Original Pirate Material.

His unique Birmingham-via-London accent and whip-smart lyrics set him apart from the crowd, and while there have been countless imitators since his breakthrough at the start of the century, he remains unmatched.

Mike went on to top his debut with an even better follow-up, the concept-heavy A Grand Don’t Come For Free. Then came the misunderstood third offering, Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.

Now, it’s time for The Streets’ fourth album, Everything Is Borrowed, released on September 15.

While Mike could be forgiven for being apprehensive or excitable ahead of its release, he’s actually calmer than he’s been in months.

“It’s easy to relax when the music is finished. We’re just getting other things done now,” he says.

“We’re trying to make eight music videos in three weeks, so things are all a bit Challenge Anneka at the moment,” he continues.

Unlike previous albums, which dealt with the minutiae of modern living – problems with mobile phones, certain must-have brands of footwear, fast food queues at the end of a boozy evening, etc – Everything Is Borrowed concerns itself with wider issues, such as the environment, morality, history and religion. The unmistakeable wit is still there in bucketloads, but the album is more sombre than past efforts.

If things had worked out slightly differently, however, the tone would have been even darker.

“I threw one album away,” Mike says.

“I didn’t think there was a problem at first, but everyone else did, including my mum, who was very vocal about it!

“Two of the songs have survived, though. On The Edge Of A Cliff, and the other is On The Flip Of A Coin. If you listen to those songs they’re almost like parables. I like them, but a whole album of songs like that would be a little bit non-committal and indirect.”

As you’d expect from listening to his music, Mike is incredibly articulate, and manages to sum up his thoughts in a couple of sentences, rather than waffling on for minutes at a time.

What you might not expect, though, is that he seems a delicate soul, vulnerable, thoughtful and deep. These traits are counteracted by a good sense of humour, and enormously affable nature.

But partying a little too hard is something Mike knows a lot about. After his dad died, just before the release of A Grand Don’t Come For Free in 2004, Mike went off the rails and headlong into a drink and drug binge, the result of which he documented candidly on his third album.

He’s fine now, though, and knows moderation is the key to a healthy life.

“You get older, don’t you?” he says.“The year I released Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, I quit everything, for the whole year. That was a great experience. Since then I’m a lot calmer.”

In a recent blog on his website, Mike said he would make one more album under his Streets moniker before calling it a day. He’s adamant he wasn’t joking, and talks at length about what he wants to do after the fifth album, which he estimates will be out next year.

“Quitting is for my own purpose. I just don’t want to be doing things by habit, and I don’t want to make formulaic music,” he says.

“I want whatever I do to be different, and to reflect the times.

“That’s why people are constantly choosing different genres to listen to as time goes by. I want to get away from my own preconceptions of what I am as a musician, so that hopefully I can keep entertaining people.”