Back From The Dead

As even their name alludes to, it's been a torrid ride so far for UK indie outfit Babyshambles since their formation back in 2003. Originally started as a side-project by frontman Pete Doherty during a chaos-fuelled hiatus from his main act The Libertines, the outfit eventually became his main concern and then – after two albums, a slew of line-up changes and a regular spot in the tabloids due to Doherty's increasingly volatile behaviour – seemed to virtually disappear around 2008.

In the intervening years Doherty released a solo album (2009's Grace/Wastelands) and then reformed The Libertines for a handful of shows in 2010 (including the Reading and Leeds festivals), so it was unclear what sort of future Babyshambles had – if they had one at all. Before this hiatus, and despite Doherty's continual arrests and frequently unruly behaviour, they'd graduated to arena tours and headlining festival slots in Europe, so it seemed like a lot of hard work – not to mention solid music – was going to waste.

Then suddenly early this year speculation started in the UK press that Babyshambles were back – not just as an ongoing concern but already working on a new album – rumours that came to fruition when the band were announced on the Splendour In The Grass line-up for their first ever Australian sojourn (“we've tried coming down in the past, but it's hard to get visas sorted for Peter and Mick [Whitnall – guitar],” according to long-term bassist Drew McConnell). The wait was over, and it might have all happened even sooner if it wasn't for an unfortunate accident – this time one which didn't involve Doherty.

“We were hampered by the fact that I was in a pretty serious accident a bit over a year ago,” McConnell relates. “I was hit by a car and basically almost died – my spine was broken in three places, and about fifteen bones in my body were broken, so I was out of action for a while. I'm still in the process of doing all the physio and rehabilitation and stuff, but I'm about eighty per cent back to full health. I'm out the other side now, and I've got some good songs as a result.”

A clearly recovered McConnell is effusive when quizzed as to what prompted this sudden new phase of Babyshambles action.

“Songs, man!” he virtually thunders. “All of a sudden there were songs everywhere, and we thought, 'Fuck, we'd better get all of these down'. They've been coming thick and fast from all three of us – all three of us are heavily involved in the songwriting or this record. Some songs have their genesis with Pete or Mick or me and then we all chip away at them, and other songs are true collaborations. And we've all been writing with a guy called John Robinson – he's not in the band but he's a really good friend of the band's. He was singer in a band called The Bandits, and he wrote I Am The Rain on Peter's solo record. I live with him, he's my housemate, and Peter and Mick and John and myself will get together and sometimes just spend a week in a room writing songs and hanging out, and sometimes some great stuff comes out of these sessions. There's a couple of songs on this record that are co-writes with John.”

This new record that McConnell is referencing is Babyshambles' as-yet-untitled third album – following from Down In Albion (2005) and Shotter's Nation (2007) – which they recently recorded in Paris with acclaimed producer Stephen Street once more at the helm.

“There are some songs which sound immediately like the traditional Babyshambles thing – there's a song called Maybelline which sounds very much like a Babyshambles song, and there's one called Nothing Comes From Nothing which I think is instantly recognisable as Babyshambles,” McConnell enthuses. “But there's other songs which I think people are going to be surprised by.

“Recording in Paris actually had the result that we were more focused; Pete lives there, and then for Mick, Falkner – the new drummer – and myself it was almost like we were on a holiday together. We were in a hotel together, and we'd get up to get our breakfast together, go make the record, and then in the evening we'd go out and have food and a few drinks and socialise. We were in each other's pockets the whole time, but the whole time we'd just be talking about the songs, and as a result we were really focused – we knew exactly what we were doing.”

After having a couple of temporary high-profile replacements on their drum stool – in 2010 outgoing drummer Adam Ficek was replaced by former Supergrass stickman Danny Goffey, and then Stereophonics' Jamie Morrison was mooted to have usurped the role – it seems that Babyshambles have settled on a more low-key appointment.

“Adam Falkner plays drums on the new record,” McConnell informs. “I've known him for a while – he and John Robinson had a little project called Hey Tourists, and Adam played drums in that. As a bass player it's really rare that you meet someone whom you really seem to have an instant telepathy with, and I definitely have that with Adam, so when it came to making this record he was my first choice, and thankfully he was up for it. He's slotted in hand to glove. He's going to tour with us as well – he's officially the drummer. It's awesome to keep it in the family.”

Furthermore, according to McConnell, Doherty himself is in a good headspace and really happy about the new album. “Yeah, we all are man,” he tells. “We're all beside ourselves. We feel 'tooled up' – for want of a better phrase – we have a bunch of songs that we know are really good, and we've recorded them really well so we feel amped. Peter does as well – we're all in a good headspace.”

And, despite recent reports about him being shacked up in Paris with a skeletal Macaulay Culkin, it seems Doherty has dropped off the notoriously dogged UK tabloids' radar to an extent, although you'd still imagine that the constant focus and media scrutiny must be hard on his Babyshambles bandmates.

“Well if you'd asked me that question seven years ago I would have said, 'Yeah, it's terrible! It's a massive distraction and I'm hugely exasperated with it,” McConnell considers. “But to be honest it's been years since the tabloids have paid us much attention at all, beyond the occasional cursory mention in the gossip pages which everyone gets. Thankfully they've cooled off from putting Peter on the front pages, and that's no longer part of our lives anymore, so it's not really a distraction at all. It's so good to be able to just concentrate on the music and leave all that behind us.”