Glenn Tilbrook On Songwriting And Solo Shows As Squeeze Approaches 50

As music has continued to make its way back over the course of the last year, one of the most resonant elements of the live concert experience has been the way music can connect people, uniting a diverse audience throughout a rare communal experience.

“It’s incredibly important. It is a shared experience. And, if you’re lucky enough, it’s elevated by people experiencing joy together. That’s a priceless thing,” said Squeeze singer, guitarist and co-songwriter Glenn Tilbrook. “The relief on people’s faces when you’re playing is just incredible. It’s an incredible sensation. People had missed that communal experience.”

During the lock down of early pandemic, Tilbrook retreated to his home studio, taking on cover songs. Earlier this month, during the second of two nights at City Winery in Chicago, Tilbrook put a solo electric spin on “My Boy Lollipop” by Jamaican singer Millie Small, working snippets of Kim Wilde and David Bowie into Squeeze’s “Pulling Mussels (From a Shell).”

Tilbrook’s solo shows are a tour de force, featuring both acoustic and electric performances which draw from solo material, Squeeze classics and deep cuts alongside well-curated covers. During a 2001 tour, Tilbrook frequently brought the crowd out of the venue, continuing to perform at places like a park or a fan’s apartment before bringing them back (as captured in the 2001 documentary Glenn Tilbrook: One for the Road). It was an effort to shake up the often predictable concert experience and build a relationship with fans during a Squeeze hiatus.

“I think it’s incredibly important to connect,” said the singer. “I don’t have a persona. What I speak about is directly related to me and my experience of things. And hopefully that communicates itself. There’s something about performing where you have to be larger than life – but I’m quite a shy person. And I think that also is part of me and part of what comes across.”

Amidst a U.S. tour that runs through mid-October, featuring City Winery performances in Washington, D.C. (September 29), New York (September 30, October 1), Philadelphia (October 4) and Boston (October 7), and ahead of a winter Squeeze tour of the U.K., I spoke with Glenn Tilbrook about working together with Chris Difford on the first new Squeeze music in five years, music’s ability to drive the plot and the idea of Squeeze at 50. A transcript of our phone conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows below.

I read a quote that you gave during an interview in 2012: “A song should carry the plot forward. I think the guitar solo should carry the music forward and not just hang around.” In Chicago, you did a version of “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)” that really told a story even when you weren’t singing. How do you approach that storytelling element of songwriting, the plot so to speak, through your playing?

GLENN TILBROOK: To answer about the playing first, almost all of the guitar solos I do are very heavily worked on by me. I’m not spontaneous. My playing is blues-based. And that’s not terribly interesting within the confines of a song as far as I’m concerned. So I’ve always viewed solos as a way to work out a different sort of tune to what’s happening.

“Pulling Mussels” is a really interesting example. Because we had been touring. We spent the best part of a year opening for The Tubes and they had that song “White Punks on Dope.” And it had sort of a really grand, almost orchestral arrangement. And I only realized after I’d written it that the chorus of “Pulling Mussels” is incredibly influenced by that. I can’t analyze my own music but I know that it was poking around the same area.

When I read that quote, one thing that jumped into my head was the idea of a film score, where – when it’s done properly – even if there are no words, music can really compliment the story and drive the plot. Is that an approach you take?

GT: No. But mentioning film music, it is so incredibly important. I can’t watch films that have a bad score. It just irritates me so much. Music should drive the plot and drive the narrative.

I’m going to give you an example. The Elvis film that just came out with Tom Hanks is a bit of a weird one. It’s a very impressionistic film. Factually sometimes, you know, I didn’t believe it. But I did believe the emotion of it. And the music was so incredibly smart. I’ve now watched it twice because of the music and what they did in mixing stuff up and making it contemporary. It was an absolutely superb job of what music is capable of – and not just copying what had been done.

