The Lightning Seeds returned from a sizeable hiatus this month with their first album in well over a decade, See You in the Stars. We spoke to Ian Broudie, the man behind ‘Pure’ and ‘Three Lions’, as he shared his wisdom about old songs and new, getting back in the saddle, memories of Sheffield. and learning to live in the moment.
After the Lightning Seeds’ last album, ‘Four Winds’, he didn’t want to rush back into writing. “I was going through a funny phase and I wasn’t writing what sounded like Lightning Seeds songs”. Broudie describes the hallmark of a Lightning Seeds tune as “having a melodic, uplifting tune”. This meant that heading into See You in the Stars Broudie wanted “to do something that was positive, and it’s easier to do sad stuff for me, I think it’s kind of hard to do something that’s got a positive, uplifting feel to it, and not be banal. That’s what I wanted from the Lightning seeds and that’s not four winds.”
Writing his latest album in a post pandemic world, Broudie, as we all have, has had to find the goodness in life within its more challenging moments. This attitude has definitely found its way into the record on tracks like ‘Sunshine’ featuring the lyrics “The world is dark but the moon is bright”. Broudie tells me that ‘Emily Smiles’ also reflects this negative positivity being “about the distance between people when they’re close to each other and how you can be right next to someone yet there’s a million miles between you. And the thing that magically is able to break that spell is a smile”. This same sentiment is found on ‘Great to Be Alive’ where Broudie teaches us about how he’s found “coping with getting older, and being a slightly less happening version of yourself”, and how he finds comfort in the simple mantra of thinking “it’s great to be alive. Nothing stays the same, is how I feel at the moment and that always unsettles me, so just enjoy now.” This notion of enjoying the now is something Broudie has been working on, he told me that “I used to think I was being scared of change and of loss and I am a bit like that… I feel like I’m not very good at living in the moment, and the art of living in the moment is the greatest gift really… I would like to be able to relish the moment at the time”
One instance I’m sure The Lightning Seeds frontman would like to relive and relish is one of his first live shows under this alias, with friend, collaborator and frontman of Ska legends The Specials, Terry Hall, at The Leadmill. “The first or second gig we did was the Leadmill. I don’t think I’ve played there since, it was one of my earliest, most nerve-wracking, terrifying moments getting up on stage at the Leadmill.” Broudie, of course, will be looking forward to returning to The Leadmill, and hopefully not for the last time, when he returns on Saturday 26th November, as he assured me “it will be great to get back up there, it’s a great venue, The Leadmill. Hopefully it’ll be saved… it’s frustrating with venues since they’re so undervalued and so important to people’s lives”
With the tour fast approaching, Ian Broudie brings his new philosophy of living in the moment along on tour with him, explaining that “every time you do a show, it’s a different moment, a different occasion and it’s only that moment and those people and it makes it different every time. For me really, I tend to perform the song, not the record. It’s a new moment every time for me.” He goes on to say “I have had an uneasy relationship with some songs, like three lions for example, is the most obvious, it was difficult to know if i should play it, should i not play it but I’m completely comfortable with it now. I think it’s become something that’s separate but part of it, it’s almost like we do the show, and then we play that and it’s a slightly separate moment. And I think when we play live, it’s about the moment.”
2022 marks the 33rd year of The Lightning Seeds, and Broudie is not stopping yet, as he tells me that “I would like to make another record, would it be a solo album would it be a Lightning Seeds record, I think I’d just have to get some songs and see what they were, I wouldn’t make a miserable album right now, I feel quite inspired so in two or three years I’d like to have definitely done another album, play some gigs… I can’t wait to start the tour and get up to the Leadmill.”
Ian Broudie has found a new lease of life at 64 years of age, striving to create new moments and relish them, and there are plenty of moments to come with See You in the Stars going on tour Thursday 27th October and talks of more albums to come. Broudie and The Lightning Seeds have awoken from hibernation, ready to grab life by the horns, as he finished by saying “I feel like I’m waking up again a bit, so I’d like to spend the next few years being as proactive as I can.”