I wish I could say it was but it isn’t. The wonderful thing about writing is you go to a place where you lose yourself – you lose yourself in what you’re doing. I don’t know if I said it or not during that show but I know that I write with a lot of chords sometimes. But that’s because I’m just so intrigued by what you can do and where it can go and how that can affect you emotionally. I love that.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about your 2001 U.S. tour where, on many occasions, you led the crowd out of the venue and kept playing somewhere else nearby. I know a lot of that is captured in your One For The Road documentary. But, obviously, your solo shows are different from Squeeze shows. What is it you’re trying to capture in that solo setting?

GT: Back then, I think what I was trying to do is to create an impression. And if you upend people’s expectations, you can do quite a lot. And just the act of leaving the building unites everyone. People used to like that. And I used to love doing it. I wouldn’t do it now. But it’s a device to bring people together. When you bring them back in the room, they’re so much happier than they were when they went out. And they were happy to begin with. So it works – but only if it’s a surprise. As soon as people thought I was going to do that, that’s when I had to stop doing that.

I’m trying to give an account of my professional life by myself. Obviously, the majority of it is with Squeeze. And all my efforts are going into Squeeze these days. But I’m proud of my solo career. It gave me such an incredible amount to pull from when Squeeze got back together for the third time. I’ve never forgotten the lessons.

In fact, I think some of the most valuable time in my career that I’ve spent was sort of meandering around in 2000 to 2008. Those years doing solo tours taught me such a lot about why I do it, how I do it and how to connect with people. And to never lose how grateful I am to have an audience even if it’s just 10 people – and sometimes it was 10 people.

In terms of songwriting, I know you grew up with jazz and I continually hear you name check a diverse list of contemporary artists that you’re into. What do you continue to learn about the songwriting process even this far along?

GT: That every time you write something, it’s like you’re starting again. I think I know the process well enough. I know to stick at it. I know that something will happen even if it’s not in one day – it could take two or three days to get to where you want to be. But it will come.

Like I was saying about “Pulling Mussels” being influenced by The Tubes, I’m incredibly influenced by whatever it is that I’m listening to at a particular time. And then my role is to make that in a Squeeze-friendly way.

To that end, you mentioned on stage in Chicago that there’s new Squeeze music being worked on. How’s that process shaping up so far?

GT: We’ve only done one song so far. Chris is writing now and I’m going to be writing during December, January and February. What I’d really like to do is to have a new Squeeze record and simultaneously release another new Squeeze record that is full of songs that we wrote 50 years ago. I think the comparison points will be good and interesting. It will also say something about… I mean, 50 years? It doesn’t sound real even saying it.

We were writing at such a rate at that point that we discarded tons of stuff that was really good because we had new songs – and always you go for the newer songs. It’s a statement really about our writing and how durable it’s been. And how we’ve changed. Yet there’s something unmistakably us that runs through everything we’ve done.

You performed that one song in Chicago: “Food For Thought.” During it, I believe I heard you say, “politicians with no shame.” I’m thinking back to 2016 when you famously had some televised thoughts for [then U.K. Prime Minister] David Cameron on affordable housing, public housing. Obviously, the world remains very much in flux during turbulent times. Do you think the craziness of the last few years will manifest itself more in the songwriting this time around?

GT: You know, I can really only talk from the standpoint of Britain. And it seems to me – I feel that we’ve lost something along the way. And that very definitely goes back to Brexit, which I think was an insane move economically. But compassion and thoughtfulness just seem to be quite far removed from where we are politically. And it’s depressing. I obsess about this. I don’t want to be dull or boring about it. But I think it’s important to speak in a way that artists can about life and politics.

You mentioned that idea of Squeeze at 50. Obviously, there’s been starts and stops, ups and downs – but what does that partnership with Chris mean to you – that, even near 50 years, it’s still going and it’s still a productive, forward moving thing?

GT: It means the world to me.

We’re very different people. I think we’re not – we’re not really even friends. But we have a respect for each other I believe. We respect our differences. And we make it work. I feel incredibly lucky to have met him. Without meeting Chris, I don’t know where my life would have gone. But we did meet. And there’s a spark that still catches between us – which is great.